AP Music Theory

What the course covers

8 units

1. Unit 1

   Music Fundamentals I: Pitch, Major Scales and Key Signatures, Rhythm, Meter, and Expressive Elements

   Free
   Reading and hearing the raw materials: pitch on treble, bass, and C clefs; note values; half and whole steps; the major scale and its scale degrees; major keys, key signatures, and the circle of fifths; simple versus compound beat division; meter types and time signatures; rhythmic patterns and correct beaming; tempo, dynamics, and articulation. Melodic dictation, sight-singing, and error detection start here and run all year. (About 16 to 18 class periods.)
   10 topics

   1. 1.1Pitch and Pitch Notation
   2. 1.2Rhythmic Values
   3. 1.3Half Steps and Whole Steps
   4. 1.4Major Scales and Scale Degrees
   5. 1.5Major Keys and Key Signatures
   6. 1.6Simple and Compound Beat Division
   7. 1.7Meter and Time Signature
   8. 1.8Rhythmic Patterns
   9. 1.9Tempo
   10. 1.10Dynamics and Articulation

2. Unit 2

   Music Fundamentals II: Minor Scales and Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre, and Texture
   Minor scales in all three forms, relative and parallel keys, closely and distantly related keys, and chromatic, whole-tone, and pentatonic scales; intervals by size and quality, their inversions, and compound intervals; reading transposing-instrument parts; instrument and voice timbres; features of melody, motive, and text setting; melodic transposition; texture types and devices; and rhythmic devices such as syncopation, hemiola, and borrowed divisions. (About 20 to 23 class periods, the longest unit.)
   13 topics

   1. 2.1Minor Scales: Natural, Harmonic, and Melodic
   2. 2.2Relative Keys: Determining Relative Minor Key and Notating Key Signatures
   3. 2.3Key Relationships: Parallel, Closely Related, and Distantly Related Keys
   4. 2.4Other Scales: Chromatic, Whole-Tone, and Pentatonic
   5. 2.5Interval Size and Quality
   6. 2.6Interval Inversion and Compound Intervals
   7. 2.7Transposing Instruments
   8. 2.8Timbre
   9. 2.9Melodic Features
   10. 2.10Melodic Transposition
   11. 2.11Texture and Texture Types
   12. 2.12Texture Devices
   13. 2.13Rhythmic Devices

3. Unit 3

   Music Fundamentals III: Triads and Seventh Chords
   Harmony begins: the four triad qualities and five seventh-chord qualities, the diatonic chords of major and minor keys with Roman numerals, inversions and their figured-bass symbols (6, 6/4, 6/5, 4/3, 4/2), and how figured bass implies chords, including slashed figures and lone accidentals. Harmonic dictation and simple figured-bass and Roman-numeral realizations start here. (About 13 to 15 class periods.)
   5 topics

   1. 3.1Triad and Chord Qualities (M, m, d, A)
   2. 3.2Diatonic Chords and Roman Numerals
   3. 3.3Chord Inversions and Figures: Introduction to Figured Bass
   4. 3.4Seventh Chords
   5. 3.5Seventh Chord Inversions and Figures

4. Unit 4

   Harmony and Voice Leading I: Chord Function, Cadence, and Phrase
   Writing and hearing four-part harmony in 18th-century style: soprano-bass counterpoint and bass-line composition, SATB range, spacing, and doubling, the forbidden parallels and other voice-leading errors, tonic and dominant function, the cadence types and the Picardy third, and connecting dominant sevenths and inverted seventh chords, including leading-tone sevenths. This is the unit behind Questions 3 to 7. (About 15 to 17 class periods.)
   5 topics

   1. 4.1Soprano-Bass Counterpoint
   2. 4.2SATB Voice Leading
   3. 4.3Harmonic Progression, Functional Harmony, and Cadences
   4. 4.4Voice Leading with Seventh Chords
   5. 4.5Voice Leading with Seventh Chords in Inversions

5. Unit 5

   Harmony and Voice Leading II: Chord Progressions and Predominant Function
   Expanding the phrase to tonic, predominant, dominant, tonic: IV (iv) and ii (ii°) and their sevenths, vi (VI) as tonic substitute and in the deceptive progression, the rare iii (III), plagal and Phrygian half cadences, and the four six-four chord types (cadential, passing, neighboring or pedal, arpeggiated) with their voice leading, metric placement, and doubling. (About 13 to 15 class periods.)
   7 topics

