James Reevell is an experienced teacher of Music and Music Technology, and is currently Subject Leader for Visual and Creative Arts at a sixth form college in the North West of England. He is responsible for the leadership and management of both Music courses, Art, Drama and Dance. He has over 5 years examining and assessment experience in Music and Music Technology and provider of INSET training. He has recently been appointed as bridge fellow for the University of Huddersfield.
James Reevell is an experienced teacher of Music and Music Technology, and is currently Subject Leader for Visual and Creative Arts at a sixth form college in the North West of England. He is responsible for the leadership and management of both Music courses, Art, Drama and Dance. He has over 5 years examining and assessment experience in Music and Music Technology and provider of INSET training. He has recently been appointed as bridge fellow for the University of Huddersfield.
A workbook to introduce the task, skills and content for Unit 2 - Professional Practice.
This is used as a starting point before students move onto completing past papers.
It broadly covers the content listed in the specification for this unit.
Students will research and fill in gaps in the booklet, and see examples of some of the industry standards and financial considerations listed in the specification.
The booklet briefly outlines the exam tasks but these will need further study beyond the scope of this booklet in light of past papers and examiners’ reports.
I created this because there was nothing else out there - I hope it is useful.
Detailed and colourful analysis scores that link to the EDUQAS Component 3 exam for A Level Music. Poulenc/Debussy.
Support videos available on YouTube (search for the names of the pieces or ‘StudyMusic’).
Annotated score for Area of Study E ‘Trio for Piano, Oboe and Bassoon’ by Poulenc. Printable version with detailed analysis for the Component 3 A Level Exam.
Video score available on YouTube - search for ‘StudyMusic’ or for the piece itself
Please support the free videos by purchasing a copy of the score for use by yourself and your students.
Simple revision cards to explain the concepts of:
Modulation
Leslie Speaker / Tape-based Flanging
Synthesiser Envelopes
Synthesiser Modules & Waveforms
Distortion - Hard / Soft Clipping
Reverb Decay
Plate and Spring Reverb
Phase
Labelling a Synthesiser
Dynamic and Condenser Microphones
Acknowledgements:
Mixing Desk Cover Graphic adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixing_console#mediaviewer/File:SSL_SL9000J_(72ch)_@_The_Cutting_Room_Recording_Studios,_NYC.jpg from an image by Rebecca Wilson under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
Distortion diagram adapted from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Clipping_waveform.svg under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
A quick test for each topic to build student understanding of the following topics for the Unit 4 examination in A2 Music Technology. The download includes the question sheets for the following topics:
Microphones
Synthesisers
MIDI
Samplers
Drum Machines
Electric Guitar
Distortion
EQ and Filtering
Tape Delay
Dynamics Processing
Reverb
Modulation FX
Recording Media
Magnetic Tape
Analogue and Digital
Monitoring
Live Sound
The Computer Home Studio
Annotated score for Area of Study E ‘Nuages’ by Debussy. Printable version with detailed analysis for the Component 3 A Level Exam.
Video score available on YouTube - search for ‘StudyMusic’ or for the piece itself.
Please support the free videos by purchasing a copy for your own use or with your students.
Checklist for the A Level course featuring a ‘covered’ and ‘revised’ column. Itemised list by heading and topic adapted from the specification grids to cover all aspects of technical theory. Useful as a starting point resource at the start of the course or one to revisit at the end. Provided as a Word document so you can edit and incorporate in your own documents.
Graphics produced of various pieces of music technology equipment; deliberately unfamiliar so students have to apply the knowledge gained during their work on Unit 4 for Edexcel Music Technology A Level.
The pieces of equipment included are:
Tape Delay Unit
Analogue Synth
LFO
Distortion Pedal
Plate Reverb
Spring Reverb
Digital Reverb
Graphic EQ
Parametric EQ
Compressor
Limiter
Gate
This unit of work is designed to introduce A Level Music Technology students to samplers, collecting together technical terminology and ensuring they understand a range of sampling specifications, uses and applications of samplers and sample manipulation.
This is relevant to AS and A2 students, but includes content particularly relevant to the A2 exam.
A pack containing four questions to help students apply their practical knowledge to theoretical concepts.
