Can I pass an AP Music Theory Exam?
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- Опубліковано 25 тра 2022
- AP music theory is hard! 🚀 Watch this video ad-free on Nebula!
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Peace,
Adam
I think you actually missed the last bar of the second question with an F instead of a G in the last dotted figure, no?
Of course Kenji is into music theory haha that's great
I came here to say the same thing...
3:42 is the timestamp. Noticed it too haha, kept asking myself “wasn’t that a G??”
That F changes the harmonic progression that I hear under the melody in that last bar, rather than a V-i it'd be like a i64-V-i. That part of the transcription seems like a troll though, you're trying to write out the natural and accidental in the bar before, then it hits you with the unexpected intervals where you think you might just have a descending scale.
@@SolomonDouglas After hearing the name on Bashing with Bimbish so many times, I had to do a triple take to make sure I read the name right. Evidently a legit talented dude. My ear training is rubbish (thank you, 30 years of playing saxophone...) but I'm also shocked at JKLA's prowess with intonation.
I am reasonably confident I would get nothing on this test correct even by accident.
Hahaha! Same team buddy!
As a non-professional musician even I would struggle with this. Adam's a beast.
@@ardaerdogan690 Dude’s into crypto, I’m sure he’s smarter than he makes himself out to be.
@@404T2K i think folding ideas is only "into crypto" to the extent that he thinks it's silly. i mean he seems extremely knowledgeable of it but not a fan i think
@@ardaerdogan690 as a pro musician I'd have trouble.. if i had a piano in front of me and could control when i listened to it, I could do it, maybe in about 10 min for one question. However with content only playing (x) amount of times with it being at certain times? and maybe just having the computer in exam i would have failed.. despite the fact ive been producing on a PC since 1994-ish but pass if I could work out without that game show pressure.. this is why I dont think exams are good for society.. whats wrong with evaluating someone over the year? Besides I think as fail as Fine Attempt In Learning. Adam is indeed the DUDE haha
I TOOK THE EXAM THIS YEAR some of these questions were actually on this years test so this video brought back some terrible memories but I like to think I failed it spectacularly
I took it too lmao when they had the Russian song it was kinda lit tho but the chant in Latin was wack I def failed too
@@nick_mikhail guys don’t talk about the ap test until scores are released
Lol “some of these questions” he took the 2021 exam. It was all of the questions
@@paulwittmer7029 that's a different test. The 2022 test is currently testing, and it is a different version than last year's
@@picklegoat oh yea you’re right, I thought this video was old but it’s not. But I also just took that exam and none of those were on it
One problem with this however…
In the exam room, you are not allowed to hum or make audible musical noise during the aural section of the exam. Very well explained and I love to hear your thought process!
Humming in my head fuckin sucked lmao, I am so used to the feeling of a note when singing/humming it that it really threw me off when I couldn't haha
that seems very backwards
@@jessenicoletta4160 Yeah, I guess unless you’re the only person taking the exam, you can hum, but it’s generally not allowed
@@jessenicoletta4160 a lot of stuff in the music wolrd os backwards just for the sake of ir
@@jessenicoletta4160 imagine multiple students humming while taking questions. its super distracting and could be used for cheating aswell. so yeah whenever theres more ppl taking an exam at the same time its completely understandable.
Music education (especially in high school) is just so rigid with the stuff that you need to know. Of course it's because they want to define the boundaries of the syllabus but it leaves students with this false idea that certain things are prerequisites that are essential to make good music. I've only done GCSE music so I feel like I could have a good shot at some of this but stuff like figured bass that doesn't appear at all in the music I'm into I'd be terrible at.
I'd like to think I could do well enough the transcription sections though...
As another GCSE musician about to sit my exam in June… amen!
Literally me with the music theory class on my college course, it’s so painfully regimented, setting the false precedent that music theory is really boring and restrictive 🤦♂️
ily
omg george collier did gcse music, what year ? i was the capercaillie/buckley’s grace year hehe
I can tell you, NOT only music education. I have an engineering background and about 50-70% was totally useless.
Not in like "well somebody else might need it in a different job" useless. But time wasting useless.
Manually doing silly MANY math exercises that don't even exist in the world and that kind of things.
Worst of all, I have seen people graduating cum laude , and I would not hire them for one cent.
Schools don't teach you to be smart, but just very efficient in remembering things for an exam.
It jus sad to see that schools are so extremely disconnected from reality, even more so to see EXTREMELY talented people being discouraged by it it and eventually quitting. Sad, sad but true.
As a music teacher myself I completely agree with Adam; I think a better name than "Music Theory" would be something like "Classical Voice Leading: The Roots of Western Music Theory" which more accurately describes what you're studying
🙄
Ding ding ding 🔔
But then no one would take the class and the codex of (white) Western Civilization would be lost!
There are bigger problems in the world than loose definitions of study programs in their names..I guess people, who want to study that (or something else for the matter), will bother to do the 1min research..
@@LogarMartin It's a problem because it's a bit like writing a book exclusively about the Ford Model T and calling it "The Complete History of Automobiles."
My theory prof defended the part-writing emphasis by saying: The most common salaried music-composition job is a church gig, and for that, being able to write a nice easy classical 4-part arrangement in a matter of seconds (while hung-over) is an essential skill.
There's definitely no defense for figured bass tho
The only reasons I have come up with throughout my Music Degree, is just learning your roots and being able to read Baroque Style Writing how harpsichordists accompany a soloist.
Just wanted to note, the reason why Figured bass exists, is because Baroque Composers wanted to make a system where the harpsichordist doesn't have to read several lines of music, but is able to play the music with bare minimum chordal analysis, Long story short, Figured Bass is just short hand for Baroque people, before Jazz Charts existed.
"The most common salaried music-composition job is a church gig", where do you live and in what decade? :D
@@flrn84791 I was bemused by that too. I would expect the most commonplace music composition jobs to be in advertising/media.
Figured bass is good, people's issue with it is stupid. Figured bass is like chord symbols, how is it not one of the best resources for a beginner, you expect them to learn 4 part writing while having to worry about what chords to use right away? A lot of people complain about this, but I really can't agree, at least in my country most students that reach high school have trouble telling how many flats are in Db Major, they have 3 years to learn music theory, if you go way beyond basic harmony, counterpoint(/voice leading) and form they won't understand anything to a useful degree. While a bit more would be highly beneficial, specially in case someone wants to go into composition like I did (I learned a lot of stuff by myself about integral serialism, modal music, Jazz, Pop and Rnb, "Hiphop" harmony, etc, etc), most students would end up traumatized with music theory (not literally but almost lol) and not like it and potentially have an even harder time in college. If anything most underestimate the connections between this 4 part writing and Jazz arranging, spoilers, you should avoid parallel 5ths and 8ves in Jazz as well
@@flrn84791 Prof is right, possibly the biggest paid music scene in US is and likely to remain Churches
For whatever it's worth, the reason the alto and tenor voices were flipped in the figured bass realization is that your way puts two adjacent voices over an octave apart, which isn't allowed except between the tenor and bass. If I were grading this I'd probably take a couple more points off for that. (Although when I tried the problem myself I forgot to double the G instead of the C in the second chord, so my realization would also have been wrong for an equally pointless reason.)
Anyway, great video, and your transcription speed was extremely impressive.
I don't know that I'd call the octave rule "pointless," though. Those picky rules do have an intent behind them.
If you have, say, over an octave between alto and tenor, you start to fundamentally change the texture - essentially leaving the alto to serve as a de facto "bass line" to the soprano. If this isn't *intentional*, it can undermine certain harmonic relationships. And that gets to the core of these rules:
It's not "thou shalt not." It's "thou shalt not ACCIDENTALLY." As artists, we can sometimes unintentionally do things that work against what we want the viewer/listener/reader to experience - it'd be like a background extra moving around too much and pulling attention from the speaking roles in a play.
Granted, I don't think that aspect of the rules gets enough explanation in the usual theory classroom, so it can come across as arbitrary.
@@okayhonks I have always hated being told to follow rules without understanding them and this is a great example; if this had been explained to me I still might not have enjoyed doing this kind of thing, but I don’t think I’d have hated it on principle quite so much.
