Instruments, ensembles and voices

The oud is the most-confused instrument, often misnamed sarangi, guitar or sitar. The oud is an Arab, fretless, PLUCKED lute. The sarangi is Hindustani and BOWED -- so the playing method alone rules it out. The sitar is Hindustani, plucked but with sympathetic strings and a different timbre. Check technique and tradition before naming it.

Two Chinese instruments have Japanese look-alikes. The guzheng (Chinese plucked zither) is swapped for the koto (Japanese): same technique, different tradition. The dizi (Chinese, SIDE-blown flute) is swapped for the shakuhachi (Japanese, END-blown). Blowing direction (side vs end) is the fastest tell; the zither here is the guzheng, not the koto.

When a figure passes from one instrument group to another mid-passage -- strings starting it, cellos and basses taking it over -- candidates keep naming the FIRST family they heard. Examiners flag answering "violins" when cellos and basses had taken the figure. Listen through the WHOLE excerpt (or the bar range given) and name the family playing NOW, not just at the start.

Pizzicato means the string is plucked; arco means bowed (it cancels a pizzicato instruction). Do not answer "staccato" for a pizzicato passage: staccato is an ARTICULATION (short, detached) that applies to bowed or plucked notes alike, whereas pizzicato names the plucking TECHNIQUE. Say which technique (pizzicato/arco), separately from the note length.

"A slide" is not a creditable term. A glissando is an audible, continuous slide sweeping through all the pitches between two notes. A portamento is a smoother, expressive slide, usually in singing or on a fretless/bowed instrument. Pitch-bending bends one note without sliding fully to a new one. Name the specific technique, not "a slide up".

These two word-setting terms are often reversed. Melisma (melismatic) is SEVERAL notes sung to ONE syllable -- flowing and ornamented. Syllabic is ONE note per syllable -- clear and direct. Rap is closer to syllabic, rhythmically spoken. Remember: melisma = many notes on one syllable; syllabic = one note per syllable.

Candidates often attach the wrong tradition to the right kind of instrument. China and Japan are swapped (guzheng called koto), and Arab and India too. Where call-and-response appears, India, Africa and Latin America get confused as candidates match the TEXTURE to a region. A shared device never fixes the region -- only the specific instrument timbre does.