Demonstrate aural understanding through written representation
AS91275 is an external (end-of-year exam) standard worth 4 credits. You listen to pieces of music and write down what you hear — things like chords, rhythms, melodies, and musical features. The exam has three questions and you must answer all of them. It tests your ability to accurately identify and describe what is happening in music just by listening, and to write it down using correct musical notation and vocabulary.
You can identify basic elements like instrument groups, tempo, metre, dynamics, and articulation with reasonable accuracy. You can recognise chords and contours and spot changes in texture or chord, but your descriptions lack detail. You use some correct music vocabulary but may miss important details like time signatures or miss the difference between similar chords (e.g. ii vs IV).
You accurately identify instruments, time signatures, cadences, and pairs of chords. You can notate barlines and articulation correctly. You describe how compositional devices and instruments are used, and you link what you hear to the context of the question. You may make occasional errors, like writing chords that don't quite match the cadence you named.
You accurately transcribe melodies, syncopated rhythms, and complex chords (including 7th and suspended chords). You correctly add tempo markings, dynamics, time signatures, and articulation to a score. You discuss how texture, timbre, and instrumentation change and explain the effect this has on the music. Your answers are insightful, well-supported with evidence, and show strong exam technique.
Standards typically taken alongside or after this one. Same subject, grouped by level.