I'd be interested to see your take.
The melodic dictation was super easy, so that wasn't impressive, that was expected.
@@okayhonks Some of those "rules" really are outdated though. Today, no one really cares about the voices being independent. So no one cares about avoiding parallel fifths and octaves
As a physicist, this blows my mind that you can just do this all off the top of your head. Now I know how people feel when I start writing equations.
Yes
Humble brag. Love it
As a street cleaner, it blows my mind that you can just do all this stuff off the top of your head. Now I know how people feel when I drive by in my street cleaner and the brushes at the front pick up all the litter as if by magic.
As an astronaught, this blows my mind that you can do this all off the top of your head. Now I know people feel when I start operating a state-of-the-art rocket ship and fly it to Venus.
@@hdtsquad3064 That wasn't my original intention but I'm not opposed to the satire it seems to have brought :')
I have taught AP Music theory and tutored students in theory for about 8 years now. I even went to the College Board National Conference a few times. Every time I interact with them I implore they widen the scope of the theory exam so it better reflects what students need in college, but it always falls on deaf ears.
Thank you for trying. Please keep trying to influence those around to open up on this subject
Ridiculous. I would totally fail this exam but I have all the theory I need to understand and negotiate any jazz standard. Madness.
I'm not American. I'm actually shocked by how easy AP Music Theory is. I learned all of these in primary school year 5 (11 years old).
@@PassionPno yeah the American system of music education is corrupt especially when they call Figured Bass irrelevant or archaic when actually it is superior to jazz 'theory'.
lol deaf ears. you know, cuz music.
I just took the AP music theory exam this year. Even though I've been playing and listening to music for most of my life, having to go from no ear training at all to doing melodic and harmonic dictation in only four months was a real challenge.
Zamn did you take instrument lessons before you did the exam?
were you allowed to hum
One of my final-year university papers was called "Fugue" - the exam was that you would be given a fugue subject, and you had 4 hours at a desk in silence to write a fugue in the style of Bach, featuring invertible counterpoint and everything. There were some proper geniuses who were fully immersed in that style and would write some absurdly complex mirror canons and highly chromatic harmony, but it was as much as I could do to get through the thing and have something that was technically a fugue at the end!
Training. Specially when solfège is involved when playing fugues.
That sounds super cool though! I would love to hear some Bach inspired fugues
It's important to remember as well that most of these tasks are easier if you can hum or sing to yourself to figure them out, which you absolutely cannot do taking a test with other people.
Disagree. This type of voice leading is very simple without sounding anything. You have chord tones to choose from and a very simple set of rules for which voice goes where. It is just math, and VERY few high school kids can sight sing this stuff correctly anyway, especially when you're getting into secondary dominants. Even if they thought it would "help" them, it would be more likely to cause errors than fix them.
@@backpacker3421 I couldn’t disagree more with you. Singing is SO incredibly helpful regardless of your skill level. I HAD to sing during my AP music theory exam and I was lucky I was alone in a room with the proctor.
To those that think you can sing during a dictation test in class, prepare to get dirty looks from your classmates at the least. Be careful of the percussionist, they might beat you up for singing during the test.
Audiate, audiate, audiate. Also: you can use your breath to breathe “on pitch”
Audiation, as mentioned before, is the way to go. This is where learning to hear intervals in your head comes in handy. Sometimes very quiet whistling works too. Or, for a pianist like me, playing an invisible keyboard helps me hear the chords in my head.
I’m rooting for you to PASS 😤💯
Jer he’s got this 💪
Jer he's adam neely
im dominating for him to pass
Dude I bought your undertale album and it was fire
to BASS*
The final in my AP theory class was writing a 4 part piece and because I was **extra** I wrote a string quartet each on their own clef. (I was a cellist who formerly played viola)
The teacher played everyone's pieces on piano and just looked at mine like "yeah that's fine I'm not translating this shit" and moved on 🤣
Definitely agree with most of the comments talking about how misleading the name and narrow the content in AP "Music Theory" is, but at the same time a lot of viewers aren't aware that this is only a fraction of the whole exam (Collegeboard doesn't like to release entire AP exams), so there's also more theoretical content covered that's not just harmony too :))
Could you say more on this? I'm sure many like myself (having never taken the exam) would be interested.
@@pwhqngl0evzeg7z37 I actually took one like a few months ago, and there's a sight singing part where they give you a little 4 measure melody you have to sing, as well as what I like to call the trivia section, a series of multiple choice questions about some audio excerpts and the theory features they use.
question 2 of melodic dictation, the sixteenth note in measure 4 is incorrect, otherwise perfect though, impressive that you got all that in two listens!
was scrolling looking for this comment
@@Matthewparkeroden same
@@Matthewparkeroden Yep, same. But it's still impressing considering that he's speedrunning.
@@colonelburak2906 I mean he had a Masters in Music in Jazz Composition. This is a high school test. He should be pretty good.
You mean the F that should be a G? Heard it as well. But then, how come Adam got 9/9 on that one?
As someone with no musical talent whatsoever, this is basically magic to me. I'm so impressed.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
Music education is not equal to talent in any way
It’s not talent btw, just experience
@@burhlmao540 Talent has a very broad meaning, and its meaning has changed like 50 times throughout history. Basically, talent could just mean skill, so experience.
@@MM-vs2et and which meaning are we talking about
I am a music theory student and I took this exam about a month ago, and I am absolutely shook on how easily you did these questions. I remember struggling so much. I am very jealous.
in all fairness, the man's a jazz musician and generally you have to be very knowledgable with the notes and their relation to scales and stuff
this is coming from a jazz pianist myself (not that skilled btw, no stress)
Relative pitch and your ear is on AP music theory exams? I didn't know ear training over lapped with theory.
on the AP course and test it does, but in my university they were separate courses
They're separate courses in college, but definitely intimately related skills.
My university had them as a pair of courses that met at the same time in the same classroom on alternate days, and it was strongly encouraged to take them together
you must pass both. it is required "by law". dictation on 18th century melodies & harmonies is considered necessary.
I took 7 AP tests in high school. The Music Theory AP (which I did not take any class for) was easily the most challenging. The expected vocab/terminology/nomenclature was killer. It's not that I didn't understand the content, it's that what the Music Theory test expected was SO specific that it became an exercise in memorization rather than a demonstration of competence. I just completed an MA in Music; I doubt I could pass the AP test today.
I think you could. The amount of correct answers needed to get full marks is about 50%. Which just shows how pathetic the curriculum is.
I took the AP Music Theory exam as a junior in high school without having taken the course, as it wasn't offered in my school. I had no idea what part writing was, but transcribing music/ ear training came easily for me. In the end, my results showed a 4 on aural skills, and a 1 on non-aural skills.
i'm taking 4 exams this year and i also am a self study for music theory. what tips do you have?
There's also another effect, which I've always noticed in the engineering disciplines, that schools will bias their teaching towards the things that are easiest to grade.
Since 18th century european music is relatively strict, it's a lot easier to say it's "correct" or "wrong" than with say, Jazz, which is good if you're required to give everyone a grade by the end of the year. In a sense, the more pointless busywork it is, the better.
Totally agree with your point about the consequences of emphasising gradable testing; but also to add that this is a highly reductive view of 18thC european music anyway, the long rule book and the stressing over minutia is not how that era's musicians conceptualised their music at all. All these kinds of tests, i'm pretty sure, are derived from people tirelessly studying Bach chorales which is nice but this level of strictness is only directly applicable to one genre within the work of one composer. Furthermore, as someone who is studying actual basso continuo practice, it's quite jarring to see figured bass used in this context and along side roman numerals, it's a complete reduction of the role figured bass is meant to have within it's own historical context to just a nonsensical way of indicating inversions.
@@contrapunctusmammalia3993 that is a great point. all of these "rules" are just the things that made one composer great. Imagine if we studied the Beatles and said "hmm, it seems like Ringo always plays the drums with a swashy sounding hi-hat" and then music school tested drummers based on how swashy their hi-hats sound. maybe someone else can come up with a better analogy lol.
