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Advanced Placement Music Theory

Download Instructions Each of these is an mp3 file. Mac users can simply double click on a link, download to their desktop and play these with quick time or itunes. PC users should Right Click, then choose "save target as..." Real player will work fine...we hope.

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After downloading the example (each file is approx. 300K and should load fairly quickly), follow these steps.

• Determine the clef, key (mode) and meter you think works. (It is not all that important that you choose the absolute key that the melody is presented in...a competent transcriber should be able to render the melody in any key! The meter, on the other hand, is restricted to a few logical options in most cases, but above all, the meter must allow for an accurate rhythmic realization of the melody.
  
• Set up your staff, complete with bar lines...avoid more than 4 measures system.
  
• Listen to the melody once again, remembering as much as possible.
  
• Begin transcribing.
  
• Each time you must play the melody back, remember as much as possible. Try for a maximum of 4 playings, with no more than 1 minute between each.
  Before students hear each melody, it is important that they make note of the clef, key signature, and time signature that are provided.
  
  

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  Here are recommendations , suggested by graders of the exam, which may also be helpful:
  
• Some students find it helpful to use the first playing of the melody to gain an overall sense of its contour, to make note of chromatic alterations that may occur, and to focus their listening so that they can remember the melody and repeat it to themselves as needed through inner hearing.
  
• In subsequent listenings, students may wish to focus on notating specific details of each measure.
  
• Some students find it useful to notate rhythms first and then supply pitches.
  
• Other students may focus on outlining key melodic notes of the melody, or notating short parts of the melody measure-by-measure.
  
• In the final version of their response, students should be sure that all of the notation they have provided is technically correct (each measure has the correct number of beats and the notes are beamed together correctly), and that pitches are clearly centered in lines or spaces.
  
• In all written free-response questions, pitches that are written both in a line and a space, or which are illegible, are scored as incorrect.

  Errors that students often make on melodic dictation are:

  • 1. omitting dots on dotted notes,

    2. drawing note heads but failing to add appropriate rhythmic information, such as note stems and beams, and

    3. placing a note on both a line and in a space.