Certificated Teacher: Desired Results: Music Theory Fundamentals/AP Music Theory Syllabus School Year: 2014-2015 Course Title : Music Theory Fundamentals/AP Music Theory Credit: one semester (.5) X two semesters (1.0) Prerequisites and/or recommended preparation: Fluency in reading rhythm and pitch notation in both treble and bass clefs. These concepts are presented in the first two units; AP students may complete and submit the assignments to test out of these units. Estimate of hours per week engaged in learning activities: 5 hours of class work per week per 18 week semester Instructional Materials: All learning activities (resources, assignments, assessments) are contained within or referenced in the student s online course. The online course is accessed via login and password assigned by student s school (web account) or emailed directly to student upon enrollment, with the login website. Other resources required/resource Costs: Finale Notepad software available free from www.finalemusic.com Audacity audio editing/recording software free download from www.audacity.sourceforge.net Free online lessons and trainers in Music Theory www.musictheory.net and www.teoria.com Course Description: This course is designed to provide instruction and preparation at the advanced level required for successful completion of the AP Music Theory Exam, including music literacy (musical notation and terminology), aural skills (sight singing and dictation), form and analysis, and composition. Enduring Understandings for Course (Performance Objectives): Music theory encompasses a logical, accessible, and useful language for documenting sound. Music literacy enables individuals to enjoy independently performing and/or creating music. Music theory explains what musicians and composers have done in the past and why it works, but it doesn't dictate what current musicians and composers have to do.
Major scales, minor scales, and modes are constructed using patterns of whole and half steps. They serve as the foundation upon which melody and harmonization are built. Music theory enables individuals to create original compositions and document them in a way that can be understood and interpreted by others. Music theory in western civilization is best understood as a set of rules that have been gradually and systematically broken as music has evolved. Course Learning Goals (including WA State Standards, Common Core Standards, National Standards): Unit: 1 (Fundamentals) Rhythm Notation Content Standards: GLE 1.1.1 Demonstrate musical skills and techniques while working towards independence: reading music, performing, sight reading, conducting. Read and write rhythmic notation. AP Standard: Instill mastery of the rudiments and terminology of music, including hearing and notating rhythm and meter. Unit: 2 (Fundamentals) Pitch Notation Content Standards: GLE 1.1.2 Demonstrate musical skills and techniques while working towards independence: reading music, performing, sight reading, conducting. Read and write pitch notation. AP Standard: Instill mastery of the rudiments and terminology of music, including hearing and notating pitches. Unit: 3 Scales, Tonality, Keys, Modes Content Standards: GLE 1.1.2 Construct major and minor scales, modes, and key signatures. Recognize them by sight and sound. Sight sing major and minor scales. AP Standard: Instill mastery of the rudiments and terminology of music, including hearing and notating scales, modes, and keys. Unit: 4 Intervals and Transposition Content Standards: GLE 1.1.3 Visually and aurally identify and construct Major, minor, Perfect, Augmented, and diminished intervals and their inversions. Use an intervallic approach to transpose a short composition. AP Standard: Instill mastery of the rudiments and terminology of music, including hearing and notating intervals. Unit: 5 Chords Content Standards: GLE 1.1.3 Visually and aurally identify and construct Major, minor, Augmented, and diminished triads and their inversions. Use Roman numerals and figured bass to analyze chords and chord progressions. Write chord progressions using popular music symbols. AP Standard: Instill mastery of the rudiments and terminology of music, including hearing and notating chords. Progress to include more sophisticated and creative tasks, such as realization of a Roman numeral chord progression.