@@NoahStolee it's like if we studied Joh Williams and went "hmm John Williams always does this with the brass in the Star Wars Motif" and grading was based on how well you composed like John Williams
These aren't intended to be exercises in making art. They are fundamental exercises to teach you how and WHY voice leading works the way it does. They are like little etudes for voice leading. Because they are etudes, there are right and wrong ways to execute them.
There's also PLENTY of "wrong" voice leading in jazz theory.
Finally, learning the fundamentals of your craft is NEVER busy work. It is honing a tool you use to make your art.
As for schools biasing their teaching towards it.... this voice leading makes up about one semester of ONE freshman level class in an entire degree field. That's hardly a bias.
@@backpacker3421 Honestly fully agree, I personally really enjoyed the class and as a composer it’s helped me understand the framework of music theory and how voice leading works no matter in what setting. I never regret taking it.
I do wish it covered more topics however probably like first semester rigorous ear training and figured bass/composition exercises
Second semester: visiting different cultures and how they interpret music kinda like Art Hustory
Speaking as a recovering Music Theory instructor, I completely agree with your view on the need to broaden the scope. Also, while I still can do figured bass, I really question why we spend so much time teaching it. I could probably have used that brainpower on something useful. As always, great info well presented.
This is fascinating to me because I took Music Theory & History in high school, but since I'm not in the US, the curriculum is completely different. Not using the obsolete nomenclature, for example. The first two exercises were familiar, the rest was not covered in my classes at all. My exam ended up being partially audio-based and partially recognizing features from styles we learned about in the history segment. Like: "you will now hear measure 15-25. This piece has elements of a fugue. Name two of these elements". Our exams always featured music from different eras - I remember having Peer Gynt and a Metallica song in my final exam. Ah, good times (15 years ago).
There should be an AP Jazz if there's not already. That seems like it could be a pretty fun course
I would love school if we had that. I don’t think will happen though because the school system doesn’t care about that unfortunately. I wish jazz was better represented
@@ucopiedyibo1959 the weird thing is I basically only ever hear about music theory from people with a jazz background.
Disagree, AP classes are a huge scam put on by college board
@@KnowledgePerformance7 Wdym? It's a great way to get college credit. Dual credit and IB are the alternatives, and they're not accepted at a lot of schools, especially if you go to a different state. When I entered college I had almost all of my non-major credits and base-level course credits out of the way because of AP classes. Calc I & II, Physics I & II, 2 English credits, a History credit, and an Economics credit.
@@porgy29 and it’s always that way because jazz music is the most diverse and culturally defined out there in the world.
damn dude you're good at music and you know what that means
Meanwhile, I've seen your Little Wing cover and, well.....
When can we expect a collab? That would be just awesome!!
@@Guicosac they already did one. Look up dread machine. It kicks ass!
shouldn't you be off in a corner flexing your money somewhere
@@andrewnicon I've seen it recently too, because someone on GuitarCircleJerk subreddit mentioned it, lul.
Tests give me anxiety, especially with adhd, I need to take my time. However this is a great practice on your own with no stress involved.
I find classical voice leading to be crucial as a tool when I arrange or write for classical ensembles (choirs, orchestras etc) even if the music itself isn't in the style of 18 century. This is just a practice method to force yourself to write good parts and when applied to real music, you can break whatever rule you want as long as you know there is a rule in the first place. A jazz analogy would be to practice scales - you don't play scales up and down in you solo but it is still valuable to have practiced them when you play.
I have a Doctorate in Music Theory and a retired professor of theory and composition, and f.b. / AP Theory, etc… SHOULD be known as rudiments, and furthermore, western 18th c. rudiments. You are quite correct in railing against the total stubborness of collegiate music degrees and their complete blindsidedness about the fact that music existed before and after J.S. Bach, as well as in other parts of the world. ‘Tis one of the reasons I am a retired professor.
You actually missed a note on question 2! Last measure, second note is a G, not an F 😏😉
THANK YOU ! that drove me crazy, I wasn't seeing anyone commenting on that hahaha
elite commenters
Points revoked, test failed
If truth is elitism I'd hate to be right...
Came here to say this, actually thought it was wrong before and looked for it. I’m proud of myself.
When I took this exam, the melody they had me wrote down was about 10x faster and had much larger intervals than any of the practice questions
14:27
Re: the “parallel fifth” thing you talked about, you can indeed go from a P5 to a d5, but not the other way around (although I believe d5-P5 is still acceptable if it doesn’t involve the soprano voice, or at least that’s how I’ve learned it).
The only thing “incorrect” about your specific voice leading vs. their example is that you should not have more than an octave space between the tenor and alto, or between alto and soprano (larger space between bass and tenor is okay up to a 12th)
Source: theory TA/tutor for the last 5 years
I was looking for the comment clarifying the P5 to d5
Great!
I was taught the mnemonic to remember it: it’s P diddy ( perf to dim) NOT diddy P (dim to perf).
You are right, more than an octave will thin the voicings and be incorrect, though there are rare exceptions, particularly betwen the Bass n the rest of the voicings. The best way to think of all voice leading is through counterpoint though. Unfortunately, not all music schools teach theory through counterpoint.
lol your teacher sounds like a boss. i was taught police department(p-d) is good
Honestly I watched your entire video essay on why “music theory” is exclusionary, and I agreed with the overall thesis, but it didn’t actually hit me until you made that connection to art history and how it is taught at the same level. Lightbulb moment for me.
yeah seeing that definitely flicked a switch for me too. I never thought to compare the two before!
Have to disagree with you there. For me, that video is a textbook example of the way that artists co-opt and trivialize actual political struggles. It turns issues with real material consequences for people into aesthetic concerns. IIRC the video’s example of non-western music came from India, and the style has been promoted in India by far right Hindu nationalists who have engaged in anti-Muslim and anti-Christian violence. So there are some pretty deep ironies in the video, right? Criticizing western exclusion of an Indian style of music which is itself used for exclusionary purposes. By being inclusive of this style in the West, are we promoting exclusion elsewhere. These issues go unnoticed by artists making these criticisms because their engagement with politics is, at best, superficial and at worst, cynical and self-interested.
Yes and no. If you want to study world music, there are courses for that... OTHER courses, including MUSIC HISTORY (why are we comparing Music Theory to Art History - apples and oranges). Trust me, if you tried to fit music theory at this level from even TWO major styles into just one high school course (even AP level), most students would fail miserably, or you would have to be so superficial as to make it completely useless. If you tried to fit a third major style in, NOBODY would be able to pass. And this particular style of voice leading is the elementary level of the style that directly led to jazz, pop, rock, blues, etc etc etc. Without this, there is none of that.
It is MUCH harder to learn that art history, which is why they can fit a global survey into an art history course and still expect students to succeed. I've been teaching this stuff longer than today's college seniors have been alive. Trust me.
@@altovideom Do you not see the irony in calling out artists for co-opting and trivializing "actual political struggles" when you just willingly let fascists co-opt actual art? I don't think the fact that fascists are obsessed with classical art, or that nationalists are obsessed with art from the culture theyre trying to promote, delegitimizes that art. And the video was from a western perspective, talking about how different ideas of musical harmony are not talked about. Not to mention that the music traditions that he referenced were partially referenced because they were well-documented on youtube by people he respected. I don't think Adam pushing forward music supported by Hindu supremacists means he hates Dravidian or Arab music. I think it's just that there's a fucking billion Hindi people and many of them speak English, so it ended up being more likely for there to be one on youtube that he respected.
Also, it's a bit fucked up, don't you think, that you're implying that the fact that he showed a variety of Hindi music somehow implies some connection to how that Hindi music is used by right wing politicians? Like, it's a bit like asking every Jew you know how they feel about Palistinians because you just assume theyre anti-arab. If Adam showed Hassidic music traditions or something, would you have the same response? Not every Indian has to prove themselves to you.
It's a bit like saying you can't complain about anti-Chinese bigotry because Chinese nationalists are racist to Uyghurs
@@heckoff7904 my point is that the essay is simplistic and that Adam’s embrace of Hindu music was ironic. The irony lies in the fact that Adam is *not* fascist, yet *unknowingly* embraces a tradition which has been put to fascist purposes. I agree with you that we shouldn’t simply reject a tradition because of how some people use it, but neither should we blindly embrace it. It’s a complex issue that gets lost because Adam views it through the lens of conventional vs avant-garde art.
