Ok, so basically i started AS music a couple of weeks ago, but I'm really worried, and struggling with it a lot. I was only 2% off an A* at GCSE, but was predicted an E when i started the course in year 10. The only reason i did so well was through sheer hard work because i have no musical talent. I think this might cause me problems at AS thoguh because of the massive leap between that and GCSE. At the moment I'm really struggling with things like recognising chords etc, and filling in notes on a score because i have no sense of pitch. Do you think i should struggle on and see what happens (and risk getting a sh*t grade - people are expecting high grades off me), or should i drop music. Maybe i should have listened to my parents when they told me it was a waste of time.

Any ideas??

Do you enjoy the lessons? If so, then I'd carry them on, unless you can find a subject that you'd prefer to change to.

I'm in a similar position - I scraped an A* in GCSE music through sheer hard work and determination and am now worried about how I'll do at AS because I'm not musically talented. I have no confidence when performing and I also find stuff like skeleton scores difficult. Personally, I'm doing music because I enjoy it, in some ways more than any of my other subjects, so I'd only drop it if it was too much work/was affecting my other grades (I'm doing 5 AS subjects).

Maybe you should talk to your teachers and ask can you have some help with the stuff you find difficult.

Good luck, PM me if you want to talk.

I don't really know much about A/AS levels...but anyway. Maybe it depends on how far you want to go with music later on in life, and whether you have another subject you might get better results in?

You do always come across as really enthusiastic about music, which I guess is important and will make you likely to work harder at it than at something else you don't love. Although having "no sense of pitch" could be a drawback, but then again, practising things like recognising chords does work. And it has only been a couple of weeks - the first month or so of a new course is always hard, just because there's usually a significant gap between exam levels etc.

I think it depends what you want to do career/university-wise...

Doing dictation and recognising chords is HARD. I even struggle with some aspects of it, and I am doing A2. If you're doing Edexcel, you won't need to be able to write down a pitch or rhythm, and although it is evil, the chord questions aren't worth that much. I'd say you're in shock from the leap from GCSE to AS, and it is hard. Give it til Christmas, when you have a further understanding. At AS, in the first term, I was all ready to drop History, but I love it now.

To me, I do music as it is totally different from my 2 other A2 essay subjects. I'd persevere if you can. If you're doing Edexcel, feel free to drop me a PM and I can chat and help you with the course

Just to re-iterate what someone said on the forum earlier this week - A-Levels are meant to be hard.

Have a think about why your folks might have said "waste of time" - if it is because they have no interest or knowledge of music, then their opinion is less valid here. If you love music, and want to know more, and you have good teachers, you will find you can learn it - I think the others are right to point out that there is a jump up to manage. If you were already at A level standard, you wouldn't need to go through all the coursework! Good luck, and I hope you feel better about it all soon.

I really enjoy music, and my dream would be to study it at uni, but i have to be realistic - the chances of that are almost non-existant, and i'm scared that if i do the same at A level as i did at GCSE i will be compromising all my other subjects. I don't want to have to drop it, but I'm worried that things will end up like my first year of GCSE where I'm getting mega stressed, the staff are getting annoyed with me for stressing too much, they end up hating me, and then everything falls apart.

Hmmm....then again i did earn myself a few brownie points earlier by cleaning my music teacher's flute!!

Dear MM

Oh dear

If, as you say, you have,"no musical talent" and "no sense of pitch", music doesn't seem to be an obvious choice for A-level study.

I attended a lower-sixth parents' evening recently, being a parent of a lower-sixth former, and the message was loud and clear: 'A-level students must study subjects that they both love and are good at'. In your case I have no doubt you love it but you say you are not good at it. Thus, you should probably be thinking of changing tack.

Study something else and keep music as a passion.

b

(I apologise in advance to all who think music should be encouraged whenever and wherever.)

Are you keeping your theory on the move in your instrument lessons?
If you could get to the point where you know and understand theory up to grade 5 this would help a bit.

I found, having done Grade 5 theory, that AS seemed not as complex in that respect.

Yeah, the theory is all ok. It's mainly the listening part that i struggle with - if it was all written like in the theory exams i think i would be fine.

The performing is another problem - everyone else is about grade 7. I'm only now working towards grade 5.

Listening comes with practice, don't expect it to come straight away. It is the hardest part of the AS exam, especially if you don't have good relative or perfect pitch.

You can play a grade 5 piece very well, and get more marks than someone who played a Grade 6 piece, at AS, grade 6 I think is the highest difficulty multiplier

As well as being musically talented, from an A level point of view, success in music is about how much time you can dedicate to it. My A level board (WJEC) was 30% performance, 30% composition and 40% listening paper and essay. So if you choose performance pieces in January and slog hard at them until May, you've got a good chance of doing well in the performance, unlike idiot here who decided to change her performance piece three weeks before the exam and sprain her wrist. If you can spare (and have the patience to do) several hours of composition a week, and finish it well before the deadline to get countless opinions on how to improve it, you should get a good composition mark. That leaves you with listening and essay - my essay was coursework, not under exam conditions, so if that's the case, you can draft and redraft that! To some extent it's about your natural music ability but you need to put the time in - if you don't, music quickly becomes stressful. Are you prepared to work very hard and do you have the time to do so?

