How did everyone's music GCSE go today? I took Edexcel and it was great: they've done well this year.
But what about tricky questions - is anyone unsure of how they did?

B. R.

Not as bad as it could have been, too be honest! I thought the dance music question was a bit, erm, dodgy... but I liked the first question! Cheered me up - I love Swan Lake!

I think it went okay, although I know I've definitely got a couple of questions wrong (I knew the songs an looked up answers like tempo etc!!). Other than that it was okay I think. And hope!! I need 82% or above to get an A* ahh!!

Are we allowed to post answers/what we wrote? Like, has everyone done the exam?

Yeah, I think we're allowed to talk about it... people who haven't done the exam yet (if there are any) will be on supervision and probably wouldn't be allowed to use the internet until they've done their exam.
The really annoying thing is that we're not allowed to know our coursework mark... is that just the case for me, or does everyone not know?
(About to write something about questions on exams, scroll down only if you want to know!)

















What was the dance music question all about?!
What were the four structures and what style/genre was it?
As you can probably tell, dance music isn't my strong point lol!

Well, I put that it was techno...because it had no chord movement and had percussion - although the vocal sampling threw me off a bit! I then put the structure thing as mix-in, mix-out, breakdown and build up (might've made the last one up!! haha!).

Dance music isn't my strong point either...they all sound the same to me! And I'm not a great fan of electronic stuff - I like 'real' instruments!!



And what did people put for the question where you had to cross 4 boxes, and there was stuff like arpgeggios, glissando, trill, canon, fugue, imitation etc?

And what 2 percussive instruments did you put? I said glockenspeil and chimes

No I don't get my coursework results either...well, we were asked what grade we wanted to achieve, and then our teacher calculated our coursework mark and then told us what percentage we needed in the listening in order to get that grade. But they didn't say our coursework mark. I think some teachers don't like giving it out as it's worth 60% and then if someone got a grade they were happy with then they may not revise as much as they could (although us musically obsessed people would still revise!!).

Laura

Same, I'm a "real instrument" person, even though I'm a big fan of hip-hop and rap (yes, I'm a violinist who likes rap ).
Oh, for that one, I wasn't sure what the fourth one was... I THINK i got trill, canon and imitation and then arpeggio maybe...
I got gockenspiel too and I thought there was a cymbal... again, dodgy question!
And for the last one, did you get one of the instruments as a bansuri? Or was that just a flute that I heard and got too hopeful lol

Well I've never actually heard of a bansuri!! hahaha!! I wasn't taught about that...!! Maybe you're right though, I don't know!! I know I initially wrote flute, but then crossed it out and picked a different instrument because it didn't quite sound like a flute to me...so you're probably right - whatever a bansuri is!!! I put a sitar, a dhol drum, and then a drum machine and synthesised strings :S

LOL! maybe it wasn't one of them then... yeah, i got sitar and tabla too and then i got a drum machine and strings too.
Indian Raga section wasn't too bad, and neither was the African music. The Britpop question wasn't too bad either.
We must come on here and post our results when we get them in August!

That exam wasn't to bad but I made quite a few stupid mistakes. I suppose I was nervous. I loved the AOS1 questions. They were quite easy. AOS2 wasn't bad. On Q3. what style did you put? I wasn't sure so I put Expressionism. I'm probably wrong. The Dance and Britpop was alright. I did quite well on the Dance considering I was terrible at it on tuesday. I didn't get on well with A0S4. I struggled a bit on the Indian Raga.

As for coursework. All I know is that I got 52 for my compostion.



Will do!!!

Yeah, we had a a debate over than question too when we finished the exam... my teacher said it was a minimalist piece by John Adams, so I'm guessing the answer's minimalism. But it was a bit weird because it moved a bit too quickly for a minimalist piece, but there you go... as it happens, I did put minimalism, so I hpe that's right
The hardest had to be the dance music for me.
52/60 for your composition? Well done!

Yay I put minimalism too, and agree that it was a bit weird...however I thought it was too 'samey' to be expressionism - like the repeated motifs and stuff!!


Oooh yes we'll have to post our results!! Scaryyyy!! Can't wait until they come now!!

