AP Music Theory Course
Open to High School Students entering grades 9-12!

Enrollment for the 2024-25 school year will open in June 2024. This program is open to all musicians entering grades 9-12 for the 2024-25 school year.

For more information about future enrollment, please fill out the Information Request Form below and a member of our team will get back to you.

Course Description
AP Music Theory at the San Francisco Girls Chorus School (SFGC) aims to fully prepare students to excel at the AP Music Theory exam each spring. This course instructs the student through a first-year college curriculum in musicianship, theory, musical materials, and procedures. Through this instruction the student will be able to recognize, understand, and describe basic materials and processes of music that are heard and presented in a score. Weekly exercises in class and assigned homework serve to develop the student’s aural skills, sight-singing skills, written skills, compositional skills, and analytical skills. The course will explore major-minor tonality, as well as modal, pentatonic, whole tone, and other scales. 

About the Course
The San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) AP Music Theory Course is a concentrated course that prepares students for the AP Music Theory Exam after one school year. 

This course serves as an introduction to college-level music fundamentals, musicianship (sight singing, listening, dictation, and transcription), harmony, musical analysis, and composition. AP Music Theory prepares students with a broad base of knowledge and skills that are essential for performance and composition in many musical genres, including classical, jazz, and popular music.

Our course is accredited by the College Board and passed the AP Course Audit in 2019. Students who complete the course can earn college credit, based on AP Exam performance. All AP Exam scores appear on an "AP Transcript," which can be submitted to colleges separately from the student's high school transcript upon request. 

SFGC was recently awarded accreditation by the ASC-WASC organization, which accredits schools and supplemental education programs in the western United States. This accreditation makes it possible for students to receive academic high school credit for this course in addition to college credit for passing the exam.

Please note: SFGC does not offer the AP Exam at this time; however, we do have partnerships with school sites around the Bay Area that offer the exam each May. Our team will be able to support logistical arrangements for students to take the AP Exam at an alternate testing site each spring. Please note that the cost for each exam is the responsibility of each family, and is not included in the tuition price for this course.

Pre-Requisites
This course is for high-school-aged musicians. Basic performance skills in voice or on an instrument are strongly recommended. SFGC students must have passed the Level IV Qualifying Exam. All non-SFGC students must take a placement exam before beginning the class. Once registration is received, our faculty will share a placement exam with your family for completion and review.