Music Practicals

philologos

Im just wondering when ppls practicals are on and what instruments they will be doing and wot songs!!
mine are on the 12th of April and im doing singing for it my four songs for higher level are:
I Believe - (dont kno composer)
Blowing in the Wind - Bob Dylan
Unchained Melody - Frank Sinatra
Always on my Mind - Frank Sinatra

feylya

I know a guy that had a music practical a week ago or so and played:

Midnight - Joe Satriani
The Attitude Song - Steve Vai
Erotomania - Dream Theater

And another one I can't remember.

JBoyle4eva

Quick question:

is it possible to do music for LC if you didn't do it for JC?

newgrange

It's possible to do any subject you want for your Leaving Cert. if you haven't done it for Junior. As to whether it would be difficult from scratch, I would imagine so, and I don't think too many Leaving Cert. Music teachers would want a beginner in their class with people who have studied it for 3 years. Your school may make an exception, for example if you have been taking piano exams yourself outside the school - you can only ask.

As far as the SEC is concerned though, they have no interest in what subjects a Leaving Cert. candidate took or did not take for Junior Cert..

PurpleFistMixer

Someone told me once that Music is one of the easiest things to pick up after LC if you didn't do it for JC. However, judging from my sister who's doing it (and is in 6th year), it's damn evil anyway. You have to compose a 16 bar melody... *shudders* I mean, 8 bars is bad enough for theory exams. 16 is just gruelling.

philologos

JBoyle4eva wrote:

Quick question:

is it possible to do music for LC if you didn't do it for JC?

yes you can quite easily but u need to have knowledge of up to grade 5 theory ( just the knowledge u dont have to do grades)

Waltons

I picked it up for the LC having not done it for the JC. The theory etc is a bit tricky to get a grasp of, but I'd never done the stuff before in the first place, so it's obviously not impossible.

PurpleFistMixer

Aside from theory and practicals, what does music entail?

Cool_CM

it's a tad anoying the set works this year, the ger barry "piano" thingy or whatever it is, its not nice on the ear at all at all, the rest are grand

E@gle.

Waltons wrote:

I picked it up for the LC having not done it for the JC. The theory etc is a bit tricky to get a grasp of, but I'd never done the stuff before in the first place, so it's obviously not impossible.

yeah i was the same and i still didnt under stand the therory the day i was doing the actual exam. i still got a C1 in honours just do a good practical and you will be fine

trippertds

I've been playing guitar for around four years and play well enough for the time I've been playing. I'm not really worried about the theory (I'm sure I could pick it up with study) just whether I am proficint enough at practical work.

Would I be able to blag my way through LC music? Any examples of songs/the standard you should be able to play at (not a grade level; I don't know what they entail)?

philologos

sorry can we keep to the original topic of Junior Cert Practicals instead of swaying into Leaving Cert (you have ur own forum):
ok any JC ppl doing theirs soon?? if so wot date wot instruments and wot songs are you doing and at what level

modular

I've sort of chosen my pieces (didn't do a mock practical). I'm playing, on piano, three Grade 4 pieces and a Grade 6 piece. I think that's a good enough level, is it?

Fobia

I think grade 4 is the required standard alright modular.

I'd be interested in the picking music up for leaving cert thing too, I started studying music in second year for the jc but quit after 2 months as I hated my teacher and my class....I'm on grade 8 in piano though and am sitting my grade 5 theory exam (I have to before I sit grade 8 as I'm not doing music for jc...) in a few weeks. I *hope* it's not too different

Fobia.

Kitsune

IMO, Leaving Cert Music is easier than Junior Cert. You don't have a dictation question and you can do 50% of your exam as a practical if you're poor at the theory. The melody question is very formulaic. You can get away with preparing a melody and adapting just a few bars to fit in with your given bars.
So anyway, yeah, anyone could pass leaving cert music without having done it for the junior cert and with a bit of work, a B or A is not out of reach.

As for the JC practical, I played
Sunshine of Your Love by the Cream
Paranoid by Black Sabbath
(both with slightly simplified solos)
Song 2 by Blur
and Blitzkrieg Bop by the Ramones
on the guitar and got an A.
Its great doing rock/metal on the guitar 'cos none of the examiners know any of the songs and you can screw up (I did) and it doesn't matter as much.

OK remembering that I got an A in music for the JC, it might be a bit harder than I thought to get an A or a B in LC but still, a good practical will get you a pass.

PurpleFistMixer

Fobia, I had to do that for violin, only you have to have passed grade 5 theory to do grade 6 violin. I found the exam amusingly easy, despite only taking up theory this year specifically for the exam. A lot of it is stuff that you'd have picked up already, definitely if you're doing grade 8. Although I was pretty lucky in the paper, there were loads of violin related or just blatantly easy questions. (For example: one of the questions asked what 'Allegro' means...)

I've heard that the theory they do in music is somewhat different... especially since it's a listening paper, so they have to answer questions on particular pieces, instead of more pure theory stuff.

Fobia

There's no listening bit in the LC music exam though [EDIT]apparently there is one after all [/EDIT]...

The theory paper is fairly easy (but there aint no question as easy as "what does allegro mean?"!), only annoying thing is you need 70% to pass. I don't really know why I'm doing London College of music rather than irish but....meh

For lc any of the pieces in the practical would be dead easy for anyone above grade 7 on their instruments so they just need that extra 25% or so (assuming they didn't ace the practical) to get to a B...

PurpleFistMixer

There is a listening exam in the LC. The exam is just the listening paper, composition paper, and the practical.

My exam was with the Associated Board and I actually have no idea how much you need to pass... it'd so much easier if they could just adopt the typical grading system...

Fobia

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

There is a listening exam in the LC. The exam is just the listening paper, composition paper, and the practical.

I stand corrected.

PurpleFistMixer wrote:

My exam was with the Associated Board and I actually have no idea how much you need to pass... it'd so much easier if they could just adopt the typical grading system...

Aye, 40% to pass is alot fairer than 70%