Music GCSE

[Abicot]

Hi, my DS goes to an independent school and this school year he will sit the GCSE in music.
He plays violin at grade 7 standard.
The school does not provide the accompaniment for the performance exam and I was requested to provide one myself at my own expenses.
I think that if the school is offering this subject they should also be responsible to provide all the resources to complete the exam in the best possible way. Shouldn't this be included in the annual fee I am already paying?

DS is doing music GCSE at the moment, sitting his mocks. He has got an absolutely huge amount out of it. When he chose it, it wasn't his best subject by any means, and I saw it as a "why not, even if you don't get great marks it will be an enjoyable subject to take". But he has put more effort into it than any of his others, to the extent he is now going to take it for A Level, his teacher has been massively complimentary and even suggested he do it at university. He practices all the time, he talks about music, he loves the composing element, his social life now revolves around orchestra and choir and his flute group and he has made great friends through the subject. He has taken up two more instruments as well.

It is definitely the most expensive GCSE though, what with the lessons, the trips, the instruments....

Aside from composition, the other skills you start to develop at GCSE that aren't covered by theory/practical exams are in analysing music from the score and more detailed listening skills.

@Fishlegs - I don't see why your DC couldn't do A level music without the GCSE. However I would recommend that he did a bit of work in the summer between Yr 11 and 12 just to catch up with the basics he'll have missed out on. One thing that would be useful would be to buy the scores anthology for the set pieces and a revision guide/workbook to them and work through it as the analysis of scores is a litte different to Grade 5 theory. ANother would be to read a general overview book on the history of music so he has a grasp of the difference between eg Baroque and ROmantic styles (which will be useful for music exam aural tests as well). The bigger issue will be the lack of composition experience - speaking from bitter experience as DD's GCSE teacher was really bad and she ended up at A level not knowing how to compose. This might be a good place to start https://sites.google.com/tiffin.kingston.sch.uk/music/curricular-music/gcse-music/gcse-composing

Depending on where you are in the country there might be a composition summer school - I know that some of the London conservatoires (Royal COllee of Music and Guildhall offer them)

@Fishlegs DH teaches A Level and GCSE music and says that it would be hard to do A Level without the GCSE. I think people assume that being a good performer is enough but that's only part of the qualification at each level. Think it would be worth speaking in more detail to the college about how he could fill the gaps if he does want to do A Level.

My DC1 was accepted onto A level music without GCSE - it wasn't offered at her school. The college asked for G5 practical and theory as an alternative, and the head of music said G5 theory in particular is good preparation.

She's not struggled to bridge the gap in either composition or analysis. I should add that she's very much a western classical person though, and if someone's previous musical experience was all popular music or musical theatre it might be a little harder.

Thanks so much for all your comments.

It’s great to hear that it’s been beneficial for so many. My main concern was that I’d read that it could be a box ticking exercise, so it’s good to hear that it’s been so inspiring and enjoyable for some, and useful preparation for the composition aspect of music A level.

Good point as well about the exposure to different genres of music - my dc mostly plays (western) classical with his teacher and orchestra, and listens to hip hop and pop at home, but probably doesn’t have a clue about other types of music.

I’ll have a chat to him but I think I’ll encourage him to do it.

Thanks everyone.

Sorry @londonmummy1966 i meant to thank you too. Great ideas, but he’s a child that needs an end point as motivation - I know from bitter experience that he won’t work for the sake of it. Hopefully that come with age!

If he would just be doing it for the composition, you'd probably be better finding a teacher that will teach him composition, rather than spending time (and money) jumping through all the hoops for the GCSE. You could ask the sixth form college what it might be useful for him to have met that he won't have done with the theory/practical exams.