Man, I have a masters in performance and can live financially off of my playing. I'd absolutely fail. The transcription part is ABSOLUTELY useful, for whatever your discipline. Being able to hear what you're reading and write what you hear is invaluable. However, the part writing and figured bass sections? That's the first time in about a decade where I have to think about what a I64 is.
In this context it'd be better labelled as V(64-53) anyway.
This was the only AP exam I got a five on out of the five I took in high school (the others being World History, Calculus AB, Physics 1, and Biology). Super fun class
Brilliant take as usual! Love that you keep it up about pointing out the bias and narrow scope of much of the music media and education in our culture.
Two things:
1) The first figured bass had a spacing issue--the distance between the alto and tenor should not exceed an octave. The rationale is that the upper voices should be interdependent with each other.
2) You may definitely omit the 5th in a V7. When resolving to a I (which didn't happen), the full V7 leads into a tripled root I chord because of the smooth voice leading. The only way to have a 5th in both chords is to omit one of them.
Agreed that the theory curriculum is limited in scope, not just the AP exam but most theory curricula. The value of figured bass is its emphasis on the line rather than individual chords, and there are some cool improvisation-based methods going around right now that truly bring this out (which is how people actually learned theory back then--at the piano improvising with the figures as a guide). Keyboard style seems to be much more effective for teaching voice leading than four-part chorale style, though it is helpful to have the basic chorale chops for choral writing/arranging (general voice leading principles and awareness of range). It'd be nice to see jazz harmony make it onto the AP exam at the very least--if they can do ii halfdim65 chords, they can touch on the basics.
In terms of music theory curricula generally, I feel like Philip Ewell's recommendation to "make space" for other theories was a modest and helpful idea. It's very possible to teach all of 18th-century theory in two semesters to leave two additional semesters to the rest of music (proof: I tried it, and the majority of the class understood it as well as anyone in a 4-semester class does). Chord ID skills would carry over to jazz and popular idioms, and ideally, there would be lots of time spent on rhythm, timbre, melody, flow, etc. within the context of various styles around the world and in other parts of history. Also, why not use theory as a space to learn music technology, which is kind of a 21st century equivalent to part-writing? It kind of becomes a survey course at that point, but it's still developing musicianship skills, gaining global awareness, and who knows, might introduce greater creativity and life into the art form!
"it is helpful to have the basic chorale chops for choral writing/arranging" ill keep that in mind incase the marquess of worceshershire drops by
@@clayghost1290 Ahh, I was really hoping for the Duke of Earl. (Nice vibe and production on your tracks, btw)
i have nothing unique to add, except to say that this was extremely well written and i enjoyed reading it
I think it's that moment where it becomes a survey course which is problematic. Perhaps if we just came to grips in education and called a spade a spade and didn't call it, as David Elliott might, "capital M" Music theory that we could offer a survey course in general music principals from various disciplines, but good luck getting the majority to see it as an inclusive approach to theory rather than being confused as a theoretical lens to "World Music." A course many have to take in college which is just a brochure for the actual existence of music in diverse cultures.
There's many points to be made, but I agree that with decreased specificity to make room for a more broadly encompassing curriculum, you do lose some of the finer points. Hell, the reason we are all here in the comments after watching someone else pontificate on the matter probably is rooted in our collective training in 18th century western music traditions and took it upon ourselves to learn more, ask questions, and experience the things our education didn't include.
I'm of two minds. There still should be a course in traditional 18th century music theory because it is worth studying and is the foundation for a vast amount of musics we listen to, engage with, or what have you, but it should be presented as one of multiple disciplines for music. Also, too, the broadened curriculum for those who want it, though I'm sure some would argue it wouldn't serve the majority of students and may be a niche, one off course. Then again, one could argue, too, that if someone was educated in every way possible that they would be [whatever virtue that may bestow more lofty than a singular education in a specific practice.]
Who's to say? Look at how Coltrane studied in his formative years. Flash forward to why he named his kid Ravi. Would Shankar have had the same impact on Coltrane without his intense study into a specific discipline and had that from which to try and understand? It's all a fun philosophical debate, but what change to education do we want in this regard?
@@mikehayden7691 Good points. It's interesting because graduate work theory courses are nearly always survey courses unless under the "Special Topics" umbrella (a faculty member's interest) or.... if it's Schenkerian Analysis. And the traditional advanced undergraduate courses continue to go in depth into historical European practice with "Form and Analysis" and "Counterpoint." Fun facts here: because "Form and Analysis" is sometimes optional in a curriculum, most universities have it embedded into their music theory curriculum, making it redundant. "Counterpoint" is usually 16th or 18th century counterpoint, and if the latter, is singularly focused on J. S. Bach in many instances. The other standard course is some version of "20th Century Techniques," which is a survey course that often leans on serialism (with a glaring omission of jazz harmony). I bring this up because it would be refreshing to have a required in-depth study of a non-classical tradition for a semester of undergraduate studies, maybe something like an independent study where the students choose a path they are interested in and commit to learning everything they can about it over the semester. There might be a guide to make sure that the student is regarding the role of melody, harmony, rhythm, nuance, flow, structure, articulation and character, storytelling, timbre, production, evolution of style over history, etc., which has research checkpoints each week where the teacher gives feedback. The students come together and share their findings along the way. In-class time could be about broadening views on what music is and can be, focusing on each of the elements above. I would LOVE to teach that class.
Like you say, I really loved the deep dive into one style of music and how that has helped me learn how to appreciate the depth of other styles of music. It's a tricky question, and I do like your idea of multiple paths. Cal Arts does this, as does U Miami in a way, and I think Colorado State (or U of Colorado) has such a program (and there are several more too--probably 10-20 that are looking that direction). Smaller departments cannot handle such divisions to core classes because of how universities are set up unfortunately.
May I nerd out?
I'll be honest, my ideas above were how I negotiated with the curriculum I had. I inherited a three-semester theory core where NASM recommended to the department that 20th century music be cut for more time for 18th century theory. As a composer, I couldn't stand the idea. So, I tried to do everything possible to streamline the music theory core. I found the ideas of partimenti, simplified by the idea of harmonic paradigms in Laitz's book, as a shortcut to helping students learn voice leading and do analysis. We had a rough understanding of all types of chords by the third week of semester 2 along with phrase function, and then we trodged through the forms (sentence, period, binary, ternary, sonata, rondo) for half a semester. Admittedly, we could have spent more time on some form topics, but I don't think the nitty gritty has ever been useful to me. Then, we spent the last 3 weeks on blues and jazz (with review interspersed). This would have led into late Romantic ambiguity, 20th and 21st century techniques (classical), and theoretical ideas on popular music for about 2 weeks to end the semester. Oh, how that fourth semester would have been savored.
Now, what if we reframed theory and used different styles of music as case studies of more inclusive topics? For example, take structure, flow, character, mood, and surprise as five focal points. We go deep into the significance of each of these, and we demonstrate how each of these more universal attributes in music is valued and expressed in various styles of music. Perhaps an entire semester is on flow (or the perceived passage of time). There's a big focus on voice leading, but we also delve into how rhythm, timbre, and melody affect flow. Structure: yes, some classical forms but a more general look at how repetition, variation, contrast, and melodic "through lines" create order and excitement as desired. These topics also can have a psychological basis that is very hard to flesh out when stuck in 18th century mode. We might lose some of the details of one genre, but then we can replace "Form and Analysis" with "Advanced Tonal Harmony" so that students may choose to have that in-depth understanding. But the core curriculum would give them enough to pass any graduate entrance exam while allowing them to understand Music quite a bit better than before they entered in (and probably better than their older peers who didn't take such a class).
Happy to keep the conversation going... find me on Facebook.
You can omit the 5th on chords in this style same as jazz so your B7 chord at 19:00 is spelled out perfectly in the eyes of CollegeBoard. Generally it’s good practice to go from an incomplete (omitted 5th) to a complete chord (with 5th) or vice versa.
