EDEXCEL A LEVEL MUSIC | ⚠️ do not choose!

PLEASE DO NOT RELY ON MY OWN PERSONAL EXPERIENCE TO DECIDE WHETHER YOU WANT TO DO A LEVEL MUSIC OR NOT
Do you think a level music is for you? what would be my answer from my experience? click to find out!
Music is the hardest a level out of the three I am studying, if you haven't seen my other reviews on my a level subjects please check them out! A LEVEL MUSIC EDEXCEL doesn't feel like music at all! Edexcel in my opinion made it too stem subject like with needing VERY specific evidence and essays answered and structured in their own way, in fact my music teachers don't agree with what EDEXCEL a level music says sometimes!

GCSEs, A levels, secondary school, secondary school advice, sixth form, sixth form advice, college, college advice, uk education, GCSE history, A level history, GCSE English literature, GCSE English, A level English, A level English literature, GCSE music, A level music, primrose kitten,

[johnwaters]

Ngl I love the course so much. Chord analysis and the operas of Mozart, absolute bangers. Self taught pianist to grade 8, loved a level music

[joeenglish]

Playing an instrument is immensely different from studying music. English A level isn't just about reading a book. Same as Music A level isn't just about playing a piece of music

[katiefinch]

The biggest tip is to ONLY do A Level Music if you’ve done GCSE Music!! GCSE will teach and introduce you the key words (polyphony etc.) and give you the experience of analysing music, composing music and performing ‘drip fed’ to you. This will allow you to get used to doing things a certain way instead of being thrown straight into it and being expected to do it at a high level (if you didn’t do GCSE)

[PianoWithSam]

Edexcel A Level Music is certainly a difficult one, but it's largely due to the amount of content that is needed to be remembered, not anything else. Not to be rude but your comments in relation to the expectations are pretty absurd. Let's talk about these "six things". 

• Soaring through A Level Music? Yeah, not happening unfortunately, despite the fact that you're Grade 7 Level. I don't think Grade level contributes a lot to the A Level other than in the performing aspect and unless Grade 5 theory hasn't been completed. Did you do GCSE Music? I would have thought "Sonority" and "polyphony" were terms that were already known.

• Is it a bad thing to know about the "composers themselves" ? Like you say, there are 30 mark essays in which you need to highlight why musical decisions have been made. A lot of time this can be demonstrated through context. Let's take Vaughan Williams's 'On Wenlock Edge' as an example. The fact that the melody is heavily pentatonic is a folk influence. He was born in Gloucestershire and the songs are set to poems from "A Shropshire Lad". That's context and gets you marks. Not a bad thing and definitely not "unnecessary". 

• I'm sorry but what did you expect the A Level to be? I mean, GCSE is full of analysis. A Level wouldn't be any different. There are a LOT of pieces and features that needed to be remembered, absolutely true. But the actual analysis of the setworks themselves shouldn't be the difficult part.

• Essay questions are pretty standard in A Levels, no? I'm just thankful that they give you three options with the 30 mark questions. It would be hellish if it was just the one question and you had to answer it whether you liked it or not. Plus, unfamiliar listening is nothing new. Edexcel GCSE Music has exactly the same. I agree with Sarris_'s comment in regards to the structure. There is a structure to answer the questions and it's probably down to not being taught how to answer them successfully over anything else.


• I appreciate that Grade 5 theory is difficult and some people love theory in general and others hate it, but it shouldn't have been a "shocker" that it would be exceedingly necessary within the A Level. To be honest, I'm struggling to think how theory wouldn't be incorporated into an A Level for Music? If you're analysing works and answering questions about music and musical features, theory (at at least Grade 5 level) is surely a needed requirement.

• Composition is tough, yeah. If you're now Year 13 (like myself), I imagine you'll be extremely thankful that they've cut down the compositional requirements due to COVID. It's now only one piece, so the "Barg chorale" (as you called it ;) ) can go out the window I suppose and just the free composition can remain.

