Category: Blog

Music theory is really about understanding how music works and being able to communicate with other musicians using a common musical vocabulary. Although that sounds simple, even basic theory contains a large amount of interconnected knowledge and information. I often get asked how much does having perfect pitch help in the AP Music Theory exam. I went to look up and see exactly what’s in the course description and it actually covers a bunch of core music subjects including theory and ear training. It’s a huge amount of material which you really need an instructor or someone with a four-year music degree to help you learn. I don’t want to discourage students because I LOVE to self-learn but part of that is always doing research and finding out what I can do by myself and what I’m going to need some help with.

Having perfect pitch will certainly help give you with the mechanics of dictation but it won’t really give you a leg up in the understanding area. It’s hard to just jump in and learn, you need a plan or you can easily get overwhelmed.

Here’s a couple of examples of what you need to know for the exam that won’t rely on your ear alone:

Terminology- You need to know the correct name to call scales, chords, intervals, and other music concepts that often rely on knowing how to construct it.

For instance: if they ask you to recognize intervals (which you may already know), you might be able to know that they are playing a C and an E above it but you need to know that it is called a major third. That’s an easy example.

What if they asked you to write out the notes in a C7 chord? Even if they played it for you, if you don’t understand how to make it, you may end up even incorrectly naming the pitches. For instance: a C7 chord has a lowered 7th making it Bb. If you called it A# instead, it wouldn’t be correct. That may seem like jerky tediousness but it’s not. Players and arrangers need to recognize things quickly in order to play them in time or use them properly. This is especially true for piano music which quickly gets complicated and is almost always more than one note at a time. Incorrectly notated music makes it difficult for musicians to read your accompaniment, arrangement or composition well.

What if they asked you what quality is a C7 chord? Nowhere in the name of the chord does it tell you the quality is dominant. You need to know that with 7th chords, when it doesn’t say anything between the letter and the chord you assume it’s dominant. You have to use specific abbreviations to indicate another chord quality. This is different than triads where if you see nothing written next to the chord letter, you assume it is major and have to indicate when it is another

Dictation- This is when you have to notate music that you hear with no other tools than your ears, pencil and paper within a few listens (often 3). You may do fine on the melodic dictation if you know how to recognize and notate rhythms. However, the harmonic dictation may be rough. You can certainly listen to the bottom for the bass notes and build the chord up from there (assuming the root is always on the bottom), but you may not have enough listens to work it out. Knowing what chord qualities typically happen on certain numbers of the scale, what your primary chords are in each key and common progression patterns allow you to do this much quicker. It’s the difference of choosing between a few known options or infinite possibility. Also, the exam you need to understand the naming conventions for Roman Numeral chords and Figured Bass.

Here’s a link to the document I found on the AP curriculum and exam. There are practice exams there so you can easily go try one and see how you do. That could be really helpful for assessing what you already know and getting a scope on how much you’ll need to learn. You may find that the easiest thing would just be to take the AP class. Of course, that’s assuming the class is available at your school and that you can fit it in your schedule.

AP Music Theory Exam Practice – AP Student

I hope this helps you make your decision. I would also like to say that I really think that learning theory will fill in a lot of missing puzzles pieces that you’re probably not even aware of. I don’t have perfect pitch but played by ear primarily before I went to college and had a lot of natural intuition for how music works. I can tell you that theory still opened up so many possibilities of new things I could do. I use what I learned everyday (along with my ears skills) in writing, teaching and playing music.

1. Sing as often as you can. The one thing I’ve noticed about singers that seem to be naturals is that they have the desire to sing all the time. Along to the radio, while they’re doing other things, when they’re by themselves, etc.. Believe it or not this is a form of practicing. You get better at matching pitch, vocal control and ear skills by doing it at lot.
2. Imitate. Take a song from a singer you like. Listen to a phrase, pause the music and sing it back. Repeat the phrase until you can get it to sound as close to the original as you can. This is probably the top way that most singers initially learn whether they realize it or not.
3. Record yourself. Your voice always sounds different outside of your body. This will allow you to listen to your self more objectively. Warning: Most people hate to hear themselves in recordings at first. You’ll get used to it and hopefully it will make you start to be aware of areas that need improvement.
4. Join a Choir. Having a reason to sing regularly where others will expect you to show up is a good way of making yourself accountable. You will also learn a lot from working with other singers. Your fellow singers should want to help you in this environment because you are part of the whole sound being created together.

