The four genres that you have to transform the songs into for your exam are:

1. Ambient 

2. Britpop

3. Disco

4. Swing

Click the links to learn more about that genre. This could help you in your research about the genres. 

What do I do here?

1. Research about each genre to give you a good idea about the stylistic features of the genre. 

2. Take a listen to some of the reference songs that are a part of that genre

3. Write the stylistic features of each genre to understand what the typical characteristics are

4. On your Google Classroom, there is a small writing task to complete to show what you know about each music genre

As you are aware, you cannot pick your own song for Component 3. A selection to pick from is given to you. Take a listen to those examples.

The song choices are 

• Don’t Start Now – Dua Lipa

• We’ve Only Just Begun – The Carpenters

• New Normal – Khalid

• New Soul – Yael Naim

• Start a Band – Brad Paisley and Keith Urban

• New Body Rhumba – LCD Soundsystem

• Blue Monday – New Order

• New World Symphony – Largo – Dvorak

• That’s How You Start Over – Diana Ross

• New Day – Take That

The style that you choose must be different from the style of the original piece. 

For this Set Task you cannot use the following combination:

Disco and That’s How You Start Over – Diana Ross

Here are the songs to have a listen to:

You are required to pick a song and change it to a different genre. This is where your research into the genres comes in handy, because you could pick a song that could fit into the new genre quite well. 

E.g Dvorak Symphony No. 9 into Ambient. This could be done on the Macs.

Each learner must submit their own independent response to this externally assessed task. 

It is not possible that one performance can be used to assess more than one individual. This means if you are in a group, then there will need to be separate videos for each student

Group responses with shared musical outcomes are not permitted. There has to be separate videos.

Where a piece with lyrics is selected, there is no expectation for you to include a solo vocal line. The melody could be performed on an instrument instead. 

Creating and Performing

What are the rules for this pathway?

• Play a lead and/or accompanying role in your work and other peers/teachers can participate. 

• You must specifically instruct other performers in what to play

• The assessed learner must make a singular, unique and continuous contribution to the performance. It cannot be an edited video for example

• You are responsive for the musical content when creating their new interpretation

•  You are responsible for the creation of each part, and performers should only perform that part as indicated by you.

• Where this is the case, it is important that you plan enough time to rehearse and refine your performance as well as the parts for other performers and/or recorded elements.

What does this mean?

You have to create the music for yourself to play and create the music for anyone else who will play with you. If you are a singer, you have to make the chords for your keyboardist to play. You have to plan for rehearsals so that you have a decent performance. When recording your work, it has to be one take video and to not be edited. 

If you are performing to a backing track, you have to make the backing track yourself. 

You can be a solo player, however you also have to make sure you can show you have changed the genre. 

Your set task

Using your knowledge of genres, styles, musical features and stylistic techniques, create a new interpretation of the piece using the features and characteristics of your chosen style.

You could consider changing the following to create your own interpretation:

• structure

• tempo

• harmony/tonality

• time signature

• instrumentation

• performance/vocal techniques

• effects.

You may introduce entirely new elements into your interpretation. However, the original piece you have chosen must be recognisable within the final outcome.

What to submit for Activity two

A video recording of your interpretation of your chosen piece. 

The video recording will showcase your individual creative and technical musical skills. The video recording must be one continuous shot without edits, in which you and any other participants are visible and audible.

You can also create your own backing track to accompany your live performance. Your piece of music should last between one minute 30 seconds and four minutes.

At the beginning of the video recording, you must identify yourself with your name and learner registration number.

Creating and Producing

What are the rules for this pathway?

• You can use other musicians to play the parts, but you have to record the parts and provide the parts for the musician to play 

• You are responsible for the content of your work. 

• You have to direct the other musicians on what to play - they cannot play for you

• You may introduce entirely new features into your interpretation. However, the original piece you have chosen must be recognisable within the final outcome.

• If you use samples or loops, you must edit these to make your own - you cannot just drag and drop

What does this mean?

Use of simply dragging and dropping samples or loops isn't allowed. You need to edit it or change it in some way to recreate a track in a different genre. You can get others to play, but you have to tell them what to play. You need to create it on a DAW and can choose the DAW. 

Your Set Task

Using your knowledge of genres, styles, musical features and stylistic techniques, create a new interpretation of the piece using the features and characteristics of your chosen style.

