TCE Music exam 2026Exam: Fri 13 Nov · TASC timetable
Your TCE Music exam:
When and how long
- Music1.30 pm start2 h
TASC: morning exams commence at 9:00 am and afternoon exams at 1:30 pm. Your Notice of External Assessment (NoE) shows where and when you sit each exam.
Source: 2026 TASC written exam timetable (TASC), checked Wednesday 23 September 2026. Where a start time, reading time or duration isn't shown, the timetable doesn't publish it: check your personal timetable and the front of your paper.
What the exam covers
We don't have past-paper frequency data for this exam, so here is the course, module by module. Make sure every module is covered.
Night-before and exam-morning checklists
The night before
- Check your Notice of External Assessment (NoE) for where and when you sit each exam.[2]
- Pack a clear, sealable plastic bag: black or blue pens (not erasable), 2B pencils, sharpener, eraser, highlighters, a clear plastic ruler.[1]
- Pack your permitted calculator and a basic analogue watch (it goes on the desk, not your wrist).[1]
- Water only, in a clear plastic bottle up to 1500 mL.[1]
Exam-week survival kit: The last 7 days · The night before and exam morning · What to bring, and what's banned · How to use reading time · If you're sick or something goes wrong · Handling exam-week stress.
Last-week revision
TCE Music cram sheet
Key formulas, definitions and facts copied from our Music syllabus pages. One page when printed.
Aural and Music Theory
Error detection is comparing a heard performance against a printed score and identifying exactly where they disagree. The score is deliberately wrong in one or more spots, and your job is to name the bar and beat where the difference occurs and, ideally, describe the correct version.
The number of an interval counts letter names inclusively (C to G is a fifth). The quality (perfect, major, minor, augmented, diminished) measures the exact size in semitones. You always state both, for example a minor sixth or a perfect fifth.
A tempo direction sets or changes the speed of the pulse. Some terms, such as allegro or grave, also carry a mood: allegro is not just fast but cheerful, and grave is not just slow but solemn. Always give both the speed and the character when one is implied.
The root names the chord and sits at the bottom when the chord is in root position. The third decides whether the chord is major or minor. The fifth gives the chord stability. Adding a seventh above the root creates a seventh chord with extra colour and tension.
Composition and Arranging
A motif is the smallest recognisable musical idea, often just a few notes. Developing it means transforming it (sequence, inversion, augmentation and so on) so the piece feels coherent and grows from a single source rather than a collection of unrelated fragments.
Critical Listening Analysis
Monophonic texture is a single unaccompanied line. Homophonic texture is a clear melody supported by chords. Polyphonic (contrapuntal) texture weaves two or more independent melodic lines together. Naming the texture precisely is one of the quickest ways to lift an analysis.
Performance Skills
Musicianship is the artistry that goes beyond playing the right notes: shaping phrases, balancing within an ensemble, listening and responding, and communicating the character of the music. It is what turns a correct performance into a convincing one.