NCEA L1 Music cheat sheet

Level 1 Music is assessed through a mix of internally assessed standards (performance, composition, aural, score reading) and one externally assessed standard (knowledge of music works, conventions and technologies), each carrying credits toward the 80-credit Level 1 certificate.

Achievement Standard 91948 (Making Music) is assessed internally through a portfolio of performance and/or composition evidence; Achievement Standard 91949 (Music Works) is the external examination covering analysis of set and unfamiliar works.

The external examination requires candidates to respond to recorded and notated excerpts: identify instruments, texture, dynamics, tempo, tonality, metre and form, and explain how these elements create expressive effect.

Aural perception tasks require transcription of rhythm and pitch patterns, intervals, chords and cadences by ear; accuracy is graded on a notated or verbal response, so correct terminology must accompany correct hearing.

Score reading tasks require linking notation to sound: following a score while listening, identifying entries and instrumentation, and recognising repeat signs, da capo, dal segno, coda and first/second endings.

Performance standards are assessed against a schedule of technical accuracy, fluency, expression and stylistic understanding; solo and group performance are separate standards, and group work credits collaboration as well as individual accuracy.

Composition standards require a completed score or lead sheet plus a recording where practicable; assessment focuses on development of musical ideas, structural coherence, idiomatic writing for chosen forces, and notation accuracy.

Terminology used across all Level 1 standards includes: pitch, rhythm, metre, tempo, dynamics, timbre, texture, harmony, tonality, melody, ostinato, sequence, imitation, pedal point, cadence, modulation and form (binary, ternary, rondo, verse–chorus, 12-bar blues).

Evidence for internal standards must be authentic candidate work; teachers verify authenticity, and candidates should keep working drafts, rehearsal logs and revision notes as supporting evidence for the portfolio.

Metre is identified by the top number of the time signature (beats per bar) and the grouping of strong and weak beats; simple time divides the beat into two, compound time into three (6/8, 9/8, 12/8).

Tonality describes the key centre: major, minor (natural, harmonic, melodic), modal, pentatonic, whole-tone or atonal; the tonic is the home note and the dominant is the fifth degree.

Cadences close phrases: perfect (V–I, both root position, melody ends on tonic), imperfect (V–I with inversion or melody not on tonic), plagal (IV–I), interrupted (V–vi), and half cadence (ending on V).

Common chord progressions: I–IV–V–I, I–vi–IV–V, ii–V–I, and the 12-bar blues pattern I–I–I–I–IV–IV–I–I–V–IV–I–V.

Texture types: monophonic (single line), homophonic (melody with chordal accompaniment), polyphonic (independent simultaneous lines), heterophonic (simultaneous variants of one line), and antiphonal (alternating groups).

Form is mapped by letter: binary (AB), ternary (ABA), rondo (ABACA), theme and variations (A A1 A2 A3), strophic (repeated verse), verse–chorus, and through-composed.

Instrument families and their timbres: strings (bowed, sustained, vibrato), woodwind (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon), brass (trumpet, horn, trombone, tuba), percussion (definite and indefinite pitch), and electronic/synthesised sound.

Orchestral and ensemble conventions: score order is highest to lowest within families (woodwind, brass, percussion, strings), transposing instruments such as clarinet in Bb and horn in F sound a written interval below their notation.

Dynamics use the Italian terms pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, with crescendo and diminuendo; tempo terms include largo, andante, moderato, allegro, presto, accelerando and ritardando, often with metronome marks.