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I'm doing GCSE Music with AQA a year early :biggrin: I hate GCSE compared to physically playing especially now its all pretty much the theory...
I did GCSE Music last year with Edexcel. I loved the coursework side of it - it was really fun composing stuff. And our school has Macs with Logic which is so much fun :biggrin:. I would've taken it but I don't do Western music so theory was a complete nightmare for me but I managed to teach myself some of it ...
Reply 22
I did OCR GCSE two years ago. It would've been cool if I'd done it last year - answers on the back! But yeah, now I'm doing OCR A2.

I really didn't like the GCSE course. It was inevitable I'd always do music, it's one of my favourite things, but the GCSE course had too much stuff that I felt didn't need studying - why did I have to learn about Bhangra or Disco or Salsa?! Though they did play YMCA in my exam, that made me happy :biggrin:

AS music is great, I'd certainly recommend taking that to any GCSEers who enjoy it (the course is much better than GCSE!), but the jump to A2 is quite big.
Aha, I doooo. I do edexcel and it's ridiculously easy. :/
I'm taking A level next year, should be mint :smile:
You definitely have to take A Level music for the right reasons... if performing or composing are the only things you're interested in, it's best to leave music as a hobby. You've gotta love the theory!
Doublereedfreak
Aha, I doooo. I do edexcel and it's ridiculously easy. :/
I'm taking A level next year, should be mint :smile:



just noticed that you take music & german a levels! *waves*
I'm doing music and german at uni in september, they're my favourite subjects! how are you finding them?
IGCSE MUSIC!!

It's SOOOO hard, especially the listening paper.
Reply 27
I did GCSE music with edexcel back in 2004. Was a good course imo, liked the performing and composing. Listening started out as a necessary evil, but some of the stuff was quite interesting. Would've liked to have done A-level, not least because it'd have ensured I'd kept my piano playing up - gone back to that though very recently....going to do grades 6-8 over the course of the next few years, that'll make up for my lack of A-level I guess :P
I was :smile: Now I'm doing A-Level, joy!
Rosamund123
just noticed that you take music & german a levels! *waves*
I'm doing music and german at uni in september, they're my favourite subjects! how are you finding them?

Oh Hello :biggrin:
I'm still at GCSE but I'm taking Music and German next year.
I love them loads at the moment.
What uni do you go to if you don't mind me asking. I think I want to just do music but I'm still considering Joint honours.
Languages and music are my favourites.

edit: Just read your profile haha.
Oh I'm taking Lit for AS as well. :smile:
Reply 30
I'm a GCSE music student! Yay! :biggrin:

It's with the exam board CCEA.

It's prettttty easy, but I'm not particulary looking forwards to the listening paper :frown: Still, I'm pretty sure the paper should go alright.

Oh, and I don't plan on taking it for A-level. BUT, my music teacher said she would give me piano lessons after my GCSEs so I can still develop my practical skills :smile:
I take music with the OCR exam board. Its not that horrible. For the first year of GCSE's we were with edexcel but our teachers switched it and we all found OCR to be much easier. We covered the theory in about one month and spent the rest of the time performing and composing. With all that out the way i got an E in the theory part (did no revision and some of the questions were ridiculously hard) but still managed to get a B overall. Hopefully with some revision an A is possible.
For the listening paper you just need to do loads of exam practice

And for those on Edexcel, the past papers for the old syllabus are still very similar to the new spec, so just practice on those as well.
Doublereedfreak
Oh Hello :biggrin:
I'm still at GCSE but I'm taking Music and German next year.
I love them loads at the moment.
What uni do you go to if you don't mind me asking. I think I want to just do music but I'm still considering Joint honours.
Languages and music are my favourites.

edit: Just read your profile haha.
Oh I'm taking Lit for AS as well. :smile:


oh sorry, I thought they were your actual a levels! but I'm glad you're taking them next year, they are (obviously) my favourite subjects. I'm going to birmingham, if I get the grades. I was going to do major/minor in german and music but I've changed to joint honours so it's 50% in each. I would definitely recommend doing a language!! you do have to love them though, they need about 1000 x more work than any other subject :P
I do edexcel music at the moment. I loved the coursework aspect, composing and performing but not really looking forward to the listening paper ( only 4 weeks away!!!)
Reply 35
Nicola_2103
I do edexcel music at the moment. I loved the coursework aspect, composing and performing but not really looking forward to the listening paper ( only 4 weeks away!!!)


I know - the listening paper sucks!
I didn't mind the composition tasks though.
Yep I thought composition was good you could really do what you wanted there wasnt many boundaries. I'm ok with AOS 2,4 I think and most of AOS1 (I just need to keep going with the italian terms). I can't seem to grasp AOS 3 at all though with all the influences of britpop and dance etc.
Nicola_2103
Yep I thought composition was good you could really do what you wanted there wasnt many boundaries. I'm ok with AOS 2,4 I think and most of AOS1 (I just need to keep going with the italian terms). I can't seem to grasp AOS 3 at all though with all the influences of britpop and dance etc.


Same with me, it's just AoS 3 that I don't like!! I really liked composition and performance and got really good marks for them but I don't like the listening paper partly because it's just tedious - some of the extracts which they play 4 times you've answered the questions after 1 play through and then you have to hear it again and again...and again...and...
ChopinNocturne
Same with me, it's just AoS 3 that I don't like!! I really liked composition and performance and got really good marks for them but I don't like the listening paper partly because it's just tedious - some of the extracts which they play 4 times you've answered the questions after 1 play through and then you have to hear it again and again...and again...and...


Thats so weird that you find AOS 3 difficult too, Im the only person in my class who hates it everyone else finds it easy. I know im like that with all the AOS 1 stuff especially I do the questions on the first play and then get bored and stop concentrating...:o:
Nicola_2103
Thats so weird that you find AOS 3 difficult too, Im the only person in my class who hates it everyone else finds it easy. I know im like that with all the AOS 1 stuff especially I do the questions on the first play and then get bored and stop concentrating...:o:


The rest of my class likes it too, I find it horrible :five:

What I always do is because I get AoS 1 done really quickly, after I've finished the questions on the first piece I go through the rest of the paper and answer the questions you don't need the piece for, like "what are the ways in which you can vary the 12-tone row?" because then that saves time for the questions based on the pieces on the topics I find harder!

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