Elemental for AQA GCSE

One of the reasons that Elemental has been created is because of the dominant role that ‘elements’ orientated listening plays at GCSE and, to a lesser extent, A-level. As part of the preparation of Elemental’s revision quizzes we have undertaken an analysis of 5 years of GCSE past papers to look at the marks available for aural identification of musical elements.

First of all, to the parts of the paper that do not involve ‘elements’ type listening.

The 28 marks in Section B are more for specific knowledge of set works (although the marks are often allocated for ‘elements’ and so an aural understanding is useful even if you are replaying music you know in your head).

That leaves 68 marks in Section A and dictation or musical shape questions account for a few (6-8 ish) of these.

These remaining marks are the ‘elements’ type listening marks and while some are linked to how they are used within genres they are all available to a student who is skilled at aurally analysing music using the language of elements under the following (overlapping) categories:

Articulation, metre, tempo, texture, dynamics, tonality, pitch, melody, structure, harmony, instrumentation, timbre/techniques

AQA’s papers are particularly heavily weighted towards instrumentation/timbre questions compared with the other boards. Questions on instruments, timbre or instrumental techniques can gain up to a quarter of the 60 ‘elements’ listening marks. 

Texture is next with melody, harmony and rhythm close behind. All of these can gain around 5-8 marks in the paper. Tonality, tempo and metre make up a little group next with articulation and dynamics being less heavily weighted by AQA than the other boards.

A secure aural understanding of the elements and their sub-categories is the most important component of success at GCSE for all exam boards. This blogpost sets out an overview of how this plays out within the Edexcel specification. To use our revision quizzes for AQA GCSE you can take part in phase 2 of our beta testing trials by messaging support@elementalmusic.app.