AP® MUSIC THEORY

SYLLABUS
Course Overview

AP® Music Theory is designed for those students who are planning to pursue music as a career or would
like to expand their knowledge of music theory. The course meets every day for one semester which is
ninety (90) days for approximately eighty-five (85) minutes per day. Included in the course are music
theory, analysis, sight-singing and dictation. A music lab will be utilized which contains fifteen (15)
stations each with a computer, large monitor, Yamaha keyboard, MIDI, Sibelius 3 software and music
theory applications. The main emphasis is placed on music of the Common Practice period.

Pre-Requisite:
Students must successfully pass the Music Theory I course which covers all introductory aspects of music
theory including notational skills, key signatures, basic musical terminology, scales, basic counterpoint,
intervals, triad and seventh chord construction.

Primary Texts:
Benward, Bruce, and Marilyn Saker. Music in Theory and Practice, 8th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 16
May 2008.
Berkowitz, Sol, Gabriel Fontrier, and Leo Kraft. A New Approach to Sight-singing, 5th ed.
New York: W.W. Norton, 1997.

Other Resources:
Kraft, Leo. A New Approach to Ear Training: A Programmed Course in Melodic and Harmonic
Dictation. 2nd ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999
Turek, Ralph. Analytical Anthology of Music. 2nd ed. New York; McGraw-Hill, 1992.
Kostka, Stefan and Dorothy Payne. Tonal Harmony. 5th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2004.
Sibelius Three Educational Suite

Course Objectives:
At the end of this course students will be able to:
• Notate rhythm and pitch in accordance with standard notation practices
• Notate and play on the keyboard major, minor, modal, pentatonic, whole tone, and blues scales
• Define musical terms and theoretical concepts
• Sight-sing major, minor, diatonic and chromatic exercises using Solfege
• Take melodic and harmonic dictation
• Apply notational concepts through keyboard skills
• Transpose a melodic line to or from concert pitch for any common band or orchestral instrument
• Realize a figured bass and Roman numeral progression
• Analyze the use of melody, harmony, rhythm, texture and form in repertoire
• Compose a bass line for a given melody and provide chord analysis
• Aurally identify cadences, pitch and rhythm patterns, scales, intervals, triads, use of modulation,
various non-harmonic tones, form and instrumental timbres
• Understand the basic compositional techniques of the twentieth century.
Expectations of Students:

1. Students will participate in all classroom activities and discussions

2. Students will neatly complete all homework and classwork assignments and readings
3. Students will maintain a Music Theory Notebook that will contain handouts, notes, homework,
quizzes, and exams
4. Students will bring their music theory textbooks, their music theory notebook, a pencil, and any
other necessary class materials with them each day.
5. Students will maintain a positive attitude and follow the classroom expectations.

Student Evaluation:

Written assignments are due at the beginning of each class. Late assignments will be accepted at a loss of
one letter grade per day. Students missing class with excused absences need to attend after school make-
up sessions. Individual arrangements may be made to resubmit assignments for the purpose of improving
a grade. Students will also be required to keep a theory notebook containing all handouts as well as
homework, quizzes, and exams that are returned. Students also take turns demonstrating concepts using a
whiteboard, the voice, or an instrument.

Grading will be calculated in the following manner:

• 20% Attendance
• 10% Sight-singing assignments and quizzes
• 10% Dictation assignments and quizzes
• 15% Classwork
• 15% Homework
• 10% Notebook
• 20% Exams

Course Planner:

Week Content Chapters/Activities

1 Review fundamentals of music – notation skills, Ch. 1 - 2 (Benward)
tonality, key, scales – major, minor, pentatonic,
whole tone – and modes
Rhythm – duration symbols, meter, division of Ch. 2 (Kostka)
Beat, simple and compound time signatures
2 Review fundamentals of music – intervals, Ch. 3 & 4 (Benward)
transpositions and chords (major, minor,
augmented and diminished triads, triad inversion,
scale degrees, roman numeral analysis, seventh
chords and figured bass)
Sight-singing – section 1 Ch. 1 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 1 melodic direction, Ch. 1 (Kraft)
Contour, high and low
3 Cadences and non-harmonic tones – phrase, Ch. 5 (Benward)
Harmonic and rhythmic cadence, non-harmonic
Tones both accented and non-accented
Sight-singing – section 1 (cont.) Ch. 1 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 1 - melodic direction, Ch 1 (Kraft)
 triads and scales, outlining triads
4 Melodic organization – motive, sequence, Ch. 6 (Benward)
phrase, period, melodic structure
Sight-singing – section1 Ch. 2 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 1 - Ch. 1 (Kraft)
Passing, neighbor, double neighbor
5 Texture and textural reduction - Ch. 7 (Benward)
Density, monophonic, polyphonic,
homophonic, textural reduction
Voice Leading in Two Voices - Ch. 8 (Benward)
Voice leading, species counterpoint,
cantus firmus, counterpoint, motion
between voices, principles for voice
leading, writing first-species counterpoint
Sight-singing – section 1 (cont.) Ch. 2 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 2 Ch. 1 (Kraft)
6-7 Voice leading in four voices - Ch. 9 (Benward)
Analysis of four voice texture, root position,
first inversion triads, 6/4 chords, standard
voice leading guidelines
Sight-singing – sec 1 Ch. 3 (Berkowitz)
Section 1 (cont.) Ch. 1 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 2 Ch. 1 (Kraft)
IV iv V, elaborating tones
8-9 Harmonic progression and harmonic rhythm - Ch. 10 (Benward)
Relationship of chords, chord progressions,
harmonic rhythm, how to harmonize a tonal
melody
Sight-singing – section 1 (cont.) Ch. 1 (Berkowtiz)
Section 2
Ear Training – section 3 Ch. 1 (Kraft)
Hearing difference, upbeat and downbeat
10 Dominant seventh chord and the leading tone - Ch. 11-12 (Benward)
Resolution of the dominant seventh,
Circle and non-circle progression,
Non-resolution of seventh factor, progressions
from vii and vii7, resolution of triton and seventh
Factors
Sight-singing – section 2 (cont.) Ch. 1 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 3
11 Non-dominant seventh chords - Ch. 13 (Benward)
Analysis symbols, non-dominant seventh chords,
macro analysis symbols, non-dominant seventh chords
In circle and non-circle progressions
Sight-singing – section 1 Ch. 3 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 3
12 Modulation - Ch. 14 (Benward)
Closely related keys, common chord modulation,
phrase modulation, chromatic modulation,
other moduclations types, analytical symbols for
 modulations, harmonizing melodies that
modulate
Sight-singing – section 1 Ch. 4 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 4
13 Secondary dominants and leading tone chords - Ch. 15 (Benward)
Secondary dominants, secondary leading-tone
chords
Sight-singing – section 1 Ch. 5 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 4
14 Binary and ternary form - Ch. 16 (Benward)
Formal divisions, open versus closed formal
design, simple versus compound forms, two part
form
Sight-singing – section 3 Ch. 1 (Berkowitz)
Ear Training – section 4
Dissonance and Chromaticism Ch. 27-30 (Allwell)
 Seventh chords with added dissonance (Teacher Resource text)
 Neapolitan
 Augmented Sixth Chords
 Other Chromatic Chord
15 An introduction to twentieth-century music- Ch. 28 (Kostka)
Impressionism, Synthetic Scales, Extended Tertian Harmony,
Polyharmony, Quartal and Secundal Harmony, Parallelism,
Pandiatonicism, Rhythm and Meter, Atonal Theory,
Twelve-Tone Serialism, Total Serialization, Aleatory Music,
Electronic Music
16 Review and practice for AP® Theory Exam –
Review using practice questions and open-ended responses
17 Class and individual compositions and arrangements
Student performances of individual compositions and arrangements
Review and final assessment

