Component 1:  Appraising Music

Your listening skills, ability to analyse music and place it into context will all be tested. This is assessed via an exam paper at the end of Year 13. This component makes up 40% of the A Level.

Students study a compulsory area of study based on Western Classical Music from 1650-1910. This will include set works from the classical, baroque and romantic periods. Studying composers including Vivaldi, Chopin, Brahms and Mozart.

Students will also learn about popular music from 1960 to the present day focusing on artists including Muse, Beyonce and Stevie Wonder.

A third module will be chosen from either; music for stage or screen, contemporary classical or jazz, depending on the cohort. Listening questions will be based on familiar and unfamiliar works from within these areas of study.

Students will be required to learn the basics of music theory and have a knowledge of how to read score. Assessment will be based around elements of music and students will be expected to develop a wide and varied musical vocabulary.

Component 2: Performing Music

Students must be able to perform music using one or both of the following ways:

• Instrumental/vocal: as a soloist, and/or as part of an ensemble
• Production: via music technology.

  
  Students must perform for a minimum of 10 minutes.

   

  Performance makes up 35% of the A Level.

Students are assessed on the:

• The level of difficulty of their performance
• Their technical control throughout their performance
• The performance qualities they can display
• The expression they can put upon their piece

Pieces should be a minimum of grade 5 standard. Multiple pieces may be used to fill the 10 minutes.

Component 3: Composing Music

Students are required to compose 2 compositions with a combined time of at least 4 minutes 30 seconds.

Composition makes up 25% of the A Level

The first composition is set to a brief and the second is a free composition. Both are of equal value to the overall A Level.

Compositions must demonstrate technical control in the use of appropriate musical elements and how they are combined to make sense as a whole. 

Students must be able to compose music in one or both of the following formats:

• Instrumental/vocal: produce notated score, written accounts and/or lead sheet by traditional means or by using music software as appropriate
• Production: generated entirely digitally, by using music software, without notated score but with accompanying annotation.

Students sit examinations in their A Level courses at the end of Year 13. All students will take internal end of year examinations at the end of year 12 to determine suitability to continue with the subject in Year 13. Students who do not meet the required pass grade in the Year 12 end of year examinations will not be permitted to progress into Year 13.

Students are required to be at a Grade 5 standard in their chosen instrument. They do not have to have certification but can demonstrate musical skills at this level with experience of public performance and/or music production projects. They will have a grade 5 or above in English Language GCSE and a grade 6 or above in Music GCSE.  Students may also be asked to attend an audition.

Check the song selection in either RockSchool or ABRSM graded books to check your performance standard.

Progression to Higher Level courses in Music or Music Technology is normally through application to a degree course in a specialist area.  Studying Music or Music Technology develops transferable skills which can take you into employment.  These include using creativity, using technology to produce and synthesize music and sounds, and developing performing skills.  Success at this level requires determination and dedication.

Music graduates have a wide range of career options available to them both inside and outside the industry, including: Performer, Teacher, Administrator, Songwriter, Conductor, Composer, Recording Engineer, Manager, Promoter, or Music Publisher.

There are also more jobs than ever in music business related areas, such as: careers in Digital Marketing, Social Media, PR, Technology, Label Services, Ticketing and Merchandising. It is also common to find music graduates in Consultancy, Finance, Banking and areas such as Music Therapy.