A level Music
Edexcel
Why Study Music?
Music A Level is both a creative and academically rigorous course thatteaches you core musical skills whilst equipping you academically forentry to a wide-range of Russell Group Universities or Conservatoires.
You will have the opportunity to polish your performing to a professional level, compose your own music and have it performedin public, as well as studying music in a broad range of popular and Classical styles.
The UK’s creative industries are now worth £71.4 billion per year to the UK economy – generating just over a staggering £8 million an hour. Music is a key element in this mix, and Music A Level can lead to a career as a performer, composer, publicist, arts manager, radiobroadcaster, live promoter, teacher or academic and much more.
Recent students have won scholarships to the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, as well as continuing tostudy music at the Universities of Edinburgh and Surrey However, Music A Level equips you for other careers toowith a rigorousintellectual base, it’s no surprise that more Music graduates win places on Medical Postgraduate courses than students of any other subject.
Entry Requirements
• A minimum of grade 6 in Music GCSE, or a similar qualification, is expected although students withextensive performing experience in either an instrument or voice will also be considered.
• Grade 5 theory is an advantage although not essential.
• All students are expected to take lessons on a minimum of one instrument and / or voice, and are expected to participate in the flourishing extra-curricular music programme at Rendcomb College, which includes: choirs, orchestras, jazz groups, rock bands, chamber ensembles, regular concerts, musicals and much more.
• Students may apply for the ‘Dutton Scholarship’ prior to joining Year 12 – a scholarship set upspecifically for Sixth Form musicians, which offers fee remissions and subsidised instrumental tuition.
What is Involved?
• Develop your skills as a performer to diploma standard and beyond.
• Analyse a wide range of musical works in depth, ranging from Renaissance choral music and Classicalconcertos to the music of ‘The Beatles’, film music and music from around the world.
• Complete a comprehensive music theory refresher course, and develop your abilities in melody writing,harmony, analysis and score writing on Sibelius.
• Learn to compose in a range of genres, and complete a final composition in a style of your choice
• Previous students have had their compositions performed in public by Rendcomb Chamber Choir, Gloucestershire Symphony Orchestra and a professional string quartet.
