Hi

Everyone in my new GCSE class all seem to be Guitarists or drum people and my Music teacher seems to take a slightly more intrest in them that the three classical people in our class one including me. We feel slightly seperated from the group because we play these istruments and we feel we a being punished for something we liked. What Shall we do ??? Does anyone else have the same problem??

Help !!!!

Aw. Can understand, though my GCSE class was a bit more balanced. Have you spoken to the teacher about this?

One possible reason could be that drummers etc are less likely to have been classically trained and understand written notation and need more help? (Not generalising in any way here)

Yes

In our music class there are 30 people. 5 of us don't play guitar or drums

I am sure your teacher doesn't pay more interest in them. There is just more of them so that particular instrument group will get more attention, but if there were more 'classical' instrumentalists then the teacher would probably show more interest in them

Its a common situation. They may well need a lot of help writing things down, understanding the musical terms etc. Its annoying when that comes at the expense of your teaching though. Are they well behaved? For some reason in our class its always the non classical people who misbehave/don't bother. Its really annoying.

Slightly seperated is better than our class which could probably be mistaken for a gang war zone.

Just keep at it - you'll find a lot fo the theory easier to understand, and I guess you'll have an advantage with the composition/performance side of things too.

It probably also depends what instrument(s) the teacher plays. From past experience, teachers tend to help the people who they know about the instruments for. For example my music teacher is a woodwind player, and therefore would completely ignore me when I played my violin.

Well there is only 11 people in my GCSE music class, and only 3 of us dont play a classical instrument (2 play electric/bass guitar and the other plays drums) and they didn't (and still don't) know how to read music properly - well as well as the rest of us, so they get slightly more attention from the teacher as they need more help in understanding some of the musical terms etc. I suggest you just get on with your own thing ... once the teacher has explained what you're supposed to be doing, just do it, and if you need any help i'm sure your teacher will be willing to help

Sorry if that's not any help, i tend to ramble quite a bit ..

Exactly why my daughter didn't take Music, she would have been the only classical musician, although she does play drums as well.

There are also only 11 peolpe in my GCSE music class, and only three of us don't play guitar or drums. I agree that the teacher spends more time with them because most of them can't read musical notation. I just have to live with it and make the most of all opportunities that I get to talk to my teacher.

GOOD!!


But honestly... You should be able to walk music GCSE pretty easily!

I shouldn't let it bother you... But then, I'm one of those funny people who dislikes these divides and distinctions between "classical" musicians and "classical" instruments and "rock" musicians and "rock" instruments...

When I did GCSE music, there were also a lot of guitarists in the group... Didn't really matter though!!

Yes, I know how it feels. My teacher seems to like the guitarists and drummers better than us classical lot!

Yes, I'm not saying that drummers necessarily need more help, I know many classically trained friends often needed help, but they're usually less acquainted with written classical notation

In our music group there are about five of us out of about 27 of us that don't play drums, guitar or sing. What really annoys me is that there are some girls who are supposedly singers but can't read music, don't have lessons and don't actually seem to do any singing. I have no problem with singers as musicians BUT some people seem to have taken it as a way to "get in" to the music group and now they're struggling
Also our teacher seems far too ready to help everyone, even those that are quite capable of coping by themselves. We are doing composition and she's completely changed some people's ideas and seemingly completely re-written them.

Isn't this just a question of numbers though. A teacher with 30 kids in the class is likely to spend more time with 90% of the class than they would with 10% and thats even without factoring in the support needs of the students.
In addition if you have a background in music where you are used to practising independantly you are going to need less support than other children who do not have that background.
Having said that regardless of how good the teacher is they are not going to be able to play every instrument and may show a preference for helping with areas they know. Of course the three classical muscians in your class are also likely to have specialist teachers who can help with support needs, a back up many guitar/drum playing students won't have and of which the teacher is probably conscious in deciding how best to allocate their time.

I understand what shns is saying but it still is frustrating when teachers ignore your need as a pupil. Or when they decide that you should be able to actually teach the rest of the class! It was said before and it's true: the people who don't play music outside of school are the ones who mess around, don't learn, and make music an intensively annoying subject for the rest of us. For us t breaks up pretty much half and half. But evenin my side of the classroom there are people who don't understand everything or maybe have instrumental but not theory lessons and don't get everything. So they are not realising their full potential because the teacher is biased towards the singers (who refuse to read!!!).

When i did standard grade I was one of two people who didnt play guitar, drums or keyboard. I play flute and my friend gets piano lesson. We were pretty much left to do whatever because my teacher ignored us the whole time. We used to get asked to go and find an empty room because our playing was too loud and anoyed the guitarists.

your lucky, im the only classical one! just do your own thing with the few other people! youll be much more content that way!