Music 2: At least what grade? (1 Viewer)

[knightus10]

HELLO to anyone who's reading this,
I'm starting to do subject selections for my school, but i'm quite hesitant about picking Music 2 as my subject.
Right now I'm in grade 7 for piano (started in year 7) and now working on Theory of Music Grade 4 (in Grade 3 i got 100% ).
I'm wondering am i good enough to pick Music 2 and compete with the rest of Nsw, since I'm aiming for 90+ for my atar. Should i do music 1 instead? Is doing Music 2 by correspondence alright because my school doesn't offer it?
Your thoughts?
Please help ASAP

 

[madharris]

Grade 7 is fine, although piano is a really tough category instrument wise as you have many people who have their Amus and even Lmus

However in saying this you don't get marked on how difficult the piece is but how well you are able to perform it.
Also, you have to remember that your pieces aren't everything, there is also musicology and composition which can significantly increase your overall mark.
You also have your electives of performance, composition and musicology where if you feel your piano playing isn't up to the standard of some others, you can choose something else to do

Hope that helps

 

[knightus10]

Thank you for replying so quick
It helped a little on my decision. I really want to do music,
But do you think i'll be able to keep up with the rest of the people doing music 2. Or should i do Music 1 instead, because my school only offers Music 1 and I'll have to do Music 2 by Correspondence. Sorry for asking so many questions :S
I'm really scared about the hsc subjects i should take.

 

[madharris]

In my opinion, music 1 written exam is more difficult than the music 2 one.
This is because in music 1, you have to analyse pieces without a score whereas in music 2, you get scores and don't even have to listen to the recording to answer the question.
However in saying this, they have completely different content. Music 1 studies things such as jazz, pop music, musical theatre whereas much 2 studies western art music.
It just depends where your interests lie, as both courses are demanding in their own way.

In saying that, the competition in music 2 would probably be more greater than music 1 as music 2 generally has people who have been doing music for a longer time.

I recommend that you should talk to the music teachers at your school and maybe talk to the career advisor as well. Your music teachers probably know your ability reasonably well and can recommend you to do either course.
You can always take music 2 to try and then switch to music 1 if you don't think your skills are good enough.

With music 2:
You need to do a
musicology paper (written exam - consists of analysing pieces, melodic dictation, a few questions such as knowing terminology and an essay)
performance (perform a piece from the core topic - australian western art music of the last 25 years)
composition (compose a 2 minute piece around the core topic - australian western art music of the last 25 years)
elective:
Performance (perform 2 pieces; 1 from your option topic and 1 from your option topic or the core topic)
Composition (compose a 3 minute piece - not sure of the requirements)
Musicology (write a 1000(?) word essay on something which i'm not sure about either)

And don't be sorry for asking questions. If you don't know something then the obvious thing to do is ask
Knowing is better than not knowing - after all you don't want to make the wrong decision

 

[saysesame]

Did you end up picking it?

 

[knightus10]

hahaha sorry for the late reply, but yes i did end up picking Music 2. Hopefully I'll be ok

 

[s13rra]

Very late but did you end up doing it for hsc? I'm wondering if I should pick it.

 

[synthesisFR]

Very late but did you end up doing it for hsc? I'm wondering if I should pick it.

Bro probably has kids now