AQA GCSE Unit 1: Listening to and Appraising Music – Preparation and Practice
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KSKS45 AQA GCSE Unit 1: Listening to and Appraising Music – preparation and practice Alan Charlton is an by Alan Charlton author, composer and examiner and has written numerous books and articles on music education. He INTRODUCTION taught for a number of years at Bedford This article is designed to support students taking the AQA GCSE Music Unit 1 examination paper, Listening to School, initially as a composer- and Appraising Music (42701). It will look at the different types of questions that are typically set, and suggest in-residence, ways in which they can be prepared for and approached. Practice questions, based on extracts on Spotify, are and has a PhD in provided to practise and refine students’ knowledge and aural skills. composition from the University of Bristol. GENERAL FEATURES OF THE PAPER The Listening to and Appraising Music paper examines how effectively students can identify musical elements through listening skills. As well as aural perception skills, they need to display a good understanding of the terminology for the five AQA Areas of Study (the elements of music). The paper lasts an hour, and candidates answer a question paper based on recorded excerpts played on a CD. A typical example of how the questions were distributed can be seen in the 2012 paper, in which there were 18 recorded extracts, each of which was played between two and four times, depending on the difficulty of the questions asked. These were divided into 12 questions (each worth between five and nine marks), further divided into between three and seven shorter questions generally worth one or two marks each. One question, based on a comparison between two extracts, was worth six marks. The music is based on a range of musical styles and periods from the Areas of Study: the Western Classical Tradition, Popular Music of the 20th and 21st Centuries, and World Music. However, the examination is designed to test the aural perception of the elements of music rather than a detailed knowledge of individual genres and traditions, so this article will concentrate mainly on the former. Different question types The types of question asked are all based on AQA’s Areas of Study for GCSE, which are the elements of music: AoS1: Rhythm and Metre AoS2: Harmony and Tonality AoS3: Texture and Melody AoS4: Timbre and Dynamics AoS5: Structure and Form In the 2012 paper, the first four of these had a more or less equal number of questions, while Structure and Form had the least. Below is an approximate breakdown of the types of question included in the 2012 paper, listed under each element of music. The frequency is given at the beginning. (Note that this is the number of questions, rather than marks, and that categories of question have been slightly generalised for simplicity). 1 Music Teacher March 2015 AoS Question type Frequency Rhythm and Metre identify/complete notated rhythm 4 (total 14 questions) count bars 3 name time signature 3 identify/describe tempo 2 describe/name rhythmic devices 2 Harmony and Tonality identify if major/minor/modal, etc 3 (total 12 questions) identify harmonic device 2 name cadence 2 name chords (major/minor/7th chords) 2 count chords 2 identify key of modulation 1 Texture and Melody describe/name melodic device 5 (total 15 questions) name texture 4 name ornament 3 complete melody 2 complete phrase marks 1 Timbre and Dynamics name instrument/ensemble/voice 10 (total 17 questions) describe dynamics 5 name technique 2 Structure and Form describe/identify form 2 (total 3 questions) identify continuo 1 Although the actual mix of questions of course varies from year to year, this gives a good general indication of what to expect. It is interesting that certain questions are much more frequent that others, for instance questions to do with identifying instruments, ensembles and types of voices. Dictation, chord and interval recognition Basic musical notation is tested. Candidates may be asked to write out a short rhythm through dictation, or select, say, one out of four given rhythms. With pitch, they can be asked to write out four or five pitches of a short melody, with the rhythm already provided, or select the correct version through multiple choice. With chords, students can be asked whether certain chords are major, minor or dominant 7th chords, or their relative position, such as tonic (I), dominant (V) or subdominant (IV), but not to identify inversions, etc. Melodic intervals are tested, too: they will tend to be the easier intervals to spot, such as octaves, perfect 5ths and 4ths, rather than, say, augmented and diminished intervals. AoS1: Rhythm and Metre Success in the rhythm questions is largely dependent on being able to identify and follow the pulse of the music and to work out which are the strong beats. Music Teacher March 2015 2 ‘CounT THE NUMBER OF BARS’ An example of this question could be: ‘The excerpt is in 4/4. How many bars are there before the voice enters?’ Students need to know how many beats make up a bar, and thus need to understand the commonly used time signatures (eg 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 2/2). They could then count in their heads along with the pulse (eg for 2/4: one, two, two, two, three, two, four, two’ etc), or simply count the number of beats (one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, etc) and divide this number by the number of beats in a bar to get the correct answer. It can also be helpful to count bars on one’s fingers. ‘What IS THE TIME SIGNatURE OF THE EXtract?’ This question can be answered by (silently) tapping along to the pulse, and listening out for the strong beat. The number of beats in the bar is the number of taps before the next strong beat. This figure can be checked by counting from each strong beat (‘one, two, three, one, two, three’ etc), confirming that each ‘one’ falls on a strong beat. The most important factor here is to ascertain whether the music is in 2 (or 4) or 3: according to the AQA mark scheme for 2012, 4/4, C, Common Time, 2/4 and Split Common Time were all acceptable for an extract in 4/4, and 3/4, 3/8 and 3/2 for an extract in 3/4. Students may also be asked whether an excerpt is in simple or compound time: if it has a ‘straight’ feel to it, it is probably simple time, whereas more lilting, skipping, dance- like metres will probably be compound time. ‘IDENTIFY/DESCRIBE THE TEMpo’ This type of question might ask for an Italian term, or be a multiple choice on say, three different metronome marks. It could be approached by tapping along to the pulse and assessing how fast it is. It can be useful to compare the pulse with walking speed. Normal walking speed (andante or moderato, very roughly about 70–90bpm) can be taken as an ‘average speed’ for music, so significantly quicker than this (running speed or above) would be a fast tempo (eg allegro, more than 90bpm), and significantly slower would be a slow tempo (eg largo, less than 70bpm). Other questions on tempo might ask whether the music is slowing down (rallentando), speeding up (accelerando) or in a flexible tempo, where the pulse fluctuates (rubato). Again, these can be answered by tapping along to the pulse and assessing if and how it changes. ‘DeSCRIBE/NAME THE RHYTHMIC DEVICe’ There are a handful of rhythmic devices that can appear in questions, such as rhythmic augmentation and diminution, syncopation, anacrusis and hemiola. With augmentation, a melody or rhythm will appear to be played much slower (normally half speed) later in the extract, while with diminution, it will be appear to be repeated much faster (usually twice the original speed). Syncopated rhythms sound ‘jazzy’: accented notes that fall in between the main beats give the music a ‘jerky’ feel. An anacrusis is an upbeat, usually to a melodic phrase: a useful analogy for the sort of effect it produces is to imagine someone taking in a quick breath before starting to speak. Hemiolas mostly appear in Baroque music: a pulse in two will appear to speed up to a quicker three in a bar just before the end of a phrase. ‘IDENTIFY THE CORRECT RHYTHM FROM THE FOLLOWING/COMPLETE THE RHYTHM’ This is obviously a question where candidates who are confident in reading musical notation will have an advantage. For the less confident, there are still ways to rule out certain options of the multiple-choice version of this question: 1. Count the total number of notes in the relevant part of the recording and compare this with the total number of notes in the answers (remembering that two or more notes tied together will sound as a single note). 2. Listen out for series of notes using the same note value (eg five short notes the same length, or three medium length notes of equal length). Do these correspond with any of the given answers? 3. Tapping along to the pulse can help keep your place when following the music, which can narrow down the options. For instance, this may help you hear on which beat a rest occurs, or the particular beat on which there are faster notes, which you can then compare with the possible options. 4. A tie marking normally indicates a syncopation: listening out for the exact beat(s) on which syncopation occurs can help reveal the correct answer. 3 Music Teacher March 2015 AoS2: Harmony and Tonality ‘What IS THE TONALITY OF THE EXtract?’ This type of question usually asks students to identify whether the key of the music is major or minor.