Experience of music GCSE performance?

[DataColour]

My son is in year 10 so just started his GCSE's. Just after some experience of having gone through this, especially if you have a DC who is already above the required performance skill level.
DS has done grade 6 piano and due to sit grade 7 early next year.

It seems like the school is expecting him to perfect a piece every half term with about 4 weeks notice and no guidance on suitable pieces. He performed a piece that turned out to be grade 6 in difficulty, as he liked it, with 4 weeks notice that he was practising alongside other pieces for his grade 7. It sounded pretty good to me and his music teacher agreed that whilst it wasn't perfect at all, he plays it competently and pretty well considering the time he spent on it. But his school teacher marked him right down because it wasn't "performance ready". I get that he doesn't need to do anything above a grade 5, but this was his first assessment and who's to decide what is a grade 5 piece apart from if it's from an exam book.
I think next time I'm going to tell him to do a really easy piece grade 2 say, and get it perfect, is this the way to go? Also, just seems a waste of time every half term and gets in the way of prep for his grade 7. He does lots of extra curricular sport so time is limited and doesn't have the luxury of lots of practise time, also need to consider all the other homework and revision etc
Seems to me, if he needs to get a grade 5 piece perfect for the gcse at the end, he's already capable of it and can properly concentrate on just that for a month and get it done, but have to go through this every half term in the meanwhile.
Or am I understanding this wrong?

It is really good for his piano playing to learn more than just the exam pieces. Why not learn a couple of grade four pieces really well for this year alongside the grade 7 prep. Then he can use the grade 7 pieces next year by the time they are ready.

For the actual exam he just needs to play Grade 5 level pieces. But it sounds like the teacher is trying to develop non exam performance skills. I would tell him to learn some much easier pieces but really focus on the performance/sight reading/getting things to standard in a short time skills.

GCSE does not give any credit for playing more difficult pieces less well, the mark scheme makes this clear. Also with regards to who decides what is a grade 5 piece, the exam boards publish a list of hundreds and hundreds of pieces of music of all genres from classical to pop and gives them a grade according to certain criteria. You can find them here https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/music-2016.coursematerials.html#%2FfilterQuery=category:Pearson-UK:Category%2FSpecification-and-sample-assessments&filterQuery=category:Pearson-UK:Document-Type%2FSpecification

My son is now at conservatoire and one thing that stands him out from his peers is his ability to sight-read with little notice. It's got him a LOT of paid work playing for musical theatre shows. Post 16 and now post 18 he was expected to be able to rehearse an ensemble piece in just 1-2 weeks to perform.

Thanks for your reply.
I'm all for learning pieces outside the exam pieces, and he's been doing lots of Chopin nocturns this year, unrelated to exams and just because he likes them. But now he is trying to learn a few grade 7 pieces for the exam and all the other prep for it, and he has limited time in the evenings because of all the extra homework, revision and all the sports he does which take him out of the house a lot. So, it's not just music he has to devote time to.

@Comefromaway that's really useful thanks, that list is great. Why hasn't his teacher given out this information! Yes, he's going to have to choose much easier pieces and treat them like sight-reading practise and perfect them. Because trying to perfect a grade 5 piece with short notice along with everything else he has going on is not going to happen for DS, he's not THAT talented!

Do you know what exam board he is doing? Edexel or AQA are the two most common ones and there are slight differences between the marking criteria.

I'm a peripatetic singing teacher, I work in a high school and I prepare kids for GCSE performance recordings. I'm not sure if the exam board he's doing requires a recording or if it's a live marked exam? The way the head of music does it at my school sounds like it might be similar- he gets the kids to perform a different piece in front of the class every half term, but ultimately he wants them to get the best mark possible so when the time comes to do the actual assessment they will choose the best option for them to perform/record. It will usually be something grade 5+ that they know really well and can perform very accurately.

As PP said different exam boards have different criteria but as a general rule, it seems that a very accurate performance grade 5+ with attention paid to dynamics/expression will allow access to top marks. It sounds like the teacher is trying to give everyone a more well rounded experience of 'performance' by encouraging lots of it and a different piece each time, but I really wouldn't worry about these practise performances, I'm sure that when it comes to it, they will know which piece will allow him to get the best mark possible.

I've checked at it's Edexel. Thanks for the help and I will have a closer look. Yeah, I'm not going to worry about these half term performances. I know he has the potential to get full marks for the performance side of things, so I'd rather he concentrate on other aspects of music gcse and other subjects that need his time more.

