Mr. Murray on why Music Theory is important…

"The goal of AP Music Theory is to link our intellectual understanding of music to our listening experience. In other words, the more we are able to think about a piece of music the more we are able to hear, and vice versa."—Jon Murray

A.P. Music Theory utilizes structural analysis, at the macro and micro levels, for students to explore and gain an understanding into how a piece of music progresses logically from beginning to end.  Exercises in analysis, composition (in the style of 18th-century Western European music), and listening are all tied together to achieve this understanding.  The class benefits jazz musicians as well, building a comprehension of harmonic procedures that is necessary for improvisation.