Let's put it this way - music is the only subject that i enjoy doing homework and extra work for. I love doing composing etc in my own time, and always have any music h/w done the day we get it (unlike most my other subjects). It's not the dedication because i am willing to really work hard, it's just that i have no natural gift for music. I can't even tune my own instruments without being told which way to go

If you enjoy it then keep it up

You can learn, honest. Most people are not born with some supernatural gift for music. Most people have to work at it or have had to in the past. Tuning instruments is something you need to be taught to do. I know good, accomplished musicians, who still rely on my ears if they're tuning a guitar and they're not sure it's spot on, because I was fortunate enough to be taught well right from the start. Lucky me - but it doesn't mean you can't learn. I wasn't born knowing what a 5th sounds like, or knowing what is sharp or flat and being able to spot a relatively small amount of sharp- or flatness. I was taught how. You can learn too

I was afraid all through 6th form that my A Level music would let me down - in the end I got the same mark ( that I got in the subject I studied at uni.

And about studying music at uni: if that's what you desperately want to do and you still feel the same after 2 years of A Levels, (or even if you drop A Level music for the moment) you can always take some time out to get the skills you need. Friend of mine studied sciences at A level and then went to teacher training college and found out it didn't suit him... only then did he start having music lessons, then he did his A Level, then he did music at uni and is now a piano, guitar and clarinet teacher. With the right desire and determination, it's not impossible.

So, whatever you decide, don't panic or give up hope. If it really becomes too stressful and you give it up, it doesn't mean you will never do it.

Ask your instrument teacher for advice also

we all find it hard though, but i still really enjoy doing it(me and another girl are doing AS + A2 as the same time and teachers said i would have massive of work to do!!), don't know why i am doing with the welsh board(baroque + musicals for as, 20th century and opera for a2) even i am not in wales.

Maybe you need to focus on what aspects of music you are good at than what you aren't so confident on. I'm in an AS music class with some incredible instrumentalists, but even they had problems with skeleton scores and working out pitch. Talk to other people in your class, I'm sure they're having the same worries as you! As long as you enjoy it, I'm sure evrything will work out.

Good luck!

Like Sarah-flute I will re-iterate that this is a question of teaching and of confidence in yourself. I was like you in that I played the violin as one of my instruments and that I struggled with intonation. Thinking back to things now I don't think I can have been quite as bad as I used to think I was at the time - I took grade 1 (out of the 15 or so who started only two of us took it) after about 18 months of group lessons and only having a school violin at home two days a week to practice on. Anyway, my violin teacher always used to complain about my intonation and I was like you in that I wouldn't know if I was sharp or flat. I was also hopeless in aural tests and couldn't sing in tune. I then failed my Grade 4 violin exam because the exam was running two hours late and by the time I got in I was a nervous wreck, shaking so much that the bow was bouncing along the strings and that the first time I changed position I dropped the violin and so ended up having to clutch the violin with my left hand making shifting well-nigh impossible. My techer successfully appealed but I refused to take another exam on either piano or violin. When I was about 16 I changed piano teachers and he eventually convinced me to take Grade 6, arguing that anyone could do the aural tests provided they were taught properly. I was totally unconvinced but I trusted him and he turned out to be right, not only did I get almost full marks for the aural but it was the first time I got a merit overall.

Almost three years ago, in my late thirties I started having oboe lessons. In its own way intonation on the oboe is probably about as difficult (if you can compare these things) as on the violin but I have never had the same problems. Actually I have no problem with the intonation - I can hear perfectly well if I am sharp or flat my problem is getting the right breath pressure/embouchure to produce the note I want. Not only that but my teacher has frequently commented on what a good ear I have. The first time he said it I couldn't believe it - after all these years of being told I had no sense of pitch. I suppose in some ways it is self-fulfilling because I was expecting my violin teacher to say I couldn't hear if I was sharp or flat, I couldn't, my oboe teacher just assumes I can and I can. I am playing Grade 7/8 pieces on the oboe and progressing in leaps and bounds in a way I never did on the violin.

So all this long rambling post to say two things: firstly that you need to have confidence in yourself (although I realise this is easy to say and almost impossible to do); secondly (and this is linked to your post in the string forum) if you are happier with the flute concentrate on the flute. I think different people are suited to different instruments and that there is nothing wrong with giving up your first instrument because you have discovered that this is not really for you.

