A promise, not a word list

Appendix 5e of your specification is a glossary of musical terms in sixteen categories, and most students meet it as one more thing to memorise. ⚠️ READ THE SENTENCE OCR PUTS ABOVE IT INSTEAD, BECAUSE IT IS NOT A DEMAND. IT IS A PROMISE. It says that the vocabulary used IN THE QUESTIONS, and expected in your responses, WILL BE TAKEN FROM THIS LIST. It adds that non-technical language is also acceptable, and that this list is the CEILING of expected terminology. Three things follow from that, and every one of them is useful. ⚠️ FIRST: THE WORDS IN THE QUESTIONS COME FROM HERE. So if a term in a question stem is unfamiliar, it is not a trick and it is not from outside your course. It is from a list you could have read. That makes the main skill RECOGNITION rather than production. ⚠️ SECOND: IT IS A CEILING. Nothing beyond this list is expected of you. Most revision has no visible end; this has one. You can actually finish it, and knowing that is worth something. ⚠️ THIRD, AND THIS IS THE SENTENCE ALMOST NOBODY NOTICES: NON-TECHNICAL LANGUAGE IS ALSO ACCEPTABLE. If you can hear that the music has got louder but the word will not come, write that it gets gradually louder. You have not thrown the mark away. Understanding the music matters more than producing the term. One structural point worth knowing. This is a single FLAT list applying identically to every examined Area of Study. ⚠️ ANOTHER MAJOR BOARD USES SEPARATE TABLES THAT BUILD UP PER AREA OF STUDY; OCR DOES NOT. So you cannot file a term under one Area and forget it for the others: any term here can appear in a question about any extract.

Five terms the other modules skip

Five real entries from Appendix 5e, chosen from the categories least covered elsewhere: articulation, ornaments, cadences, rhythm and the large structures.

Match each description to the term for it

Halfway through a movement the violinists lower their bows and start plucking the strings with their fingers
The tune does not start on the downbeat: two notes lead into it before the first full bar arrives
A phrase stops in a way that sounds unfinished, as though the music has asked something and is waiting
A tiny extra note is crushed in immediately before a main note, so fast it barely takes any time at all
A small group of soloists keeps alternating with the full ensemble throughout a Baroque work

PIZZICATO, an articulation instruction, whose opposite is arco
AN ANACRUSIS, a rhythm term for what happens before the first full bar
AN IMPERFECT CADENCE, a harmony term for a phrase ending on the dominant
AN ACCIACCATURA, one of the ornaments listed under notation
A CONCERTO GROSSO, one of the large structures on the list

An unfamiliar word in the question

In the exam, a question asks about the use of a term you do not recognise. Given what your specification says about this glossary, what is the most useful thing to know?

That the term is taken from Appendix 5e, so it is a word you could have met in revision rather than anything from outside the course
That such questions are optional and can safely be left out
That examiners include terms from beyond the specification to stretch the strongest candidates
That the answer can always be guessed from the sound of the word

What the glossary does and does not promise

Being precise about this is worth more than another twenty terms, because it tells you what to do with your time.

True about Appendix 5e

Select the TWO statements that are true.

The vocabulary used in the questions is drawn from this list, so it bounds what you can be asked
Non-technical language is also acceptable in your answers
You will be asked to write definitions of the terms in the exam
Each term belongs to one Area of Study and can be ignored when studying the others

How to revise a list you cannot be asked to define

If nobody is going to ask you what a word means, reciting meanings is the wrong exercise. Here is the right one. ⚠️ ATTACH EVERY TERM TO A SOUND, NOT TO A SENTENCE. The exam plays you music. A definition you can recite but have never heard is close to useless under those conditions, because the question is not "what does this mean" but "is this happening here". So when you meet a term, find thirty seconds of music that does it and listen to that instead of reading the definition again. One clear example fixes a term far better than three readings. ⚠️ AND USE THE CEILING DELIBERATELY. WORK THROUGH THE LIST AND MARK EVERY TERM YOU COULD NOT RECOGNISE BY EAR. That marked set is your actual revision list, and it is finite. Most revision cannot be finished; this can, and knowing which terms are still unmarked is more useful than another pass over the ones you know. Now the thing to do in the room when a word will not come. ⚠️ WRITE WHAT YOU HEARD IN ORDINARY WORDS AND MOVE ON. Your specification accepts non-technical language. "The strings are plucked rather than bowed" is not worth nothing just because the word pizzicato did not arrive. Leaving the space blank IS worth nothing. A plain description that is accurate always beats silence, and it often beats a technical term used wrongly. One caution about revision material from elsewhere. ⚠️ YOUR SPECIFICATION SETS NO NUMERIC LIMIT ON HOW MANY BARS OF NOTATION YOU MIGHT BE ASKED TO READ OR WRITE. Another board states an explicit figure and a lot of material repeats it. There is no such number here, so practise from this glossary's own notation category rather than to a bar target somebody else's board set.

