AP Music Theory FRQ: How to Answer the Free Response

What the AP Music Theory free response looks like

Section II has two parts. Part A is seven written questions worth 45% of your total score, with 70 minutes to complete them. Part B is two sight-singing questions worth 10%, taking about 10 minutes. Together that is the 55% above, against 45% for the 75 multiple-choice questions in Section I.

The delivery is split, and it catches people out. The audio for the dictation questions plays in Bluebook, but you write every written answer by hand in a paper exam booklet. For sight-singing you are recorded on a device the testing school supplies, so there is nothing for you to bring. All of this is set out on College Board’s AP Music Theory exam page.

The seven AP Music Theory free response questions, by number

1 and 2 · Melodic dictation

You hear a short melody on a piano and notate its pitches and rhythm. The two questions are not identical: in recent exams Question 1 is played three times and Question 2 four times, with a 30-second pause after the first playing and a full minute after each one after that. The pulse is given before the first playing.

3 and 4 · Harmonic dictation

You hear a four-part progression, notate the soprano and bass lines, and label every chord with a Roman numeral and its inversion. Both are played four times with the same pause pattern. Questions 1 to 4 together take roughly 25 minutes, and the pacing is fixed by the recording rather than by you.

5 and 6 · Part-writing

Question 5 gives you a figured bass to realize in four voices, with a suggested time of 15 minutes. Question 6 gives you a Roman-numeral progression to write out in four voices, suggested time 10 minutes. Both are marked against eighteenth-century voice-leading practice, which is College Board’s own standard for these questions.

7 · Harmonization

You complete a bass line under a printed melody and label the chords, with a suggested time of 20 minutes. The question asks for a cadence at the end of each phrase, a perfect authentic cadence at the close, and a bass line that moves against the melody rather than with it.

Those three add up to the 45 minutes the paper allows for Questions 5 to 7, and you may take them in whatever order you like. If figured bass is your weakest task, do it last.

How the AP Music Theory FRQ is scored

Each question has its own rubric and the partial credit is unusually fine-grained. Melodic dictation is marked out of nine points: a point for each half-measure segment you get right in both pitch and rhythm, up to eight, plus one more if any segment is fully correct.

Two things follow from that which students rarely know. A segment still earns its point even if you have written it in the wrong place in the bar, so losing your spot does not automatically lose the mark. But enharmonic spellings and octave transpositions earn nothing, however close they sound.

Part-writing from a figured bass is marked out of 25 points, split three ways: seven for the Roman numerals, six for spelling and spacing the chords, and twelve for the voice leading between them. Voice leading is the largest single block on the question, which is why the next section is about one error.

So attempt everything. A partial dictation and an incomplete realization both score, because the marking runs segment by segment and connection by connection rather than on the whole answer.

What a parallel fifth actually costs you

Voice leading is marked two points per chord connection. A connection with parallel fifths, parallel octaves or parallel unisons is awarded zero. The two chords either side still score for spelling and Roman numeral; the join between them scores nothing.

Two related errors are graded more gently, and it is worth knowing the difference. Hidden or direct fifths and octaves between the outer voices cost one of the two points rather than both, as does overlapping the voices. Outright parallels are the only ones that wipe the connection out.

A worked harmonization, in the order the points are awarded

Question 7 is the one most people run out of time on, because they start at the beginning and work forwards. Here is the same task done in the order it is marked. The prompt below is invented for this page; for real questions go to College Board directly.

Suppose the printed melody is eight measures in G major, in two four-measure phrases, and you have 20 minutes.

1. Write the last two bass notes first. The final cadence has to be a perfect authentic cadence, so it is D then G, both in root position, with the melody ending on the tonic. Those two notes are decided before you look at anything else, and they are worth points on their own.
2. Then the middle cadence. Ending the first phrase on D, a half cadence, gives you contrast with the close and commits you to nothing. Now four of your eight measures have an anchor.
3. Fill the strong beats. Go measure by measure and ask which chord each melody note can belong to. A melody note that is the third of a chord usually gives you the easiest bass note, because the root is then a comfortable leap away.
4. Check the motion against the melody. The question rewards a bass line that moves against the soprano. Where the melody climbs, take the bass down. This is also the cheapest way to avoid the parallels above, since contrary motion between the outer voices rarely produces them.
5. Add interest last. If you have time, put in a passing or neighbor tone on a weak beat. If you do not have time, leave it: an unadorned bass line that is correct beats a decorated one that is not.

The order matters because the cadences are fixed points and everything else is negotiable. Working forwards, you spend your 20 minutes on measure one and guess the ending.

The sight-singing section, and the latitude nobody mentions

Two melodies, 10% of your score. For each one you get the starting pitch, 1 minute 15 seconds to practice and 30 seconds to perform. You are scored on rhythmic accuracy, pitch accuracy relative to tonic, and continuity.

That phrase, relative to tonic, is the one to notice, because it is why you are allowed to transpose the melody into a key that suits your voice. You hear the printed starting pitch, but you are not held to it. If the melody sits badly for you, move it.

Where students lose the most points

How to practice the AP Music Theory FRQ

Drill each skill daily, because none of them can be crammed. Take a short dictation every morning until notating by ear stops feeling like translation, work part-writing exercises and check them against the voice-leading rules rather than against your ear, and sight-sing out loud so the 30-second clock does not rattle you.

For the rest of the exam, including the aural multiple choice that shares its skills with the dictation questions, use the AP Music Theory review guide, and run a practice raw score through the AP Music Theory exam score calculator to see where you land. If you want to see how another arts exam handles evidence you have never met before, the AP Art History FRQ guide covers the same problem in a different medium.