I hope my comments didn't come across as rude, I was just expressing my thoughts in regards to your comments. I think it's clear that not a lot of research went into the course and what it would consist of. It certainly isn't an easy one, but, for me at least, it's very inspiring and I've learnt a lot. Not looking forward to revising all the ridiculous number of set works but there we are. Hopefully this was helpful :)

[_hannasdiary]

I am so glad my teacher has been teaching us all the stuff u warned us of in this video at gcse level. I realise now that he is really prepping us for a level.

[kerserzthescientist]

I personally loved doing Edexcel A-level Music, but I have an incredible memory, am intelligent, and Music is my overwhelming passion that I couldn't live without (I am somewhat gifted because I have Asperger's syndrome). I followed the Eduqas syllabus when I moved to a college and I absolutely hated it - the teacher was awful and lazy and the content in the syllabus does not prepare you for uni in the slightest. Edexcel A-level is very much like what you will study at Uni, so if you go on to pursue it in the future it will lessen the jump considerably. As for saying that A-level Music is just studying something trivial like Mozart was obsessed with butts is dismissive and ignorant. Musicology literally is the science of Music and why wouldn't you want to know the context in greater depth? Do you have any actual interest in the study of Music? In fact, English Literature A-level and many humanities A-levels are the exact same. Not to insult you, but it comes across that you picked Music expecting it to be really easy, like some people do; they think "Oh I'll just pick Music cos I won't have to work and the teachers are chill." Nothing is chill at A-level😂. Additionally, Music has many transferrable skills and is classed as a facilitating subject for the very reason that it involves extended essay writing, analysis and critical thinking and reasoning skills, alongside dedication and hard work. I guess it does really depend on the quality of teaching at your exam centre, but Eduqas music is a joke and there are no resources for it.

[jamie]

I also regret music a level a lot. My school taught us musical theatre for the whole of year 12 and then randomly switched to rock and pop in yr 13. Music tech was also crap since we had a rly bad teacher who got sacked in year 12.

[mrbackranked]

How the fuck didn’t you know what polyphonic is?
Tbh you’re right about Mozart’s specific personal life being largely irreverent

[cloudthief]

How did you get to Grade 7 (not tryna be rude, just asking!) while not knowing words like polyphony? I'm at Grade 5 and there's already a section of the exam that's just identifying features from and analysis of unheard music in general. Maybe yours was a performance exam?

[chao]

oh my gosh my situation is so similar to yours. i didnt do gcse music (ik u said u did OCR but im sure its different to edexcel) and im grade 8 piano. i came into sixth form thinking ill breeze through the course but i couldnt be more wrong. the analysis is so freaking hard

[DracoMalfoy]

I feel your pain. I thought the same and it’s nothing like that. So many pieces, so little time.

[MojiEmoji]

Now I wish I did a level music, I love music but I also wanted to do science so I had to choose between the two

[korinav]

Thank you so much for this video because I wouldn't have known that 6 set works have been taken off if it wasn't for you. I'm so mad that it changed in December and I had no idea until now. How frustrating😕

[moobtube]

I do gcse music and it’s the exact same thing, so I’m still going to do it at a level

[connormcmullan]

Don't give such an extreme opinion on a subject because you found it hard due to your personal musical inability lack of commitment and knowledge. Also, a grade 7 in the piano is barely meeting the standard for a level, why would you soar through a two year a level with such a minimal level.

[OliverMunro-imrv]

im taking music A level as a drummer with no knowledge of actually theory. should be fun

[exitedaardvark]

Currently doing it with Eduqas, it's so much better!

[chikuuu]

…did you not do music gcse?? my school would never allow you to do music a level without the gcse, which is where you’d learn the terms you mentioned e.g. homophony, polyphony, sonority - these are really really basic terms, sonority was probably one of the first words i learnt doing academic music - how did your school let you go through with this?? and also do you guys not get told what your subjects will be like before you pick them i.e. taster sessions or even just a course overview?

[willows]

Omg I have saariaho’s song stuck in my head on repeat 😩

[alexandras]

yes, you have to know about composers, it makes use an educated person.