Source: AP Music Theory certified teacher
What an amazing channel and loved this walk through. Thank you!
I loved this video. Thanks for sharing your gift, Adam!
20:04 this kinda reminds me of my grad school computer science experience. What we were taught was very dated compared to what people are actually doing in the field. It was almost like learning computer science history. It sounds like a general issue with education where schools aren't up to date with the field.
Back when I was studying networking around 2015, I remember we had to learn some very old routing stuff, googled it to see if it was still relevant, and found a forum post asking the same question. The forum post was 15 years old!
The moment you make something the subject of a graduate degree, it starts to crystallize. This is not unique to music.
I am always bemused to find algorithms, datastructures, or concepts that debuted long after my education. For example, ICA is from 1984. I was still in school when k-d trees were invented (1975). Nearly all of computer graphics-Phong Shading appeared in 1973 as his thesis and in 1975 as a CACM paper. I was at Symbolics when Craig Reynolds developed the Boids flocking algorithm in 1986. Much of functional programming, such as applying category theory. Most networking concepts!
And that's just over the past half-century.
I often find the topics in a curriculum that may seem "outdated" or "irrelevant" are underappreciated for the indirect preparation that is gained by studying them. It's not so much the particular content (which, though possibly outdated, still shows logical connections to more immediate interests) which is the best takeaway, but rather the way it makes you think and generally the way it strengthens your brain which is the useful takeaway. Hence why CS undergrads study calculus they likely won't use, etc.
@@pwhqngl0evzeg7z37 Funny you should mention calculus & CS. As an MIT CS undergrad, and then as sponsored research staff for 4 years, I worked in the Macsyma symbolic algebra group. Macsyma is much better at calculus than I am, ever was, ever will be. For that matter, my wife and kids are, too.
But I think of processes in terms of differential equations. I've helped my wife understand the Navier-Stokes fluid equations for her Hollywood special effects. I found my then-teen daughter had found and written the Kendrick & McKormack SIR epidemiology equations on the board and knew immediately what they described. Any chance of me finding a closed-form integral for either? No way!
Closed-form solutions are available for only a tiny subset of problems! They are great and valuable, but in the real world, you'll generally need numerical methods. (Those have their own pitfalls of course).
I studied Counterpoint from composer John Harbison at MIT. I haven't written much if any counterpoint in the nearly 50 years since, but it still informs my music as much as any broader view of music theory I've learned since. I do wish I had learned more modern theory, but I took it because, well, I like Baroque music.
To my way of thinking, the only reason to object to learning something is when it displaces learning something more valuable.
Every teacher should continually ask themselves, "is this the best use of the student's time and attention?". And, of course, the student should ask the same.
I think it is really hard to make that case for figured bass. Voice leading and ear training both have a claim on a student's time and attention, to be weighed against a world of possibilities.
I remember studying university level musicology in Denmark some 13 years ago. In the "harmony" classes we had, 99% of it was this style of part-writing (only the "math-problem" side of it, no ear-training). Funnily enough, ONCE in the entire semester, we spent 5-10 minutes on jazz harmony. It was something like 4-part voicings through Blue Bossa, and we were told that all voices should move to the closest note in the next chord for smooth voice leading. Like that was all there was to learn about jazz harmony. It almost felt more insulting than if the course had just been entirely on 18th century part writing...
And that's also kind of wrong.
@@timothystamm3200 It's just one option out of many :)
@@SunePors1 I mean that teaching that as the only way is a gross oversimplification.
@@timothystamm3200 Agreed.
I'm really glad that I took the IB music course, it's one of the few music syllabi I've seen that lets you study music from everywhere from any point in history. In my school, because we were only 2 in the class, I got to decide what music I studied/analysed, meaning that I learned things I'm actually interested in.
What’s IB? Is that European?
@@potentialcaroozin2385 it's the international system
That’s really cool, what did you study?
@@kaitlyn__L so I chose to study a range of genres (leaning mainly towards recent times), from progressive metal to film music prepared pianos and even memes!
@@matankesselman456 that’s so cool! If I was given that chance I probably would’ve tried to study the overlap between jazz progressions and early-90s techno, acid, house etc if they’d let me. But they might’ve demanded something more general.
I do love film and video game soundtracks, it’s nice they didn’t say “film music isn’t real music” like so many still sadly do. I’ve always liked the prog I’ve heard, but never remember to seek out more of it. I definitely should.
you're great.... awesome insights as always
I’m thoroughly schooled in this stuff so, yeah, I didn’t have any problems with these examples. I absolutely agree that the term ‘music theory’ is a false label for the extremely narrow curriculum that’s taught in classical music schools. But it sure helped me understand a lot of the classical music I was playing (and loving) at that time - yes, taken from the narrow sample of the European and American canon. I didn’t follow a career in classical music but I did play a lot of jazz and I worked in theater as a music director, pianist, arranger and composer. I also arranged a very large book of swing, jazz, and pop tunes for a vocal quartet I worked with for over ten years. I broke all of the rules of part writing I had learned in school but those studies and, more significantly, counterpoint studies, were invaluable in creating those quartet arrangements and all of the music I wrote for theater. The value was not so much in the rules or the labels, but in learning voicing, voice leading, clarity, and sonority. In other words, that training had a profoundly positive impact on my career outside of classical music. Just sayin’.
Were the quartet arrangements for 3 Hits and a Miss?
I am terrible at harmonic dictation, fairly certain I failed that part of the exam, so seeing you just whip out both lines after two listens is just insane
Yeah it’s by far the hardest part, how th am I supposed to notice that there’s a seventh in an inner voice on a tiny ass 8th note passing chord lol
It's marked pretty generously, but that one has no tricks you just have to practice for hours
@@travo6805 because you would hear a second or seventh, a dissonance and there would also be 4 notes instead of 3.
@@travo6805 Because tritone.
3:45 Sorry to be that guy, but you missed a G ("fa") on the last measure.
Great video as always 👍🙏
I am just glad that I could follow/solve these questions with you. Thank god that I didn't forget everything! (Piano teacher here...)
I agree with you. I am reading about baroque music for my own sake but that's a real tiny part of the whole music world.
Thanks, Adam! 👍
I had to grind SUPER hard studying for this test but I pulled out a 5, which felt fantastic! Like 8/9+ years later though, I literally have forgotten like 80% of this stuff LOL
Sounds like high school lol. I took AP calc and I still understand some of the concepts but there's no way I could actually do any of that math hah
@@KhGoosey facts 😭
same - figured bass left my brain the second i finished that test
For everyone’s knowledge, I jus took the AP music theory exam 2 weeks ago. I felt pretty good about it. The reason In question 5 the alto and tenor parts are switched is because there is larger than an octave spacing between the tenor and alto in your answer which is to be avoided. Also parallel fifths/octaves do care about the quality, so the perfect fifth to diminished fifth is ok in AP’s book for question 4
I meant question 5 not 4
Good observation on the spacing. My objection to Adam's solution was the parallel fourths between the top voices. Not illegal, but certainly not recommended.
the alto/tenor also needed to be changed for voice leading, the leap wasn’t resolved by step in the opposite direction
19:12 It’s acceptable to omit the 5th in either the V7 or I chord in a V7-I progression because the voice leading does not work otherwise. If the progression were actually ii-V7-I, then what he did is okay
That's especially true if one has a melody that is on the third or seventh, but does something other than resolve to the root or third. In that case, it's better to double the melody note in a line that does resolve to the root or third than not have a note fulfilling that role.
You can ommit anything you want, as long as it doesnt violate the rules of harmony. But, If you ommit the 5th in a V7, it will weaken the dominant motion to I, since the dominant will be absent. This would also alter the chord and make it really more of a vii diminished, which again is a weaker resolution to I, unless intended on purpose for a compositional reason. Ommiting the 5th in I, in a V7 to I,
is possible, but not sure why again you would want to weaken the dominant motion to I, since the 5th is the V going to I. There are proper resolutions from V7-I. Not sure why the voice leading wouldn't work otherwise, which you mentioned in your comment?
