AP music theory

[Roadrunner]

I am unable to find old threads on this, but I remember the discussion that this particular exam was very difficult and people didn’t recommend taking it. I just can’t remember what made the exam difficult. We are considering studying for it, so if you have taken it, can you please chime in? I am hoping it’s the dictation part that’s hard.

[Dmmetler]

Not so much hard, but that it’s not worth the work. For a music major, having placement out of theory 1 based on an exam score is not necessarily good, because  theory is a 4-6 semester sequence of classes. AP rarely matches up well. Many schools don’t take it, and use their own exam instead. And if they do, it can leave the student with major gaps if it turns out that AP theory matches half of theory 1, part of theory 2, and a bit of theory 3 (which was the case for my undergrad school). So it is often worthless or counterproductive. 

If you’re not a major, you’ll probably get credit for something, but honestly, there are usually many more interesting and fun music classes to take for your liberal studies distribution requirement, and if you really want to get out of your fine arts requirementyou usually can do so by challenging a course via exam on campus-and the final for Music appreciation or music reading will be much, much easier than the  AP exam. 

 

Having said that, my opinion of AP theory difficulty is that, if it were given under the same conditions a similar exam would be given in at most colleges, it would be of similar difficulty to most AP’s-that is, if you study for it, and have practiced it, it’s not too bad,  but most kids will not be able to wing it, and the course needs to be tailored to the exam, because the exam does not match what is necessarily taught in a college level class. But under AP exam conditions, with background noise and audio equipment of unknown quality, it can quickly become extremely difficult.  And the time pressure is intense because you have a big chunk of the test that waits for the proctor to read the instructions and hit play, but also still have a lot of other stuff to get through. Get a slow proctor and finishing the rest of the test becomes hard.  Have the five minute class transfer time hit when you’re in the middle of a listening section, and it can become next to impossible to hear everything. I’ve seen kids who placed very solidly a few semesters into college theory at auditions in April turn around and get a 2 or 3 in AP theory in May-and a big part of it often is that for college theory, they are probably doing the audio component in a room that is much better soundproofed against background noise, with excellent audio equipment, and a much more flexible time limit. 

 

Having said that, the content is generally good, and doing a solid theory class can be a lot of fun, especially for more analytical, mathy kids. But If you do the exam, recognize that it probably won’t help much-and may well end up, through factors beyond your control, one you don’t want to have reported to colleges at all.

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, dmmetler said:

Not so much hard, but that it’s not worth the work. For a music major, having placement out of theory 1 based on an exam score is not necessarily good, because  theory is a 4-6 semester sequence of classes. AP rarely matches up well. Many schools don’t take it, and use their own exam instead. And if they do, it can leave the student with major gaps if it turns out that AP theory matches half of theory 1, part of theory 2, and a bit of theory 3 (which was the case for my undergrad school). So it is often worthless or counterproductive. 

If you’re not a major, you’ll probably get credit for something, but honestly, there are usually many more interesting and fun music classes to take for your liberal studies distribution requirement, and if you really want to get out of your fine arts requirementyou usually can do so by challenging a course via exam on campus-and the final for Music appreciation or music reading will be much, much easier than the  AP exam. 

 

Having said that, my opinion of AP theory difficulty is that, if it were given under the same conditions a similar exam would be given in at most colleges, it would be of similar difficulty to most AP’s-that is, if you study for it, and have practiced it, it’s not too bad,  but most kids will not be able to wing it, and the course needs to be tailored to the exam, because the exam does not match what is necessarily taught in a college level class. But under AP exam conditions, with background noise and audio equipment of unknown quality, it can quickly become extremely difficult.  And the time pressure is intense because you have a big chunk of the test that waits for the proctor to read the instructions and hit play, but also still have a lot of other stuff to get through. Get a slow proctor and finishing the rest of the test becomes hard.  Have the five minute class transfer time hit when you’re in the middle of a listening section, and it can become next to impossible to hear everything. I’ve seen kids who placed very solidly a few semesters into college theory at auditions in April turn around and get a 2 or 3 in AP theory in May-and a big part of it often is that for college theory, they are probably doing the audio component in a room that is much better soundproofed against background noise, with excellent audio equipment, and a much more flexible time limit. 

 

Having said that, the content is generally good, and doing a solid theory class can be a lot of fun, especially for more analytical, mathy kids. But If you do the exam, recognize that it probably won’t help much-and may well end up, through factors beyond your control, one you don’t want to have reported to colleges at all.

 

This is so increadibly helpful.

I have a kid who doesn’t want to major in music but he plays well and knows (at least what appears on the syllabus) most of what they have on that test and has a perfect pitch so he can do any dictation half asleep. He wants to study music composition at home as a hobby so he enjoys Theory. Now my reasoning for the AP test was to just validate what he has been learning all along and possibly get a through g fine arts check with the score for UCs. I am not after college credit. Now I am wondering if the agony of that exam is worth it and if we are better off taking it at CC. 

