Free and premium music resources including classroom activities, full schemes of work, posters, practice exam questions, revision materials, and much more! More resources are currently being written, so keep checking back regularly. Follow me on twitter for regular updates @SeanYoung_Music and check out my Facebook page @SeanYoungMusicEd.
Free and premium music resources including classroom activities, full schemes of work, posters, practice exam questions, revision materials, and much more! More resources are currently being written, so keep checking back regularly. Follow me on twitter for regular updates @SeanYoung_Music and check out my Facebook page @SeanYoungMusicEd.
This 48 page resource contains a compilation of practice questions for the Component 3: Appraising exam for the new 2016 Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Specification. In the exam, students will be required to complete listening questions based on set works from each of the areas of study. The questions in this collection are tailored specifically towards the set works in Area of Study 1: Instrumental Music (1700-1820).
**The collection contains: **
Five listening questions based on J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 in D major (3rd movement)
Five listening questions based on Beethoven: Sonata in C minor (Pathétique) (1st movement)
Three musical dictation questions based on J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concerto no. 5 in D major (3rd movement)
Three musical dictation questions based on Beethoven: Sonata in C minor (Pathétique) (1st movement)
Two unfamiliar listening questions.
Full mark scheme for teachers.
Student mark record sheet for tracking progress.
**Student Book **
In response to a suggestion made on Twitter by a user of this resource, a student book has now been added which contains just the questions and the mark record sheet, with the answers omitted, to enable teachers to print a whole booklet for their students to use, without them being able to consult the answers.
**Audio Recordings **
For reasons of copyright, this resource does not contain the audio recordings that are required to complete the questions. Full details of specific recordings and timings are provided, and for those questions that relate directly to a set work, the recording used is the same as that recommended in the specification, so should be available already.
These questions are all based on those that will be found in Section A of the examination. No questions based on those from Section B are included.
A sample question is available to preview by selecting the ‘Sample Question’ file in the files list.
Update 20/04/16: Minor Corrections and addition of ‘Also in this series’ page.
Update 11/09/17: Student Book added.
Update 23/04/18: Improved wording of some questions, and correction of a number of minor errors in the mark scheme.
If you purchase this resource, please leave a rating and feedback!
This 50 page resource contains a compilation of practice questions for the Component 3: Appraising exam for the new 2016 Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Specification. In the exam, students will be required to complete listening questions based on set works from each of the areas of study. The questions in this collection are tailored specifically towards the set works in Area of Study 2: Vocal Music.
The collection contains:
– Five listening questions based on Henry Purcell, Oedipus, Z. 583: Music for a While
– Five listening questions based on Queen, Killer Queen
– Three musical dictation questions based on Henry Purcell, Oedipus, Z. 583: Music for a While
– Three musical dictation questions based on Queen, Killer Queen
– Two unfamiliar listening questions.
– Full mark scheme for teachers.
– Student mark record sheet for tracking progress.
Student Book
– In response to a suggestion made on Twitter by a user of this resource, a student book has now been added which contains just the questions and the mark record sheet, with the answers omitted, to enable teachers to print a whole booklet for their students to use, without them being able to consult the answers.
Audio Recordings
– For reasons of copyright, this resource does not contain the audio recordings that are required to complete the questions. Full details of specific recordings and timings are provided, and for those questions that relate directly to a set work, the recording used is the same as that recommended in the specification, so should be available already.
These questions are all based on those that will be found in Section A of the examination. No questions based on those from Section B are included.
A sample question is available to preview by selecting the 'Sample Question' file in the files list.
If you purchase this resource, please leave a rating and feedback!
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Update 15/03/2017: Minor corrections.
Update 20/01/2018: Correction of key signatures in questions 11-13.
This resource is an entire, ready to teach, scheme of work for a sequence of 6 fully differentiated lessons designed to teach students at KS3 level about the key musical features of the Blues. Although 6 lessons are planned, the unit may be easily expanded to suit the needs of your individual school.
The following resources are required to teach this unit:
– Access to projector/Interactive whiteboard with audio playback facilities;
– Piano in classroom;
– A selection of band instruments including keyboard, guitar, ukulele, drums, and bass guitar;
– Ukuleles – for whole class performance of the 12 bar blues (keyboards could be substituted);
– Individual spaces/practice rooms for students to work.
