AP Music Theory (College Board): complete guide to the eight units, the written and aural skills, and the exam
A complete guide to College Board AP Music Theory. Covers the eight units (from music fundamentals to modes and form), the written and aural skills that run through the course, how Section I (multiple choice) and Section II (free response, including sight-singing) work, the notation and part-writing demands, and how to study each unit for a 5.
College Board AP Music Theory is designed to be the equivalent of a one-semester, introductory college course in music theory and musicianship. The course threads two skill strands, written (non-aural) and aural, through eight units, and the exam tests both: reading and writing notation, analyzing harmony, and hearing, transcribing and singing music. This page is the index: below is a map of the eight units, the exam structure, and how to study each one. This guide covers all eight units, from music fundamentals through to modes and form.
The eight AP Music Theory units
The College Board organizes the content into eight units. The course builds cumulatively, so the fundamentals in Units 1 to 3 are assumed by the harmony and voice-leading work in Units 4 to 7.
Unit 1 Music Fundamentals I (Pitch, Major Scales and Key Signatures, Rhythm, Meter, and Expressive Elements). Pitch and pitch notation, rhythmic values, half and whole steps, major scales and scale degrees, major keys and key signatures, simple and compound beat division, meter and time signature, rhythmic patterns, tempo, and dynamics and articulation.
Unit 2 Music Fundamentals II (Minor Scales and Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre, and Texture). Minor scales and key signatures, relative and parallel keys, the three forms of minor, key relationships, other scales and modes, intervals (size, quality and inversion), transposition, timbre, and melodic and harmonic texture.
Unit 3 Music Fundamentals III (Triads and Seventh Chords). Building and identifying triads and seventh chords, chord qualities, inversions and figured-bass symbols, and Roman numeral analysis of chords within a key.
Unit 4 Harmony and Voice Leading I (Chord Function, Cadence, and Phrase). Soprano-bass counterpoint, the tonic and dominant functions, cadences, and the structure of phrases and periods.
Unit 5 Harmony and Voice Leading II (Chord Progressions and Predominant Function). Voice leading with seventh chords, predominant chords, the cadential six-four, and harmonising a melody.
Unit 6 Harmony and Voice Leading III (Embellishments, Motives, and Melodic Devices). Non-chord tones (passing tones, neighbor tones, suspensions and more), motivic transformation, and melodic embellishment.
Unit 7 Harmony and Voice Leading IV (Secondary Function). Tonicization and modulation, secondary dominant and secondary leading-tone chords, and analyzing music that moves outside the home key.
Unit 8 Modes and Form. The diatonic modes, common formal structures (such as binary and rounded binary), and analyzing how a piece is organized.
Exam structure
The AP Music Theory exam is about 2 hours 40 minutes and has two sections. Recorded excerpts are played for the aural questions and for dictation, and the two sight-singing tasks are recorded by the student.
- Section I, multiple choice - 75 questions, 1 hour 20 minutes, 45 percent. Aural questions built on recorded excerpts (hearing intervals, chord qualities and errors) and non-aural questions that read printed notation (identifying pitches, scales, keys, intervals, chords and Roman numerals).
- Section II, free response - about 1 hour 20 minutes, 55 percent. Notated free-response questions (melodic dictation, harmonic dictation, part-writing from figured bass, part-writing from Roman numerals, and composing a melody over a given bass) plus two sight-singing tasks recorded by the student.
The free-response questions reward correct notation, correct voice leading, and accurate transcription and singing, so the exam tests the page and the ear together.
How to study AP Music Theory
AP Music Theory rewards fluent notation reading, secure aural skills, and disciplined voice leading.
- Work from the Course and Exam Description. Each topic (for example 1.4 Major Scales and Scale Degrees) maps to specific learning objectives and essential knowledge statements that exam questions are written from.
- Pair every written skill with its aural twin. When you learn to spell an interval, also learn to hear and sing it; when you learn a cadence, learn to recognize it by ear.
- Drill the fundamentals until automatic. Key signatures, scale degrees, interval qualities and chord qualities recur in every later unit, so slow recall costs time on the exam.
- Practice dictation and sight-singing little and often. Use movable-do solfege or scale-degree numbers, keep a steady pulse, and record yourself singing so you can check pitch and rhythm.
- Memorize the voice-leading rules. The part-writing free-response questions are scored against fixed rules (no parallel fifths or octaves, resolve the leading tone and chordal sevenths, keep a singable range), so internalise them early.
The units, topic by topic
Each topic has a Course-and-Exam-Description-level answer page with worked exam questions and cross-links, plus an overview guide and quiz. Browse the set at /ap/music-theory/syllabus. The fundamentals in Unit 1 are detailed below, and the harmony and voice-leading sequence runs from Unit 3 through Unit 8:
- Unit 1: pitch and pitch notation, rhythmic values, half steps and whole steps, major scales and scale degrees, major keys and key signatures, simple and compound beat division, meter and time signature, rhythmic patterns, tempo, dynamics and articulation.
- Unit 3 (Triads and Seventh Chords): triads, triad inversions and figured bass, seventh chords, seventh chord inversions and figures, Roman numerals and SATB.
- Unit 4 (Chord Function, Cadence, and Phrase): soprano-bass counterpoint, SATB voice leading, harmonic progression, functional harmony and cadences, voice leading with seventh chords, voice leading with seventh chords in inversions.
- Unit 5 (Chord Progressions and Predominant Function): adding predominant function (IV and ii), the vi (VI) chord, predominant seventh chords, the iii (III) chord, cadences and predominant function, cadential 6/4 chords, additional 6/4 chords.
- Unit 6 (Embellishments, Motives, and Melodic Devices): identifying passing tones and neighbor tones, writing passing tones and neighbor tones, anticipations, escape tones, appoggiaturas and pedal points, suspensions and retardations.
- Unit 7 (Secondary Function): tonicization through secondary dominant chords, part writing of secondary dominant chords, tonicization through secondary leading-tone chords, part writing of secondary leading-tone chords.
- Unit 8 (Modes and Form): modes, phrase relationships and motivic transformation, melodic and harmonic sequence, binary and ternary form, other common formal structures.
Exam-technique guide and quiz
Beyond the topic pages, work through the exam-technique deep dive and its paired quiz:
For the official Course and Exam Description
The College Board publishes the full Course and Exam Description, released free-response questions, scoring guidelines and sight-singing examples at apcentral.collegeboard.org. Always study from the current Course and Exam Description and the College Board's own released exams, because question style and the aural and sight-singing tasks are board-specific.
Music Theory guides
In-depth written guides with paired practice quizzes.
Music Theory practice quizzes
Multiple-choice drills with worked answer explanations. Your scores stay on this device.
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