Elemental for Eduqas 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. Dictation or musical shape questions account for a consistent 9 marks out of the 96 available. Secondly are the score based questions, which vary in weight year by year from 8-18 marks, averaging out at 12.5. This leaves 78% of the paper.

These remaining marks are the ‘elements’ type listening marks, some overlapping with recall of set works but 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

Identification of Western classical styles completes the set.

Eduqas’s papers weight the following elements most heavily: melody, rhythm, harmony, instrumentation and texture. Each of these is worth 10-12 marks on average across the five years (NB these marks will overlap).

Tempo, tonality, dynamics, timbre/techniques, metre and articulation are the next set, being worth 4-6 marks on average with pitch (being high/low or range) just making into this group.

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 Eduqas specification. To use our revision quizzes for Eduqas GCSE or A-level you can take part in phase 2 of our beta testing trials by messaging support@elementalmusic.app.