@@composerinny2160 In a major key, the fifth of a V7 chord is the second scale degree of the underyling key, and would be halfway between the root and third of a following tonic chord. If the root is approached from below and the third is approached from above, having the fifth of the V7 chord sitting halfway between them doesn't cement the harmony nearly as much as the other notes in the chord.
@@composerinny2160 I mean the fifth of the chord, not the fifth of the key. And the problem with fully voicing V7-I is that after resolving scale degree 5 to 1 in the bass and resolving each functional dissonance, scale degree 2 must resolve to 5 which results in a parallel 5th with the bass.
@@travo6805 Ok so you are basically asking how to resolve the 5th in a V7 chord , the 2nd degree note, which in solfege is "Re"? If we are in C major, that 2nd degree note would be a D in the V7 chord. It does not resolve to 5! Why are are suggesting it resolves to the 5? The rule is that 2 (Re) resolves to the tonic, which is 1, or can resolve to the third, though then u would be doubling with the resolution of 4, which resolves to the third too. But essentially, the 2 resolves to 1, and not 5! There are contrapuntal rules that need to apply with resolutions.
So in a C major V7 chord, G in the bass resolves to 1. B natural resolves to 1. D, the 2nd resolves to 1, or 3 depends. And the F, the 4th, resolves to 3, which is E.
Haven't touch part writing in a long time. Had a lot of fun working out the chords along side you. 😎
I took 7 AP courses within my 4 years of high school. AP Music Theory was the only exam that I got a 5 on. Goes to show that I chose the right life path. And I eventually want to teach music theory--but I want to make it more diverse and not just the "18th century European" style. I don't know how I will make that happen, but I'm here to learn.
When I went to college for Music Tech, they had everyone going for a Music degree take 4 semesters of music theory. The first 3 were about 18th century European music, but the 4th semester differed.
The 4th semester covered 20th century experimental music, and didn't even touch upon 18th century European music aside from the 1st week.
I personally believe that learning what this Music Theory AP exam tests for is valuable to learn (if only as an introduction into music, to learn the language so to speak) especially the aural portion of the exam, but it definitely isn't the "end all, be all" of music.
Maybe teach a more general harmonic concept, but use the terminology of 18th century music when it makes sense. Use the terminology of Broadway or Nashville or New Orleans when that makes more sense. Show how all these traditions emerged in parallel and somewhat in response to one another, and how they very frequently are putting different names to the same concepts that the student only needs to wrap their head around once rather than twice. I64 vs. second inversion tonic vs. C/G vs. I/V: they all carry the same information, minus the genre-specific things you just have to pick up by experience.
It's interesting how much this reminds me of the math exam I had when I was trying to get into an engineering degree. What's more interesting is that the math exam only cared about the answer, not how you got there, so you could totally BS the geometry section by just plotting out the described shapes and measuring whatever it is you're supposed to calculate. So, in a way, the math exam for a goddamn engineering degree allowed for more freedom and creativity than this shit.
Great idea for a video! Loved it!
Thanks! It was a helpful refreshment! 🖤
14:40 Yes, perfect 5ths to diminished 5ths are usually allowed...just so long as you don't enjoy yourself while doing it. I thought your harmonic analysis was fine but I would've dinged you for the spacing: The inner voices in their realization keep within the range of an octave where yours spreads the alto and tenor further apart than would be conventional.
You can go p5 to d5
For voice leading, it’s not parallel fifths :)
Source: I took apmt this year
In German we say: "rein vermindert, ungehindert. Vermindert rein, das lass sein." Which basically means from pure to diminished is fine but not the other way round.
They're called "un-equal fifths"
@@alexanderschuhmann5193 I was searching for this sentence and I was not disappointed :D
Watching Adam work through that Figured Bass section takes me back to when I first watched Adam Neely and didn't know much theory.
Wow, it all sounds so confusing.
I am very thankful of the "Archaic" notation system that is figured Base. It's helped me see a lot of patterns in music you don't really see using jazz notation, which is the other notation system that I'm familiar with.
In my college theory class this last year, we would notate pieces in both figured bass and jazz notation. this showed how modulated keys were connected by revealing common chords between keys
been taking AP music theory this past school year and it honestly hasn’t been as interesting as learning about music from places like your channel. talking about figured bass for several months isn’t as useful as seeing all the diverse musicing that can be done on UA-cam
AP Music Theory is basically a college level introduction course so it's going to be some really basic stuff. You gotta start somewhere.
Learning figured bass and the counterpoint that comes with it is actually super useful, it comes up more than you’d think just in terms of having better aural and compositional skills
True, my teacher taught it pretty well though and it was easy because of Adam's videos
I took a minor in this style of music theory and some stuff i still use while composing. Things like omitting the third when the third is in the bass.
I've taught AP theory for a while, though I taught them through counterpoint. Figured bass is really a crucial aspect in attaining understanding in beggining theory for students, where it only gets more complicated. Its not a lost art, and remains an important aspect of understanding tonality, which makes understanding things a bit simpler. If you learn figured bass through counterpoint, rather than just choral procedures, than it makes things much easier to understand. I understand that most of this is not easy at first, but it can be really interesting if someone is really looking to learn the language to compose properly, especially classical music.
Even in classical music I can hardly think of an application of 4-voice writing from figured bass. Performing continuo on harpsichord from figured bass, sure, done that. But 4-voice writing from figured bass? Silly and useless. PS can't say I find those parallel fourths you have in Question 5 terribly pretty. The official solution is considerably more elegant.
I mean, it's not testing the actual skill, but two separate skills at once: do you know your figured bass numbers well (useful for labeling analyses, although not THAT useful) and do you know your four part writing rules.
@@loganstrong5426 Yes, it tests four part writing. Except that one usually starts from the melody. But if you absolutely need to test realizing from figured bass, you could give a violin melody and ask to write a right hand that does not clash.
It’s not about learning the specific skill (4 part writing from figured bass), but a formalized way of practicing a general skill (attention to multiple layers of individual voice movement and to compositional strictures).
Yeah at this point it’s an extremely specific skill that only becomes practical for continuo players in baroque HIP. Once a performer decides to specialize in that, sure, learn it. It can also be useful as a foundation for idiomatic classical-style improvisation, but again that’s a tiny niche. But FB just doesn’t have any meaningful foundational/theoretical utility for the vast majority of composers or performers. We have better and more flexible methods to teach the same concepts. It’s just bizarre and asinine to focus so heavily on teaching this one ancient corner of music theory.
4 voice writing from figured bass is useless? Seriously? It's ment for practice reasons and it teaches you to understand how the voice direction, "stimmführung" works. So basically for you any composition of a choral in early style, or masses, etc are useless.
The number one thing I got from taking AP music theory was developing my ear to get pretty good relative pitch and also the short term melody recall you mentioned. All that stuff about figured bass and voice leading (which we practiced a lot of in class) flew out the window by the next year lol
Definitely coming back to this video next year when I take the AP music theory exam!
I took AP Music Theory as a senior in high school and didn't do very well. At the time I had only played the flute and had a few years of singing in the choir, in which we did some fairly advanced material. I'm sure some of my choir experience, combined with what I knew of traditional church music at that time, helped me somewhat. But I definitely think that pianists with some theory knowledge have a clear advantage for this test because they will be able to see the chord relationships and inversions much more clearly (and faster) than non-pianists just from playing (and paying attention to what they are playing.)
Many concepts ARE useful, especially dictation, because it enables quicker learning/memorization of music and better analysis in listening. Some "rules" do have a functional basis, like not having lines apart by more than a 10th (so the pianist can play them, and even a 10th is challenging depending on hand size). But things like figured bass seem like only an academic exercise and only relevant to learning and analysis to a small part of music. 12th Grade Me says: Isn't figured bass obsolete? We have Finale now, so why can't we just write out all the parts, without guessing?
I thought I'd totally bombed the test, and it turned out I did better than I thought, but still not well. I wish now I could go back and see what I did wrongly. But I was frustrated enough by the class (and lack of interest in flute at the time) that I decided to study design in college instead, thinking I wasn't able to "hack it" as a music major at the college level if I was struggling with this course. It didn't even occur to me that I was studying concepts for the first year of college. The A in AP stands for "advanced", and if I had been thinking more positively, I would have seen it as an opportunity to get a head start on college-level theory. By not doing well, it just would have meant I would have had to redo it freshman year of college (if I had majored in music).
