Hi everyone. This is my first post on the message board so be gentle! I have been teaching the piano for a few years now and one of the lessons this evening has got me worried. I've been teaching a fifteen year old girl since last year; her progress has been slow up until now but not unusually so. I gave her a piece today which is about prep test standard and she was just about coping.

My problem is that she has come to me today saying that she needs to learn a piece for her GCSE music practical in May. When I took my music GCSE I think I remember needing to be grade 5-6 standard. Does anyone know anything about the standards required? I know it will vary from board to board but I'd appreciate any thoughts.

Nicki

GCSE i think is about grade 3 ish. but yes you get marks for how hard the piece is but it would be better to play a grade 1 piece perfectly than a grade 3 piece really badly

hope that makes sense!

i do gcse music, & in a recent mock performance exam, my friend played a grade 1 piece & got an A for it, so she can still get a gud mark, evn if she plays a simple piece!

I think you get marked on how well you play the piece not what standard it is. However ouyr music teacher thinks that we should play pieces around g4 standard

In my experience it seems to vary between different schools. Some insist on approx grade 5 standard to be allowed to do GCSE, while others have a more open access policy. I used to do peri teaching in a school where I had to help students with no playing experience whatsoever, get from a beginner to being able to play a piece to record. So in reality they would generally be preparing piece about a grade 1 standard, towards the end of the course. Obviously a higher grade piece will achieve more marks, but as clarinet lover says, it's better to play a piece at a level you're comfortable with, really well. So I wouldn't worry too much, just focus on helping them to play to the best level they can.

It depends which exam board the GCSE is. In my experience, pieces of grades 1- 3 standard can be played but the highest grade that it is possible to get in the GCSE is a C or a D. I have had students play a grade 4 exam piece and get 100% in the GCSE practical and an A*, while others playing a grade 7 piece didn't score as highly. Its better to play an easier piece extremely well than try to play something difficult and mess it up. Ask your student to check with her school teacher re difficulty/marking etc.

Surely GCSE pieces should be grade 4 on average (the odd grade 3 or 2 piece if you like, but balance the programme), if it is the equivalent of the Scottish Standard Grade which I did. Especially if A level is considered grade 8, and I have discussed the QAA framework on here a few times.

But of course, it is how well you play ultimately.

The standard required for AS level is Grade 5, with Grade 6 attracting bonus marks, and no credit given for Grade 7 plus. For A2 it is one grade higher (Grade 6 as standard, Grade 7 with extra marks, Grade 8+ no extra credit). This is for Edexcel. There are no actual corresponding Grade requirements for GCSE as I recall, but Grade 4 is a fair assumption given the AS and A2 requirements.

QUOTE (Saxophonist @ Mar 2 2005, 09:43 PM)

I think you get marked on how well you play the piece not what standard it is. However ouyr music teacher thinks that we should play pieces around g4 standard

I'd agree with that.

...with the disclaimer that I took GCSE in 1995 so things may have changed...

when I took it, you could play at whatever standard you were at, and were marked for how well you played, and then the mark was multiplied (I think) by a number depending on the standard of the pieces. Think that the highest "multiplication" was for grade 5 pieces, so you would get no extra credit for grade 8, but for instance if you played a grade one piece fabulously and got 20/20 your score would only be 20, whereas a grade 5 piece played reasonably (say 12/20) would still get a higher mark overall because the score would be multiplied to take account of it being a harder piece. I don't know if this is how it works, but it's certainly how it used to work (Midlands board (as was) and taking the exam summer of '95)

Hi all,

I have three boys who are taking the performance aspect of GCSE Music on the piano. Whilst they haven't been playing playing for long, I have been advised by the Head of music that so long as their performances are near perfect, and that they can demonstrate musicality in their playing, then they should do well...IF they actually do their practice.

I have a similar situation to Sarah flute (but took GCSE in 1998) I recall that really the criteria for marking pieces then was that a piece was marked out of ten (with about 5 marks being nowhere near what the AB exam standard, the description was something like recognisable with a few breakdowns, basically if you got through the thing, ignoring niceties and a few rough bits of rhythm you got at least 7/10). Then the mark, as Sarah says, was multiplied by a number between 1 and 3 (0.5s between them were allowed) to get mulitiplied by two the example was perhaps a piece in a 'harder' key like Bb major and it wasn't too hard to get multiplied out of three (it was a case of choosing an easy piece in A major!). Anyway the point is that given that if it was recognisable and didn't stop one got 7/10 it was much more profitable to play a hard piece very badly: 5 with frequent breakdowns multiplied by three is a lot more than 9 out of 10 for an easy piece played well... And I don't think that one could score less than 3 if one touched the instrument so that's 9/10 for starters doing a harder piece; it is a lot more work to get 9/10 playing an easy piece. (I'm not advocating this theory as good teaching practise by the way, just the easiest way to get marks!).

I played a piece on recorder after only primary school class-sized group recorder lessons, and got an A mark, even though I didn't know what a slur was I have since played the recorder to myself and realised just how many mistakes I was making (not specifically in that piece) that no one was telling me about, so I doubt it was a stunning performance! The piece was hard enough to get a high multiplier, note that doesn't mean it was actually hard, I didn't really know how hard things were that I was playing at the time so I can't attempt to grade it, I wouldn't know with recorder anyway....

