Music

"Who says you can't prepare for an aural exam?"

• knowledge of the musical concepts
• the skill to relate your knowledge to the aural stimuli
• the ability to identify relevant features in an unknown piece
• tactics which will help you to frame your answer within a limited timeframe.

General knowledge of the main concepts is not enough. You need a deep understanding of each concept and you must break them down into several component parts.

For example, a detailed understanding of the concept of pitch includes more than a general understanding of melody. It also includes pitch systems, range and harmony. If discussing harmony, you need to think about the harmonic rate, harmonic progression, chord voicing, chord vocabulary, textural implications, harmonic rhythm and so on. In other words, you need to break down the broader musical concepts into sub-concepts.

A mental checklist of sub-concepts and points of discussion may provide a useful mental prompt during the examination.

Follow the following four steps to develop a set of mental prompts:

• Construct a list of the major concepts (duration, pitch, dynamics and expressive techniques, tone colour, texture and structure).
  
  
• Break down each concept into its major areas. For pitch, the major areas are melody and harmony.
  
  
• Make a list of mental prompts (for harmony, they might include harmonic rate, harmonic progression, chord voicing, chord vocabulary).
  
  
• Develop a series of possibilities for each mental prompt. For harmony, this might include:
  
  

  Harmonic rate: rapid/slow, regular/irregular harmonic change
  Harmonic progression: repetitive, focal chords, drone
  Chord voicing: close, sparse, clustered, low/high, irregular
  Vocabulary: primary, altered, chromatic, clusters.

Each level of the prompt hierarchy should be memorised to the point of automatic response to ensure that under examination pressure they will readily and securely come to mind. In an examination, you haven't time to think about them!

The words you choose to describe the series of possibilities may be different from those chosen by other members of your class. They will develop over time while you are studying the concepts and new repertoire. They will become a shorthand way of retrieving information that is meaningful to you.

Musical terms often carry meaning which otherwise would take a sentence to explain, e.g. conjunct, compound, angular and so on. However, they must be supported by a thorough understanding of their meaning. In an exam situation, this needs to be automatic.

Try verbalising the definitions of all terms and have them checked by your teacher. It is one thing to think you know a definition of a term and quite another to express its meaning under pressure. Compile a list of definitions in your own words and relate them to music with which you are familiar.

The knowledge and organisation suggested above will be of little use if not associated with music. If, for example, you don't know what the melodic feature of angular contour sounds like, then there is little point in having it on your list.

There are a number of aural texts (with recordings) that itemise concepts and give a diverse range of musical examples to demonstrate them. Ask your teacher for a list or see if you can borrow one. Listen to the examples several times (not casually) and then find the same feature in other musical examples.

Take every opportunity (in the car, at home or at school, at the computer, or using your personal audio system) to analyse music in relation to your understanding of the concepts. Occasionally select any excerpt from your collection (1-2 minutes) and discuss it in relation to one of the major concepts. Practice will improve reaction times and will also help cement your work with prompts and their recognition.

Deconstruct and self-evaluate your answers. Read the feedback on class aural tasks or assessment tasks. They will often reveal persistent flaws or weaknesses that can be corrected. You can also write your own answers, using unlimited playings or time, and compare these with your attempt within the normal examination limits. Try to identify why you may have missed important features and, if necessar, strengthen cues. Listen further to particular examples of concepts or improve your understanding and recognition of their meaning.

In many excerpts you will recognise the style, whether in a broader sense (jazz) or a more specific context (bebop). Any style is characterised by generalised characteristics, some of which may be relevant when answering an aural question. Your knowledge of style may provide further mental prompts.

For example, a jazz excerpt would possibly incorporate a walking bass, extended chords, rhythm section, improvisation, syncopation, blues structure etc. If any of these features are relevant to the question, you can save time by simply confirming rather than finding their existence.

The lesson here is straightforward. Over both music courses, listen as broadly as possible and always categorise and organise information for later (and more efficient) retrieval. Do not limit your understanding and recognition only to official topics or those with which you are familiar.

Your teacher may have access to many past HSC papers. The structure of the music examinations has not changed very much for the new HSC. These papers provide great practice fodder and will orientate you to the possibilities of the real HSC question or excerpt. The more comfortable you are with the look and format of the paper, the fewer surprises there will be on the day.

You will find it easier to organise your answer if you identify the major divisions within the excerpt. This doesn't necessarily mean labelling the excerpt as binary or ternary form, but may be quite arbitrary and based upon major changes or occurrences in the excerpt.

