BTEC Guide to Lower 6th Subsidiary Diploma in Music Performance

 This article has been adapted from Donna Hollick's Coulsdon College guide to BTEC Grading for BTEC RQF Certificate in Travel & Tourism, Sept 2020

You are studying the BTEC Level 3 QCF Subsidiary Diploma in Music Performance. Your qualification size is 60 credits and is equivalent in size to an A Level.  You will be studying 6 units across two years, all of which are assessed by internally-marked coursework. 

The following overall grades can be awarded for the certificate:

• Pass 
• Merit 
• Distinction
• Distinction*

Your 3 Lower 6th Units are:

• Unit 23 – Music Performance Techniques 
• Unit 40 - Working and Developing as a Music Ensemble
• Unit 22 - Music Performance Session Styles

You will be assessed for all of these units by internal coursework.

The marks below show how many points you will get for each grade. 

 

IMPORTANT - HOW YOUR GRADE IS CALCULATED

Each unit has 3 or more tasks and your work for each task is graded at Pass, Merit or Distinction.

For example, here are the grades for Unit 23: 

You must achieve all the criteria to get a Distinction for the whole unit (P1, P2, P3, M1, M2, M3, D1, D2, D3)

all the Pass and Merits to get a Merit, (P1, P2, P3, M1, M2, M3)

and all the Passes to get a Pass (P1, P2, P3)

If you get all the Pass grades and all of the Distinctions, but only 2 of the Merits – your overall unit grade will be a Pass. 

Calculating your overall grade for the Subsidiary Diploma

To calculate your overall grade, the points from all 6 units studied across 2 years are added together to give you your overall grade (e.g. Units 23 + 40 + 22 + your 3 units studied in the 2nd year). 

E.g. Lower 6th Units

Unit 23 - Merit = 8

Unit 40 - Distinction = 9

Unit 22 - Merit = 8

Upper 6th Units

Unit X - Merit = 8

Unit Y - Distinction = 9

Unit Z - Merit = 8

Your total points are = 50. 

This number is now multiplied by 10 to give your qualification grade = 500 points overall

Practice time!

1. Agatha gets 3 Passes and 3 Merits - what is her grade overall?

2. Rupert got 2 Distinctions, 2 Merits and 2 Passes – what was his overall grade?

3. Mabel got 5 Distinctions and 1 Merit – what was her grade overall?

4. Cliff got 4 Passes and 2 Merits - what grade did he achieved overall?

5. Priya got 2 Distinctions, 3 Passes and 1 Merit – what grade did Priya gain overall?

Stretch and Challenge

Please give your target grade that you would like to achieve at the end of the year and give 3 strategies you will use to achieve this!

Target Grade – 

Strategies:

1)

2)

3)

Creating Your Artist Profile Page!

 

image from https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.blogger&hl=en_US

Use a free Google Gmail account to make your own Blogger website. 

Always save and publish each blog post so you can share it with others. 

How to build your Artist Profile Blogger webpage!

image from https://medium.com/@MusicPromoToday/tips-for-musicians-how-to-get-your-bio-read-ca518d1cdb4a

Your artist profile = 

1. your best artist or performance photos

2. your best performance video or audio file

3. your artist bio

AN ARTIST BIO SHOULD INCLUDE: 

WHERE: Where you were born and now live

WHAT: 1. Your main instrument 2. List your 3 best musical skills (e.g. vocal range, 

HOW: How you learnt - e.g. self-taught or received lessons & number of years you've been learning

WHERE & WHEN: A list of performances with photos or recordings if possible

WHO: Other artists you have performed with

WHY: 1. Why you perform 2. Who inspires you (influences & favourite music styles)  3. Future ambitions (career - musical or not & what musical )

 Read this article for more help: 'Tips for Musicians: How to Get Your Bio Read' (from MusicPromoToday)

How to upload website links, photos, video & audio files (& emojis! 🤗 )

These four icon buttons allow you to add weblinks, pictures, videos and emojis! 

When you add:  

• weblinks - tick the box to open the link in a new page so the reader can still view your blog at the same time
• pictures - add a caption with the web address to show where it's from (use smallest size font)
• videos - you can link directly from Youtube or upload from a phone or computer
• audio files - see below

Audio files cannot be directly uploaded, as Blogger does not have an MP3 player. Instead, you can include audio recordings link to a website (1) or to a storage cloud (2)

Method 1. Play from a music website (e.g. Soundcloud, etc)

Simply paste the html link into Create/Edit URL or into Insert Video

Method 2. Link directly to file from an online Cloud 

First, upload your MP3 files on an audio hosting service like Google Drive, Dropbox etc... because you can't upload and save audio files on Blogger directly.

