A1 Musical Styles
● Iconic composers, artists, bands and producers who have influenced and impacted musical styles.
● Impact of technology on musical styles, instruments, production and recording.
A2 Musical elements, stylistic features and characteristics (music theory)
● Instrumentation, e.g. instrumental techniques, type of ensemble, alternative instrumentation, sonic features, electronic sounds.
● Texture, e.g. solo, duet, homophonic, polyphonic, unison.
● Timbre, e.g. sonic features, electronic sounds, FX.
● Tonality, scales and modes, e.g. major scale, minor scales, blues scale, pentatonic scale, modes, ragas, exotic scales.
● Scales and modes, e.g. major scale, minor scales, blues scale, pentatonic scale, modes, ragas, exotic scales.
● Harmony, e.g. major and minor triads, power chords, 7th chords, sus chords, extended chords, suspensions, inversions, chord sequences, arpeggios, broken chords.
● Rhythmic techniques, e.g. metre, tempo/bpm, syncopation, swing, one drop/skanking, polyrhythms, hemiola, phasing.
● Structure/ form, e.g. verse/ chorus, 12-bar blues, through-composed, bridge, intro, outro, ABACAD
● Melodic techniques, e.g. conjunct, disjunct, chromatic, diatonic, phrasing, repetition, sequence, ornamentation, motifs, round/canon, riffs, hooks, head, improvisation.
● Production, e.g. microphone use, recording styles, sampling, FX, looping, controllerism, turntablism, quantisation, sequencing, automation.
B1 Music industry products
● Types of music product:
o live performance
o audio recording
o composition for media, such as film, TV, adverts and computer games o original song or composition
o Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) project.
B2 Music realisation techniques
● Music performance:
o instrumentation
o roles and functions of different instruments, e.g. transposing for other instruments and vocal ranges, use of timbre, special effects
o how individual parts fit together, e.g. arrangements, SATB, orchestration, exploring timbre, rhythm section and soloists, call and response
o ensemble skills such as playing in time with a sense of pulse, sensitivity to others.
● Creating original music:
o starting points and stimuli (both musical and non-musical) o repetition and contrast
o developing and extending musical ideas.
● Techniques used in producing music:
o software instruments, e.g. DAW software
o microphone selection and placement and use o MIDI and audio editing techniques.