AQA AS Level Music Past Papers & Mark Schemes

For the listening paper, weekly score-following with the Anthology builds the visual-aural memory that AS questions reward. Print the score, listen with one finger marking the bar; do not skip ahead. Focus on hearing harmonic progressions — most students lose Section A marks because they cannot identify a perfect cadence in the moment. Keep a vocabulary log organised by area of study. For Western Classical, you need: tonic, dominant, subdominant, modulation, sequence, suspension, pedal, melisma. For Pop, you need: hook, vocal layering, drop, build, chord loop, syncopation. Mixing area-of-study vocabulary in an essay loses marks. When describing texture, distinguish carefully between monophonic, homophonic, melody-and-accompaniment, polyphonic, and heterophonic. Examiner reports flag this distinction every year. For composition, follow the brief literally. If the brief asks for a 64-bar sonata exposition, hand in a 64-bar sonata exposition. Most candidates lose marks for failing to fit the brief, not for poor compositional craft. For performing, choose pieces at or just below your comfort grade and perform them perfectly rather than choose harder repertoire and play with errors. Recordings are externally moderated against very precise rubrics.