Unit: 6 Cadences and Nonharmonic Tones Content Standards: GLE 1.1.3 Visually and aurally identify and label cadences by type. Analyze chord progressions including non-harmonic tones. AP Standard: emphasize aural and visual identification of procedures based in common-practice tonality for cadences and non-harmonic tones. Unit: 7 Species Counterpoint and 4-Part Voice Leading Content Standards: GLE.2.1 Writing first, second, third, and fourth species counterpoint with appropriate voice leading. Four-part realization of Roman numeral chord symbols and figured bass. Compose a soprano melody above a bass line. AP Standard: Progress to include more sophisticated and creative tasks, such as composition of a bass line for a given melody, implying appropriate harmony, and realization of a figured bass. Unit: 8 Harmonic Progression and Harmonic Rhythm Content Standards: GLE 1.2.1 Visually and aurally identify dominant seventh, leading-tone seventh and non-dominant seventh chords. Resolve seventh chords with appropriate voice leading. Create chord progressions and circle progressions. AP Standard: Progress to include more sophisticated and creative tasks, such as realization of a Roman numeral chord progression. Emphasize aural and visual identification of procedures based in common-practice tonality, including functional triadic harmony in traditional four-voice texture (with vocabulary including nonharmonic tones, seventh chords, and secondary dominants.) Unit: 9 (AP only) Modulation and Secondary Key Centers Content Standards: GLE 1.2.1 Harmonize melodies that modulate. Visually and aurally recognize and analyze modulations; construct modulations. Use Roman numerals to analyze secondary dominants and leading-tone chords visually and aurally. AP Standard: Emphasize aural and visual identification of procedures based in common-practice tonality, including modulation to closely-related keys. Unit: 10 Melodic Organization Content Standards: GLE 1.2.1 Create compositions using motive and sequence. Complete formal analysis of written and aural examples containing motives and sequences. AP Standard: Emphasize aural and visual identification of procedures based in common-practice tonality, including melodic and harmonic compositional processes (e.g., sequence, motivic development) and phrase structure (e.g., contrasting period, phrase group.) Unit: 11 Texture Content Standards: GLE 1.1.3, 1.3.1 Visually and aurally analyze texture in a composition; create compositions of various texture types. AP Standard: Progress to include more sophisticated and creative tasks, such as analysis of repertoire, including melody, harmony, rhythm, texture, and form.
Unit: 12 Formal Analysis Content Standards: GLE 1.1.4 Visually and aurally analyze the form of a composition. Create compositions in binary and ternary form. AP Standard: Emphasize aural and visual identification of procedures based in common-practice tonality including small forms (e.g., rounded binary, simple ternary, theme and variation, strophic.) Unit: 13 (AP only) AP Exam Review and practice Content Standards: Review of GLE and AP Standards presented in Units 1 12. Evidence of Assessment Performance Tasks: Transpose instrument parts to arrange a composition for an instrumental ensemble. Transcribe a popular song, adding chord symbols to create a lead sheet. Compose antecedent and consequent phrases. Compose a melody that features the characteristics of good melodic writing. Compose species counterpoint. Harmonize a melody for four-part voices: soprano, alto, tenor, bass. Create an original composition with melody and accompaniment. Complete a formal analysis of a composition.
Formative assessments: Assignments attached to each lesson provide students the opportunity to practice new skills and demonstrate understanding of concepts covered. These assignments include written work completed and submitted using the music notation software Finale Notepad, dictation exercises completed using sound files and Notepad, and sight-singing exercises recorded using Audacity and submitted in mp3 format, and listening-response essays. Each unit s assignments build on the scaffolding provided by earlier units and lessons. Students are given feedback on submitted assignments, encouraged to make corrections, and allowed to re-submit assignments as a way of ensuring that the grade accurately reflects student learning and achievement. Summative assessments: First semester final exam features a written portion covering the first five units, melodic and harmonic dictation, and sight singing. Second semester final exam is the AP Music Theory Exam. Types of Learning Activities Direct Instruction Indirect Instruction Experiential Learning Independent Study Interactive Instruction X Structured Overview X Mini presentation X Drill & Practice Demonstrations Other (List) X _Problem-based Case Studies X_Inquiry X _Reflective Practice X Project X Paper Concept Mapping Other (List) Virt. Field Trip _ Experiments _Simulations _Games _Field Observ. _Role-playing _Model Bldg. _Surveys _Other (List) X _Essays X_ Self-paced computer _Journals X Learning Logs X Reports X Directed Study _X _Research Projects Other (List) X Discussion _Debates _Role Playing _Panels _Peer Partner Learning _Project team _Laboratory Groups _Think, Pair, Share _Cooperative Learning _Tutorial Groups _Interviewing X S _Other (List)
