GCSE Music advice please

The expected standard for a pupil to achieve an A* in the Performing element at GCSE is a grade 3/4 piece played with excellent accuracy and interpretation. In Edexcel they need to get 27/30 or more to achieve this. If they offer a harder piece, this is scaled so a lower mark on first marking will be scaled up a few marks (there's a scaling grid) accordingly.

What some people won't appreciate is that GCSE Music was designed for your average kid to be able to access the course following Key Stage 3 lessons plus peri instrumental tuition from age 11. The fact that most kids doing Music have private instrumental lessons and have had them for years, often with Theory exams as a bonus, means that many schools put a 'minimum access tariff' on the course (e.g. 'You can't do Music unless you're Grade 5 on your instrument').

This goes totally against the spirit of the course, although with pressures of a results-driven education system I can understand why schools do it. We don't - we're inclusive, but also cater for the elite.

Oh, and anyone whose teachers are allowing pupils to do composition work outside the classroom and bring it in are in danger of being busted if they get inspected by their exam board. All composition work is supervised coursework and they're not allowed to take it off site.

DD is in yr 10 now doing music. All of the composition is now done in controlled assessment at school, none at home. She is on track for an A or A*, but it is still not an easy subject. The listening paper is also reckoned to be difficult.

No I don't think you can decide if a grade one pianist will be good enough or enjoy music enough in Y7 to do GCSE music.

As other posters have said just being a competent performer isn't enough, you really do have to enjoy music. DD sings in both school choirs and a church group. She happily gives up three day of half term to do a county workshop. Often she sings for no good reason, it's just what she does.

The ensemble performances rely on a have a good, willing to try something different attitude and enthusiastic supportive staff.

Does the school do good concerts, are their lots of lunch time groups. Is there rock, jazz, pop, different instrument groups not just classical orchestra. Go to a concert and judge for yourself the standard of the pupils and the enthusiasm of the staff.

If your DS 'likes' practicing, is happy to accompany other musicians and have a stab at singing or other instruments then great. If he just plods through his grades to please Mum and put them on his UCAS form I'd be loathed to do GCSE.

Like art and drama, GCSE music is more than simply a grade it needs to fit what makes you tick or it will not end well.

I think enjoyment of your subject is key. Both mine took/are taking Music GCSE because they loved it. Both have said the composition part is the hardest. DD didn't play an instrument (not properly anyway, she could strum a guitar a bit) but sang for the performance part. She got a B. DS does play and well.

I am obviously talking about the performance component.

I'm a parent of a DC taking GCSE Music as opposed to a teacher but from reading various forums grade 3 to 4 does not equate to an A*

BackforGood I wasn't commenting on whether A are expected/needed/presumed by anyone, only that Stillenacht had mentioned grade 3/4 was the expected standard to get an A in the performance component. I am a junior school music teacher and quite a few of my Year 4 students are playing at that level, so it surprised me that what they can do would be considered A* at GCSE...that's all. Personally I think that is way too low a standard to gain such an outstanding mark at GSCE.
You might also have read that I think you shouldn't choose your GCSEs based on what you think will get you the 'best' grade but what you actually are interested in studying.

My DSs were encouraged to play pieces well below the level they were working at for their GCSE music performances as apparently playing a lower standard piece flawlessly gets a better mark than a more difficult piece with any error in. DS2 dragged out a grade 5 piece for his solo performance recently and I'm not even sure that was the easiest piece either of them entered. DS1 has A and DS2 predicted A.

The GCSE performance for DS2 (AQA) involved one solo and one ensemble piece. The music department at his school were not supportive in pulling an ensemble together and DS2 had to sort this out himself and get the others he had commandeered to rehearse at lunch etc. He played trombone for other people's ensembles in return... Don't know how he would have fared had he not been a desirable performer to swap with or had the musical experience to organise and rehearse his ensemble. DS1's school have a much stronger music department who organise all the ensembles - might be worth finding out how much support your son would get in this. DS1's school had their entire senior swing band in at 8.15 am a couple of weeks ago for his AS performance. DS1 is a grade 8 pianist but chose to play bass for this, claiming it's too hard to do well in this element on piano - again might be worth checking if there is any truth in this (v possible DS1 just fancied playing bass and said something to shut me up).

My DS2 is a very unmotivated student though a good performer and the composition has been a complete pain to get him to finish. They did two pieces, one had to be a certain style and one could be anything. I'm sure they were given directed time at school but we had to stand over DS2 reluctantly doing hours and hours of it at home. We bought Sibelius (£200ish) to enable this. It's obviously not required to have but across both schools my DSs are at I'd say most students had it, though some had a cheaper student edition. This element has definitely taken up more time than coursework for other subjects so I think worth making sure your son is keen on this element and will enjoy it.