Finally with reference to A levels. At your age I was very shy and completley lacking in self-confidence. I did A level French with a French teacher who used to tell me regularly that I was wasting everyone's time doing French that I would never be able to speak French and who refused to write me a refence to apply for a French course at University. I used to go and cry in the toilets sometimes after lessons with her because she was so horrible to me but I really liked French as a subject and despite her I did go on to do a BA in French and then moved to France. I now have a PhD from a French University with a thesis written in French and work as a lecturer in a French University. In other words sheer determination can get you a long way.

It sounds as if you really enjoy music!
I think that carrying on with music A level would be good because I have just finished my A levels and I absolutely loved the course yet I found it really hard. I ended up spending more time on my A level work for music than I did for any other subject! It was worth it though and I perservered with the aural and history by reading and practising etc. You can do it
(PS. I was constantly asking my teachers for advice so they wouldnt mind if you did too)

I'd reiterate what others have said- to do A Level and not have a breakdown you have to love it. You sound like you really, really love it and are prepared to work hard- so ignore all the negativity because it's you who wants to do the work! Concentrate on the things you are good at and don't worry so much about the things you aren't (we can't all be the best at everything. My best friend is such an amazing musician I have to have a stern talk to myself occasionally for comparing myself with him, but I still got better Aural and History marks than him at A level!).

Do things you love and they won't seem like work. I was told how useless I was at music all the way through A Level, went on to do a degree in it and then gave it up for 4 years as all the negativity shattered my dreams and now I regret leaving it as I did, as I'm having to relearn lots of things now I've got my confidence back.

Ooh, and you could try learning the piano too if you don't already- it will really help you with chords and reading, and harmony exercises, and also you don't have to tune it!

Carry on with it.

If captivate.me reads this topic at all, she can confirm that she's been sat in music lessons with me before where I've been in tears because of how difficult I find the listening.

I'm an average performer, okayish at theory and appalling at listening. I don't think I can explain just how difficult I find it.
When I started the course, I couldn't picture myself ever passing. In the end though, I got a high B at AS and I'm doing a retake to bump it up to an A. I'm aware that I'm about 10 times the musician I was this time last year.

Grade 5 standard is perfectly fine to pass AS level, as long as you continue improving throughout the year in preparation for A2. It's considered standard difficulty.
Do you know which exam board you're on?

It may not be plain sailing but you should be fine.

I think that you should definately stick at it. I recently started AS music after not doing Music at GCSE. Although the work wasn't a shock because of my poor sight-reading skills I felt that I was behind everyone else who seemed to be able to play a difficult piece just like that. But the next lesson we did a listening exercise and suprised myself in it. There are some things that you'll be stronger at, you just have to learn to play to your advantages.

When I went into AS Music I had got a B in my GCSE Music, so not as good as you lot (I was 5 marks off an A)
I played a grade 5 standard piece for GCSE on my flute but I had only taken Grade 3 flute and that was it: I was about to work towards grade 4 singing and grade 3 piano:
At the end of my first year, I did my recital on singing and I got 90/90 an A at AS level and that was by performing post grade 6 standard pieces (usually lower than ABRSM)
I am now working towards grade 8 singing, grade 6 flute and grade 5 piano (in a year)

It is achievable...trust me with a lot fo hard work and determination, but you have a passion for music as much as you make you have, then don't give up on the dream! If you love it that much then you will be so motivated and it does get easier by Christmas so don't give up!

Re-itterating what was said, grade 5 theory will really help...I took mine in the march after starting AS Music and it has really helped and I am now working towards grades 7 & 8!

I got a high B at AS (10 marks off an A) but they always say that your grade goes up the year after anyway so I am predicted an A for A level after only getting a B at GCSE music!

Good luck, PM me or email me if you want any more advice on anything or just want a chat or some more inspiration.

Annetta xx

Some very good advice here and lots of encouraging people telling you that you CAN do it. I agree. If you love it stick at it and it will all fall into place eventually. As it is just the listening part that worries you have you thought of finding ways to help yourself with this? Maybe you could get together with friends at school to practise aural work, or perhaps have some lessons from a good private teacher. There are all sorts of ways of learning to listen, and you obviously love music enough to give it a good go. Very best of luck MM

Well, just so you know, i took GCSE music and didnt study it at A-Level, and it is the only true regret i have. I really wish I had continued doing music, as now I find that I am trying to catch up with Musical Theory and performance, when I could have already done it.
Stick with it till the end of the year at least, get a qualification and then decide what you want to do.

Keet

Have you seen the websites suggested by Nicki-flute on the Teachers forum in reply to a question about aural advice yet? I expect that something like this would really help you with your listening skills.

Hi Morgan's Munchkin!
I think if you enjoy it carry on! If not then drop it because if you dont enjoy it you might end up getting a job you dont like because you dont have the right levels for things you want to do.
Bye Chocolate girl :D