The unit is designed with an emphasis on practical work, with the majority of learning taking place through students working in small groups to compose a Blues song.
The resource contains all of the materials required to teach this unit, including a 48 slide PowerPoint presentation guiding through every lesson, differentiated worksheets, and lesson plans.
Unfortunately, for reasons of copyright, this resource does not have an accompanying audio CD or sound files. The PowerPoint presentation indicates places where audio files may be embedded for ease of teaching, and details of the track used is provided in the slide notes section on the relevant slide. If you do not wish to purchase these audio files, they are also easily available for free using a streaming service such as YouTube or Spotify.
Update 29/1/2017: Fixed an issue that prevented some pages displaying incorrectly on Apple devices.
If you purchase this resource, please leave a review!
This 50 question resource will help students prepare for the dictation part of the examination for the new Pearson Edexcel AS and A Level Music specification. Students will be required to listen to an extract of music and complete the pitches and/or note durations that are missing from the version notated in the exam paper.
This book provides a total of 50 music dictation tests that will help students to prepare
for the dictation part of their AS or A Level music exam. The book begins with a series
of easier tests that enable students to gradually develop their dictation skills, by first
focussing on just the rhythm, then just the melody, before putting these skills together.
The book is structured in 8 questions, each containing 6-8 tests:
– Question 1: Rhythmic Dictation (8 tests, monophonic recording, rhythm only)
– Question 2: Melodic Dictation (7 tests, monophonic recording, melody only with rhythm given)
– Question 3: Melodic Dictation (7 tests, monophonic recording, melody only with rhythm given)
– Question 4: AS Level Dictation (6 tests, based on tests in Sample Assessment Materials)
– Question 5: AS Level Dictation (7 tests, based on tests in Sample Assessment Materials)
– Question 6: A Level Dictation (6 tests, based on tests in Sample Assessment Materials)
– Question 7: A Level Dictation (7 tests, based on tests in Sample Assessment Materials)
– Question 8: Dictation in Context (2 tests, dictating melody and rhythm from a recording with full texture)
A full sample question is available to view in the files section.
A full mark scheme and audio files for each question are included.
A mark record sheet for students to keep a log of their progress can also be found at the back of the book.
The book is provided as a PDF file, and the audio files for each question are provided in MP3 format within a compressed ZIP file.
This book is designed so that it can be used as one off printed sheets which can be given to students, or as a full printed booklet. A handy guide has been included to help you, if you want to print the full book, to help you make sure the right pages end up in the right place!
If you like this resource, please leave a review below.
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Update 21/10/2017: Correction of errors in questions Q1(b), Q2(a), Q4(d), and Q7(d).
In order to do well in their exam, your students will need to be familiar with the key musical features of each of the eight set works listed in the new 2016 Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Music Specification. These posters categorise the key features under each of the different elements of music, and will help your students to learn and memorise these elements effectively! The collection contains one revision poster for each of the 8 set works.
Please leave a review on the individual elements of this bundle if you like this resource, and share photos of your display and feedback to @SeanYoung_Music on Twitter!
Save 33% by purchasing all of the Understanding Music series of worksheets together in this bundle!
With 22 worksheets across 5 separate resources, this bundle is a great companion to introducing various elements of music required by many of the different GCSE Music specifications.
This bundle contains the following resources:
– Understanding Music: Melody (pack of 8 worksheets);
– Understanding Music: Rhythm and Metre (pack of 11 worksheets);
– Understanding Music: Triads and Chords (single 3-page worksheet);
– Understanding Music: Recognising Intervals (single 4-page worksheet);
– Understanding Music: Cadences (single 6-page worksheet).
All worksheets are provided in PDF format. More detailed previews and descriptions of each of the resources is available by clicking the individual resource name.
It is the responsibility of the teacher to check the coverage of this worksheet bundle against the exam board specification, this does not intend to offer complete coverage for all specifications.
Please leave a review if you like this bundle!
New for September 2024! A set of 15 practice listening/exam-style questions, covering all of Area of Study 1, including the new study piece, Beethoven Symphony 1. Great for end of unit tests and building exam technique without using up the limited ‘real’ past papers.
