GCSE Music taken outside of school

[Dogwife11]

Does anyone have any experience of taking GCSE Music out of school? My DD's school have dropped GCSE music due to low numbers so I am looking at this as a private online course, any advice would be greatly appreciated

My DS did this at a junior conservatoire on 1 hr a week at 14 and got an A*. He was pretty idle but the teaching was excellent and focussed. If they are a good performer, that's a third in the bag, the composition needs to be taught to the test and I don't have a clue about the written paper. I don't know of any online courses .. you might be better face to face, if it's possible with someone who knows the exam board.

It would be almost impossible unless your child attends something like a junior conservatoire because of the non exam assessments.

The composition element of the GCSE has to be signed off by a teacher as being the candidates own work. The only way they can really do this is for the majority of it to be done in class, under "direct supervision." Students can work on it at home but the teacher needs to see the majority of the work being done in class and compare it with the work done at home.

The performance element too has to be overseen by a teacher.

Do consider whether it's necessary to do it. Our local (very good) sixth form college will take students for music on the strength of grade 5 theory and practical exams. I considered a music subsid course when applying to university; it said you needed O-level (which hadn't run for my year), but when I asked they said no problem.

Obviously if DD is keen on the non-performance aspects of the GCSE, and you have access to somewhere they can take it, then go for it, but if not, they might do just as well spending their spare time on actual music-making.

Talk to your local music hub, they may be able to give you some advice.

Dd is just finishing now and says she can't see the point of much of it in terms of her performing. A lot of the non performing part seems to be music appreciation. She has learnt some composition but doesn't particularly enjoy it. She has learnt more useful things from the theory and practical grades, which I think can also be used as UCAS points. It has been a useful change from the academic subjects but I am not sure that it is useful enough to justify doing on top of school GCSEs. Obviously all children are different but do make sure you investigate whether it is actually worth it. Your dd might do better ploughing the money and time into learning a different instrument and improving on the ones she does play. GCSE grade 9 performance is roughly equivalent to a Grade 5 standard. Dd said there is more theory in Grade 5 theory than GCSE.

And if she decides she wants to do music at uni, you can get in to many places with Grade 8 theory and a performance diploma.

No one seems to have considered the software pupils use in the composition element, it becomes second nature after taking the GCSE and one less thing to worry about.

I would encourage my DC if they were keen to take it outside course, the OP's DD has nothing to lose and if nothing else, it will be an excellent extra curricular activity. @Dogwife11 , it might be worth posting in the extra curricular section.

@Dogwife11 your DD may find that she loves the composition element more than performance and theory, which isn't covered in Grade 5 theory and performances grades.

If you are thinking of A-Level, then it’s really worth doing because of the composition but also the set works, listening and analysis skills. These aren’t taught at grade 5 theory and you would be starting the course at a disadvantage. (Same with a university degree because you won’t have had the listening, composition and musicology experience.) It’s not musical appreciation as one poster put it - it’s musicology which is the analysis of music - applying your theory and putting music into its historical context .

Your music hub may have some ideas how to continue. If you can find a teacher outside of school then the school may enter you as a private candidate. Some schools will run it as a twilight extra if they don’t have enough to run as an option. It really is worth exploring all options and also kicking up a fuss with SLT. Music has suffered badly during lockdown and subsequently in some schools with a lack of practical work and rather than recognising it and supporting the subject to ensure its longevity in the school some have chosen to not run it.

@Soma

No one seems to have considered the software pupils use in the composition element, it becomes second nature after taking the GCSE and one less thing to worry about.

I would encourage my DC if they were keen to take it outside course, the OP's DD has nothing to lose and if nothing else, it will be an excellent extra curricular activity. @Dogwife11 , it might be worth posting in the extra curricular section.

Different schools use different software. Many schools use GarageBand or Sibelius whereas colleges & universities tend towards Logic, especially those that run music tech courses. Or there is Musescore. So it isn’t necessarily the case that using a piece of software for GCSE will give an advantage.

Thank you to everyone that has commented with their advice. After looking at all the advice DD is still keen to take a GCSE as opposed to just working on playing an instrument. I will be contacting our local music hub and also awaiting advice from the music teacher at school (I will explore the extra curricular with them to see if this something they would consider) there is also a course online which just requires me to find somewhere for the exam to be taken. Thank you again to everyone that has commented.