Music Fundamentals II: Minor Scales & Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre & Texture

What this unit covers

The topics below follow the published Music Theory course framework for Unit 2. Music Theory publishes no per-unit weighting, so there is no percentage to chase here.

Lessons in this unit

• Minor Scales & Keys14 min · 3 objectivesConstruct the natural, harmonic, and melodic forms of a minor scale · Relate a minor key to its relative and parallel major · Determine a minor key signature from its relative major
• Melody, Timbre & Texture12 min · 3 objectivesDescribe melodic contour, range, and conjunct vs. disjunct motion · Define timbre and name the factors that shape an instrument’s tone color · Classify texture as monophonic, homophonic, or polyphonic

Formulas in Unit 2

Every term in Unit 2

All 18 terms we publish for Music Fundamentals II: Minor Scales & Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre & Texture, with definitions. Reading them through is the fastest way to find the ones you cannot define — then drill those in cram mode until you can produce them without the prompt.

Relative vs parallel minor

The relative minor shares the key signature and starts on scale degree 6 (C major and A minor). The parallel minor shares the tonic and changes the signature (C major and C minor).

Which minor scale to use when

Natural for the key signature, harmonic for building chords (it supplies the leading tone for V and vii°), melodic ascending to avoid the augmented second in a rising line.

The augmented second problem

Harmonic minor puts an augmented second between scale degrees 6 and 7. Melodic minor raises 6 ascending to remove it, and lowers both descending.

Minor key signatures

Identical to the relative major. A minor is no accidentals, E minor one sharp, D minor one flat. Accidentals for raised 6 and 7 are written in, never in the signature.

Perfect, major, minor, diminished, augmented

Unisons, fourths, fifths and octaves are perfect; seconds, thirds, sixths and sevenths are major or minor. Perfect intervals do not have major or minor forms — a common error.

Interval inversion

The number and quality both invert and the two numbers sum to nine. A major third inverts to a minor sixth; perfect stays perfect, diminished becomes augmented.

Compound intervals

Intervals larger than an octave. A ninth is a compound second, a tenth a compound third. Reduce by seven, not by eight.

Consonance and dissonance

Perfect consonances are unison, fifth, octave; imperfect are thirds and sixths. Seconds, sevenths and all tritones are dissonant, and the perfect fourth is context-dependent.

The tritone and its resolution

Three whole steps, an augmented fourth or diminished fifth. In V7 it sits between scale degrees 4 and 7; the 7 resolves up and the 4 down, which drives the cadence.

Melodic contour vocabulary

Conjunct means stepwise, disjunct means by leap. Arch, ascending, descending and wave describe overall shape, and dictation is easier once contour is fixed before pitches.

Sequence

A melodic pattern repeated at a different pitch level. Real sequences transpose exactly, tonal sequences stay in key and alter interval quality slightly.

Monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic

One line; melody with accompaniment; multiple independent lines. Heterophonic is simultaneous variants of one melody, and appears in listening questions.

Imitative vs non-imitative polyphony

Imitative restates the same material in another voice at a delay, as in a canon or fugue. Non-imitative combines independent lines, as in Renaissance dance music.

Timbre vocabulary

Instrument families and articulations — pizzicato, arco, con sordino, legato, staccato. Listening questions ask you to name what you hear, not to describe it loosely.

Transposing instruments

B♭ clarinet and trumpet sound a major second below written; F horn a perfect fifth below; alto saxophone a major sixth below. Score questions require you to transpose in the right direction.

Vocal ranges in part-writing

Soprano roughly C4 to G5, alto G3 to D5, tenor C3 to G4, bass E2 to C4. Exceeding a range is a marked error even when the voice leading is otherwise correct.

Melodic dictation strategy

Fix the meter and the tonic first, then notate contour and rhythm, then pitches. Writing pitches before rhythm is the most common way to lose a whole phrase.

Sight-singing strategy

Scan for the key, the meter and the largest leap before starting; the tonic must be established internally. Keeping a steady tempo scores higher than stopping to correct a pitch.

What examiners penalize here

• When you see a raised seventh degree used as an accidental in a minor-key passage, read it as **harmonic minor supplying a leading tone for the V chord**. That leading tone is what makes an authentic cadence possible in minor.
• Aural questions often ask you to hear texture. Train the cue: if a second melody enters that is as interesting as the first (a fugue subject, a round), it is **polyphony**; if the added parts merely fill in chords beneath the tune, it is **homophony**.

Practice Music Theory

Our practice bank is drawn from across the whole course rather than filtered to one unit, which is closer to how the exam asks anyway — it will not tell you which unit a question is testing.

Questions about this unit

All 8 units of AP Music Theory

1. Unit 1 · Music Fundamentals I: Pitch, Major Scales & Key Signatures, Rhythm, Meter
2. Unit 2 · Music Fundamentals II: Minor Scales & Key Signatures, Melody, Timbre & Texture
3. Unit 3 · Music Fundamentals III: Triads & Seventh Chords
4. Unit 4 · Harmony & Voice Leading I: Chord Function, Cadence & Phrase
5. Unit 5 · Harmony & Voice Leading II: Chord Progressions & Predominant Function
6. Unit 6 · Harmony & Voice Leading III: Embellishments, Motives & Melodic Devices
7. Unit 7 · Harmony & Voice Leading IV: Secondary Function
8. Unit 8 · Modes and Form