Self-study AP music theory?

siemprecuriosa
Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:47:28 +0000

Personally, I wouldn’t advise it. I thought that 7 years of piano lessons and 5 years of trumpet/mellophone/French horn would be enough to get me through the AP test, but after taking it, I’m expecting a 1 or a 2. My school had a semester-long AP class 1st semester, and then we were supposed to self-study the second semester. Granted, I didn’t really study second semester like I was supposed to, but looking over the material I was supposed to have learned, I really don’t think I could have learned it on my own if I had tried. I did really well in the semester-long AP class, but when it came to taking the actual test, I realized that we had barely scratched the surface of what was supposed to be covered.

You have to have an insanely good ear to do well on this test. If you have that, then you might have a chance, but realize that it’s not all listening. You also need to learn all the terminology, all the cadances, and you have to know all the rules for writing melodies and harmonies correctly. If you do decide to go for it, best of luck, but I have to warn you that your experience with piano and violin probably won’t help you as much as you think it will (unless you’re a really hard-core player and music is your whole life. If it’s more of a hobby, like mine is, then it probably won’t help much.).