Then put it into post's HTML editor not the text editor. 

** Make sure you copy the link to the file itself (from 'right click' menu) and not the web address for the audio player page that opens when you click on the file**

Working Your Audience - Stage Confidence

 

It's the night of your gig. You've learnt your songs, you're all warmed up and you've even dressed up for the occasion. But what about those stage nerves? Or getting the audience to respond? Here's two online articles on stage mastery and rocking your crowd.

How to Work Your Audience (Open Mic UK, 2020)

This article gives tips on getting your audience's attention and making an 'emotional connection', including: 

• Breathing techniques
• Visualisation and positive thinking
• Talking to the audience and projecting your voice (not shouting!)
• Learning from other performers on stage
• Eye Contact
• Non-verbal communication: posture, presentation
• Acting lessons

If the audience still isn't responding enough, then check out this article:

Managing an Unresponsive Crowd (Open Mic UK, 2020)

7 Top Tips for Rehearsal

image from https://www.worldathletics.org/athletes

Why do we rehearse? 🎸

Musicians rehearse to learn new songs and new skills, plus maintain existing ones. Just as athletes and sportspeople need to train to improve their abilities and keep in shape, so musicians have to rehearse. 

Rehearsal increases our capacity to succeed and achieve our dreams. At college, a well-rehearsed performance leads to such outcomes as achieving your target grades, achieving personal satisfaction and also respect from your peers. To a working musician or band, a well-rehearsed performance means fulfilling ambitions, such as increased financial success, increased fanbase and the pleasure of doing the job they love. 

Groups with two or more musicians rehearse to decide and practise each song's key, tempo, structure, style, rhythm, balance of volumes, etc to ensure a co-ordinated group performance. 

What are the benefits of rehearsal? 🎤

Rehearsal brings confidence -  performing in front of others can be unnerving, but rehearsal will give you the confidence to impress an audience, earning their respect and providing a genuinely entertaining performance.

Rehearsal is also about discovery - discovering the secrets of how music you love actually works and also learning about your self. Musicians who rehearse over a period of time will notice how much more confident they feel about attempting new challenges. 

What should a rehearsal include?  🎹

There are many different ways to rehearse, but it is always important to start with warm-ups to get your voice or fingers working and avoid any strain or damage. Once you're warmed up, activities should be chosen to help you progress towards your goals (e.g. learning new repertoire, increasing singer's pitch range or pianist's dexterity, etc) and you should end your rehearsals by making a note of how much progress has been made on each goal.

Set yourself 'Mini-Outcomes' - can I improve how I play this bar or sing that note?

Look for 'Personal Bests' - what have you done today that you didn't think you could do before?

Make your rehearsals goals-based 🎤

You should start by working out what skills you need to learn to play your new set of songs. You can then plan your rehearsal time with a ticklist, focusing on the main areas for improvement. As you see improvement in your progress, rehearsals should start to feel positive, helpful and even fun! Try and keep to a sensible level of rehearsal to avoid burnout or being under-rehearsed. Rehearsals should be a minimum of 30 minutes, 3 times a week to start seeing a difference in your skills. Decide where is best to rehearse, either at home, college or other music rehearsal space.

image from https://medium.com/@pifflegames/15-tips-from-15-years-as-an-entrepreneur-7bf60730dbc4

7 top tips for making the most of rehearsals 

1. Choose Warm-Ups that match your goals

Warm-ups should be chosen to help you progress your target areas, such as exercises getting gradually faster to help learn fast passages, or scales climbing higher to prepare you for singing high notes. There are routines on Youtube for all instruments and free singing apps such as Vocalizzo. Remember your goals and find the right combinations of activities to ensure you are 

2. Slow down the tricky parts 

Fast songs or intricate, tricky sections may be easier to learn if slowed down. Set your metronome to a slower tempo or your Youtube backing track to a slower speed, until you're accurate with the section you're learning. You can also use apps to slow down recordings, such as these apps on Google Play or other recording programs, such as LOGIC X. 

