Elemental for iGCSE

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 iGCSE includes some factual questions on place, such as the country of origin of Hindustani music. This sort of specific knowledge also pertains to the musical features of the styles in Area of Study 6, which require both a general aural understanding of musical features alongside the correct terminology within these styles. Elemental’s iGCSE revision cover the content necessary to write correctly about the styles within Area of Study 6.

iGCSE also contains some score analysis with an insert for the students to examine. Elemental’s sister products cover aspects such as key identification and expressive features (in Theoretical) alongside melodic shape and interval recognition (Notational).

These remaining marks are the ‘elements’ type listening marks that are common to the all the GCSE specs. These come under these categories:

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

Identification of Western classical styles, and their features, completes the set.

The iGCSE past papers weight instrumentation and melody most heavily, with c. 15% of the marks in the paper available for each in the 2023 paper and recent 2026 sample. The instrumentation questions are particularly focused on orchestra instruments and Elemental’s new monophonic melodies played by RCM musicians should be useful for that.

Texture, rhythm and tonality make up the second rank of elements within iGCSE at around 5-10% of the mark available. Specific revision for the questions these pertain to, such as Western Classical styles and their features, is now available for iGCSE in the Revision section of Elemental’s main elements listening platform. For any further questions please contact: support@elementalmusic.app.