So from memory Edexel gives you slightly more credit for performing a Grade 5 piece than AQA in terms of difficulty/perfect playing ratio.

Different exam boards have different criteria for accessing the More Difficult mark bands. Eduqas/WJEC allows grade 4 pieces as MD, whereas Edexcel has it as grade 5.

I have been teaching GCSE Music for more than 25 years. The marks are not awarded in the same way as they are in graded exams. I have had students turn up and play pieces of grade 7 standard, but fail to play in tune, or observe dynamics or other performance directions. Their parents are then angry that little darling did not get full marks, but if they looked at the mark scheme, they would realise that we cannot award them. All our students have access to the performing and composing mark schemes. All are advised to talk to us before choosing what to perform. Yet some think they know it all and mess up. Last year a very able violinist played a duet that did not meet the criteria Eduqas sets. He recorded it the day before the deadline, causing much panic on everyone's part. His arrogance in assuming something called "Duet" would be admissable was woefully misplaced.

I find lots of pianists fail to play strictly in time, or go back and correct mistakes. Do they observe ALL the performance directions, dynamics etc? Is it a fluent and convincing performance? If not, it won't access the highest marks.

I am so glad to hear that there is so much help now with this performance element. When I did A' level music thirty years ago, I was just told to go out and get sufficient performances. The school neither helped with this or provided the opportunities. I realise from reading this how bad it was. Good luck. It sounds like he is going to do really well.

You've got it right.
You have to work with the system in gcse's.
If its a grade five piece they want, then absolutely nail it. Don't over do it. You just shoot yourself in the foot.
Gcse's are a time where you need to figure out that time is finite and you don't need to put 100% into everything, because there is so much to do. Ie don't need to sweat being perfect. Because being nearly there is usually still top grade.

I remember this with art... It was about quantity of what was produced. I learnt the hard way as a kid, I finished peices but not as many as required. They were of 'a level standard' and some people at school even asked to buy them.
But i got an awful grade because I hadn't produced enough material.

So in short, you need to figure out what the hoops are for jumping through.
If necessary ask the teacher what the criteria are ect. But yes. Learn a grade 5piece for gcse.

Then focus all other playing on the grade 7 exam and just fun, because that isn't gcse related :)

My son's instrument was his voice, he sang grade 5 for GCSE and grade 8 for A level, A level was totally different to GCSE, much less guidance and support from teacher and we ended up paying his old private tutor for a few weeks to get him prepared for the exam

@Comefromaway
Your comment about sight reading is spot on. DS1 has been through Conservatoire and NOS and is currently working freelance as an accompanist / repetiteur. His first piano teacher spent a vast amount of time doing sight reading and as a result he is also excellent at it. He never seems to be short of work since in extremis he can just turn up and play what's in front of him.
OP - Both my sons prepared their own work (obviously with their piano teacher's guidance) for GCSE and A Level music. School had very little input to the performance element. But as always, check the exam boards guidance carefully.

Doesn't need to be a new piece every half-term, could be the same piece to show how he has made progress since the last recording. (I am a secondary head of music)

Play the easiest piece he can for these performances.

For my performance I played my hardest grade 6 piece and I don’t think that it was great. I don’t think that I got a great mark even though I was far far better to most people in my class. There were so many students who barely played an instrument or if they did they didn’t play particularly well. They got decent marks. So I think that it’s far more lenient than you think. Play a lower grade piece very well.

(I think that it doesn’t take into account higher grades for instruments that have taken years to perform, to all the singers in my class who walked off the street and did a poor performance for their gcse. I was annoyed at that)

‘Do they observe ALL the performance directions, dynamics etc? ‘ Is if this strict? Because I’ve always been told that these are more suggestive and down to interpretation. I’ve never had an trouble on my abrsm exams, other than once being told that I couldn’t keep time, because my teacher had encouraged a lot of rubato (I was annoyed at that one, because it was intentional!)

‘grade 7 standard, but fail to play in tune, or observe dynamics or other performance directions’ again, on instruments like the violin, they are a lot more lenient to intonation on the lower grades in the abrsm, because it’s much more difficult to play in tune compared to the piano. It develops in time. I often got a ‘needs to work on intonation’ on my violin exam but I still got a good mark for my pieces.

I think that the criteria seems to be stricter for the gcse, compared to the abrsm, which is more performance based and the examiner doesn’t even see the sheet music.

Yes, for GCSE it is that strict, much more so than ABRSM where an allowance for a different interpretation is made so long as it works and is musical.

