Elemental for OCR 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.

The OCR papers will always include a musical dictation question of just under 10% of the marks. There will also be some questions on context, such as where the music is from or who might have written/performed it. The rest of the questions split into ‘elements’ listening in two categories:

Genre specific

For genre specific questions students need to cross reference their knowledge of typical features with what they are hearing in the music. For e.g. Greek folk dance this will include priming their ear for sounds like the timbre of a bouzouki, the feel of 5/4 metre or melodies moving in parallel harmony.

This requires both recall and aural understanding.

Broader elements listening

Some of the OCR questions are essentially asking ‘what musical elements can you hear used in this extract’. This might include ‘how are they used’ (e.g. question 3) or comparing their use (e.g. question 6). However the foundation of success in answering these questions involves aural clarity about the musical elements, be it the sound of a bassoon, the feel of syncopated rhythm or timbral quality of digital FX.

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