The same extract, described two ways

Imagine a short extract. A steady four-in-a-bar pulse, a solo instrument playing a smooth flowing tune high up, quiet strings underneath moving in slow chords, and the whole thing getting gradually louder towards the end. Here is one candidate's answer, using the glossary's vocabulary. "The metre is simple quadruple. The melody is legato and lies in a high register, accompanied by a homophonic texture of block chords. There is a crescendo towards the close." Here is another candidate's answer, in ordinary words. "It has four steady beats in each bar. The main tune is smooth and high up, with quiet chords underneath that change slowly. It gets gradually louder towards the end." ⚠️ BOTH ANSWERS DESCRIBE THE SAME MUSIC ACCURATELY, AND YOUR SPECIFICATION ACCEPTS BOTH, BECAUSE IT SAYS NON-TECHNICAL LANGUAGE IS ALSO ACCEPTABLE. The first is more efficient. It says in four words what the second takes a clause to say, which buys room for more observations in the same time. That is a real advantage and it is why learning the vocabulary is worth doing. ⚠️ BUT NOTICE WHAT THE SECOND ANSWER IS NOT: IT IS NOT A FAILURE. The candidate heard the metre, the register, the texture, the harmonic rhythm and the dynamic change. They understood the music. They simply described it plainly. And now the answer that actually loses marks, which is neither of these. "The music is nice and has a good rhythm." ⚠️ THAT IS NOT PLAIN LANGUAGE. IT IS AN ABSENCE OF OBSERVATION, and no vocabulary would rescue it. The distinction that matters is not technical against non-technical. It is specific against vague.

Six terms in the grid

Six terms from Appendix 5e are hidden here. Find each one from its description. Five read forwards and one reads backwards.

Order the note lengths, longest first

The glossary's notation category names note lengths across this range. Put them in order from longest to shortest.

Semibreve
Minim
Crotchet
Quaver
Semiquaver

The glossary run

Five questions on the list and what it is for. Three lives.

Complete the musical vocabulary facts

An instruction telling string players to pluck rather than bow is _____. One or more notes arriving before the first full bar of a phrase form an _____. A phrase ending on the dominant chord, so that it sounds unfinished, closes with an _____. A very short note crushed in immediately before the main note is an _____.

pizzicato anacrusis imperfect cadence acciaccatura arco perfect cadence ostinato tremolo

Spot the true musical vocabulary facts

Tap the TWO statements that are true.

The glossary is described as the ceiling of expected terminology, so nothing beyond it is required
Non-technical language is accepted in answers, so describing what you heard plainly is still worth marks
The exam will ask you to write definitions of terms from the list
Each term applies only to one Area of Study and can be ignored when revising the others

Three moments in the exam

Three cases. Each answer has to carry the reasoning, not just the verdict.

A candidate can clearly hear that the music keeps returning to one short repeated pattern in the bass, but cannot recall the term for it. What should they do?
A classmate is drilling themselves to read exactly twelve bars of notation because a revision site told them that is the maximum. What should you tell them?
An answer reads: "The music is lively and has a nice rhythm." A classmate says the problem is that it avoided technical vocabulary. Are they right?

Advise someone facing the glossary

A classmate has printed Appendix 5e, seen sixteen categories of terms, and decided the exam is impossible. Write them the advice you would give.

Explain what the specification actually promises about where the vocabulary in the questions comes from
Explain what it means to call the list a ceiling, and why that makes revision finite
Explain why attaching a term to a sound is more useful than attaching it to a definition
Explain what they should do in the exam if they can hear something clearly but the term will not come
Finish by explaining the difference between a plain answer and a vague one, since only one of those loses marks

The Language for Learning Glossary

Justify the choices, the way you are assessed

What you'll cover