   1. 5.1Adding Predominant Function IV (iv) and ii (ii°) to a Melodic Phrase
   2. 5.2The vi (VI) Chord
   3. 5.3Predominant Seventh Chords
   4. 5.4The iii (III) Chord
   5. 5.5Cadences and Predominant Function
   6. 5.6Cadential Six-Four Chords
   7. 5.7Additional Six-Four Chords

6. Unit 6

   Harmony and Voice Leading III: Embellishments, Motives, and Melodic Devices
   Nonharmonic tones classified by approach, resolution, and metric position (passing, neighbor, anticipation, escape tone, appoggiatura, pedal point, suspension and its figures, upward-resolving suspension), writing passing and neighbor tones into a bass line, motives and their transformations (repetition, fragmentation, inversion, retrograde, augmentation, diminution), and melodic and harmonic sequences. (About 11 to 13 class periods.)
   7 topics

   1. 6.1Embellishing Tones: Identifying Passing Tones and Neighbor Tones
   2. 6.2Embellishing Tones: Writing Passing Tones and Neighbor Tones
   3. 6.3Embellishing Tones: Identifying Anticipations, Escape Tones, Appoggiaturas, and Pedal Points
   4. 6.4Embellishing Tones: Identifying and Writing Suspensions; Identifying Upward-Resolving Suspensions
   5. 6.5Motive and Motivic Transformation
   6. 6.6Melodic Sequence
   7. 6.7Harmonic Sequence

7. Unit 7

   Harmony and Voice Leading IV: Secondary Function
   Tonicization: making a chord other than I sound briefly like a tonic with its own dominant (V/x, V7/x) or leading-tone chord (vii°/x, vii°7/x, viiø7/x), spelling these chords with the right accidentals, recognizing them by ear, in scores, and in melodies that imply them (sharp-4 to 5), and part-writing them with normal dominant and leading-tone voice leading. (About 10 to 12 class periods.)
   4 topics

   1. 7.1Tonicization through Secondary Dominant Chords
   2. 7.2Part Writing of Secondary Dominant Chords
   3. 7.3Tonicization through Secondary Leading Tone Chords
   4. 7.4Part Writing of Secondary Leading Tone Chords

8. Unit 8

   Modes and Form
   The seven diatonic modes (Ionian through Locrian) heard and notated, phrase relationships labeled with letters (a a, a a', a b), antecedent-consequent periods (parallel and contrasting), and the common section names (introduction, verse, chorus, refrain, bridge, interlude, coda, codetta) the exam uses to point students to parts of an excerpt. (About 10 to 11 class periods.)
   3 topics

   1. 8.1Modes
   2. 8.2Phrase Relationships
   3. 8.3Common Formal Sections

The exam, part by part

4 parts, 2 h 40 min in all.

• Section I, Part A: Multiple Choice (Aural)

  Questions

  42

  Time

  45 min

  Weight

  25%

  Format details

  Officially 41 to 43 questions in about 45 minutes, every one with a recorded stimulus heard through a wired headset in Bluebook; the audio paces the section. Items are either individual ("read all the answer choices, then listen to the music 2 times") or sets of 4 to 6 questions on one excerpt, with reading time before the audio and several playings, and some sets give timestamps for parts of the excerpt. About 8% of all multiple-choice questions are error detection: compare a printed score with a performance that differs in pitch or rhythm. Excerpts span baroque, classical, romantic, late 19th or 20th century, and contemporary (world music, jazz, pop), instrumental and vocal. Four answer choices (A to D). The CED gives 45% for Section I as a whole; the 25/20 split here is proportional to question count, since every multiple-choice question is worth the same.

• Section I, Part B: Multiple Choice (Score Analysis)

  Questions

  33

  Time

  35 min

  Weight

  20%

  Format details

  Officially 32 to 34 questions in 35 minutes with a printed score (on screen in Bluebook) as the stimulus and no audio: mostly sets of 4 to 6 questions on one excerpt (often a multi-staff score with figured bass or a transposing instrument) plus a few individual items. Asks for Roman numeral and figured-bass analysis, nonharmonic tones, six-four types, cadences, tonicization, texture, rhythmic devices, key relationships, and notation facts. Four answer choices. Section I overall: about 48% of questions assess analyzing performed music, 44% analyzing notated music, 8% converting between them (error detection); Complete Based on Cues is not tested in multiple choice.

