GCSE Music
Specification
Intent
Music is taught to promote both educational and holistic growth, along with artistic expression.
Music is a language that brings all together, allowing the ability to share personal tastes with others, build teamworking skills and give ever-changing and developing goals for students to aspire towards. It is an entity that provides figureheads of inspiration, with attainable achievements accessible for all.
Skills in analysis, comparison and evaluation of music are developed over the course of a student’s music tuition. This allows them the ability to speak at a more advanced level regarding the composition and DNA of different musical artists, genres and periods.
The ability to compose, both freely and to specified constructs, is built across the course, starting with basic theoretical and popular music-based ideals before expressing this is a deeper and wider way through coursework (NEA) tasks.
Students work towards improving a chosen performance specialism (vocal/instrument) for grading in their final year of GCSE. This is supplemented via training, both external and internal, and brings students in line with the defined standard advised by Edexcel.
Edexcel provides a syllabus that takes both modern and classical influences in its set work appraisals, along with a strong NEA pathway to support students that flourish greater in practical musical studies. The pieces studied and assessed via exam come from a wide variety of genres, but include relevant and popular examples to engage students and help to provide access via associated works that are within the realms of the students’ understanding. It resonates as a course that provides a gravitas to the subject and instils this into the students.
Implementation
The three areas of the course are taught concurrently, with a focus on Appraisal and Performance in Year 9, Composition and Performance in Year 10, and Appraisal and Composition in Year 11. This allows students to receive a consistently varied approach, with a regular and understood routine and rota to lessons.
Students will engage through active performance workshop lessons that are a strong platform for building confidence in performance and level of ability. These sessions give students the chance to speak openly and share feedback with each other, building social interaction skills as well as musical understanding.
Compositional tasks will aid students in growing their song writing ability. After the learning of theoretical ideas through Year 9, Compositional coursework tasks (both practice and live) start to take place. Using a combination of free and structured briefs, students work in different directions, both in group work and apart to build their expressive abilities.
The analysis of Music is taught with a gravitas that backs up the importance of all units into being a well-rounded and academic option. Students learn to converse to a great depth with musical terminology, expanding into comparison and evaluation of different styles and works. It very much follows the Dual-Career aspect of LEAF Studio due to the areas to excel within the syllabus, both in NEA and written exam.
Each area of the subject will be built up across the length of the course, allowing students in grow in confidence, comfort and ability, with ample chance to stretch and challenge themselves with the guidance of the teaching faculty. Commonly required themes and vocabulary will be processed at the beginning of the syllabus to give familiarity when being used further into the course.
As the course progresses, deeper understanding will be aimed for. Revisiting set works will include a wider analysis for each cycle up until the final exam. Compositions will become more precise as students become more confident.
Impact
In performance, students will gain confidence that allows them to develop and exploit their performance ability for greater success and belief in their capabilities. They will learn to work efficiently in group situations and equally explore areas previously unattainable in individual situations.
Composition will result in students learning successful methods of song writing, leaving them able to create aurally pleasing work both within and outside of diatonic constraints dependent on their intent. They will learn how to work with different instruments in depth of texture and combine ideas into structed pieces of work.
The analysis unit will leave students with a different vision of music. Whilst still able to appreciate on a superficial level as a listener, they will be able to draw comparisons and link to contextual information to deduce reasons for how and why pieces are composed in the way they are.