MusicQ&A by dot point

Composing (coursework overview): the assignment, in which you explore and develop musical ideas to create an original piece, submitted with an accompanying review, marked on creative use of the musical concepts and the reflective account of your decisions.

Performing (coursework overview): the externally assessed performance, a recital programme on one or two instruments (or voice) at Advanced Higher difficulty, the largest single component, marked on accuracy, musical understanding and the demands of the programme.

Harmony: the Advanced Higher harmonic concepts, including the added sixth chord, false relation, tierce de Picardie, secondary dominants, chromatic chords, suspensions, pedal, and modulation, identified aurally and from a score.

Melody: the Advanced Higher melodic concepts, including compound melody, ornamentation (acciaccatura, mordent, appoggiatura, trill, turn), melodic devices (inversion, augmentation, diminution, sequence) and scale types (modal, pentatonic, whole tone), identified aurally.

Music literacy: reading staff notation in treble and bass clefs, identifying key signatures, intervals, chords and rhythms from a score, recognising transposing instruments, and matching printed notation to the sound in the listening paper.

Musical styles and context: the historical periods and styles examined at Advanced Higher, including Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionist, serial and atonal, minimalist, jazz and blues, and Scottish and folk idioms, identified aurally from their characteristic concepts.

Rhythm and tempo: the Advanced Higher rhythm concepts, including hemiola, cross rhythm, polyrhythm, augmentation and diminution, irregular and asymmetric time signatures, and tempo terms such as rubato, identified aurally.

Texture, structure and form: the Advanced Higher concepts, including contrapuntal and imitative textures, fugue, canon, ground bass, and the larger forms (sonata form, rondo, theme and variations, ritornello, concerto), identified aurally and from a score.

The Understanding Music question paper: the externally marked listening and literacy paper worth 40 marks, testing aural identification of musical concepts cumulatively from National 3 to Advanced Higher, sequential listening, prominent features, and reading from a printed score.

Timbre and dynamics: the Advanced Higher concepts, including instrumental and vocal forces, playing techniques (con sordino, pizzicato, tremolo, harmonics, double stopping), articulation, and dynamic terms, identified aurally and from a score.