BOSTES 2011 HSC Music 1 Aural Skills - Markers Guidelines and Feedback

In better responses, candidates:

• demonstrated a detailed understanding of the way in which repetition and contrast were achieved with reference to the concepts of music
• wrote to the point and constantly referred back to the question
• provided well-organised responses that facilitated an effective response, balancing both repetition and variety while covering a range of concepts
• described ways in which all or most performing media contributed to repetition and variety, referring to musical events in the excerpt
• demonstrated a high level of aural awareness, accurately describing details such as the guitar fill, the changing piano accompaniment, textural changes in the brass fills, and changes in vocal timbre
• used relevant terminology, such as accent, anacrusis, arpeggio, close harmony, countermelody, falsetto, fill, riff, ostinato, reverb and syncopation, in their answer
• provided clearly labelled diagrams that either addressed the question or supported the response.

In weaker responses, candidates:

• did not discuss how repetition and variety were achieved with reference to the concepts of music
• provided an imbalanced description of repetition and variety, or focused on a limited range of concepts
• provided lists of musical events that, while sometimes accurate, did not address the question 
• demonstrated basic aural awareness and had difficulty identifying instruments, especially as to the role of performing media in contributing to repetition and variety
• provided brief, superficial responses that made generalisations and/or provided vague diagrams
• referred to the lyrics without a link to musical events
• made inaccurate or irrelevant comments, or used emotive language and made value judgements at the expense of musical analysis.