Basically your performance is given a level from 1-4 according to criteria. For Edexel as long as your piece is above Grade 2 standard you are marked the same so can get the same marks for playing. Grade 3 piece accurately, in tune with all performance markings as you can a grade 5 piece. There are 24 marks available.

There are then extra marks available for difficulty. Do for example, say you scored 20 out of 24 marks. If your piece was less difficult (grade 3) you’d get 20 marks. If it was standard (grade 4) you’d get 25 marks & if it was more difficult you’d get 30 marks in total.

if you scored 10 out of 24 marks on a grade 4 piece you’d get 13 marks, and on a grade 5 piece 15 marks so it’s best to play a lower standard piece perfectly than make lots of mistakes on a more difficult one.

Music teacher here.

Unfortunately with performance pieces there’s quite a few marks for accuracy. If the accuracy isn’t there in several places then this will cost quite a few marks.

His piano teacher should be advising on performance pieces?

Marks are also weighted depending on the difficulty of the piece. A much easier piece won’t carry so many marks, so while he might get a higher percentage of success this doesn’t always translate into higher marks.

Grade 5/6 pieces should be sufficient - but not the easier ones. They need to be in harder keys which cover a decent range of the instrument or use some more advanced techniques such as stride piano, arpeggios etc.

There are ways to jump through the right hoops, but you can’t get away with consistent inaccuracies at this point. This covers everything from correct notes, correct rhythm, dynamics, tempo. Yes it is this strict and his teacher may be using caution because all the examiner will have is the recording and the score. Hundreds of them. Insecurities will glare out unfortunately.

Things like phrasing come under interpretation, separate marks available for interpretation.

Is his school teacher giving him a breakdown of the marks - it should be obvious where he needs to improve.

I’d be looking for some decent grade 5 pieces with some more difficult features as a starting point. If he’s not having lessons right now then he really needs some - school will coach him in the listening and composition skills but instrumental skills really need to come from consistent lessons and practice.

Sounds like he has the performance side under his belt if he gets the right advice on difficulty and has time to practice. Get focusing on comp and listening skills!

@ReedSaxBass does it not depend on the exam board?

Some of our visiting music teachers have needed reminding on more than one occasion that Eduqas and Edexcel have different requirements, especially regarding the ensemble. I always suggest them speaking to one of the 2 class teachers to be certain as we have to record and mark them in the end. I agree with the comments from @Comefromaway . Each piece is marked on 3 criteria out of 12 to give a total out of 36. That mark then has a difficulty rating applied to it. If you perform a grade 4 piece with Eduqas and score 11, 11, 11, that translates up to full marks. However, if you lose 4 marks for accuracy, you suffer more. I keep telling my students that there is nothing to be gained by performing more challenging music, but a greater potential to lose marks.

Educas has good descriptions of what constitutes a "more difficult" ie top marks piece, but they are always happy to have scores sent in to them for clarification. If any exam board has set a piece as grade 4 or higher, they accept that as MD.

Thank you so much for all your replies. I've read them all and it's great advice and information.

I think the problem I have is the performance preparation workload at the moment. The expectation of having to do a new piece every half term (so 4-5 weeks to prepare ) to a performance level grade 5 is a bit too much for DS along with studying for grade 7 piano and the practise that needs, and all the sporting activities he does, plus all the other subject workloads, homework and revision - 11 GCSEs! He can easily do this nearer the actual GCSE performance exam next year when he's in year 11 as he is perfectly capable of mastering a grade 5 given enough time and he'll have that next year as he'll have done grade 7 by then and can concentrate on GCSE performance instead if needs be.
I get that the teacher is trying to make sure all students get lots of performance practise before the real thing, but DS is a confident performer, good under pressure, so it's not that critical for him. So going forward for him anyway, I'm going to get him to do much easier pieces as all these half termly performances don't count towards the gcse anyway and it'll ease the burden on him which is my main priority.

And yes, concentrate on the composition and listening instead!

yes Malbec I agree. I know very little about Educas apart from a friend of mine teaches that exam board in his school. My kids both did AQA which is slightly different in therms of the marks for difficulty weighting but it is the specific rules about what can and can't be classed as ensemble & what is classed as solo with accompaniment (to do with things like independent lines etc) and I think Edexel is stricter on this than AQA.

He could also try pieces from the ABRSM jazz syllabus where only the head (first 8 bars) actually has to be played as written which should reduce the emphasis on accuracy. He should be able to learn a grade 5 piece to a satisfactory standard within a couple of weeks if he is playing at grade 7 standard.