This 66 page resource includes 10 unfamiliar listening practice questions for each of the strands of the Western Classical Tradition 1650–1910, including:
– the coronation anthems and oratorios of Handel;
– the orchestral music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven;
– the piano music of Chopin and Schumann; and
– the Requiem of the late Romantic period.
There are also 5 further questions updated for the new study piece for first teaching from September 2024, Beethoven: Symphony No. 1, Movement 1, in the style of Section B of the exam.
Regular practice with exam-style questions is crucial for exam success, and should form part of well-rounded study and preparation for the exam. This book of additional questions will allow you to save the limited number of ‘real’ past papers for closer to the exam.
This book includes 15 total questions, complete with a mark scheme and mark record sheet that students can used to track their progress.
Sample pages are available to view in the files section.
All audio files are included.
Save 33% off of the full price by buying this poster bundle containing over 80 posters to brighten up your musical classroom, including The Original Poster Display Pack. This bundle includes the following poster packs:
- Blues and Jazz Composers
- Western Classical Composers
- Film Composers
- Key Signatures
- Musical Instruments
- The Original Music Classroom Poster Display Pack
For the best results, the posters should be printed borderless on A3 paper, in colour, and laminated.
All posters are supplied in PDF format. Previews of all posters are available within the files list of each separate pack.
Please leave a review if you purchase this item, and share photos of your display on twitter @SeanYoung_Music
This 124 page resource provides you with a broad selection of exam style listening tests, with the aim of helping your students to prepare as best as possible for the listening paper at the end of the course.
Books of listening questions for GCSE Music are not new, and you may have access to one or more of these that are written specifically for your course already. The aim of this book is slightly different in that the questions are grouped by element of music. Like in a GCSE paper each question in this book has multiple parts; however, each part of the question in this book links to one, rather than multiple, elements of music. This is useful when you’re still teaching content as you can get your students to practicing listening and recognising specific compositional elements, without having to use up, or edit, your bank of ‘real’ exam questions.
The questions in this book are grouped into five units, one for each element of music:
Unit 1: Instrumentation and Sonority
Unit 2: Rhythm and Metre
Unit 3: Melody
Unit 4: Texture and Dynamics
Unit 5: Harmony and Tonality
Each unit concludes with a summary question covering a range of the topics covered in the unit. At the end of the book you’ll find a set of 6 exam style questions. These differ in that they cover all elements of music, and have one extract for each question, rather than several. This format is more similar to what you’ll find in the exam, and provides a useful bridging point into attempting questions specific to your course.
This book includes 45 total questions, complete with a mark scheme and mark record sheet that students can used to track their progress.
A sample double page spread is available to view in the files section.
Audio files
All of the audio tracks you’ll need to answer the questions in this book are included with the digital download of the resource. The files are contained in two compressed zip files, which you’ll just need to extract onto your computer.
Please note that, as a result of only certain genres being released under the Creative Commons and Public Domain licenses, the majority of the audio tracks are drawn from classical and jazz repertoire. Some film music style tracks have also been used, although these are stock audio files, and in many cases will never have been used in film. For the purposes of practice listening, however, this should not affect the value of this book.
This book provides excellent unfamiliar listening practice for your course and helps your students develop exam technique without you needing to edit actual past paper questions to remove parts because you haven’t yet taught the whole course. It is not, however, a substitute for actual practice questions tailored specifically for your exam board. Further, no questions are specifically written for set works or study pieces.
Important: please read the information below about audio, and skeleton scores in the AoS3 and AoS4 books.
With 72 practice exam questions across a combined total of over 200 pages, this bundle is a great companion for teaching and revising for the Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Music 2016 Specification Appraising exam. Buy these resources together as a bundle and save 37%!
This bundle includes:
40 listening questions, with 5 based on each of the 8 set works;
24 musical dictation questions, with 3 based on each set work;
8 unfamiliar listening questions, each relating to one of the four areas of study;
A full mark scheme for teachers;
Student mark record sheets for tracking progress;
2 bonus posters showing the different types of questions that might appear in the exam.
Student Books
In response to suggestion made on Twitter by a user of this resource, a student book has now been added which contains just the questions and the mark record sheet, with the answers omitted, to enable teachers to print a whole booklet for their students to use, without them being able to see the answers.