Obviously, you could also could take singing lessons but regardless of whether you take lessons or not, you will need to sing a lot.

Here are some of the main components of singing that singers work on. Most of these things are easiest to work on if you have someone who can guide you, give you feedback and be an example of what you’re trying to replicate.

1. Pitch. Matching notes all over your range.
2. Tone. Getting a clear sound throughout your range. There are other kinds of sounds you may want to make as a singer but a clear tone is the basis for everything and will probably be the sound you want to use the most.
3. Range. Growing the size of your range so that you increase the songs you’ll be capable of singing.
4. Breath Control. All sound is carried by breath. Learning to control the breath in a steady way can affect everything from tone to pitch.
5. Enunciation. Learning to pronounce words clearly as you sing. Because sounds are held in singing it naturally becomes harder to understand the words being sung.
6. Projection. This refers to projecting the sound outside of your body and is what allows for that ‘big sound’.
7. Resonance. Learning to control where the sound resonates in your body. Head Voice (high range) and Chest Voice (lower range) are the two main areas. They each have their own strength and sound. Most singers naturally gravitate to one or the other. Learning to use both increase range and versatility.
8. Musicality. How to make choices in your singing and shape the storyline and performance of the song.

Muscle memory is key. In order for that to work though you definitely need to TRUST that your hand knows where to go. Try practicing it with your eyes closed. I also have small hands and work with kids who have small hands so I have a little extra insight to this problem. I’ll add a couple of tips that might also help with this:

• Play your white key octaves on the outside of the keys, not on top. My hands are small enough that I will press unwanted keys if I play octaves on top of keys.

Good:

Not Ideal:

• If you are alternating between octaves or jumping to an octave and it is a stretch for you, pivot your wrist so that the middle of your hand stays connected to the keys to give you stability as you swing between thumb and pinky.

• Always center your body in front of middle C, so that your muscle memory is consistent and accurate from where you will ALWAYS sit. If your hand looks unnatural while trying to play, make sure to shift your weight over the corresponding leg so your hand stays in perfect playing position.

• Make sure to also engage large motor skills when you are making big jumps, don’t try to stay glued to the keys. Fine motor skills are not ideal for jumping over large distances.

Good luck!

I have played around with many solutions for this.  I suggest planning and experimenting as you go to get the perfect result. The thing I think that would work best is making your lines in permanent marker and then putting a clear adhesive tape over the entire staff to protect it but still allow you to write and erase on it.

One thing to consider, is what is the perfect size of staff that will be comfortable to notate on and give you enough room to capture your idea. You may want to experiment by printing out some staves of different sizes on paper and trying it out. You can build your own staves from scratch in any word processing or layout program by creating some lines with the line tool and then adjusting the line thickness or font depending on whether you used a line tool or the plain underline. I like indesign for this because I can do step and repeats to create the exact distance between lines that I want.

Permanent marker lines (Sharpie) are probably the best if you’ve really decided that you want it on the whiteboard. You can use masking tape to lay out your lines before you draw them. The masking tape will make it easy to make a straight line and also to get a consistent distance between your lines. If you get the standard 3/4 width masking tape, probably one deep would be a good distance for your spaces. I recommend getting the masking tape near the paint section or at an artist supply so that you get low tack tape, meaning it will come off easily without leaving a sticky residue on your board. I’d measure from the top or bottom of your white board at various points and mark it so you can get your lines on the board straight.

You can get clear adhesive laminate tape in a roll that and put that over the top. (The tape should be glossy not matte so you’ll be able to write and erase on top of it.) Here’s a link for something that might work:

Amazon.com : Avery Self-Adhesive Laminating Roll, 24 inches x 600 inch Roll (73610) : Laminating Supplies : Arts, Crafts & Sewing

It doesn’t have to be that particular tape. I grabbed the first link I found just to give you an idea. You can shop around. I think using a decal or stickers to lay out the lines is going to be a lot of work getting straight and lined up properly. I’ve put pinstriping on a car before. It’s NOT easy to do a great job. Also, decals will make it bumpy to write on.

I’ve also created smaller page size whiteboards before by printing a staff on it and then laminating it.