Can I pass an AP Music Theory Exam?
Added 2022-05-26 17:57:57 +0000 UTCAP Music Theory's final exam is...hard? Kinda weird? Kinda...not music theory really?
This video was kinda baffling for me, because the practice exam I took tests SOME important skills musicians used (like melodic and harmonic dictation), but then spends a huge amount of time on 4-part voice leading from figured bass, which exactly NO professionals musicians EVER USE.
(this is just me being slightly bitter for getting some points off, lol)
Sorry the posts have been far and few between, currently touring the West Coast! Trying to balance videos and music making was always hard, but especially now that live music has taken over a big part of my life. I have someone helping with edits now, which is good (shoutout to Liz Maney!), so editing won't be the insane slog it normally is. Very excited for that!
Comments
That said, I agree 100% with everything you said about what "Music Theory" is vs. what music schools emphasize or leave out (which of course comes back to assumptions and attitudes about what "music" is, and cultural supremacy and whatnot).
Jason Wells-Jensen
2022-05-26 22:17:25 +0000 UTCSomething else I don't think you mentioned about the part-writing around 14:30 is that your middle voices ended up more than an octave apart, with the tenor and bass unusually close together. All else being equal, that sonority would tend to come out a little muddier than the "correct" one. (Which strikes me as one of the more generalizable part-writing guidelines outside of 18th-century Europe, actually). Also there are parallel 4ths there (not as "bad" as parallel fifths, but avoidable) in the upper voices.
Jason Wells-Jensen
2022-05-26 22:01:48 +0000 UTCThanks for sharing! Your thoughts about ear training resonate. I took one year of music school and found the ear training most valuable.
Girin Guha
2022-05-26 19:46:02 +0000 UTC
