AAAAAH! I have my GCSE terminal task tomorrow, if anyone has done this before, can they give any helpful advice please?

Good luck!

* Think of what structure you'll do before you go in
* If writing, make sure you put articulation, dynamics, any other markings on, if you're playing it then obviously remember to play these.
* If you can try to modulate

*sprays good luck mist*

Good luck! It might help to have a sort of melody ready if you're doing rhythm...

Can I just ask... what is a GCSE terminal task?

Car Expert

Part of the OCR syllabus where:

You have to write a composition in 30 minutes. You get given 3 stimuli, which are unseen beforehand (either rhythm, pitch or chords), you choose one and have to write a single line melody for it.

Do you have a favourite stimulus - for me it was always the rhythm. Be sure what you will do before you go in. Do you usually use the same structure for every single one? Our failsafe was
Make 4 lines of 4 bars each. It doesn't need to be any longer, then use the rhythm to make a 2 bar "theme".
Put this little theme at the beginning of the 1st, second and 4th line. Now you have 6 bars already with hardly any effort! Fill the 3rd line with sequences or any other melodic device you are comfortable with. Now you have 10 bars! In the remaining six bars add a response to the "theme" you wrote earlier, like "question and answer", you probably did this in class in year 8? Remember to end on the key note at the end! - Im not patronising you but its amazing what you forget if you're under pressure! You may have done something similar in class at school.
Otherwise have fun with it really - If that is possible in an exam! The examiner likes performance - like, stick a rit in somewhere and if youre feeling adventurous some little trills, dynamics, varied articulation things like that all tot up marks!

I'm sure it will be fine - smile and tell yourself that after all it is 15 marks in a whole GCSE.

Stay cool and Good luck!

Thanks everyone, I'll try to remember everything! I prefer to use the note row and have revised some points to remember, so hopefully will be OK.

Good Luck!!! Relax and you'll be fine.... :)

Terminal task? That sounds nasty . They certainly know how to make these things sound friendly .

Good luck, I'm sure that you'll be fine .

Oh yes, I've got this on the 2nd of May! My favourite is the rhythm stimulus, and like CPPF, I usually use the same kind of (bland, plain and very unimaginative) melody, which I've got up my belt. I just vary it on the day.

In terms of structure, I usually have A, B, A. each section is 8 bars long. The first and third lines of each section is the same, and the 2nd and 4th lines are similar, but the last note of the 2nd line ends in the dominant key; for the last line I end on the tonic. Then for section B, I always modulate (this gets you marks!!), and have the same structure, in a abab kind of pattern (if I have time I make the 4th line a little more impressive!). I have a link (e.g. if going from G to C maj, I put a F natural in somewhere), and go back to my section A.

That sounds so complicated in writing, but it's not that frightening! I was terrified of it when I was first introduced to it in Year 10, but now I've grown more used to it. Try not to worry too much, and if you make a mistake/forget/run out of time, just improvise! No one will know.

That being said, I know I'm going to be in a major frenzy on the 1st of May, so I'd probably be making a similar thread in a month's time...

I used A, A1, B, A (all 4 bars long)

Ditto

I put dynamics, rit and stuff in too...though I remember panicking after mine because I spelt 'tristamente' (sp?) wrong.

Phew, it's all over and done with now! It was fine, by the way Had loads of time so I knew what I was actually doing when I performed it!!! Thanks again everybody and good luck to anakrron and anybody else doing terminal task soon. It's not actually that bad (shockingly!) and don't panic like I did!

Well done, sounds like you did fabulously

We've been so strongly advised against handing in a written score that it's unreal! I think it's mainly because your score has to be perfect and there is not room for any errors. Also, if you play it then you can put in more expression etc.

As far as structure goes, I tend to do ABA with an ABAC structure within each section. And i agree on the modulation, that scores you loads of marks.

Yup, that's what my structure is. You managed to condense my rambling into 2 sentences!

I think you did well, littleredtea, well done.

I think I recorded mine as well as handed in score... Can't remember..

Don't they just

Glad it went OK, LRT

I don't think they actually send off the written composition, well that's what I was told anyway, just the recording to be moderated.

Ok What is OCR and Terminal task ?

OCR = an exam board.
The terminal task is what I described above, this bit:
You have to write a composition in 30 minutes. You get given 3 stimuli, which are unseen beforehand (either rhythm, pitch or chords), you choose one and have to write a single line melody for it.

thanks