• Section II, Part A: Free Response (Dictation and Written)

  Questions

  7

  Time

  1 h 10 min

  Weight

  45%

  Format details

  Task types: Melodic Dictation, Harmonic Dictation, Part Writing from Figured Bass, Part Writing from Roman Numerals, Harmonizing a Melody

  Always the same seven questions in the same order: Q1 and Q2 Melodic Dictation, Q3 and Q4 Harmonic Dictation (together about 25 minutes, paced by the audio in Bluebook), then 45 self-paced minutes for Q5 Part Writing from Figured Bass (suggested 15), Q6 Part Writing from Roman Numerals (suggested 10), and Q7 Harmonizing a Melody (suggested 20), in any order. Prompts and staves are in a paper booklet; answers are handwritten in it. A mock exam should draw exactly 2, 2, 1, 1, 1 of these types.

• Section II, Part B: Sight-Singing

  Questions

  2

  Time

  10 min

  Weight

  10%

  Format details

  Task types: Sight-Singing

  Two brief, primarily diatonic melodies of about 4 to 8 bars, printed in the booklet. In 2025 and 2026 they were each 4 bars, one in treble clef and one in bass clef, one major and one minor, one simple and one compound meter, marked Moderato and forte with phrase slurs. For each: the starting pitch is played, then 1 minute 15 seconds of practice (singing aloud is encouraged, writing on the music is allowed), then 30 seconds to perform, recorded in Bluebook. Letter names, solfege, scale-degree numbers, or a neutral syllable are all acceptable; students may transpose to a comfortable key; no metronome, instrument, or other device. Restarting is allowed but costs the flow point. About 10 minutes for both.

Skills the exam scores

• 1.APitch, heard

  Name features of pitch in a performance: pitch patterns, melodic features, chords, progressions, and cadences (identification and definition work).

• 1.BRhythm, heard

  Name features of rhythm in a performance: meter, note values, rhythmic patterns, and rhythmic devices.

• 1.CRelationships, heard

  Describe melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic relationships in a full musical context that is performed.

• 1.DTransformation, heard

  Describe and apply procedures that transform melodies and rhythms, such as transposition, inversion, augmentation, and sequence, in performed music.

• 1.EVoice leading, heard

  Describe and apply 18th-century harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic voice-leading procedures in up to four voices in performed music.

• 1.FForm, heard

  Describe formal features in performed music: motives, phrases, and relationships between phrases.

• 1.GMusical design, heard

  Describe texture, timbre, instrumentation, and expressive markings (dynamics, articulation, tempo) in performed music.

• 2.APitch, notated

  Name features of pitch in a score: pitch patterns, melodic features, chords, progressions, and cadences (identification and definition work).

• 2.BRhythm, notated

  Name features of rhythm in a score: meter, note values, rhythmic patterns, and rhythmic devices.

• 2.CRelationships, notated

  Describe melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic relationships in a full musical context that is notated.

• 2.DTransformation, notated

  Describe and apply procedures that transform melodies and rhythms in notated music.

• 2.EVoice leading, notated

  Describe and apply 18th-century harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic voice-leading procedures in up to four voices in notated music.

• 2.FForm, notated

  Describe formal features in notated music: motives, phrases, and relationships between phrases.

• 2.GMusical design, notated

  Describe texture, timbre, instrumentation, and expressive markings in notated music.

• 3.AMelodic dictation

  Write down the pitches and rhythm of a melody you hear, in treble or bass clef, major or minor, possibly with chromatic pitches.

• 3.BOuter-voice dictation

  Write down the soprano and bass of a progression you hear, major or minor, possibly with chromatic pitches.

• 3.CHarmonic analysis by ear

  Identify the function of each chord in a progression you hear by writing Roman and Arabic numerals.

• 3.DSight-singing

  Sing the pitches and rhythms of a printed melody in treble or bass clef, major or minor, simple or compound meter, possibly chromatic.

• 3.EError detection

  Find where a performance differs in pitch or rhythm from the printed music, in one or two voices.

• 4.ASpell and connect chords

  Use common-practice tonality to spell chords and connect them with 18th-century voice-leading procedures.

• 4.BRealize figured bass

  Complete a four-part progression from a figured bass and supply its Roman numeral analysis.

• 4.CRealize Roman numerals

  Complete a four-part progression from a given Roman numeral analysis.

• 4.DHarmonize a melody

  Compose a bass line that implies suitable harmony under a given melody and label that harmony with Roman and Arabic numerals.