Either way, my point is that then it was much better to play a harder piece badly in terms of getting marks. As Sarah says things may have changed now, but I'd check the exam board's specifications and choose a piece very carefully!

QUOTE (AnotherPianist @ Mar 2 2005, 11:46 PM)

Either way, my point is that then it was much better to play a harder piece badly in terms of getting marks.

Much better explanation than mine, and a resounding yes to the above statement - there were a few of us in our class well beyond the maximum standard needed for the highest multiplier, so basically there was no point doing something actually difficult, we all chose relatively very easy pieces so as to get hopefully a high accuracy score together with the high multiplier. I don't think it was a very good system at all, but then it's hard to see how else one could fairly weigh a grade 1 performance against a grade 6 performance for instance. Check thoroughly and carefully the board requirements! As I recall things are much stricter at A Level.

Thanks everyone. We'll have to just stick to perfecting the pieces she's learning at the moment. (there's not much else I can do anyway!)

It's so annoying though that she just sprung this on me. Never mind.

Thanks for helping.
Nicki

QUOTE (sarah-flute @ Mar 3 2005, 11:38 AM)

I don't think it was a very good system at all, but then it's hard to see how else one could fairly weigh a grade 1 performance against a grade 6 performance for instance. Check thoroughly and carefully the board requirements! As I recall things are much stricter at A Level.

I think that the problem is that the official line with GCSE is that it has to be accessible to people who have never had private music lessons, thus demanding any hard pieces or in particular that pieces are played with a great degree of accuracy would simply not be possible. Furthermore it's easier if one is learning a one off piece to play a harder piece with poor technique/accuracy than to play a grade one piece with technical precision and good technique. The latter requires genuine skill, dedication, practise and actually learning the instrument; the former just requires a bit of slogging (can't think of a better word!) on the part of the player. Thus the easiest option, then at least, was for anyone to play a harder piece (didn't have to be that hard) with poor technique....

It seems at A level (I didn't do it) that they drop the pretense that it's possible for the average person without private music lessons and thus the balance is redressed and the standard much higher.

Also depends how the class teacher sees it I think.
When my daughter did GCSE her teacher said that a grade 1 piece would be marked higher than a grade 2 piece (specific pieces not a generalisation) because of the key!!

QUOTE

It seems at A level (I didn't do it) that they drop the pretense that it's possible for the average person without private music lessons and thus the balance is redressed and the standard much higher.

At the college I teach at they provide the private lessons free of charge to A level music students as part of the course requirement.

For what it's worth, at my sons' school they're allowed to do GCSE music even if they've never played an instrument before! I think the school give them a sort of crash course on keyboard to get them up to a minimum standard to do the performance.

QUOTE (andante_in_c @ Mar 3 2005, 10:33 PM)

QUOTE It seems at A level (I didn't do it) that they drop the pretense that it's possible for the average person without private music lessons and thus the balance is redressed and the standard much higher. At the college I teach at they provide the private lessons free of charge to A level music students as part of the course requirement.

Yes, same with our school: we got one instrument's lessons free in 6th form - if we wished.

QUOTE (Juze @ Mar 4 2005, 08:37 AM)

For what it's worth, at my sons' school they're allowed to do GCSE music even if they've never played an instrument before! I think the school give them a sort of crash course on keyboard to get them up to a minimum standard to do the performance.

Yes, that was true at my school too: anyone who couldn't play an instrument just had to sing (although people did have to do a little keyboard in the actual class music lessons throughout the school occasionally, but people couldn't really play it after once every three months get it out and carry on with the book...). The mark for singing which was completely out of tune and couldn't keep time with the accompanist (or tape) was a C!

I am doign GCSE music at the moment. Out a group of ninteen there are:

2 Flautist grade 4&5(1 plays bassoon)
1 Clarinettists grade 4
1 Saxaphonist grade 5 (1 sings aswell)
2 Trumpets grade 6&4 (1 plays guitar as well)
2 Pianists grade 6&1
1 vocalist
6 electric guitarists
1 Bass guitarists
1 harmonica player (plays keyboard aswell)
2 people you cannot play an instrument at all

So, it varies within the class. Recently, we have been given the criteria for performance which are:

Easy- C major, just chrochets, so easy it hurts listening to it, aboput 3 notes

Medium- either g major/ f major, uses to octaves crochets and quavers

Hard- 3 or more sharps/flats in key signature, legato/stacato notes, jumps octave includes semi quavers and can change key.

Again I have to say, I did my GCSE music in 1998, can't remember what board, but it seemed to work like this:
30% composing
30% performing
40% listening/theory exam

The performance element involved playing one solo and one 'group' piece (could be as an accompanist or in duet or in orchestra, etc.) The mark was out of 10, and this was then multiplied by 1 if it was G1 standard, x1.5 for G2......and x3 if it was G5. There was also 3 short sight reading tests - at roughly G1,3 and 5 in standard.

Therefore it would seem that if you can hash together a G1-2 piece or 2, and get the sightreading to a decent standard, there's still a good possibility that with 70% of the marks available, a good grade overall is achievable.

Good luck