The ultimate goal of an AP Music Theory course is to develop a student’s ability to recognize, understand, and describe the basic materials and processes of music that are heard or presented in a score. It may emphasize one aspect of music, such as harmony; more often, however, it integrates aspects of melody, harmony, texture, rhythm, form, musical analysis, elementary composition and, to some extent, history and style. Musicianship skills such as dictation and other listening skills, sight-singing, and keyboard harmony are considered an important part of the theory course, although they may be taught as separate classes. The student’s ability to read and write musical notation is fundamental to such a course. It is strongly recommended that the student will have acquired at least basic performance skills in voice or on an instrument.