What you'll actually do this year
IGCSE Music isn't just listening to music in a classroom. The syllabus is built around three connected skills — and your final grade is made up of all three. You don't have to be a virtuoso to do well; you have to be curious, prepared and willing to put in the practice time.
Listening
Develop the ear to spot what's actually happening in a piece — instruments, structure, harmony, rhythm, texture, mood. This is the skill that pulls everything together, and it's tested directly in the written exam.
Performing
Two performances on your instrument or voice: one solo, one with other musicians. The point isn't to play the hardest piece imaginable — it's to play something well, in a way that shows musicality, control and ensemble awareness.
Composing
Two original pieces. One is written in standard staff notation; the other is written to your own brief in any style — pop, film score, dance music, art song, anything. You will own the ideas and the structure.
What you'll be listening to
Cambridge organises the listening syllabus into seven Areas of Study. Three of them trace Western art music from the 1600s to the early 1900s; the other four open the doors to song, dance, world ensembles and music written for film, ballet and games. Every area has set focus works or starting points — recordings you'll know well by the end of the year.
Baroque music
The orchestra finds its shape, opera is born, and basso continuo holds it all together. Music that's ornate, rhythmically driven and emotionally direct.
Classical music
The age of Mozart and Haydn — balanced phrases, witty conversations between instruments, and the architecture of sonata form. Polished, elegant, deceptively deep.
Romantic music
Bigger orchestras, longer melodies, deeper feelings. The 19th century turned music into storytelling — landscapes, legends, and intense personal emotion.
Music and words
What happens when music meets text? Three traditions: art song, choral writing, and popular song / musical theatre. The skill is hearing how the music shapes meaning.
Music for dance
Three dance styles from three corners of the world: Argentinian tango, New York salsa, and electronic dance music. Each one with its own rhythms, instruments and social roots.
Music for small ensemble
Three world-music traditions to learn by ear: Chinese silk-and-bamboo, Indian Hindustani classical, and Arab takht ensembles. New instruments, new scales, new ideas of texture.
Music for stage and screen
How music tells a story when there's already action on screen. Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, John Williams' Star Wars, and Yoko Shimomura's video-game scores — three different worlds, one shared skill: leitmotif.
The exam structure at a glance
Your final grade is built from three components, totalling 170 marks. The Listening paper happens in the exam room; Performing and Composing are coursework, recorded and submitted from your school. You'll find the full marking criteria, minimum timings and "not acceptable" examples inside the platform — see the Exam Overview button on the course player.
A written paper covering all seven Areas of Study. You'll hear extracts and answer questions about what you've heard — instruments, key, structure, texture, mood, and how the music tells its story.
Part 1 — Solo: any instrument or voice; may be accompanied or unaccompanied. Part 2 — With others: a duet, small group or ensemble — your part can't be doubled by another player. Each piece is marked out of 25 against five criteria.
Composition 1: notated in staff notation as a full score, plus a recording. Composition 2: written to your own brief connected to one of the four AoS — Music and words, Dance, Small ensemble, or Stage and screen. Each piece is marked out of 25 against five criteria.
How to use this platform
Everything you need to study is on one page — course_player.html. Open it, and you'll find every Area of Study laid out in order, with curated videos, articles and quizzes for each section. It also remembers what you've watched and your quiz scores, so you can see your progress at a glance.
Click "Start Learning"
The button at the top and bottom of this page opens the main course player. If you're using the bundled run_server.command, just double-click it first.
Pick an Area of Study
The sticky navigation strip at the top has seven pills — one per Area of Study. Click any of them to jump straight there. The current area highlights as you scroll.
Work through each lesson card
Every card has a short summary, a list of videos (click Watch), a list of articles (click Read), and a Take Quiz button at the bottom. Watched items get ticked off and stay ticked next time you open the page.
Take the quiz
Multiple-choice questions are graded automatically. Short-answer questions show a model answer once you've written your attempt — you grade yourself honestly out of the available marks. Your last score appears as a badge next to the quiz button.
Use the Exam Overview button
The floating Exam Overview button in the bottom-right corner of the course player opens a full-screen mind map covering all three components, the marking criteria, the acceptable instruments and ensembles, and the "not acceptable" examples — straight from the Coursework Handbook.
Use it as a study companion
You won't get great grades just by clicking through every video once. Treat this platform as a checklist and revision tool. Listen actively, write notes by hand, and come back to the quizzes to confirm what's actually sticking.
Ready to begin?
Open the course player and start with Area of Study 1 — Baroque music. Vivaldi is waiting.
Start Learning →