Audio Recordings
For reasons of copyright, this resource does not contain the audio recordings that are required to complete the questions. Full details of specific recordings and timings are provided, and for those questions that relate directly to a set work, the recording used is the same as that recommended in the specification and available on the Pearson Anthology CD, so should be readily available in most classrooms.
Skeleton Scores for Unfamiliar Listening
Unlike the books for Areas of Study 1 and 2, the extracts used for the unfamiliar questions are not taken from music in the public domain. For copyright reasons scores have not, therefore, been included. In place of this, instructions have been included detailing how a score can be made and a suggested score available from Musicnotes.com. The absence of these scores is reflected in the cheaper individual price of the books for AoS3 and AoS4, and in the calculation of this bundle price.
These questions in this bundle are all based on those that will be found in Section A of the examination. No questions based on those from Section B are included.
If you purchase this bundle, please leave a rating and feedback!
Bundle two popular resources and save!
GCSE Music Listening Tests Book
This 124 page resource provides you with a broad selection of listening tests, with the aim of helping your students to prepare as best as possible for the listening paper at the end of the course.
Questions are grouped by element of music allowing you to give students listening practice as you teach each element of music. Like in a GCSE paper each question in this book has multiple parts; however, each part of the question in this book links to one, rather than multiple, elements of music. This is useful when you’re still teaching content as you can get your students to practicing listening and recognising specific compositional elements, without having to use up, or edit, your bank of ‘real’ exam questions.
View the individual resource description for more information.
AQA Listening Tests for Area of Study 1
This 66 page resource includes 15 questions in total. 10 unfamiliar listening practice questions for each of the strands of the Western Classical Tradition 1650–1910 and 5 further questions updated for the new study piece for first teaching from September 2024, Beethoven: Symphony No. 1, Movement 1.
This bundle, contains 65 worksheets with accompanying answers, designed to support the teaching of the set works in the Pearson Edexcel GCSE Music (9-1) 2016 specification.
Please note that this bundle does not include worksheets for Set work 5 (Defying Gravity) or Set Work 8 (Samba Em Preludio) at this time.
Each pack also includes a comprehensive answer sheet providing definitive answers (where they exist) and indicative content for student responses for every question presented in this worksheet pack.
It is the responsibility of the teacher to check this coverage of this content against the exam board specification, this worksheet pack does not intend to offer complete coverage of the set work, but should be used instead as a tool to support the teaching of the subject content.
Please leave a review if you like this resource!
Save 27% with this essential bundle of my best selling resources.
This bundle includes the following resources.
GCSE Music Listening Tests Book
This 124 page resource provides you with a broad selection of listening tests grouped by element of music.
The questions in this book are grouped into five units, one for each element of music:
Unit 1: Instrumentation and Sonority
Unit 2: Rhythm and Metre
Unit 3: Melody
Unit 4: Texture and Dynamics
Unit 5: Harmony and Tonality
This book includes 45 total questions, complete with a mark scheme and mark record sheet that students can used to track their progress.
Questions are all based on unfamilar extracts, allowing students to develop listening skills beyond the set works and learn to recognise key compositional devices aurally.
Full audio is included.
Four Books of Practise Section A Listening Questions
This 200+ page collection of books contains:
40 Section A listening questions, with 5 based on each of the 8 set works;
24 musical dictation questions, with 3 based on each set work;
8 unfamiliar listening questions, each relating to one of the four areas of study;
A full mark scheme for teachers; and
Student mark record sheets for tracking progress.
Please note audio is not included in this resource, but full details and timings of all extracts are provided. See individual resource description for details.
One full Practise Exam Paper for Edexcel GCSE
This 44 page resource contains one complete practice paper and accompanying mark scheme for the Component 3: Appraising exam that students will sit as part of the assessment for the 2016 Pearson Edexcel GCSE Music (9-1) qualification. The questions in this paper are based upon the style and wording of those found in the sample assessment materials provided by the exam board so as to help prepare students as much as possible for their exam.
Please note audio is not included in this resource, but full details and timings of all extracts are provided. See individual resource description for details.
If you purchase this resource, please leave a rating and feedback!