Some of my struggle with AP Music Theory was a lack of preparation and time to devote to it. I also took two other AP classes that year. This was the first year the AP Music Theory class was offered in my school. Also, our choir was invited to sing overseas that same year AND we were singing an eight-part work that was commissioned for our choir (written by one of our other teachers who loved Bartok and Penderecki). Those last two experiences alone had more practical impact on me as a musician. So maybe I should have not been so hard on myself at that time, considering I already thought I was behind musically at that age. Or this is the excuse I'll be sticking to the rest of my life. :) Since then, I taught myself guitar, bass guitar, and keyboards; I took drum lessons for a few months as well.
I recently was accepted into a program to study music at a university online. In anticipation of that, I've been reviewing the things I learned for AP Music Theory so I can be better prepared. I've been reading the textbooks Materials and Structure of Music (3rd edition, volumes I and II)*. Just reading it has helped me immensely. I wished I had it when I was taking AP Music and I highly recommend it. It's the clearest book I've read so far on this type of analysis. I think why it worked for me is that it presents both the elements of form alongside harmony concepts in a progressive (building) manner. It's out of print as far as I can tell, and I don't believe there was a later edition of it. However, it's fairly easy to find used on Amazon and is not expensive. There are plenty of exercises at the end of each chapter, so the companion workbook is not needed. But you will get the most out of it if you have a little experience with sight-singing, the circle of fifths (the chart from The Chord Wheel book is extremely helpful but not that book itself), and basic chords and inversions on piano.
*Note: The copy I got for volume II also came with a small booklet inside with errata for pages 86-93 on the topic of the half-diminshed seventh chord.
Figured bass has its uses in church music (if you play a keyboard instrument), especially if you're improvising or learning to improvise. I've personally found it useful for quickly jotting down an idea when I don't have Finale easily accessible as well.
This video is bringing back a lot of high school/college music theory test trauma, thanks Adam
You're so awesome man, HUGE fan of yours!!
I took this quiz last year in my highschool AP Music Theory Class as my FINAL and watching you absolutely DESTROY the first two questions that gave me so much trouble is so impressive.
well done
8:41 So, Ed Gordon has a term for that called Audiation. It's actually how a lot of teachers, myself included are starting to teach music and is based around a TON of research which got put into a thing called Music Learning Theory. Just taking the grad school courses to learn it has aided my audiation in ridiculous ways, and now I've got kindergartners and first graders who can aurally tell me what a chord progression is doing and label it as major/minor AND label it in duple or triple. Some even by second grade are able to identify the different modes and the characteristic chords that go along with them. It's pretty wild stuff happening in music ed these days.
Can you tell me more? I am nearly incapable of identifying chords.
Man all we did at that age was badly honk Hot Cross Buns on the recorder, and get told about 'Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit' or whatever. It wasn't til like 15 years later that I realised the notes on the staff are just in alphabetical order. But they never told us that, too busy getting us to memorise silly acronyms for the specific notes on the lines or gaps.
This. Yes. I taught a 6 year old to identify major, minor, suspended, major 7th, minor 7th, and diminished chords by ear and he just had fun with it like it was no big deal to him, it's amazing what people are capable of when you keep the focus rooted in listening and identifying sonic characteristics rather than describing theoretical concepts and forcing memorization of the functions of concepts before you can audiate them or even recognize them when they're played for you
Fascinating, and exciting. I took a similar approach with my younglings, but to art, encouraging them to look and see colour, shape and relationships. Both went on to take Art at A-level, despite being basically scientists. I wish someone had given me that grounding in music, my whole career might have been different!
Anywhere to learn this way online?
I have a BA in music from back in 1996, and I surprised myself by remembering all the figured bass stuff, and basically aced it as I "played along". For the ear training/transcription stuff, it's hard to say how well I can do it now, probably not great, but that part of the test was exactly like the stuff we did daily in the music skills courses. This was UC Berkeley in 1995-1996.
I don't have a background in music theory at all, but watched the whole video. What struck me is at 20:53 I felt like a perceived a shift in the energy of the video--when you start to talk about how much bigger music theory is, and how there are so many different ways of relating to musical experience, your passion comes through and I get excited with you. all the AP stuff before, interesting intellectually, but drier.
Cheers for making videos, and that you kept doing so for 15 years and stuck around!
Great video on the AP test. I had to teach a classical theory/figured bass course at a music college for one semester and since I am a Berklee alum (where jazz theory is the norm) I had to brush up heavily to prepare myself. I can honestly say I've forgotten half of it again because it's so specific and rarely if ever seen in the modern profession. It was also very challenging to keep a straight face when telling students parallel 5ths are a big no-no! :)
I agree, the AP test's heavy emphasis on figured bass is puzzling - akin to testing an auto mechanic on the inner workings of a hand crank starter
I'm thankful for my AP Music Theory class back in 2013. Not because I retained figured bass or even passed the test, but because I had an amazing teacher who went on tangents to talk about music history, film scoring, and other things not expressed in the one size fits none curriculum.
You had a tri-tone between the C and F# in your V42 chord at 14:50. I know that they would take points off for that too.
it resolves outwards in the next chord which is common practice. within a dominant 7th chord, there will always be a tritone between the 3rd and 7th.
This is a great video, thanks!
This was so fun to test my knowledge too! Someone definitely already answered this I assume, but in question 5, they call that "similar 5ths" and they're usually allowed but cautioned against because they sometimes lead to parallel fifths if that motion continues. Also, the reason they had the tenor and alto voices switched is because you don't want your inner voices to be more than an octave apart! But you crushed it, especially since (like you said) this knowledge is somewhat unnecessarily specific lol
In some ways, this type of theory instruction is like learning cursive. We can (rightly) debate the direct usefulness of the exact skill in most contexts... but it can still be useful instruction because of the collection of peripheral skills it trains at the same time (such as fine motor control, spelling, and word/sentence formation). It's not that the skill is The Best, but that it gives an efficient packaging for teaching/assessing several things at once.
Part writing from figured bass, then providing chord symbols:
1. Correctly identifying the members of various chords in tertian harmony
2. Writing "singable" parts with sensible voice leading
3. Sorting out the *function* of each of the chords in context
4. Avoiding voice leading features that can overshadow the harmonic function (like parallel fifths or doubled leading tones, which can draw focus)
That said, it's still given too much weight. It means a huge portion of the test isn't dealing with music as sound, but rather as algorithm. Which also means a disproportionate amount of instruction is focused on teaching the task, to the exclusion of other content.
The part I have the most trouble with is the attempt to *specifically* exclude elements of "pop chord" designations (to "weed out" jazzers?). Needlessly prescriptive. Basically a musical shibboleth.
With this test, the first 4 questions or so (those dealing with listening to music and writing what was heard) was by far more essential to musicians and composers. Since aural skills can be applied anywhere and everywhere. The latter parts of the test were all testing knowledge of a rather specific time period and region of music. Not quite as useful as the aural skills.
All this to say, I do agree with you. This test (specifically the knowledge needed to pass it) is a good basis and introduction into the music world and its language. But it is nowhere near comprehensive enough to be THE music theory exam. Music is an art at the end of the day, and this exam treats more like math than art.
Sure, the music theory exam is easy to grade and is even satisfying to listen to (music created from this specific set of music theory that is), but it feels like it's obeying the letter of the law, but not the spirit of the law.
It's not really necessary to use cursive to learn any one of fine motor control, spelling and word/sentence formation though. Unless "cursive" and "writing by hand in general" got mixed up in here?
Jazz chords tend to be more complex and open to interpretation, which may be why they’re excluded from this course
@@wonderstruck. Often, the notation also doesn't necessarily indicate a "function" of harmonic movement, also. So, I get not *only* using chord symbols.
But the "if the sharp appears before the roman numeral, award no credit" is the part that bugged me more. You're using notation that indicates function, but ONE element of a different representation got in there... so "all wrong?"