Questions, indicative content model answers and PowerPoint slides are included for the following four topics:
Drum Machines
Compression
Modulation Effects
EQ
Please note that the model answers are meant only to provide exemplar information; teachers should always apply their practical and theoretical music technology knowledge in their assessment and for mark allocations.
These sheets and lesson resources prepare students for their Music Technology recording projects.
Included resources are:
A session log which enables students to keep track of any issues they encounter and recall microphone technical information and placement details.
Ambient recording worksheet and presentation; to recall microphone configurations that can be used to record larger ensembles and improve clarity of capture.
Recording capture guidance worksheet; a recap of commonly used close microphone configurations.
Recording problems worksheet to allow students to work to identify potential issues with recording and discuss how they would use DAW technology to solve them.
An overview of the different types of reverb production methods and notes on the impact of reverb on music.
Useful for students revising for their AOS 3 work in Music Technology A Level.
PLEASE NOTE: THIS WAS WRITTEN FOR THE LEGACY (2008) SPECIFICATION, BUT IS STILL OF MUCH VALUE FOR THE NEW SPECIFICATION. IT WILL BE UPDATED SOON PRIOR TO THE 2022-23 ACADEMIC YEAR.
Written by an experienced teacher and sixth form head of department, this workbook and set of board resources is designed to help students in their Edexcel AS studies and in their transition to A2.
It contains a simple introduction across all technical aspects of Music Technology, along with key word exercises to reinforce terminology and where appropriate, pieces of equipment to label and discuss. Examples of appropriate listening are included with necessary topics.
The ‘board-friendly’ resources organised as full screen PDFs to retain fonts and formatting which introduce and reinforce the workbook content.
Introduction to Sound
What is sound? What is the impact of frequency and amplitude? How does this relate to phase, harmonics and wave cycles?
Microphones
What are the different types of microphones? What properties are important when choosing a mic, and how do they pick up sound?
Synthesisers
What do the different parts of synthesiser do? What types of synthesiser exist and what are they used for? What are envelopes and LFOs?
Dynamics Range Processing
How do compressors and noise gates control the volume of sounds? What are limiters, and what creative things can we do with dynamics?
EQ and Filtering
What is an EQ? How is EQ applied and how do we use filters correctively and for creative effects? What do filter graphs look like?
Reverb
How was reverb created? What is it? How do we generate reverb now, and what parameters can we change?
Samplers
What is sampling and what is a sampler? How can they be used? How can samples be manipulated and what must we bear in mind?
Delay Effects
What does a delay do? How was delay created historically? What parameters might we see on a delay? What different types are they?
Modulation Effects
What is modulation and how are LFOs used to create it? What effects are created with modulation and what do they sound like?
Distortion Effects
What are the different types of distortion? How is it created? What functions / parameters might you see on a distortion effect?
Creative Effects
What other effects can be used creatively in Music Technology? What do they sound like? How are the parameters changed?
MIDI
What is MIDI? What impact did it have on Music Technology? What are MIDI controllers and how can we use them to create musical work?
I created these mind maps to help students structure their notes during group discussions in Unit 4 'Developments in Music Technology' lessons. They also form the basis for later revision lessons, or a 'starter' discussion for more able groups. They are not intended to provide a complete course outline but do briefly summarise the content for the whole unit.
Topics are:
Synthesisers
Samplers
Drum Machines and Sequencers
Electric Guitars and Amplifiers
Electric Pianos and Organs
EQ and Filtering
Compression
Gating
Delay
Reverb
Modulation
Distortion
Mixing and Mastering
Live Sound and Studio Design
Analogue and Digital Audio
Recording Media
Recording Skills
MIDI
Multitracking
Computer Home Studio
Quantisation distortion image taken from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantization_(signal_processing)#/media/File:Quantization_error.png under the CC BY 3.0 license. All other images in the public domain or created by the author.
Simple guided composition (suitable for a very early introductory exercise for students who may not have approached composition before) for a short ternary melody with peer review activity.
Useful revision aid for students to use when listening to a musical extract to build their use of terminology. I have also used this to success when studying set works for the Edexcel 'Developing Musical Understanding' module.