Area of Study 3: Traditional Music
What's covered
Key facts
Blues and folk
The blues commonly uses a 12-bar chord progression built on chords I, IV and V.
Set study: Esperanza Spalding
'I Adore You' begins with unpitched percussion, so at first there is no key.
World music and fusion
Call and response is a musical conversation in which a leader's phrase (the call) is answered by a group or another voice or instrument (the response).
Blues and folk
Blues features include blue notes, call and response, and a walking bass.
Set study: Esperanza Spalding
'I Know You Know' is tonally ambiguous at first and then establishes F major; the chord of F is avoided at the start.
World music and fusion
AQA's Area of Study 3 elements include the clave rhythm ("Bo Diddley type beat"), Latin dance rhythms (bossa nova, samba, salsa, tango, habanera) and instrument families found in traditional and world music, such as steel drums.
Blues and folk
British folk music is often strophic, modal and passed on by oral tradition.
Set study: Esperanza Spalding
The lyrics of 'Little Fly' are taken from a William Blake poem ('The Fly').
World music and fusion
AQA's Traditional music listening covers blues music from 1920 to 1950, fusion music incorporating African and/or Caribbean music, contemporary Latin music and contemporary folk music of the British Isles.
Set study: Esperanza Spalding
'Little Fly' is in E major throughout, with only a passing hint of B major in the third phrase of each verse.
Practice questions with answers
A taste of the 18 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
AQA's Area of Study 3 studies which kind of music?
- •Only Baroque instrumental concertos
- •Only electronic dance music
- •Only orchestral film scores
- ✓Traditional music: blues, folk and world
Whose poem gives Esperanza Spalding's 'Little Fly' its lyrics?
- •Emily Dickinson
- •Robert Burns
- ✓William Blake
- •William Wordsworth
AQA's Traditional music listening includes fusion music that brings in which traditions?
- ✓African and/or Caribbean music
- •Chinese and Japanese music
- •Gregorian chant and plainsong
- •Indonesian gamelan music
The standard blues chord progression is how long?
- ✓12 bars
- •20 bars
- •3 bars
- •7 bars
Which two styles does Spalding mix in 'Little Fly'?
- •Brazilian samba and bossa nova
- •Punjabi bhangra and hip-hop
- •Punk rock and Jamaican reggae
- ✓Western Classical music and jazz
In AQA's traditional music elements, which rhythm is called a 'Bo Diddley type beat'?
- •Backbeat
- ✓Clave
- •Shuffle
- •Skank
Three minutes a day. Knowledge that sticks.
Practise all 18 Area of Study 3: Traditional Music questions with spaced repetition, so what you revise today is still there in the exam. Free to use, no card needed.