I was just wondering if any of you are doing GCSE music, because I'm taking it as one of my options and I'm really worried about the composing. I know I'm really going to struggle with it because it's my weak point. Any tips on successful composing?? Also, is it really important to your final GCSE grade?

Also, can you do GCSE music on two instruments or do you have to choose?

Thanks.

Hi, i'm in year 11 and i'm taking gcse music as well. Luckily, i've already finished the two compositions that i have to submit (they are quite important as they do count towards quite a lot of marks for your final grade). Many people find composing really difficult because it's hard to get inspiration to begin. Once you know where to start then everything follows smoothly. You should be given in your lessons an area of study under which you're told to composefor, e.g. pop/blues, theme and variation, and your teacher should give you plenty of advice. Start listening to different genres of music to get inspiration.

Also, you can do GCSE music regardless of how many instruments you learn. When you compose, you'll have a greater advantage of composing for either instrument or for more than one (which gets you higher marks ). For the performance part, you can also choose which instrument you wish to perform in (pick the one you're more confident with).

Im in my first year of GCSE's and i chose music as 1 of my options. Composing is also one of my weak points but my music teacher is helping me develop the skills needed. So you shouldn't worry about not being able to because you'll get a lot of help.
I think composing is 25 % of your final grade. You don't particulary need to play an instrument to take music but it does help as you have to do a performance assessment, and you can choose which instrument you'd like to perform on. Hope i've helped!
Rach

Thanks!!!

I'm in my year of GCSEs at the moment and when i was choosing my options i was a bit worried about composing but in the end it worked out to be something that i totally LOVE now! My teaher gave me a bit of help and put me on the right track and i'm actually thinking of doing a degree in composition at uni now so dont let it put off, it might sound a bit scary at first but it's not!

Hope this helps,
Trish

The amount of marks composing is worth depends on your exam board. Everyone finds composing hard to start of with but what i found useful was to take a piece of music you know and do an arrangement of it, in a different key, time signature and for different instruments and slowly develop it away from the original over 3 or 4 versions.
Also writing music for a specific image can help, because you already have the inspiration.
Learning theory will help you, and try to play some of the things you have written because then you realise if you have gone out of the range by acident, or put in a ridiculous rhythm that cannot be read.

You don't particulary need to play an instrument to take music but it does help as you have to do a performance assessment,


I dont agree with this statement at all. To me it seems to be totally rediculas if you opt to take GCSe music but cant play an instrument as there is no way you can get a good grade as it makes up a big part of the course. As being able to play and instrumant not only helps with obviously the performing part but also the composing.
Having done GCSE music and now doing A2 music i would say it would be a waste of time even taking the course as it would be very hard to even pass. There were so many people who could play an instrument in my GCSE class and they didnt even pass.

As far as the composing goes listen to lots of different types of music in order to help with your inspiration for your own piece. I's recomend composing for you instrument as this would probably be the easiest as you already know the range, technical difficulties of the instrument. If you still get stuck for inspiration try working to a plan ie making up a story and composing around that. not sure if this is helpfull to you or not, however i know someone who did it that way and found it easier.
Also try composing small pieces of say 12 bars at a time at home for fun because the more you do of it the better you will become and the easier you will probably find it.

Hope this has been of some help for you.
Sorry bout the little rant at the beginning.

Love Sam

I come from a secondary school and there are approx 320 people in my year. of that, only 24 took GCSE music. Thats equivalent to 7.5%! Of us 24, only (and no offence) about 15 of us can read music, and there are several students who don't play any instrument. However, the exam board (edexel) are obviously trying to open up the course to everyone as you can now do performance (to be assessed) in rapping, drums and even DJing (i think). And why not? Well, when it comes to the listening work, these people are obviously disadvantaged when talking about music notation, orchestration etc. and also, it can be difficult to occupy the better students, when the teacher is trying to establish what a basoon is! But if it will get people more interested in music, then there must be some good things about it.

