Practical Technology Column: GCSE

I recently spoke at the Music Technology in Education conference about the different qualification options for music technology students at a range of different levels. Over the next few months, I'd like to look at some of them in more detail.

There are qualifications at most levels to suit all abilities and levels of interest, and we will look at a different examination type each month, including the Arts Award, graded exams, Scottish Nationals and Highers, and vocational courses. Some of these will be only offered by one exam board, others will be offered by multiple organisations. And the first topic falls into the latter camp: GCSEs.

GCSE

As I am sure most readers will know, even those of you in Scotland and further afield, the GCSE is the most common qualification for 16-year-old students in most subjects in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The number of schools offering GCSE Music is declining, but it is still offered in a large number of schools across the country.

GCSE Music is offered by all of the major awarding bodies and, fortunately, each GCSE Music syllabus has music technology options built into the composition and performance strands. These all largely follow the same idea but have a slightly different focus in the wider elements of their specifications. We will take a quick look at each one in turn and explore how they implement the music technology requirements into their specification.

AQA

The AQA specification can incorporate music technology into both the performance and composition elements of the course. The performance component requires the candidate to complete a short sequence or multitrack recording of a performance. However, to ensure that it is a ‘performance’, AQA expects the candidate to include a live part within the task. The recommendation here is that it include a live guitar or a live keyboard part on top of the sequence/multitrack.

The composition section of the course allows students to use technology to realise their compositional ideas. It is likely that students will be using score-writing software or sequencing. It is not expected, and certainly isn't a requirement, but based on my experience, it's very likely.

Edexcel

Pearson/Edexcel similarly has two sections that are applicable to technology-based music candidates. The performance section allows candidates to complete a performance using technology, but again requires some element of the performance to be performed live. As with AQA, the compositional element almost expects candidates to use technology as part of their composition coursework. There is no requirement for any of the composition elements parts of the course to be live, which is closer to how technologists will use their equipment.

Eduqas

As with AQA and Edexcel, Eduqas have an option to use technology in performance and composition, and the requirements are pretty similar in that during performance there should be a ‘live’ element, but not for composition.

OCR

For those of you who have looked at the GCSE specifications before, you'll know that OCR has a slightly different structure. OCR embeds the performance and composition elements into the wider study of music, and performance and composition are combined into one cohesive portfolio of study.

The use of technology is still included as an option within the performance and composition sections. The performance requirements here still include the need for a live element, but it can be ‘live manipulation’. This is interesting, because rather than requiring the candidate to play an additional instrument (although they can if they want to), it can be the control of filters, sampler functions, and other things that a live DJ or producer might do.

Summary

Although all of the exam boards offer a path for technology-based musicians, the requirement to include an element of live performance is not realistically how most music using technology is made. The ability to include live manipulation as an option rather than performing another instrumental part over the top is closer, but is still not the reality of most music technologists’ practice.

I appreciate that the exam boards are trying to create a ‘best fit’ to allow musicians from all walks of life to be able to access the qualification, but that does come with the drawback of not quite working for music technology. However, I must still commend all of the exam boards for including music technology as an option, because not that long ago, it wasn't included at all! Next month, we'll look at another qualification that caters much more specifically for technology-based musicians.