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Music Technology A Level

Does anyone take this subject? If so, do you need to be able to play music to a grade 5 standard? Is it hard? Is it enjoyable?

Basically, any info about the subject would be gratefully recieved.

Reply 1

Daveinnorfolk

I've just done the AS level so i'll just talk to you about the first year:

Firstly there are two 'pathways:' Recording and Sequencing. You might be given the option, i was 'told' that i was doing recording. There are not massive diffrences but i will be talking again from a recording viewpoint

You have to do:
1) Two arrangments of popular song. This can be anything but has to have something 'new' in it such as a new guitar solo or whatever. ONE of these has to be fully scored in standard notation

2) A recording of a cover song.

Both of these can only have 8 tracks in their mixes... that might sound a lot but with the recording ... *Bass Drum, Snare Drum, Overhead L, Overhead R, Bass, Rhthym Gtr, Lead Gtr, Vocals* - theres your 8...

THEN
A classical recording or sequence depending on your path
This has an exam upon it (for both paths) of questions which never change so you can prepare all the answers.

A final Listening exam, which is very similiar to the GCSE one, but all focused on Popular music. And the songs ARE actually popular! This year was stuff like Take me out (Franz Ferdiand) Elvis, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Countin Crows and Kelly Clarkson.

Hope this helps... any more questions please ask :-) Good to see another music techer on these forums

Reply 2

Fletch

tt5

Does anyone take this subject? If so, do you need to be able to play music to a grade 5 standard? Is it hard? Is it enjoyable?

Basically, any info about the subject would be gratefully recieved.

You don't have to be able to play at all to do Music Tech, but if you can't read and write music notation it's very tough. Tab isn't going to do it. :frown:

You will also need some other skills (like knowing about gear and recording and computers) so that you can trade help with the people that CAN play.

The emphasis is on the Music more than the Technology so there is a healthy dose of classical in there as well as the pop/rock/folk/jazz.

A lot of coursework to get done and loads of computer time but most students find it one of their favourite subjects (because Music Tech teachers are NICE :cool:

)

Reply 3

Fletch

I've just this morning had an email from the Chair of Ecexcel's Examiners (which he wants spread about) that Edexcel are planning to drop Music and Music technology altogether! :eek:

There are new rules about A levels coming in in 2007 and the American company that owns Edexcel can't see a profit so they want to dump it by 2009.
Whatever we think of Edexcel, this is the only board that does Music Tech A level. Is it going to go before it has properly got started?

;no; ;no; ;no;;no; ;no;;no;;no; ;no;;no; ;no;

Reply 4

EnharmonicJen

tt5

Does anyone take this subject? If so, do you need to be able to play music to a grade 5 standard? Is it hard? Is it enjoyable?

Basically, any info about the subject would be gratefully recieved.

You definately need to be able to read music to a good standard, as you have to sequence from sheet music for one of the sequencing options. Secondly, knowledge of chords and how to get around keys and harmonising would also be helpful for the arrangements (the more fancy musical elements you add - for example, key changes, harmony and countermelodies, the higher the marking could be!)

Fletch

I've just this morning had an email from the Chair of Ecexcel's Examiners (which he wants spread about) that Edexcel are planning to drop Music and Music technology altogether! There are new rules about A levels coming in in 2007 and the American company that owns Edexcel can't see a profit so they want to dump it by 2009.

I've never found Edexcel that co-operative with music or music tech anyway. For example, for my AS in Music, the whole class got incredibly low marks on composition (Ds and under!). Considering some were going to do composition at uni that was ridiculous... but the exam board wouldn't explain why they were so low. Our head of music went to a talk by Edexcel and they didn't explain at all then either, but said that adding a commentary (which they said not to add in the mark scheme) would add more marks.

They also mark A2 performances ridiculously -there's no consistency in them. My friend, who had just done grade 8 clarinet, failed her performance completely, which is ridiculous.

Plus, this year was the first year we'd run music tech, and I was the only student.. we asked for some exam papers - as they don't give them out freely on the website like most exam boards. Not only did we have to pay for them, but we had to return them as well!

Maybe if Edexcel stop doing music tech, another exam board will see the gap in the market and take over - because a lot of students do study it, and it's very popular. I'm sure it wouldn't disappear.

Reply 5

Daveinnorfolk

Re: The performances... i had a debate with a teacher about this at GCSE.... as you move through your associated board grades you are naturally allowed to make more mistakes as your pieces are more complex... Edexcel don't understand this. You can get full marks for playing twinkle twinkle little star with chords underneath with no mistakes, but playing a piece of grade 7/8 standard with say 10 wrong notes will get you a lower mark . Disgraceful really

Reply 6

bohemian

Back to Mus Tech, feel free to PM me with questions, I took the AS (self-taught) in year 10. The A2 requires a lot more work though. Since the cw is worth so much, people tend to neglect the listening and written exams, and for AS you really need a good basic knowledge of pop music from 1930 or so, ie, the development of all major genres, indentifiying when a piece might have been written and/or recorded, knowing the genres of a number of bands, some fairly obscure and so on.

