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Original poster

Music gcse - from nothing??

33 replies

RosesforMama · 25/01/2021 19:02

Just had a first options discussion with my year 9 boy.
Much to my surprise he claims not to want to do triple science, and wants to do music gcse in the vacant slot instead.

This boy is extremely able in maths, science, computing sphere and does well across the board. For example his French teacher sent an email saying she hopes he will do French.

However he has never shown any interest in music until very recently when he has started buying LPs (vinyl) by obscure bands with his pocket money. He has no means of playing the vinyl but says he doesn't need to, he can stream it. I have therefore been thinking of him as developing a bit of a "collector" thing. No doubt he'll buy himself hugely expensive speakers for his first home, that kind of thing.

He doesn't play any instrument and really cannot sing a note, poor lamb.

However he is very bright, can usually turn his hand successfully to most things, and is mathematically very able (Olympiad level) and I know there is often a correlation between maths and musical ability. But I always thought that if he was driven to music it might have shown before now. He never wanted lessons at primary, is pretty shy and not a performer. He doesn't fly through his music homework and his teacher certainly isn't gushing over him.

I don't like to crush him but I think he's potentially chucking away grade 8 or 9 in the triple sciences to possibly get himself, with a lot of hard work, to a possible low pass.

How hard is it to take up an instrument as a total novice at the start of gcse music, and still pass well?

My current thought is to get him some online music tuition (he says he wants to learn piano...of course we don't have one) starting immediately and see how he gets on; whether he changes his mind or it becomes clear he hasn't a hope before options have to be in.
What do others think? If it's impossible it would be useful to be able to tell him so.

OP posts:
AuntieUrsula · 25/01/2021 20:36

DD1 did music GCSE last year. Their school recommended grade 4 standard on an intrument or singing but didn't have a requirement for theory. Tbh the amount of theory they need is not that great - nothing like Grade 5 theory.

It probably depends on the exam board, but for DD 20% of the marks was performance (2 pieces), 20% composition (2 pieces) and 60% written exam (which didn't happen in the end, of course). The exam covered world music - eg they did a module on Indian drumming and one on Israeli folk music - and listening to a piece of classical music and writing something intelligent about it. What DD found hardest was the dictation - they hear a line or two of music and have to write it down in musical notation.

Whether your DS would do OK at it would depend on how much of a natural he is and how keen he would be to work at it. If he's not a singer, the easiest instruments to pick up quickly are probably woodwind. He's still got a bit of time to try out an instrument before committing himself - or will it be hard for him to change his GCSE options later if he wants to? You may find he goes off the idea as suddenly as he adopted it.

I would just say, in DD's class quite a number of kids took the GCSE as a perceived soft option only to get a bit of rude awakening!

CMeredithC · 25/01/2021 20:08

How hard is it to take up an instrument as a total novice at the start of gcse music, and still pass well?

Professional musician here (with a name change).

It's not impossible to achieve a decent GCSE standard from nothing in 2-3 years, but do you think he'll dedicate a lot of time to it?

Music GCSE isn't only about talking about music genres and analysing different bands.

There is performing - do you see him practising 30 mins of piano each day?
There is music theory - do you see him learning pages and pages of terms and rules that a lot of his colleagues might've learnt when they were 6 or 8?
There is composing - which is difficult to start doing until you've got a good music theory base.

Music is an amazing subject to study and yes, I would recommend my beginner child took it. However, they'd need to dedicate a huge amount of time to it. Music is like a foreign language, it needs to be learnt step by step. Would that take away time from his other subjects? Only he can know that.

MiddlesexGirl · 25/01/2021 19:59

In general you'd need a grade 4/5 or above to be thinking of grade C (or whatever the equivalent is these days) and above.

AChickenCalledDaal · 25/01/2021 19:55

Not all schools insist on grade 5. My daughters school doesn't have a minimum requirement and accepts kids that haven't had any instrumental lessons apart from curriculum music. The performance requirement is more equivalent to grade 4, with limited extra marks for exceeding that.

But starting completely from scratch would be really hard and I think he'd get a shock. There is a lot of music theory which kids with high preformed grade will already know. And you also have to compose.

I have two daughters - the eldest had grade 4 piano under their belt when they started the course and got a grade 9. The youngest is doing it now. She's an excellent singer, but doesn't have individual lessons. We thought that was going to be OK as they would do an ensemble performance, which she's pretty good at. But Covid has wrecked that opportunity, since singing together is not possible right now. And she's really struggling with the composition and looking likely to scrape a low grade at best.

Gogglebox20 · 25/01/2021 19:53

I know a student who had very little theory knowledge but played an instrument very well who passed their gcse music theory with a good B grade and that’s in the last three years. Music is not an easy subject unless it interests you. I would probably steer him towards the sciences.

Gogglebox20 · 25/01/2021 19:49

No grade 5 is A level not GCSE. However, he will need to be confident on one instrument at least and have some good theory knowledge of at least grade 1-3. Listening skills also very important.

Original poster
RosesforMama · 25/01/2021 19:44

Thanks Lostarcher
That's helpful.

OP posts:
LostArcher · 25/01/2021 19:42

They usually want grade 5 as a minimum to do gcse. I doubt very much that this would be a good choice. He won't have any of the background in theory. I think he needs a very realistic conversation with the head of music. Also to get the high grades you have to be really good. For example one of my pupils plays at National Youth Orchestra level but was told not to do music in a year as their theory wasn't up to it - they'd pass but not get the 8 or 9 they should. This is someone who practices for two hours a day.