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AP Music Theory

Build fluency in written and aural music by connecting notation, rhythm, harmony, voice leading, form, and analytical listening.

Start with the course map All AP courses

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1Music Fundamentals I: Pitch, Major Scales and Key Signatures, Rhythm, Meter, and Expressive Elements10 topics

Students establish a shared notation and listening vocabulary for pitch, major keys, rhythm, meter, tempo, dynamics, and articulation.

  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

2Music Fundamentals II: Minor Scales and Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre, and Texture13 topics

Students extend foundational fluency to minor and other scales, intervals, transposition, melody, timbre, texture, and rhythmic devices.

  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

3Music Fundamentals III: Triads and Seventh Chords5 topics

Students identify, spell, label, invert, and hear triads and seventh chords within tonal contexts.

  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

4Harmony and Voice Leading I: Chord Function, Cadence, and Phrase5 topics

Students connect chord function with phrase structure while applying contrapuntal and four-part voice-leading principles.

  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

5Harmony and Voice Leading II: Chord Progressions and Predominant Function7 topics

Students expand tonal progressions with predominant harmonies, less common diatonic chords, cadences, and second-inversion sonorities.

  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 6/4 Chords
  7. 5.7Additional 6/4 Chords

6Harmony and Voice Leading III: Embellishments, Motives, and Melodic Devices7 topics

Students distinguish structural harmony from embellishment and trace how motives and sequences create musical continuity.

  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

7Harmony and Voice Leading IV: Secondary Function4 topics

Students analyze and write tonicizations that briefly intensify scale degrees through secondary dominant and leading-tone chords.

  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

8Modes and Form3 topics

Students recognize modal pitch collections and explain how phrase relationships and formal sections organize complete works.

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