This will allow the sequence of sound events to be ordered and more importantly, help relate one to the other in the answer. A diagram is often a useful way of representing the chosen sections and, with one or two labels, you can clarify the basis upon which each section is defined. Both you and the examiner are more likely to identify the passages to which you are referring if you have a sense of the structure of the excerpt.

It is almost impossible to write about pitch and not mention rhythm, or about harmony and not mention texture. Indeed, it is desirable to understand the interconnected way in which all concepts function. Your answers will otherwise remain superficial and narrow.

An essential feature of your answer should be the focus. That is, the perspective from which you write should always be related to the key concepts in the question.

Therefore, a concept such as melody may involve discussing the melodic rhythm, textural consequences, harmonic implications, structural features etc. All of these aspects are important to an understanding of melody. However, be sure to remain focused and neither pursue tangents (e.g. don't write about all things rhythmical) nor lose perspective (e.g. don't refer to a point which has no reference to melody).

Be sure to cover the range of possibilities (see prompts) of each concept. For example, tone colour questions usually require more than identifying instruments, although this is important. Discussion of role, techniques and effects, how the instruments are employed, combinational effects, structural implications, range and voicing, usage of register etc. can all be relevant to a comprehensive response.

The same principles apply to structure, which at one level often requires an overall recognition of individual sections (e.g. ABA), but also an understanding of how the composer defines musically each of these sections. Creating structural divisions may be achieved by changing instrumentation, introducing new thematic material, modulating, manipulating rhythmic patterns or using different dynamic levels etc. Structural elements are evident at all levels of music, from the overall plan, to the sectional sub-structure, phrase structure and even at the level of the cell or motif.

The two preceding sections emphasise the importance of breadth when answering questions (always ensuring there is plenty to write about).

No less significant is the complementary dimension of depth. The two are inseparable. An answer that is little more than a series of simple observations, which identifies events, provides simple explanations recalled from memory and basic classifications, is likely to be superficial.

Breadth and depth are valuable for analysis at deeper levels, which require the relating of points, finding significance, differentiating at fine levels, contrasting ideas, mapping change and so on.

It maybe helpful at times to think of each point you make as having a cause and effect. For example:

A trumpet is playing in section B.
In section B, a trumpet is playing a counter melody.
In section B, a trumpet is playing a counter melody based on the original theme.
In section B, a trumpet is playing a counter melody based on the original theme which introduces the final section.
In section B, a trumpet is playing a counter melody based on the original theme that introduces the final section and the climax, emphasised by the higher register, louder dynamics and accents.

The first statement is probably the first thought that comes into your head. However, by the time we reach the final statement, there is considerable breadth and depth in the response.

This intricate cause and effect network gives music its momentum and particular focus at any point in time. It can often be heard as part of the cycles of unity and contrast (tension and resolution) created within a composition.

Recognition of unity and contrast (or put another way, those forces which maintain the status quo and those that alter it) provide the basis for many relevant points.

As mentioned earlier, time (or lack thereof) is part of the challenge of this type of examination, so don't expect your answer to fall neatly into order, or assume that the deeper or related points will occur in sequence.

Note down as much as possible, but leave a little space between the major points. If further ideas are triggered later, they can be written in the next available space, or, if more appropriate, in the space left earlier.

It may also be useful to develop some of your own shorthand notation to represent ideas and concepts. Use these during playings, allowing you to remain focused on the recording. In the pause between playings you can then refer to your notes and write them up into useful points. Be careful not to write continually through each playing or you will miss important features relevant to the question.

Questions are usually worded very carefully to avoid ambiguity and confusion. Therefore give each question more than a casual glance. Questions are often couched in terms of the compositional process and how it applies to a particular concept, i.e. not just what was used but how, why, where and when it was used. (See Cause and effect).

Examine the key words from the question e.g. Describe the composer's use of rhythm.

Most students will automatically identify rhythm as the key word, but so is the operative term describe (usually the verb). The understanding of this distinction will likely separate the excellent student from the competent.

Try to be as objective as possible when listening. To perceive music aesthetically you need to "distance" yourself from it. Other personal considerations should not influence your judgment; in other words you perceive a work of art for its own sake. An analytical judgment is an end in itself and no other motive need exist. Take a statement such as "the rhythm is boring". Whilst true for you, it may not be for others. If the rhythm is "repetitive throughout" then state that and look for its significance within the scope of the excerpt (cause and effect). Avoid emotive comments unless they are justified by the question and fully supported by concept-based observation and analysis.