I think I got at least 54/60 for my coursework...we got results ages ago when we did the coursework, and have since 'tweaked' them and had them moderated - so hopefully my marks have gone up, but who knows!


What did everyone put as the voice singing (think it was are of study 2?) I first of all put tenor, but then I wondered if it was too high for a tenor and then put alto! It was weird how I couldn't even tell whether they were male or female haha!! But now I think I should've put tenor...?

Yeah, August seems too far away!
And yeah, your mark would have gone up
Oh, I got soprano! :S I swear it was female... but then, in the Baroque period, men sang a lot higher, so it may well have been a male voice.

I did this exam yesterday too!
I thought it was all right.... I hope
I'm doing music next year so I really want an A*, but I'm a bit worried, because I know I got a few things wrong - I found the fusion question really hard and just made random stuff up.
Oh well, time to go and revise for all the others.
I have English Lit. and maths on tuesday, biology on wednesday and chemistry on thursday. What about everyone else?

xxxx

Aw, I'm sure you would have been fine! And yeah, I made up some random stuff throughout the exam.
I have English Lit and maths on tuesday too
Do you do the maths IGCSE by any chance?

I do. What did you think? It seems lots of harder topics have been left for the 2nd paper on Tuesday.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking too! There was no differntiation, vectors or quadratic simultaneous equations on it. So, yep, I'm guessing paper 2 will be quite hard

Also no functions which can be a bit nasty if powers, roots etc are involved!

I really hope there won't be any turning points...they're horrible!

I have maths on Monday, and then English Lit on Tuesday...then biology on Wednesday. Then that's me done until after half term

Good luck for the rest of everyone's exam btw!!

Back to the Edexcel GCSE... I think it was truly awful. My teacher was watching what I wrote over my sholder and kept walking away and tutting... I've done really well in all practice papers and never had to guess but that paper was horrific for me

Hello,
According to my teacher, the dance music was HOUSE music, and yes I heard the bansuri too!
I put mix in, mix out, breakdown and build up too!
However I said it was expressionism for AoS2: I thought there was too much changing. Are you sure it was John Adams? I agree with summer song: the swan lake was great (especially as I play the bassoon).
For percussion, I got a glockenspiel and a gong.
I was actually told my coursework marks: full marks! But you probably don't get told them because of the moderation, which may change them which can "make students frustrated".
I'll make sure to post my results in August too: How nerve wracking!
What about the Oasis "Talk Tonight"? I think the melodic transcription was pretty easy as it was just two notes.

Good luck to all!
B.R.

P.S. I hope were allow to discuss answers. Terribly sorry if we're not!

Oh no, I put House and then crossed it out! And, I get the whole section thing NOW! grr!
Well, my teacher said it was a minimalist piece by John Adams, not sure if it actually was or if he just thought it was.
And yeah, I've played Swan Lake in orchestra so that's how I knew that it was a bassoon, it was Tchaikovsky and it was Romantic (I think )
Well done on your coursework! Aparantly, my teacher told my mum that I got an A*, so I'm a bit relieved!
And, yeah, I didn't mind the Oasis question, because with writing a lot of notes, I either get it all right or all wrong, and it was straightforward this time.
I thought the African singing piece was really quite nice to listen to!

Ha i can't believe i put Mozart and Classical for the first piece, disgraceful!
I don't know why, i sort of knew it wasn't, but i just left it like that! argghh so stupid of me

and i was happy about the note labelling, normally i do quite badly, but i think i got it right this time lol

and the last question my brain kinda fuzzed out...it was Bhangra wasn't it?....my mate just put Bhangra in one of the boxes where you're supposed to name the cultures that fuse lol

I did exactly the same as you! I put Mozart classical, even though my gut feeling was telling me it wasn't and that it was Tchaikovsky!! How annoying!!

And same with the notation for the Oasis question...I was soo pleased with that because we spent ages with our teacher practising dictation, getting loads wrong and consequently getting really worried!!

And yes I think it was Bhangra on the last question, I put Indian traditional with British dance?