Not everybody except on MN expects / needs / presumes their dc will get As for their GCSEs though Schmedz*. There are lots of other grades available

Stillenacht...surely grade 3/4 is not the standard level for an A* in performance. That seems very low ( I stand by my comment that you can perform well at that level but surely there is some allowance for the difficulty of the repertoire to get that very top mark?)

Could he take up a second instrument? On some woodwind and brass instruments, it is possible to make more rapid progress in the early grades. The clarinet, cornet or trumpet might be a possibility if he has the aptitude for it.

I've been working on the basis of a grade a year, although this has not actually been true of either of my DCs (DD took two years over grade 4 and DS two years over grade 3).

Both are doing music GCSE and as an unmusical parent I thought my DCs should need to be aiming at Grade 4ish by year 11 to do really well in the exam. Doing Grade 1 in Year 8 means that your DS should get there given concerted practice etc.

From the outside looking in, Music GCSE is not a soft option at all.

Yes, but as Stillenacht says ^

.if your child is in yr 7 and about to take grade 1 hopefully {and} with concerted practice he should be able to get to grade 3/4 by year 11.

IME (3 dcs with 6 instruments between them) most children are enthusiastic and willing to practice to begin with, it's after the initial enthusiasm has worn off, it becomes more of a chore.
So I guess it's a bit down the your dc's personality and determination to achieve in music, as much as their actual musical ability.
To my mind, it would depend on what the other options are though, and how close a decision it is between doing music and something else.

If he is now keen on music, practising regularly and ...actually ENJOYING it, why shouldn't he aim for GCSE music? He will have a lot of catching up to do in regards to the performance side of things, but there is no reason he couldn't cope with the listening and composing elements of the course.

If he is already in Year 8 and doing grade 1, he would probably need to aim to take about two grade levels a year in year 9 and 10 to put him in an average level of performance skills for GCSE (as a general guide at our senior school the children are usually at least grade 6 in their first instrument and often a similar level in a second and even third) however as other posters have pointed out, the performance component is only about a third of the overall grade AND it is possible to give very good quality performances at lower levels of difficulty.

Surely there is some scope to choose GCSE courses based on what you will actually really enjoy studying, rather than just what you think might give you a good mark?

gobbin - I accept that there is more to GCSE Music than performing but based on admitedly just a few words from the OP, the DS doesn't seem to have a passion for the subject. If that is so then the DS should IMO go for the subject he had the greatest chance of getting a good grade.

DD1 who is doing OCR reckons grade 4 when you start.
She is a grade 4 singer and hopefully will have 5 by the time she starts Y11.

She'll certainly get a C, and a B on a very good day. I think it would be easier if she played an instrument, but she's dyslexic and reading the music, remembering the fingering and coordinating both hands at once is just more than her working memory can cope with.

Most of all you have to be enthusiastic and happy to have a go at anything, DD was playing base guitar the other day to give someone else the vocal part.

Hi as a music teacher I have pupils at GCSE from grade 1-8 in yr 11. Grade 3/4 is the expected grade for an A* in the performance part of the exam only...if your child is in yr 7 and about to take grade 1 hopefully with concerted practice he should be able to get to grade 3/4 by year 11. However the performance only makes up 20-30% of the overall GCSE depending on the board.

Gobbin You have a point there re the Edexcel.
Although they were told that about the reading music, there was nothing they did within the syllabus where it seemed vital.
For composition, they had the choice of using software or writing out by hand.

Music GCSE is so much more than performance though MTS and, whilst I agree that having GCSE Music isn't the be-all and end-all of music education, a child that has this qual together with graded performance and theory exams is the more rounded musician.

UCAS points start at Grade 6 and it's worth 20 points. Handy, but not a dealbreaker in unimadmissions.

runfor - unless your DS hates the alternatives I suggest that he picks one of those options and pursue his music via the music gradings route. That way he gets a GCSE in Geography AND a Grade x in Piano. He can even take a grading in Music Theory.

We had a look at uni admissions and some unis do give you credit points for grades passed. I am of course talking about grade 5 or above.

It's not compulsory to be able to read music to do Edexcel GCSE Music but the compositions must be notated. Some schoold may ask their pupils to do this by hand. We use computer programme Sibelius which all our kids handle from Yr 7 and isn't difficult to be creative with. In fact, I would go as far as to say that any school which insists on its pupils writing out their work longhand is doing them a disservice, especially weak pupils.

This year we have a pupil who is a very weak performer and has had to work really hard to grasp much of the listening element (in line to get an F or E on a good day) but her first composition was magic.

Backforgood When DD chose her options 2 years ago, she was told it would be the first year that Edexcel music syllabus had made it compulsory to be able to read music.
I don't think the other boards did then but they may well do now.

Seems fairly consistent then... that might be a tall order for someone who is just about to take Grade1 3 years before?

My DD doesn't do Music GCSE, but I have just checked the notes we were given when she made her choices and it says that a student should be aiming to be of Grade 5 standard by the summer term of the exam.