[Dmmetler]

I would say that if you have a CC (or local state U) that offers a true college level theory class, as opposed to music reading or music appreciation, take it there. It's likely to be a better experience. And to be honest, if he can place into it, he might enjoy a composition class more than a theory class. Or a jazz improvisation class-lots of theory there.  Any college level class will more than validate his level of expertise-a high school class would be the equivalent of music reading for non-majors, and would typically start with "Every Good Boy Does Fine".  College theory classes tend to be a bit of a dog eat dog experience, because they ARE so crucial to the major and are the course that knocks most people out of a music major, and therefore may not be the best choice for a younger than average student who is not planning to major in music and is likely to run circles around half the kids in the room (particularly since he has perfect pitch-the solfege/ear training is often harder for most students than the written theory). Composition classes tend to be a bunch of people doing their own projects in parallel, with a lot of trying out each other's projects, and jazz classes tend to be very cooperative.

 

[Momto6inIN]

2 hours ago, Roadrunner said:

 

This is so increadibly helpful.

I have a kid who doesn’t want to major in music but he plays well and knows (at least what appears on the syllabus) most of what they have on that test and has a perfect pitch so he can do any dictation half asleep. He wants to study music composition at home as a hobby so he enjoys Theory. Now my reasoning for the AP test was to just validate what he has been learning all along and possibly get a through g fine arts check with the score for UCs. I am not after college credit. Now I am wondering if the agony of that exam is worth it and if we are better off taking it at CC. 

My DS sounds a lot like your DS - loves music and wants to study as a hobby but not necessarily major in it - and is planning on doing it at the CC. He thought about AP or another class at The Potter's School, but the teacher I emailed about it said there wasn't a whole lot of composition in the class, so we we decided that doing it at the CC and calling that a fun way to fulfill his fine arts requirement was the best way to go.

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, Momto5inIN said:

My DS sounds a lot like your DS - loves music and wants to study as a hobby but not necessarily major in it - and is planning on doing it at the CC. He thought about AP or another class at The Potter's School, but the teacher I emailed about it said there wasn't a whole lot of composition in the class, so we we decided that doing it at the CC and calling that a fun way to fulfill his fine arts requirement was the best way to go.

We seem to always have scheduling issues with CC. I have also hesitated because the commute for us is significant and it’s several times a week, but the description of the AP exam seems to make that commute worthwhile. ?

[easypeasy]

My dd isn't planning on taking the AP exam for the exact reasons dmmetler explained above. She is, however, taking the AP Music Theory class ... just to prepare for college music theory classes. She doesn't have a hefty music theory background (and doesn't play piano), so I figured it's a good way to ensure that she really understands what she's getting in to before committing to a music major - because music major isn't an easy one to transfer out of without adding time onto your degree! (She'll also begin piano lessons this year. Better late than never!)

[Donna]

Dd took AP Music Theory and the test last year (9th grade). She took the course through PA Homeschoolers and we were both very disappointed in it...she was basically given a syllabus and her homework was graded. There were no recorded lessons or live lessons and the teacher was not at all helpful if dd had questions. (I know nothing about music theory so could not be any help.) Dd got a little help from friends who have multiple music theory degrees between the two of them but she did not feel right going to them with every little question. So basically dd self studied. She did well on the exam but was very frustrated because she felt like she had no clue where to focus her studying for the test...there was so much to know. It was her first AP course and after it, she decided to take classes through the community college for everything else...online courses due to scheduling issues.

She felt the dictation/ear training was the easiest part for her. She finds hearing music and remembering it very easy. 

[easypeasy]

2 hours ago, Donna said:

Dd took AP Music Theory and the test last year (9th grade). She took the course through PA Homeschoolers and we were both very disappointed in it...she was basically given a syllabus and her homework was graded. There were no recorded lessons or live lessons and the teacher was not at all helpful if dd had questions. (I know nothing about music theory so could not be any help.) Dd got a little help from friends who have multiple music theory degrees between the two of them but she did not feel right going to them with every little question. So basically dd self studied. She did well on the exam but was very frustrated because she felt like she had no clue where to focus her studying for the test...there was so much to know. It was her first AP course and after it, she decided to take classes through the community college for everything else...online courses due to scheduling issues.

She felt the dictation/ear training was the easiest part for her. She finds hearing music and remembering it very easy. 

 

Last year, as in 2017-2018? Or 2016-17? I'm asking because the teacher at PAH was new for the 2017-2018 school year and that's who we're planning to use for the upcoming year (18-19). She says there are live one-on-one sessions and such... I'm hoping that your experience was with the previous teacher (who had been there for several years, iirc)!!??  ?

[JeanM]

My ds took AP music theory this year at the public school, and it was a great experience for him. Obviously, he doesn't know his scores yet, and it seems likely that he won't get college credit for it even if he does well. However, he felt like he learned a lot and had fun. This was a very small class - I think there were 5 kids - which I think made a difference.

[Donna]

20 hours ago, easypeasy said:

 

Last year, as in 2017-2018? Or 2016-17? I'm asking because the teacher at PAH was new for the 2017-2018 school year and that's who we're planning to use for the upcoming year (18-19). She says there are live one-on-one sessions and such... I'm hoping that your experience was with the previous teacher (who had been there for several years, iirc)!!??  ?

 

Last year as in 2016-2017...there were no live one-on-one sessions and the teacher only sent one lecture (pre-recorded) for one chapter the entire year. There is a new teacher now and hopefully, the new teacher is actually teaching because it is a bit pricey.