Oh no! I hope that dance music piece wasn't house! I put techno...it had like no chord movement!! Do you think that they'd give you the marks for the second part where you had to give features of the piece of music based on your answer for the first part (meaning that if I put techno then would I get marks for getting the features of techno right, or would I get no marks for the whole thing?)

That's what I was thinking to about getting marks for the characteristics... will they give you marks for giving correct characteristics for the style that you've written? Or will they give you marks only if you describe the characteristics for the right style? Same sort of thing with that minimalism/serialism/expressionism question really.
Do you think it would be alright if I put Western and Indian for the last question... I'm a bit annoyed it might have been too general because I know it was, more correctly, Punjabi!

Well if I was an examiner, I think I'd give you the marks for Western and Indian!!

I don't suppose we get to see the marks given for each section when we get our results? They should be able to say where we went wrong, but I don't think it really works like that, does it? We probably just get a grade

Haha thanks, I think you should be the examiner
Nah, I don't think you can see your marks for each section... but I guess, when the marl scheme and paper get published onto the Edexcel website (a few months later maybe?), then if you really want to know where you went wrong and remembered your answers you could check I guess!
The grade boundaries for last year didn't look too fun... needed 84% to get an A*... hope it's lower this year
But then, we've gotta count coursework too, so I really can't predict anything lol

That's really horrible! I'd hate that!




OH!! I'm really annoyed, I wrote house, then crossed it out and wrote club dance or something equally horrific. And I got those sections completely wrong.
Not looking good for me......

This has brought back memories for me! I sat most of my O-levels in 1968, and I can still remember my History teacher reading what I was writing over my shoulder in the exam - I had to ask him to go away as I found it so off-putting! He looked so surprised when I asked him to go!

Do hope you've done better than you fear, woodwindman.

Yeah, I'm sure that dance music was techno.
I identified the same kind of things as you: -Little/no chordal movement -More purely synthetic sounds -Usually around 120-140bpm and then it had the same kind of drum patterns as in house, ie: -Four-on-the-floor -Off beat high-hat patterns
Hmm, I wrote house, then crossed it out and put techno, as it didn't have vocals/vocal samples - which is generally an indication that it's house music.
I don't know though, I'm not the examiner!


And, no lol, the classical music was infact from Swan Lake, the dance of the 4 swans.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZvTT6RERlMg&feature=related
I listened to it on my Ipod the night before, conveniently.
(:

And yeah, I thought it was Bhangra, not Bollywood as it didn't have vocals which is the indicator.
Although i didn't know what instruments to put,
Whether to put tabla or dhol.
I can't remember what I did now. lol.
And yeah I put, Indian fused with Western either Classical or Pop, I can't remember which it was.. it was like, 3 weeks ago.


I just hope I got an A/*
I also hope the boundaries are low...
Cos I mean, we didn't have a music teacher in Year 10, so I basically self-taught myself all the stuff I needed to know from that pinky/purpley book thing in January this year (when the new music teacher came)..
And got my brother to test me on it (as he's doing music at uni)

Fingers crossed.
:S!





and, in response to someone else.
"Well, my teacher said it was a minimalist piece by John Adams"

It definately was minimalism and I'm certain it was by John Adams..
It was "A Short Ride In A Fast Machine" by John Adams,
A weight lifted off my shoulders when that came on, because we had just played it in wind band in a concert in Feb.
I was a bit lucky tbh.

YAY! haha. you're probably right about the techno thing because i'm a bit rubbish and dance musics and can only tell hip hop apart from the others!
And i think i know which pinky-purply textbook you're talking about... is it the one with a woman on the front blowing a whistle?

I'm doing this next year!

I've done my Grade 5 Theory and Grade 5 Clarinet, so do you think that will help much?

By June 2010, I should have done my G6 Theory, and be working towards my G8 Clarinet depending on how well my exam goes next year, so I'm hoping for a really good result!

Sam94.

Yes, that will help! Mind you, you can get away with playin a piece below G5 standard and it still falling into the "More difficult" category. The theory will be quite helpful, especially with the terminology of recognising some of the features in a piece of music (ornaments etc).

I thought it was pretty difficult!!!

There was some trick questions in it.

I only need 60% to get a A*.

Good luck in your results everyone