You do not need grade 5 in an instrument or whatever. Most people in my school who take it have absolutely no musical knowledge when they start. You will need to learn some basic stuff, but it's not very taxing, just learning to play in a single line of music on a keyboard, read basic rhythms, identify basic chords, and compose a bit (although you can get away with just exploiting technology here so no real depth of musical knowledge is required). Knowledge of basic theory (up to grade 6 maybe) would put you at a significant advantage for the arranging and composing papers, and wouldn't hurt in other papers either, but you will be taught it during the course anyway. Oh, there is a bit of classical music, but you don't actually need to UNDERSTAND it, as long as you can learn 4 pages of answers (the questions remain the same each year, so quite often teachers will tell you the answers for your piece, and you just have to learn them word for word) but I can guarentee that it will be so much easier if you know basic theory.

That said, so many people in my school get grade A when they started the course with absolutely NO knowledge of music.

Good luck :smile:

Reply 7

Fletch

tt5

Does anyone take this subject? If so, do you need to be able to play music to a grade 5 standard? Is it hard? Is it enjoyable?

Basically, any info about the subject would be gratefully recieved.

There is no performance requirement in Music tech but it is very hard to get all the coursework done without being able to play the keyboard a bit and read music. Depending on the resources of your centre you will either spend most of your time sequencing (putting music in the computer) or recording live performances. Most centres go for the recording in the first year but then you have a lot to learn about sequencing in the second year.

Reply 8

tomblakie

heyy - i did music tech As last year, got a C overall ... A in the exam, B in sequencing and a D in the multi track recording...

turns out our lecturer was giving us wrong information about the spec of the multi track, just wanted to double check if we're doing everything right this year? Had a browse round the Edexcel website and i can't seem to get much ..

so now this year - for A2, it says on there that one of the compositions (you know the one where you replace the lead vocal line and one other track with live vocals and/or instruments?) you chose from two different song choices ? our lecturer said we have to do killing me softly ? is anyone else doing that too? it's getting nearer to the submission date and i just wanna be 100%!!

Reply 9

Fletch

That sounds like the new specification, which isn't being examined until next year. This year is still the old spec. for A2 - new spec for AS. Better get your teacher to check.

Reply 10

Jipson

Hey, I'm currently in year 11 and choosing my A-Level options - was considering Music Technology but I'm unsure whether or not I meet the required basic knowledge to do the course. In terms of reading/notation and scales of music I more or less know nothing, I play guitar pretty well but I learned from tabs and was wondering (as music technology focusses on the computery side of stuff) if I'd still be able to do the subject? I've worked on computer based music software before in my spare time, and like to make beats and music via sampling and stuff.. so yeah any advice would be great. :smile:

P.S, does anybody know how Music Tech is kinda viewed by universities? Like is it seen as a waste or anything like that? cheers :smile:

Reply 11

Wiz29

Original post by Jipson

P.S, does anybody know how Music Tech is kinda viewed by universities? Like is it seen as a waste or anything like that? cheers :smile:

To start with, Universities view it differently. Some see it as a creative option that affects your thinking and some see it as a subject that does nothing but this is all dependent on the course you apply for and the uni you apply for.

In terms of knowledge, I studied Music GCSE and so have since had very little trouble with A-Level Music Tech. However, in my first year (I am currently doing my A2s) we had two novices join and others who had knowledge of music notation but none of technology. The two novices did struggle but the one that did persist is still with us at A2 after receiving a high D grade (2 marks off of a C). The other dropped it after a complete fail. In order to succeed in this subject you need to do at least 1 hour of Independent study per coursework a week. By January you will usually have 3 courseworks to do at once so 3hours/week. If you work hard an nag your teacher for help you will be fine.

Coursework Overview:

You will be required to do an SRP (Sequenced Realised Performance) in which you will be given a skeleton score and stimulus (track given by Edexcel) and you will have to make it sound as close to the original as possible. You will be required to sequence the vocals as opposed to recording them.

The second coursework is the Composition. You will be required to choose one of two tracks and arrange it in one of two styles/genres. This is usually the most creative piece of work and will take the most time to do.

Finally you will be required to do a MultiTrack Recording. You may choose a song of your choice (unless you teacher tells you to do a specific track) and you must engineer a recording of the track. You may change the genre and arrangement slightly. However, the track may only be 2-3 minutes and must be commercially available. This tests your recording and mixing skills.

I really enjoyed last year. If you genuinely enjoy music and learning about it then you will enjoy this course. The exam is tough but I even enjoyed that. Overall I achieved a C but I will be resitting my paper to try and get a B grade @ AS.

Hope this helped