@@Copperhell144 Cursive goes a bit further in a lot of these for a few reasons:
1. Because you're not picking up the pencil, you're maintaining that fine motor control in longer sequences.
2. Because the word is a "single" movement, you're required to visualize the word a bit more to ensure good spacing.
3. Because of the continuity, you also can't pause or go back in the middle of a word. You either get the word right, or you're most likely going to erase and start the whole thing over.
It's not that it's the best or only way to learn, but there are "hidden" benefits to it that amplify some of what you can get from simple handwriting, which is one of the reasons it has persisted and made comebacks beyond the "it's tradition!" folks
13:02
Yes, you can go from a perfect 5th to a diminished 5th, even between outer voices, as long as the diminished 5th resolves properly. You cannot go from a diminished 5th to a perfect 5th.
THANK YOU!!! I’m taking the course this upcoming school year.
I subscribed just from your ability alone. Thanks for the CRAZY memories of figured bass.
You’ve got an old video where you harmonize the lick as a sax soli which is basically a part writing tutorial, and I’ve found that very helpful! Far more helpful than all the archaic figured bass notation anyways.
So I'm not sure how well my written comment will make sense but for me I have a few things that I would like to note.
(1) AP Music Theory generally only covers the first 2 courses in a colleges Music Theory Curriculum. Like Many AP courses It is basically an entry level college course on the topic.
(2) At least for me, learning the rules of 18th century voice-leading was INCREDIBLY helpful for when I started dipping my toes into Jazz Music and chord charts. In my Music Theory courses we actually Analyzed Giant Steps using a Roman Numeral Harmonic analysis (this was my 3rd semester in my schools curricula) and it was super helpful to see the relationships between chords and the constantly shifting key centers.
(3) Learning the guiding principals of said voice leading was probably the most helpful thing for me when it came to learning general voice leading. (For example: You avoid parallel 5ths or 8th or 4ths because it can diminish an individual line and make two lines of voices sound like one.)
(4) While I am certain there are Elitists out there who would argue that this is the only real music, Every Music professor I've ever had has been incredibly excited to show their class how this evolved into different styles of Western music. My Second theory teacher had us do a Macro analysis(Basically Identify what each chord was and add slurs to show downward 5th relationships and dashed slurs for diminished chord resolutions) and a roman numeral analysis which paved an excellent two fold system that prepared us to cover Jazz music. We learned the relationship of and their inversions then when he changed to ask us do complete analysis using more conventional Jazz Analysis, we were ready for this change.
All in all, While I understand the dissatisfaction with the name, I am still very thankful for all the skills it brought and it makes sense to me why this is usually the starting point for later classes. To me Roman Numeral Analysis with figured bass is much easier than standard Jazz analysis and can be used to Bridge someone into the world of Jazz as a stepping stone.
Cool video! Shows that the music theory schools teach is often pretty far-removed from the music people are playing and listening to, but it also shows that with experience, you can use whatever knowledge of music you have to get by even in situations you aren't necessarily totally comfortable in!
Watching you convert the figured bass to chords as you go is fascinating. I took music theory I in high school in prep for AP music theory (which I never got around to) and did a bunch of this sort of stuff through college too, and I learned just to follow the numbers. It's cool because it's two different ways of thinking about the music, one emphasizes the chords and how they move while the other emphasizes how the voices move. In 18th century harmony the chords are less important than the voice leading so the chords become an afterthought when doing a voice leading exercise, while in jazz theory (as far as I understand) the emphasis shifts to the chords and the voice leading becomes less important. It's really cool getting to see the two schools of thought "clash" like they do in your video here.
I wanted to go to music school to learn "Music" and "Music Theory" and there were a couple of years where I have fallen into the trap of "Right and Wrong" Musicking but thankfully I was also watching your videos like A LOT during my music school times and also 12tones and others. So that helped me approach music and music school with a whole different attitude. Music school is such a great aid if you're going about it with the right mindset meaning I go to learn one form of musical language. So I owe you and all the other great Creators here on youtube a huge Thank You. My understanding and appreciation of music would have been much much much weaker if it weren't for you guys.
14:02 Some composers avoided unequal fifths when the bass was one of the voices involved, and some other composers avoided them when it was dim5 to P5 but not when it’s P5 to dim 5
In either case, the voice leading here is acceptable
In SATB 4-part writing, the interval between soprano and alto or alto and tenor should not exceed an octave. The easy solution is to write tenor parts above the bass clef staff more often than not.
Those dictation questions were giving me flashbacks to our weekly aural skills tests in college! I was so bad at hearing chords that I would just listen to the bass and logic my way to figuring out the right chords.
But partwriting…I agree, those were fun puzzles! I should have paused the video and played along!
took this exam in 2021, really a good class to take if you’re going into music in college… a lot of my understanding of basic CLASSICAL theory came from this class. i’m currently doing research on the diversity of music theory and why we hone in around classical music so much and what we can do broaden these horizons
Cool Episode! Never heard of that test before. I just found that one mistake and couldnt stop telling you. Its a G instead of an f in bar 4 of question 2. ( 3:38 )
Thanks! I scrolled for a long way down to find someone else who saw that!
@@Snowspader Lul, me too but it wasnt sucessfull ;D
It would be really cool with a video going over the differences in lingo from academic music and working musicians. Like a translation and guide on how music is more commonly communicated. Love your videos btw :)
I'm not very well versed in music theory, but I thought about this since you gave the fingered bass names and the actual chords (like G/Cmin) and I was wondering if you'd normally call that chords a G/Cmin or have another name that relates it to the key in normal terminology.
love your work Adam! just noticed on question 2. bar 4 the 2nd note was a tone above what you wrote :D you are human after all.
💗🙊 Perfect. Thank you for that Adam.
Wow! I really enjoyed taking this test with you! I have a degree in music theory from 1971, and was involved in professional commercial music during the 1970's - 80's. I haven't used my formal figured bass knowledge since college, so this brought back (uncomfortable) memories. The transcription part was easy for me, as I specialized in writing lead sheets (takedown) for copyright and session work in Hollywood. It took me an average of about an hour & a half to write a typical lead sheet (melody, harmony, rhythm) from first hearing it to a 2-page PEN & INK final! (Fastest was country or rock; jazz took the most time; and down-home blues was almost impossible to notate.) I even built some of the equipment to make playback of tapes easier: pitch changers, repeat functions -- tools that are much better now, with digital. Thanks again for making this video!
I didn't study much in high school but still made a 5 on the AP exam. It covered about 2 semesters worth of theory class in college, but I only got credit for 1.
Also, you can omit the 5th
Ayyy! This brings back memories. Took AP music theory as a senior and got a 3 on the exam. I was really really proud of myself at the time, as I’m a really horrible test taker.
Well done Adam! It's not easy to go back to this after years of working in the business. I did the ABRSM G8 recently (got a distinction, woohoo!) But I certainly had to study a bit. On the 7th chord inversions, I have a way to remember it. It goes down numerically. 65 is 1st inversion, then it goes 43, 42. If in doubt, count the intervals from the bass and it becomes clearer. Also, the parallel 5ths thing is really parallel perfect 5ths as you said. Well done on this video, awesome!
14:32 the reason they had a different alto/tenor line is because of voice leading technique, you’re supposed to resolve leaps by step in the opposite direction. appogiatura!!! i was decent at the figured bass on this year’s exam but damn the rest was hard, especially the pacing.
haven't seen the full video yet but it looks like you got it wrong at 3:38, you missed the g in the last bar. sorry if you pointed this out later i havent seen it yet
As a senior in uni just finishing up advanced music theory, I am very familiar with this stuff. Thankfully, our prof was a cool guy so we did diverge from the traditional music in the curriculum every once in a while. Really cool
Oh, good lord, you did so much better than I would have with this. I was a whiz at figured bass and classical voice-leading when I studied the old Gradus ad Parnassum stuff at university, but that was back in the late 1970s. As soon as I finished my composition/orchestration courses, I promptly forgot all the theory and just basically wrote what sounded good in my head. You can hear some of my stuff on my channel.