QUOTE

Having done GCSE music and now doing A2 music i would say it would be a waste of time even taking the course as it would be very hard to even pass.

I would have to disagree quite strongly with this comment. There were people at my school that couldn't play any instruments at all: during the first three years of school everyone was taught to play the keyboard in school music lessons, only for a few lessons a year but this was enough for them to be able to make up compositions, even if they just did it and didn't really know what they were writing down matched what they were playing: it didn't matter they had composed something.

Taking an example for performing now: there was one girl who loved music, she loved singing. I don't intend to be mean in saying this but she really couldn't pitch a note at all; however she did singing for her performance and got reasonable marks since the marking criteria for GCSE music are much different to those for other exams, such as those done by the ABRSM; you can get many of the marks if your piece is 'recognisable'. This person got a C in GCSE music by doing this and the composing described above, they did struggle with the listening exam, not least because they weren't particularly academic. Not much of an achievement you may think, and that it may not have been to you, but this was to her: she'd done something that she enjoyed and passed it; furthermore she only managed to get Gs in all of her other GCSEs as she wasn't academic at all. Was it a waste of time her doing music? I would say definitely not.

I had another friend who did play an instrument (the piano) and had done grade 3 she also got a C (and Cs in all of her other GCSEs too, so she was more academic than the other person) so instrumental lessons aren't everything! I did GCSE music with only primary school recorder lessons (in large groups) so, yes I could play but I hadn't really had lessons to anywhere near the standard of some people; I got an A. Whilst the instrumental lessons do help: the only person to get an A* did have grade 8 violin and grade 6 piano; they're not essential to acheiveing a reasonable mark.

well i'm currently doin GCSE music and composing is one of my stronger points.

when i compose itry and feel for where the music needs to progress, not that this chord fits with these notes. do you know what i mean?

jaime

Im in my 1st year of GCSEs as well. I play violin and piano but some of the 15!! people in my year doing it can only play the keyboard which they too learnt lower down the school AP. We're doing edexcel too pianoforte but i dont think anyone is going to do dJing although i agree it is a really good idea coz it stops it from seeming so classical orientated if you know what i mean!!!
About 6 people out of the 15 cant read music or theyve 4gotten coz they play thew guitar and now just read TAB which in my eyes is cheating!!

I was worried about composing to but once i got an idea in my head i found it really easy and im already on my second composition.
Good Luck

Basically, I think that its not too difficult to pass composition at GCSE, as long as you produce something that has other chords except I, IV and V and a memorable melody, preferably with another part for a different instrument. Don't worry about it too much, but keep working hard. I kow it can be difficult, as you are either in the right mood for composition and gets loads done, or otherwise you can spend hours sitting there and achieve very little.

But, good luck anyway!

Why is it that so many people that take GCSE music can't actually read music or play an instrument? I would have thought that that was the most basic of things needed to be able to PASS.

At my school, we HAVE to be able to read music, know the musical elements and be able to write about a passage of music that we hear to pass our music exam in year 7. To do GCSE we also have to be able to play an instrument to at least grade 3/4 standard, and to do AS music you have to be at least grade 5.

when i did GCSE music we had to have 2 performances, i'm a pianist but that's all so i had to sing for my other one! i can find the notes but I'm no great singer and it wasn't the end of the world!
our teacher was really helpful with comp advice, starting with basics, like the number of bars being always divisible by 2 (2,4,8,16,32,64 etc...)
then choosing a key and relying on primarily on chord I with your dominant and sub-dominant also used frequently throughout as pianist64 said. but also throw in a few chord IIs and VIs or something!! We used to draw up a basic structure to show bar to bar prgression from I-I-V-I-V-V-IV-I and so on. obviously you can change it but it give u a start to begin filling in a melody and some kind of chord base. then, as was also suggested earlier, make variations on your original theme.
it's actually quite good fun - although the worst bit was writing it all up - it took me HOURS!!!!!