Learning Activities These learning activities are aligned with the successful completion of the course learning goals and progress towards these learning activities will be reported monthly on a progress report. 1 st Semester AP Music Theory Learning Activities Unit: 1 Notation of Rhythm Duration: 5 hours 40 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory encompasses a logical, accessible, and useful language for documenting sound. Music literacy enables individuals to enjoy independently performing and/or creating music. Essential Questions: How is rhythm, an essential element of music, notated, read, and performed? Student Learning Targets: Become fluent in reading the symbols that indication duration of a sound or silence and understanding how strong and weak beats are combined to create meter. Fundamentals 1 Notation of rhythm 1 Rhythms in common time 2 How to count rhythms 3 Eighth notes and beyond 4 Dotted rhythms 5 Other time signatures a: The rhythm grid b: Complete the measure a: Counting rhythms b: Hearing rhythms a: Counting rhythms with eighths b: Hearing rhythms with eighths a: Counting dotted rhythms b: Hearing dotted rhythms a: Interpreting time signatures b: Counting rhythms in multiple time signatures Unit: 2 Notation of Pitch Duration: 4 hours 40 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory encompasses a logical, accessible, and useful language for documenting sound. Music literacy enables individuals to enjoy independently performing and/or creating music. Essential Questions: How is pitch, an essential element of music, notated, read, and performed? Student Learning Targets: Become fluent in reading letter names of pitches drawn on the treble and bass clefs.
Fundamentals 2 Notation of pitch 1 The treble clef a: Getting to know the treble clef b: Identifying treble clef notes c: Treble clef spelling bee d: Compositions 2 The bass clef a: Getting to know the bass clef b: Identifying bass clef notes c: Bass clef spelling bee d: Compositions 3 Half steps and whole steps Identifying whole and half steps 4 Sharps and flats a: Identifying whole and half steps b: W riting whole and half steps Unit: 3 Scales, Tonality, Keys, Modes Duration: 7 hours 40 minutes Enduring Understandings: Major scales, minor scales, and modes are constructed using patterns of whole and half steps. They serve as the foundation upon which melody and harmonization are built. Essential Questions: Why do all Major scales sound the same? How are key signatures determined? Student Learning Targets: Learn the pattern of whole and half steps that makes a scale sound Major or minor. Understand how to determine a Major key s relative minor. Become fluent in reading key signatures. Visually and aurally identify Major and minor scales and all modes. Unit 3 Scales, tonality, keys, modes a: Building Major scales 1 Major scales Key signatures and the 2 Circle of Fifths 3 Building key signatures Key signature drill 4 Natural minor and relative keys a: Circle of Fifths web research a: Identifying relative Majors and minors a: W riting 3 types of minor scales 5 3 Types of minor scales 6 Hearing Major and minor scales Hearing Major and minor scales Unit: 4 Intervals and Transposition Duration: 9 hours
Enduring Understandings: Major scales, minor scales, and modes are constructed using patterns of whole and half steps. They serve as the foundation upon which melody and harmonization are built. Essential Questions: Why do some intervals sound consonant and some dissonant? How are intervals used to transpose a song from one key to another. Student Learning Targets: Visually and aurally identify and construct Major, minor, Perfect, Augmented, and diminished intervals unison octave and their inversions. Use intervals to transpose an instrumental line into another key. 1 Intro to solfege Solfege written assignment Unit 4 Intervals and transposition 2 Writing and hearing M2 and m2 a: Interval drill -- sight and sound b: W riting M2 and m2 3 Writing and hearing M3 and m3 a: Interval drill -- sight and sound b: W riting M3 and m3 4 Perfect intervals Perfect interval drill 5 Augmented and diminished 4ths and 5ths 6 Writing and hearing M6 and m6 a: Recognizing Perfect, Aug, and dim b: W riting Perfect, Aug, and dim a: Interval drill -- sight and sound b: W riting M6 and m6 7 Writing and hearing M7 and m7 a: Interval drill -- sight and sound b: W riting M7 and m7 8 Augmented and diminished intervals a: Comprehensive interval drill b: W riting intervals and enharmonics 9 Inversion of intervals Intervals and inversions 10 Transposition Transposition Unit: 5 Chords Duration: 8 hours 20 minutes Enduring Understandings: Major scales, minor scales, and modes are constructed using patterns of whole and half steps. They serve as the foundation upon which melody and harmonization are built. Essential Questions: What intervals are used to build a Major, minor, Augmented, or diminished triads and seventh chords? How are chords identified and labeled to analyze music? How does music theory help composers and arrangers choose chords to harmonize melodies? Student Learning Targets: Visually and aurally identify and construct Major, minor, Augmented, or diminished triads and seventh chords. Use Roman numerals to analyze chord progressions. Use figured bass to write a melody and harmonize it in four parts.
