GCSE Music Revision Advice

GCSE music revision is hard to grasp because it is such a vast and in some terms, vague subject. Below are a few elements you will need to know for your GCSE music exam plus a few tips on how to do your revision for them. We hope you find this helpful.

GCSE Music - Listening Exam

During this part of your GCSE music exam you will be expected to do revision for:

Perceiving the relationship between sound and symbol
Identify different aspects of the piece of music such as rhythm, tempo, pitch and instruments etc. (do some revision on these)
After you have identified them, relate them to the distinctive features of different musical periods so that you are setting them in context of which era they came from.
Translate sound into notation (write it down in a major key)
Compare different arrangements of music in different periods and styles
You will also be expected to make a comment on the detail of the performance using the appropriate musical vocabulary, so make sure you do revision on the right words AND know what they mean!

General GCSE Music Exam Advice

For your GCSE music exam remember to do some revision on the different periods of music such as:

Medieval (pre 1500)
Baroque (1650-1750)
Romantic (1810-1900)
Renaissance (1500-1650)
Classical (1750-1810)
Modern (1900-present)

During your revision make sure that you have a good level of understanding as to what the characteristics are of the music from these genres. You will also need to do some revision on the different musical instruments and their various family types as well as music from around the world.

General GCSE Music Revision Advice

As with any other GCSE revision, try and stay calm, drink plenty of water and take as many revision breaks as you need. It may seem like a lot to get your head around at first but if you start your GCSE music revision early enough you will find that things start to slot into place and you actually know a lot more than you think!

Good luck!