Personal Narrative: AP Music Theory

When I started my senior year of highschool, I was ecstatic to tell all my friends that I didn’t have to suffer through the horrors of a math class. I was finally free!

Instead, I am taking four music classes, among them, AP music theory. On the first day I realized I had made a grave mistake-- Music is nothing but math! Except, instead of the usual ten digit system we use, the system has eight ‘numbers’ or notes that can be changed in one way or another.

Okay, that seems easy enough… But it gets more complicated. We’re forgetting about sharps and flats. A sharp will raise a note half a step, and a flat will lower it a half step. Reasonably, that means that the note “A sharp” can also be “B flat,” since A is right before a B. Makes sense.

Lets

Intervals!

We name intervals based on the note that the music is based on and the distance that note is from the note being played. Usually, the lower note is the “root” and the piece is based on that. This note can be labelled as 1. In many pieces, that note is a “C,” since then the next eight notes are “pure,” which means they aren’t sharp or flat.

The C scale sounds a little like this:

Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do

Notice that the interval between Do and Mi is a “Major Third” and the interval between Do and So is a “Major Fifth.” These are safe, comfortable intervals that even non-musicians will appreciate.

Wait, wait, wait. These are the most basic of the basic aspects of music theory and there comes a point where you’re going to stop me and ask, “It gets more complicated? I thought only lazy people pursued music!”

If you aren’t thinking that, you are in the minority.

When I tell people that I am a musician, they respond with surprise and disdain.

“But you seem so smart!” “You could go so far if you just try!”

My AP English Literature teacher actually told me what a “waste” it was that I wanted to teach music. That’s right. A teacher I looked up to sneered at my career