1 Scale degree names Scale degree names Unit 5 Chords 2 Four types of triads a: Identifying the four types of triads b: Difference between the four types 3 Roman numeral chord symbols a: Diatonic triads b: Harmonic analysis and harmonic dictation 4 Triad inversions Triad inversions, analysis, and dictation 5 7th chords and their inversions 7th chord inversions, analysis, and dictation 6 Figured bass a: Understanding figured bass symbols 7 Popular music chord symbols Create your own spread sheet Unit: 6 Cadences and Non-Harmonic Tones Duration: 4 hours 45 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory explains what musicians and composers have done in the past and why it works, but it doesn't dictate what current musicians and composers have to do. Essential Questions: How can certain chord progressions draw a composition to a satisfying end? What if a composer doesn t wish to harmonize every note of the melody? Student Learning Targets: Visually and aurally identify the common cadence types. Analyze chord progressions and identify non-chord (non-harmonic) tones. Unit 6 Cadences and nonharmonic tones 1 Phrases Writing phrases 2 Cadence types Recognizing types of cadences 3 Unaccented nonharmonic tones Recognizing and writing unaccented nonharmonic tones 4 Accented harmonic tones Recognizing and writing accented nonharmonic tones Unit: 7 Species Counterpoint and 4-Part Voice Leading Duration: 6 hours 30 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory explains what musicians and composers have done in the past and why it works, but it doesn't dictate what current musicians and composers have to do.
Essential Questions: What makes some melodies more memorable than others? What are the rules for composing two melodies that complement each other? What are the rules for harmonizing a melody in four parts? Student Learning Targets: Compose a melody following the rules of good melody writing; harmonize a melody following the rules for two-part writing. Write four-part realizations from Roman numeral chord progressions and figured bass. Unit 7 Voice leading 1 Writing a good melody Semester final 2 Two-part voice leading a: W riting canti firmi a: W riting in two parts 3 Four-part voice leading a: W riting in four parts Semester final, part 1 Semester final, part 1 Semester final, part 2 Semester final, part 2
2 nd Semester AP Music Theory Learning Activities Unit: 8 Harmonic Progression and Harmonic Rhythm Duration: 4 hours 40 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory explains what musicians and composers have done in the past and why it works, but it doesn't dictate what current musicians and composers have to do. Essential Questions: What principles do composers use in selecting chords and chord progressions? Why are some chord resolutions more satisfying than others? Student Learning Targets: Learn the rules composers have followed through history to choose chords when harmonizing a melody. Learn harmonic progression, the relationship of chords, and the rules for resolution of dominant 7 th chords, leading tone 7 th chords, non dominant 7 th chords in Major and minor. 1 Harmonic progression and harmonic rhythm a: Choosing chords that progress b: Composing and the rules of harmonic progression Unit 8 Harmonic progression and harmonic rhythm 2 Dominant 7th chords Resolving Dominant 7th chords 3 Leading tone 7th chords 4 Nondominant 7th chords 5 Sight-singing Sight-singing a: Spelling diminished 7th chords b: Resolving diminished 7th chords. a: Spelling and identifying diatonic 7th chord types b: Composing and the rules of harmonic progression Unit: 9 Modulation and Secondary Dominants Duration: 5 hours 15 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory explains what musicians and composers have done in the past and why it works, but it doesn't dictate what current musicians and composers have to do. Essential Questions: How do composers smoothly transition from one key into another during a composition? Why are some chord resolutions more satisfying than others? Student Learning Targets: Learn the relationships between keys. Deal with chords that are not diatonic. Visually and aurally identify and analyze modulations. Harmonize melodies that modulate.