Teaching Strategies

In my music theory classroom, I strive to create a positive learning environment that will permit students
to comprehend the material, and will engage students in hands-on activities that will allow the concepts to
be applied in real-life situations. I will incorporate a variety of learning activities that cater to a multitude
of learning styles so that all students will be engaged and will be active participants in class discussions.
Students will learn the content addressed in the course objective section, and will develop deeper
understanding through the use of higher-level thinking skills. This will be achieved by assigning work
that requires constant application and analysis of the concepts, in addition to daily lower-level concept
drilling. Students will compose, perform, critique, debate, and analyze the concepts introduced in my
class.

Sight-singing using the solfege method will be used almost daily in the class. In addition to practicing
their sight-singing skills on a regular basis, students will be continually asked to sing through musical
examples. They will sing different types of scales, intervals, and triads in order to further analyze their
quality. Oftentimes I find that students, especially those that have little to no vocal experience, are
hesitant to sing in class. The constant repetition of sight-singing will encourage these students to become
more comfortable with their singing abilities, which will in turn enhance their musical understanding. In
addition to sight-singing, students will be asked to improve their ear training skills as well. They will
participate in a variety of exercises that will challenge them to hear correctly and to notate rhythmic and
melodic examples.

The use of the keyboard is an important and integral part of my music theory instruction. An introduction
to the keyboard and basic keyboard concepts will be one of the first subjects covered in class. This will
serve as a basis for the rest of the semester. Students will be taught basic proficiency skills on the piano
and then will use the keyboard to play and hear the material that we will be studying. In addition to the
keyboard, students will also access and utilize the music notation program Sibelius. After spending time
learning how to properly and clearly notate music by hand, students will then use Sibelius to aid them in
notating more complex musical examples. Sibelius’ playback feature will allow students to hear these
complex examples quickly and efficiently so that they are given instant feedback with which to work.

It is my belief that composition is one of the most practical and all-encompassing means of putting
musical concepts into practice. Students will engage in a variety of composition activities throughout the
course of the semester. They will begin with simple rhythmic projects, and as the subject matter becomes
more in-depth, the projects will expand to exercises such as simple melodic lines, two-part harmonic
lines, and four-part examples with correct voice-leading. The culminating composition project will be an
original composition/arrangement featuring a small ensemble in the style of the student’s own choosing. I
have found that students are often intimidated by the idea of composing, so I make sure that each
assignment has enough structure and outline so that the student can successfully complete the assignment,
while still leaving room for the students to add their own unique style.

Student work will be assessed through a variety of methods. Students are assigned daily classwork and
homework using a variety of tools – written work, ear-training, practice sight-singing quizzes, drill work
using online computer resources, creating games, practice sheets, exams for fellow classmates, and
discovering examples of current concepts in their own personal music collection. Students will have short
composition assignments that will be used in dictation and ear training practice, and will perform them on
various instruments/voices to better prepare them for the AP exam. They will apply their knowledge and
gain a more in-depth understanding of musical concepts when they are required to apply them and
perform. Students will have short chapter quizzes to check for understanding, in addition to the major
cumulative exams.

Teacher Resources:

• Tonal Harmony, Stefan Kostka and Dorothy Payne, McGraw-Hill

• Music Theory Resource Book, Harold Owen, Oxford Publications
• Elementary Harmony¸ Robert Ottman, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
• Anthology for Musical Analysis, Charles Burkhart, Wadsworth
• Music for Sight-Singing, Robert Ottman, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
• 371 Harmonized Chorales and 69 Chorale Melodies, Bach/Riemenschneider, G. Schirmer