Hi,

I'm obviously really old, as you'll be able to tell by the next sentence.

I did GCSE music at college back in the midst of time, in the first year of the GCSE's existence. I don't know how much the course has changed in the past 18 years or so, but when I did it, I thoroughly enjoyed it. You'll prolly get a lot of enjoyment out of it yourself an' all. The main kick for me:-

1 - Get to strengthen your musical ability and knowledge.
2 - Spend a year or two studying something you actually enjoy.
3 - Hang out with other musicians a lot.

Also, it gave me exposure to a load of other instruments, and my college had a couple of practice rooms where you could go in free periods and play, or those other periods where you should be doing computing, but you've been banned from the computer suite for helping put the entire network out of commission for over a week so an engineer has to come down from Scotland to sort it out (or is that just me?).

Plus, I fancied my teacher.

Hope that helped,

Ash.

I would say it depends highly on what exam board your school uses, if you do the GCSE with edexcel let me know and i will give you a lot of detail, I am currently in year 11 doing the music GCSE with edexcel and loving every minute, it's easily my fav subject and has given me a chance to bond with so many of our schools most talented musician and colaborate with them which is amazing as I believe colaboration is one of the gifts of music but I'm ranting, honestly, the fact that your grade three on the piano means nothing, there are four people in my class who couldn't play any instrument at all before they started the GCSE but are predicted As and A*s. I love music, I would say take it but if you want to know more let me know. take care shelly x

Ooh, that's changed! When the GCSEs started, minimum entry for GCSE music was grade 5, and I'm pretty sure that was true for all boards.

Things you didn't know you didn't know.

And also - forgot to mention, and you don't seem to be able to edit posts - you also had to show promise at one other "side" instrument.

that's not the case anymore, with my board you only need to be able to play one instrument, you need two compositions, and three performance pieces (one solo, one ensemble and one that is you playing an element of your composition one) then the listening and appraisal exam. they mark your performances on accuracy and interpretation so you can play super trouper on the keyboard and get full marks for your solo performance (there are people in my class who have done that, recoreded it literally in the last two weeks) personally i play the clarinet to grade six standard, i also sing and play the piano (but i play comtemporary music like soul and r'n'b so you can't really say what grade standard that is) i also play other instruments here and there, nothing serious though, and have grade five theory under my belt, I love the GCSE and I think that the more experience you have of music prior to taking the GCSE the easier you will find it and the more you will appreciate it. The listening and appraisal exam is extremely hard. But yes by the sounds of it things have changed alot. I can't speak for the other exam boards but I know they are fairly similar, only slight variations in course requirements.