Revision Notes

Y10 Listening Paper Revision Notes
Key Points:
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In the listening paper you will listen to various styles of music and be required to describe them using
the correct musical terminology
Most questions are either multiple choice or require one word answers, some questions will require
you to write in full sentences in detail – these are often worth 4 marks
There will be questions that require you to write in a melody or rhythm
The paper is for 1hr in total and is worth 20% of your final grade
Required Terminology
Dynamics (How loud or Soft)
You will need to know the following signs and practice recognizing dynamic contrasts in a piece of music
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P (piano) = soft, PP (pianissimo) = very soft, MP (mezzo piano) = moderately soft
F (forte) = Loud, FF )fortissimo) – Very loud, MF (mezzo forte) = moderately loud
Crescendo = Gradually louder
Diminuendo – Gradually softer
Sf (sforzando) = suddenly loud
Practice listening to pieces by Mozart or Tchaikovsky using the words above to describe the changes that take
place. Pop pieces are not suitable to practice for this area.
Tonality (The Key the music is played in)
You will need to be able to say what key the music is in:
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Major (will sound happy/positive)
Minor (will sound dark/depressive)
Modal (is a mixture of major and minor – it may have a medieval feel to it)
Often pieces change key as the piece develops, particularly from one section to the next, so practice
recognizing this.
You also need to be able to identify the key from the key signature on the stave up to four sharps or flats in
a major or minor key. We will practice this in lesson time, but you can also use musictheory.net to help
Rhythm and Metre (a collection of different beats and the time signature)
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Dotted Rhythms, Syncopation (an offbeat rhythm), Triplets (three notes played on one beat)
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Drum fills (this where a drummer plays a ‘fill’ pattern using the toms and cymbals)
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Polyrhythm (two or more different rhythms played at the same time)
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Bi Rhythm ( a feeling of three against two – common in African music)
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Regular, Irregular (An irregular rhythm is where the rhythm changes all the time and it feels very
disjointed, a regular rhythm is one where there is a consistent and repetitive idea)
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Simple or Compound time signatures (you will need to practice recognizing the difference between the
two)
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Tempo (be ready to describe how fast a piece is played and how this might change)
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Rubato (where the performer varies the pulse to make it much more expressive)
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Hemiola (a rhythm feature)
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Cross rhythm (a type of polyrhythm, this is where one rhythm pattern is contradicted by another
rhythm pattern which has accents in different places – the effect is that it becomes hard to recognize
the time signature)
Melody (The Tune)
These words are used to describe the melody – beware, you do not use these words to describe other layers!
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Intervals! (This is the relationship between one note and the next – common intervals are a 3rd, ding
dong, 4th A-way in a manger, 5th Twinkle, Twinkle or an Octave, Somewhere over the rainbow)
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Conjunct or Disjunct (Conjunct is when the melody mainly moves in step, Disjunct is where the melody
has lots of wide leaps and moves around erratically)
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Broken chords, Arpeggio (These features are often found in the bass part, but you sometimes find
melodies that have a broken chord feel)
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Scalic (Melodies in the classical period often have a scalic feel, Indian pieces begin with a scale –
basically any melody that sounds like a scale)
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Diatonic (this is a melody that belongs to a major or minor key)
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Chromatic (this is a melody that is based around the chromatic scale – moves around in semitones)
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Pentatonic (a five note scale, these melodies are used in folk music and some types of world music a
lot)
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Sequence (a short melody that is repeated up or down in pitch – usually up or down a step- common in
classical music)
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Slide/Glissando/Portamento (this is common in vocal music)
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Ostinato (this is a short repeated pattern, often in the bass), Riff (a short repeated pattern, this word is
often used to describe what the guitar is playing
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Phrasing (melodies are usually phrased in a two or four bar structure)
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Pitch bend (as it sounds – guitars or similar are good at these)
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Improvisation (made up! Indian music and some vocal music has an improvised feel)
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Articulation (the way a note is played) – Legato (smooth), Staccato (detached), Accent (a note is
emphaised)
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Ornaments (decorations added to some notes, the most common are trills, but you also get
acciaccaturas which are a single quick note played before the main note – found in classical music)
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Augmentation (this is where the notes of the melody are extended) Diminuention (the opposite)
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Blues Notes (In blues music, some notes of the scale are flattened to give the music a jazzy feel)
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Inversion (this is where the melody is effectively played upside down – same intervals, but the opposite
way)
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Modal (a type of scale in the medieval period, but used by some Jazz and Rock musicians) Whole Tone
(a five note scale)
Texture (the layers)
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Homophonic (the most common – one melody with an accompaniment – piano and chords, voice and
guitar etc..)