Unit 9 Modulation and secondary dominants 1 Modulation 2 Secondary dominant chords 3 Secondary leading tone chords a: Closely related keys b: Analyzing and writing modulations a: Analyzing and writing secondary dominants b: Harmonic dictation a: Analyzing and writing secondary leading tone chords b: Harmonic dictation Unit: 10 Melodic Organization Duration: 6 hours 5 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory explains what musicians and composers have done in the past and why it works, but it doesn't dictate what current musicians and composers have to do. Essential Questions: Why do composers use recurring patterns in compositions? How are those recurring patterns joined to create form? How is the form of a composition analyzed? Student Learning Targets: Understand the characteristics of good melodies. Use the devices of motive and sequence to create a composition. Unit 10 Melodic organization 1 Characteristics of a good melody a: Recognizing great melodies 2 Motives a: W riting a melody with a motive 3 Sequences a: W riting a melody with a sequence 4 Composition project Composition project Unit: 11 Texture Duration: 9 hours 20 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory explains what musicians and composers have done in the past and why it works, but it doesn't dictate what current musicians and composers have to do. Essential Questions: How have the rules of music theory evolved over time? How have history and society influenced music composition, performance practices, and the other arts?
Student Learning Targets: Understand that texture in music refers to the way melodic, harmonic and rhythmic materials weave together in any given composition. Visually and aurally identify texture types in compositions from different historical eras. 1 Monophony and the Medieval period Essay on Hildegard of Bingen 2 Polyphony and the Renaissance period Essay on word painting Unit 11 Texture 3 The Baroque period: bridge between polyphony and homophony 4 Classical and romantic period Terraced dynamics a: Beethoven the bridge b: Unit assignment: recognizing and analyzing texture Unit: 12 Formal Analysis Duration: 2 hours 25 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory explains what musicians and composers have done in the past and why it works, but it doesn't dictate what current musicians and composers have to do. Essential Questions: How do compositional elements and recurring patterns in music combine to create form in a composition? How do musicians identify the form of a composition, and how does an understanding of that form help them achieve higher performance standards for that piece? Student Learning Targets: Visually and aurally analyze and identify the formal divisions in compositions of various textures and historical eras. Create a composition with a given form. Unit 12 1 Formal analysis Formal analysis composition Unit: 13 AP Exam Review and Practice Duration: 4 hours 30 minutes Enduring Understandings: Music theory encompasses a logical, accessible, and useful language for documenting sound. Music literacy enables individuals to enjoy independently performing and/or creating music. Music theory explains what musicians and composers have done in the past and why it works, but it doesn't dictate what current musicians and composers have to do. Major scales, minor scales, and modes are constructed using patterns of whole and half steps. They serve as the foundation upon which melody and harmonization are built.
Music theory enables individuals to create original compositions and document them in a way that can be understood and interpreted by others. Music theory in western civilization is best understood as a set of rules that have been gradually and systematically broken as music has evolved. Essential Questions: How is sound organized to create music? Student Learning Targets: Assessment of learning. 1 Important terms Terms Exam section I, Part A: multiple 2 choice with aural stimuli Practice exam Section I, Part A 13 The AP Exam 3 Exam Section I, Part B: multiple choice with visual stimuli Practice exam Section I, Part B Exam Section II, Part A: free 4 response questions Practice exam Section II, Part A 5 Exam Section II, Part B: sight singing Practice exam Section II, Part B