OCR GCSE Music My Music (Area of Study 1) overview quiz quiz

Only in the J536/05 listening exam alongside the other four Areas of Study on the paper

Through a separate written essay about your own musical tastes handed in at the end of the course

Only through the Integrated Portfolio (a solo performance plus a free-brief composition)

It is not formally assessed at all and is just background knowledge for the rest of the course

20%

30%

40%

60%

Two ensemble performances

An ensemble performance and an OCR-set-brief composition

A listening test and an essay

A solo performance and a free-brief composition

Length and volume

Difficulty and recording quality only

Accuracy and interpretation

Notation and theory

Easy pieces are completely banned by the exam board and will be given absolutely no marks whatsoever

Harder pieces are always shorter, so you finish faster and the examiner hears fewer mistakes

It does not affect the mark in any way at all, because difficulty is never considered by the examiner

OCR takes the level of difficulty into account, so a challenging piece played accurately rewards more

A composition brief that is written and then released to every candidate each year by OCR

A composition task you set yourself, choosing the style, effect, instrumentation and length

A performance task that has no rules at all about what you may choose to play or for how long

A question in the listening exam asking you to comment on a recorded extract you hear

Its overall length, with longer compositions always scoring more marks than short ones

How loud the recording is, since a louder mix is treated as a more confident piece

How well you develop your ideas and control the elements to fit the brief

How many different instruments it uses, with more instruments earning a higher mark

Quantising (snapping recorded notes onto the exact beat of the grid in software)

Panning (placing a sound to the left or right across the stereo field in the mix)

Mastering (the final stage of polishing the overall sound of a finished recording)

Sequence (repeating an idea at a higher or lower pitch)

The actual recorded audio waveform of the instrument captured by a microphone

Performance data (which notes, how loud, how long) rather than audio

Moving video footage of the performer playing along with the recorded track

Scanned images of the printed sheet music for the piece being performed

Playing many different instruments all at once in a single live take with no overdubbing of any parts at all

Copying one track many times over so that the same part is heard repeated again and again

Recording or sequencing each part on its own track so the parts can be balanced and processed independently

Deleting any unwanted tracks from the project so that only the finished mix is left behind

Because the set Areas of Study are far too hard to revise in the time available to you

Because the whole of My Music is optional and you can simply choose to skip it altogether

Because the teacher chooses all of the music for you, so there is nothing left to revise

Because My Music is assessed only through recorded practical work, not the listening exam

Only a recording of the finished piece, with no score or written account at all

A score or written account, a recording, and the brief you set

Only a score of the piece, handed in without any recording of it being played

A written essay about the style of the piece instead of a score or a recording

Carefully shaping the dynamics and phrasing throughout in order to bring out the character of the music well

Recording several different takes and then choosing the best one of them to submit

Playing only the right notes with no expressive control, or over-reaching with a piece beyond your technique

Choosing a piece in a style you already know well and feel confident performing live