Advertisement
- Home
- > Music
- > Music for dance
- > 20th - 21st Century dance
Sample question
Listen to this piece of dance music from the 20th century and comment on:
- Tempo
- Technology used
- Instruments and how they are used
- Any points of interest
Sample answers, grades and comments
| Answers | Examiner's comments |
|---|---|
| Talvin: The tempo is quite fast. There was lots of technology used in this, including synthesisers, drum machines and synthesised voices. There is a strong beat throughout this music which is important in dance music of this kind. | GRADE F. Not a very full answer, but he has got some credit for mentioning the strong beat and the instruments. |
| Sarah: The tempo is around 100 BPM. The music uses lots of technology, like a repeated synthesised voice part singing 'I can feel the beat'. The synthesiser was probably played through a computer to get some of the effects and it has probably been put in time by the computer. The music builds up to a climax by having just one instrument then another then another and so on. Finally the drums come in at the end of the climax. | GRADE C. Sarah has picked out the main points of the music but could not use the special terms like loop, quantise, sample. Her guess at the tempo was slightly out. It was around 120 BPM which is exactly 2 beats a second. |
| Geeta: The tempo [Tempo: The speed that a piece of music is played. ] is around 120 BPM. The music has loops in the rhythm part towards the end of the excerpt and the synthesiser part which has 4 repeated chords. A sampled voice singing 'I can feel the beat' is used with the last 3 words being repeated in the sample. The sample also has a fade. All the parts have been quantised. All the synthesised parts were probably composed on a sequencer. The 4 chord structure is built up during the piece, first by the synthesiser, then the voice comes in, then the bass part and finally the full rhythm part. Just before the rhythm comes in, there is a crescendo [Crescendo: A gradual increase in volume. ] on the snare drum and a roll. Also, there is a glissando [Glissando: A musical action, sliding from one note to another playing all notes inbetween. ] heard near the beginning on the synthesiser. | GRADE A. A very full answer which is full of correct terminology. Geeta has picked out all the main points and also some of the not so obvious points, like the glissando on the synthesiser and the snare drum crescendo. All 4 points of the question fully answered. |
Now try a Test Bite
Links
On bbc.co.uk
On the web
© MMIXThis page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.