Why choose music A-Level? Because you love making music! We will help you become an expert in whatever field of music that inspires you - composer, performer, producer, singer, instrumentalist. This is an experience that will set you up for a life-time of enjoying music in further education (university or conservatoire), as a job or in your spare time.

Opportunities: You attend a school that will have over 1000 musicians in. The A-Level music students will be looked up to by all of these musicians. It is a position of responsibility but also of great honour. We hope that the first set of A-Level music students become trailblazers for what is musically possible at INA. They will have the chance to run their own music events, invite famous musicians to come and perform at INA, run their own music enrichments, help choose and arrange the music that we will play in enrichments and lessons and judge INA music competitions. They will also get the chance to organise trips to see gigs all over London.

Explore: You will get the time to deeply explore the music you love whilst also looking into music that you have not come across before.

Practical learning: As with all subjects there will be some time devoted to written learning and preparation for the exam but most of your marks will be achieved through practical music making - either performing or creating music.

Mentoring: You will be eligible for one-to-one mentoring sessions from amazing Music Teachers who will work with you to help you become the musician that you want to be.

KS5 Appraising Music 40% Performance 35% Composition 25%

What’s Assessed

Listening Analysis

Contextual UnderstandingMusic Performance

10 minute recitalComposition

2 compositions

How it’s assessed

Exam paper with listening and written questions using excerpts of

music (based on 3 AoS)

Solo and/or ensemble performing as an instrumentalist, or vocalist

and/or music production (via technology)

Composition 1: Composition to a Brief (25 marks)

Composition 2: Free Composition (25 marks)

Music A-Level Overview

What will we cover in the exam?

How will we use our 5 hours of lessons each week?

Now you get 5 hours of lessons every week. That’s more time to really invest in becoming expert musicians. The standard of complexity of the pieces you compose, perform and listen to will increase. We will also train you to become Big Band teachers. We will give you responsibility for one section and eventually support you to becoming fully fledged Big Band teachers - a great experience to put on your CV!

What can I do to prepare for September? Make music! Keep practising. This Summer period is crucial for your technical development. We have put together a Summer Transition course in conjunction with our Fronter Page and departmental YouTube Channel. Make sure you go through all the steps and listen to everything on the listening list. Some of it you will know and hopefully like but some you will not. Listen critically and decide what you think.

Appraising Music

AoS 1: Western Classical Tradition AoS 2: Popular Music AoS 3: Music For Media

(Film Music)

Baroque Concerto,

Mozart Opera,

Romantic Piano Music

Stevie Wonder, Beyoncé, Joni Mitchell, Labrinth,

Muse, Daft Punk

Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, Thomas Newman, Bernard

Herrmann, Nubuo Uematsu

Weekly Programme

1: Practical Workshopping

2: Lecture

3: Harkness 4: Composition 5: Performing/

Sequencing

A practical musical

response to the week’s focus:

singing, playing, etc.

A teacher-led lecture on the week’s topic supported by

detailed student note-taking

A well-prepared student-led discussion around the

week’s topic

The development of general or

specific composition skills through individual or

group composing tasks

Creating your 10 minuted recital

and refining your technology and

sequencing skills

Is there a text-book I need to get? We will produce resources for you which are tailored both to you and the exam you are about to sit. However, if you wish to supplement your learning with a textbook then I recommend the Rhinegold AQA AS and A Level Study guide (which is also available as an iBook): http://www.rhinegoldeducation.co.uk/product/aqa-as-and-a-level-music-study-guide/ Access at home to a laptop and a MIDI keyboard would also be very helpful. There are many free Digital Audio Workstations such as GarageBand & Audacity which would give you much needed opportunity to work on your compositions at home.

What roads will A-Level Music open up to me? Developing a life long love of music making! You made the first steps towards this at key stage 3. You developed your skills, creativity and appreciation of music at KS4. By continuing with your music education at KS5 you will put yourself in a position to progress on your own, to teach others and to enrich the rest of your life with music no matter what direction you go in after school.

Music A-Level leads on to a whole host of music courses from conservatoires such as the Royal Academy of Music, to the study of music at top universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Kings College London, Imperial College London, Birmingham University, Durham, York University etc.

Music A-Level will also allow you to develop the self-management, teamwork, problem solving, communication, literacy, and IT skills required to succeed across a wide range of subjects and highly desired by top universities. With unique skills and a broad range of graduate jobs on offer, music students have excellent job prospects. Many music graduates work in the creative industry, but the roles performed by graduates vary greatly. Music grads work in publishing, editing, media production, broadcasting, and marketing. A number work with professional music groups, but not all are performing as musicians – many work in management roles. Less anticipated but no less common is the employment of music graduates in finance and banking, law and consultancy. http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/oct/11/music-students-employability

No matter what job you end up doing you can always teach your instrument/voice to people on the side. Peri music teachers usually charge around £30/hour and this can be a useful additional way of supporting yourself financially, at a time that suits you, whilst doing the things you love.