Preparing for your listening and appraising exam.

Remember You are being asked to describe the sounds that make up the songs.

These and all songs are made up of the elements associated with the five areas of study below.
Texture and Melody
Harmony and Tonality
Rhythm and Meter
Timbre and Dynamics Structure and Form
What is the time signature of this piece? AOS Rhythm and Meter

What is the Tonality of this piece? AOS Harmony & Tonality

How many bars before the Drum part enters? AOS Rhythm & Meter

Describe which word best describes this piece? AOS Texture and Melody

Riff Scalic Pentatonic Sequence




THE AREA OF STUDY WILL ALWAYS BE AT THE TOP OF THE PAGE
Areas of Study: Harmony & Tonality/Texture & Melody/Structure & Form
1.
1.
Texture
Unison
Homophonic
Polyphonic
Melody with accompaniment
Some other words associated with texture
Imitative Canonic
All voices/Instruments playing the same rhythm and pitch
All voices/Instruments playing the same rhythm but with harmony Hymn Like or Lakehouse G
(without the guitar)
All voices/Instruments playing different rhythms and melodies. Sounds much busier.
Simply A melody with another layer (sound) of something else.
Melody
Think about describing the melody you here in simple terms
Is the melody rising? Is the melody falling?
How many notes can you here in the melody?
Diatonic
Chormatic Triadic
Scalic
Does any of the following refer to the melody:-
Does the melody have ornaments?
Appoggiatura Acciaccatura
Pentatonic
Are there any techniques used to enhance the melody?
Slide Pitch Bend
Dynamics
You are being asked to describe the volume of the extract
You do not always need to use Italian terminology to describe the sound you are hearing
The music is loud. The music starts quietly and gradually gets louder.
The music gets suddenly softer
pp p mp mf f ff
Crescendo Diminuendo
Sforzando (SFZ)
Hairpins
Harmony and Tonailty
Is the piece major or minor?
Your cadences are the two chords at the end of a musical phrase.
V I Perfect Cadence
have a banana
IV I Plagal Cadence
Church finish Amen
Both these cadences sound the piece has finished.
I V Imperfect Cadence
Sounds unfinished.
V VI Interrupted Cadence
Surprise cadence. Finishes on minor chord
If it sounds celtic or unusual it may be modal or tonal.
Consanance Sounds nice Dissonance Sounds weird or clashy
Tonality Will probably only refer to the primary chords I IV & V
Twelve bar blues
I I I I
IV IV I I
V IV I I
If it asks you to identify the chords it will ALWAYS start on chord I (one)
Cadences
Structure
How is the piece of music structured in terms of A B C D etc

The first section you listen to will be A (the first idea)

Is the next section the same? A

Is it slightly different? A1

Is it completely different? B

Is the next section completely different, again? C
Form
A B Binary
A B A Ternary
A B A C A D A Rondo
A A A A.. Stophic
Call and Response
Ground Bass Does the music have a continually repeating bass line?
Timbre
How is the sound of the instrument being changed?
Violin Con Arco/Plucked(Pizzicato)
Guitar Clean/Distortion
Trumpet Muted
Voice Falsetto/Vibrato
You will be asked to identify the instrument.

Woodwind is normally trickier especially Oboe/Clarinet

Brass Trumpet/Trombone/Tuba

Percussion Timpani