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Monophonic (one melody, no chords, no other instruments – a flute playing a tune)
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Polyphonic (two or more melodies played together at the same time – common in the Baroque period)
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Unison (all the instruments playing the same melody)
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Imitation (one instrument copies another)
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Canon (One melody is copied by another instrument but the other instrument will start two bars later
– also known as a round)
Harmony (two or more notes played together at the same time)
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Diatonic (where chords belong to a major or minor scale)
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Chromatic (a chord that does not belong to the key signature, for instance a Bb chord is played in a C
major piece, this would be chromatic because Bb is not in the key of C major)
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Dissonant (this is where two or more notes create a clashing sound)
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Consonant (this is where the notes sound pleasing – any major or minor chord effectively)
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Cadences! (There are four types: Perfect – at the end of a piece, sounds complete, Imperfect – sounds
incomplete, like the piece wants to carry on, Interrupted – sounds like the piece wants to carry on,
Plagal, a-men feel.
Structure and Form (the way a piece of arranged)
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Binary (A:B) – sometimes called Minuet and Trio
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Ternary (A:B:A) – in Opera, this is called a Da Capo Aria (aria means song)
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Rondo (A:B:A:C:A)
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Ground Bass (a piece based upon a recurring 8 bar bass pattern that does not change)
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Theme and Variation (where you are presented with a simple melody and you then hear a range of
variations on that theme)
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Sonata (a solo piece, often for piano or any other orchestral instrument)
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Continuo (a chord backing to a Baroque piece, played by a Harpsichord)
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Popular song structures – verse/chorus etc…
Suggested Listening List
Lennon/McCartney ‘She loves You’ Beatles
Jagger/Richards ‘I Can’t get no Satisfaction’ Rolling
Stones
Baroque Orchestral Music
Bennett/Welch ‘Summer Holiday’ Cliff Richard
Vivaldi ‘Spring’ from “The Four Seasons”
Rock Music, R’n’ B, Hip-Hop
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F BWV 1047
Page/Plant ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Led Zeppelin
Handel Water Music
West ‘Gold Digger’ Kanye West
The Concerto
Ne-Yo ‘Take A Bow’ Rihanna
Haydn Trumpet Concerto in E flat
Music Theatre
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto No. 1in D Op. 35
Schwartz ‘Defying Gravity’ Wicked
Shostakovich Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Op. 102
Bart ‘I’m reviewing the Situation’ Oliver
Music for Voices
Lloyd-Webber ‘Any Dream Will Do’ Joseph and the
Gibbons ‘The Silver Swan’
Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Puccini ‘Nessun Dorma’ from “Turandot”
Film Music
Orff Carmina Burana
Williams “Star Wars”
Chamber Music
Marianelli “Atonement”
Haydn String Quartet in C Op. 76 No. 3 ‘Emperor’
Zimmer “Gladiator”
Schubert Piano Quintet Op. 114 D 667 ‘The Trout’
Stravinsky 8 Miniatures for 15 Players
The Sonata
Scarlatti Piano Sonata in Gminor ‘Cat’s Fugue’
Beethoven Violin Sonata No.5 in F Op. 24 ‘Spring’
Chopin Piano Sonata No. 2 in B flat minor Op. 35
Blues
Johnson ‘Come on in my kitchen’ Robert Johnson
King/Josea ‘You upset me Baby’ BB King
Clapton ‘Sunshine of your Love’ Cream
Popular Music of the 1960s
Use Youtube to listen to music from
Africa, The Caribbean and India
Listening Diary
Name of Piece and Composer
Type of Piece (sonata,
chamber music)
Tempo
Structure
Brief description of the
dynamics for the first 30
seconds
What contrasts are used
between sections? (practice
writing in detail here, in
section B, the rhythm is now
swung)
Any other valuable
observations