Music Gcse

[Freddorika]

Dd2 is really keen to do this. But she also wants to do drama, classics and rs. She only has three options. She does have the option to do short course RS.

She used to play the violin but gave up during grade 3. She sings and is working towards grade 5 voice.

I'm thinking she should drop music gcse and go with drama classics and rs but she's very undecided. Any thoughts? She need to decide by Monday!

She can use her voice as her instrument at gcse.
At dd's school they wanted her to be at grade 5 level.
She's in year 9 and has really enjoyed it this year ( it's a 1 year course at dd's school)
I think if she's really keen then she'll probably do well at it.

Thank you. She is very keen and loves music and composing. It would be sad if she gave it up.

The reason some struggle with music GCSE is the composing aspect but if she is good st that the she'll enjoy it.

If she's grade 5 standard on voice then music sounds like a good choice and not too difficult. The performance aspect of the exam will probably be significant.

Re composition that's true. But depending on the syllabus thar might be avoidable, it was for me (many many moons ago).

Under the new syllabus each component is about a third. The main differences in the exam boards are the set works & historical periods/genres studied & composition stimuli.

She really enjoys the composing and can read music if that is significant!

Grade 5 is fine for performance, no more marks for a higher standard

If she likes composing she'll be fine.

Perhaps she could work through some music theory to give her a head start then.

She sounds ideal for the course.

DD1 is doing music. She enjoys the fact that it is a small class ( just six ) and they are all very motivated. In terms of performance, the minimum standard for their exam board is grade 3 and there are only limited marks for performing something harder. So your daughter would be fine with her singing. DD1 finds that it gives her a "fun" subject compared to her otherwise fairly heavy timetable, but with a reasonably manageable workload. Drama and art both seem much more time consuming in terms of workload on top of lesson time.

She's dropped it we all feel quite sad about it. In the end it boiled down to classical civ or music and we felt that classics would be more straightforward and less work there was more margin for error in music. She'll carry on with voice and might take music theory instead.

My daughter is a very talented musician. She dropped music at gcse because the course sucked all the pleasure out of it.
She is still a very talented musician and on track to work in the industry.
I dont think gcse is the be all and end all tbh.

DD didn't do it and is still playing her instruments in and out of school in Y 12. She is hoping to do Classics at uni and would have loved the opportunity to do it at GCSE (or Alevel), hope your Dd enjoys it

Just wanted to add (as an ex secondary school music teacher and current examiner) that some schools will allow
Students to pick music up again at level even if they haven't done GCSE as long as they have done grade 5 theory/are grade 5 plus on their instrument (and no, I'm not saying that grade 5 theory is an equivalent for GCSE as it's completely different!).