Music Performance Assessments

The Music assessment is crafted around the Core Music curriculum rather than skills acquisition on an instrument or vocal technique. Some of the artistic tasks, such as composition, are also written tasks. The assessments use imaginative settings to engage students in listening, analyzing, composing and transcribing music. Selections from diverse musical genres prompt the student responses. 

Discipline-Based Performance Tasks

  • Compose (see above)
  • Perform (a previously learned piece, or the phrase they composed earlier in the assessment)

Written Performance Tasks

  • Demonstrate recognition of elements and vocabulary of musical notation, such as tempo, clef, bar, time signature, note names, note values, and pitch relationships.
  • Compose and notate a rhythmic or musical phrase.
  • Identify, compare and contrast instrumentation, dynamics, mood, tempi and major/minor key in pieces of music.
  • Match notation to music.
  • Express and justify musical preferences and choices.
  • Describe roles in music (performer, listener, composer, critic, arranger).
  • Write about music with a particular purpose in mind (e.g., write a music review).