You could consider the following to create your own interpretation:

• changes in instrumental sounds

• changes in structure

• changes in harmony/tonality

• changes in tempo and/or time signature

• various editing techniques

• effects and processing

• mixing techniques

• audio recording techniques.

You may introduce entirely new features into your interpretation. However, the original piece you have chosen must be recognisable within the final outcome.

Your finished DAW project must be exported as a stereo audio file. The audio recording will showcase your individual creative and technical musical skills.

You may use other musicians to play parts of your response, but all ideas for the new piece must be your own. You are wholly responsible for the musical content when creating your new interpretation and you should specifically direct other musicians in their roles. Musicians should only perform their parts as indicated by you.

Your piece of music should last between one minute 30 seconds and four minutes.

What to submit for Activity Two 

A fully mixed audio file (MP3 or WAV) of your track in stereo - high quality is preferred.

A stereo digital audio recording exported from a DAW project. The file name must include your name and learner registration number.

For Component 3, you have 3 activities to do. One of those is a preparation, and this section will be dedicated to that. Let's take a look at what is required.

You must outline

• what you plan to do in response to the brief

• how your proposed response will address the aims of the brief

• how you will use musical elements, genres, styles and playing/producing techniques to re-interpret your chosen piece.

• your consideration of the resources and skills development needed to produce the final piece of music (time, materials, space etc.).

Therefore, it's a good idea to jot down what you are going to do, what you are going to change, what resources do you need, what is your timeframe. 

DON'T FORGET! If you are using any resources (sheet music, videos, chord sheets etc) these need to be collected during this time. 

Your notes:

• should be written in bullet point form

• should not contain full sentences or continuous prose

• may contain mind maps of ideas or information (very useful!)

• can be up to one side of A4, which can be handwritten or typed (if typing it, the font size must be 10 points minimum).

• Your final work should be saved as a PDF document and secured in your digital folder.

You are then given two hours to write up your plan using the preparation notes to help you. 

The internet is not allowed in this section therefore, you must have made as many notes as you possibly can.

As it is a formal supervision, the teachers cannot help you write your notes.

The teachers cannot give you any guidance on how to write your notes either

All work must be completed independently (On your own)

Your preparation notes for activity one will be issued with the template

You will need to write or type on the template 

This is the big one - the one with the most marks - and this is creating your music product. 

You will have 16 hours supervised by teachers to complete your music product on either pathway. You can experiment, develop and record musical material for the final submission. You are required to record your performance/ production at the end.

You may also prepare up to one side of A4 notes and up to six supporting images and/or screenshots to support their response to Activity 3. This is important to do as this will help you evaluate your work. Again your notes should be:

• should be written in bullet point form

• should not contain full sentences or continuous prose

• may contain mind maps of ideas or information

• can be up to one side of A4, which can be handwritten or typed (if word processed, the font size must be 10 points minimum). 

All learner work must be saved and stored securely at the end of each session and made available to learners at the beginning of the next session.

DON'T FORGET! All work must be entirely your own.

You are required to make a written commentary telling the examiner:

1. How you developed your response through the creative process

2. How you used musical elements, genres, styles and playing or producing techniques to

reinterpret your chosen piece.

3. Strengths and areas for improvement of the final product.

You will need to do this on a computer and explain about the creative process that you undertook. 

This is also where screenshots from activity 2 come in use, as you can use these to explain your points. 

Here is what the brief says...

Teachers/tutors should note that:

• learner notes from Activities 1 and 2 and the PDF copy of their initial response (Activity 1) must be issued to learners at the beginning of the session for reference

• final bounced/exported stereo tracks or video recorded performances must be provided to learners for reference. Software used to edit audio or video files should not be accessible during Activity 3

• learners should not be given any direct guidance

• learners are not permitted to have access to the internet during Activity 3 learners should not be given any support in writing or editing notes

• all work must be completed independently by the learner

• learners must save their work for Activity 3 as a PDF in a clearly labelled digital folder under direct supervision.

To Clarify...

Each person must submit three pieces of work, exported to a digital folder, clearly labelled with their name, registration number and centre number:

• Activity 1: a completed response template to the music brief, saved as a PDF.

• Activity 2: a video/audio recording of musical material.

• Activity 3: a commentary on the creative process, saved as a PDF.

Each learner must complete a Learner Authentication and Record Form.