Music

Course summary

Music is an exciting and creative subject at A Level. It gives you the opportunity to improve your own musical knowledge and performance skills. At the same time, it teaches a variety of key skills, such as ICT, listening, problem-solving, time-management, appraisal, co-operation and working with others. Music students will be experienced performers and a desire to have more performance experience. Students who enjoy learning new repertoire to gain experience in different styles will have the opportunity to do this. Enjoyment of composition is an important part of the course. Students will be encouraged to have their music performed at events in the school. Students will enjoy musical analysis and the opportunity of studying the detail of a piece of music, finding out the techniques the composer has employed to capture the interest of the listener. They will also gain an insight into the relevance surrounding the composition. This will enable them to enhance their own performance and composition skills. Although essay skills are important, you will be required to give a both shorter and extended answers to the questions as well as having control of the audio clips during the examination. Ability to make judgements of a piece of music under exam conditions will be taught so that you can sit the paper with confidence.