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EnglandMusic

Listening and Aural Skills

4 dot points across 4 inquiry questions. Click any dot point for a focused answer with worked past exam questions where available.

How do I describe and compare unfamiliar extracts in Section A of the Listening and Appraising paper?

The Section A unfamiliar-listening skill: describing extracts you have never heard against the elements, identifying style and features, and comparing an unfamiliar extract with the prescribed work or another extract, within the printed number of playings.
A focused answer to the Section A unfamiliar-listening skill in OCR A-Level Music. Covers describing extracts you have never heard against the elements, identifying the style and signature features of your areas of study, comparing an unfamiliar extract with the prescribed work, and managing the printed number of audio playings in the H543/05 paper.
16 min answer →

How do I recognise chords and complete a harmonic dictation by ear?

Harmonic dictation and chord recognition: hearing the bass line, chord quality and cadences, and completing missing chords or a bass on a printed extract, the harmonic aural skill of the Listening and Appraising paper.
A focused answer to harmonic dictation and chord recognition in OCR A-Level Music. Covers hearing the bass line, judging chord quality and sevenths, using cadence logic at phrase ends, and completing missing chords or a bass on a printed extract, the harmonic aural skill underlying Section B and the listening questions in H543/05.
15 min answer →

How do I take down melody and rhythm accurately in the dictation questions?

Melodic and rhythmic dictation: hearing and notating pitch (contour, intervals against the key) and rhythm (metre, beat subdivision, bar-counting), the score-completion skill of Section B and the wider aural demands of the paper.
A focused answer to melodic and rhythmic dictation in OCR A-Level Music. Covers hearing and notating pitch (contour, intervals against the key, using anchor notes) and rhythm (fixing the metre, subdividing the beat, counting the bar), the order to work in, and a reliable method for the score-completion dictations in Section B and the paper's aural demands.
15 min answer →

How do I plan and write the 25-mark Section C essays on the areas of study?

The Section C extended essay: answering two essays on two different areas of study, structuring an argument with named musical evidence, evaluating, and meeting the quality-of-extended-response criterion within the timing of H543/05.
A focused answer to the Section C extended essays in OCR A-Level Music. Covers answering two essays on two different areas of study, structuring an argument by theme with named musical evidence, evaluating rather than describing, meeting the quality-of-extended-response criterion, and managing the timing of the H543/05 paper.
16 min answer →