3. Start from the tricky bit, not the beginning

If you keep getting stuck on part of a song, it's best to start from that difficult part when you rehearse. This is to avoid wasting time and energy always starting from the part you can already play smoothly. Once you have mastered the tricky part (maybe by slowing it down as in tip #2 above), play it three times correctly to lock it in, then perform the whole song from the beginning. 

4. Singers - check your pitch with a piano or tuning app

Singers should check their pitch by comparing their sung note to a note played on a piano (or free online piano) or by singing into a pitch-measuring app 

5. Create your own regular routine 

Once you've set your goals, create a simple routine that is easy to repeat at each rehearsal. Make sure you plan your rehearsal activities and find everything you need before you start rehearsing. This way,  you can avoid distractions that can disrupt your rehearsal schedule, such as searching for new videos on Youtube, etc. Keep a schedule, such as 10 mins of various warm-ups, 20 mins of repertoire and 10 mins of freestyle, improvisation or jamming to a backing track. Make a ticklist chart with a column for each day's date and tick off each activity to show your progress. Try sticking to the same time each day to help you keep to a regular routine. 

6. Keep your instruments and resources ready

It's easier to start quickly on rehearsals if all the equipment you need to rehearse with is already set up and ready to use. Reducing the time spent setting up instruments and equipment will save you valuable energy for rehearsal. 

7. Get to know your material well

Rehearsal will help you know your songs inside out, empowering you to truly capture and hold the audience's attention. Use rehearsal time to find out which lines or sections of a song require a change in dynamics from soft to loud or other expression. To really know your song well, you can print out a copy of the lyrics or score and use highlighter pens to mark up different sections, such as red for loud and blue for soft, or yellow to draw attention to challenging sections. 

By Paul Tornbohm

Coulsdon College, August 2020 

Adding Quotations Using Harvard Referencing

 

image from https://www.bigstockphoto.com/image-340407772/
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Harvard Referencing

Your readers must be able to tell what research is yours and what comes from another author.  This helps them find the same information if they want to quote it themselves. It also avoids the mistake of one of your readers crediting you with someone else's work.  

Why You Must Say Where Your Quotations Come From

When you write an essay, a diary blog or a powerpoint presentation, any: 

• text or verbal quotations
• videos 
• photos 

you find online, in books or in videos must be properly referenced. This means that you must give the full details of where the information comes from. 

Without references, any work you quote from someone else might look like it's your own, which is known as 'plagiarism'. Most students simply forget how important this is when they copy and paste from a website and therefore plagiarise by accident rather than on purpose. However, students can lose their place on a sixth form or university course if they are found to have plagiarised. 

How Can We Avoid Plagiarism?

Here are 7 easy tips to keep you safe from accidental plagiarism and to demonstrate when to  use a citation and when to use a reference. When you quote from somewhere, you must give a short citation, e.g.  "According to O'Reilly (1988), musicians learn best when..." and then list all of your quoted sources in a full bibliography at the end of your powerpoint or essays using references. 

1. CITATION: Never quote more than two sentences. Add "quotation marks" around the quoted extract. Below your quote, add a citation reference (see steps 3 and 4 below).
2. CITATION: If you want to quote more than two sentences, you should summarise in your own words instead. Begin with the author's name, e.g. "According to O'Reilly (1988), musicians learn best when..."
3. CITATION: If the quote is from a book, the reference you add should show the name of the author, the year of publication and the page number, e.g.: (Whittaker, 2020, pg.45).
4. CITATION: If the quote is from a website, add the webpage and the date you accessed it, e.g.:(https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zhrtkmn/revision/1), accessed 8 September 2020.

5. REFERENCE: Make a Bibliography list of all your references at the end of your essay, blog or presentation. Include full details of all sources you have used, even if these are not directly referred to, for example: Alderton, P. (2000) “Please, Sir”, London: Weston Press. 

 

6. REFERENCE: Use this Online generator to automatically generate a citation reference. It uses the referencing system created at Harvard University, known as 'Harvard Referencing'. 

 Example of a Bibliography reference for a website, using the Online Generator

BBC Bitesize. (n.d.). Intervals - Melody - AQA - GCSE Music Revision - AQA. [online] Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zhrtkmn/revision/1 [Accessed 8 Oct. 2020].

7. REFERENCE: Add the website address in the caption box beneath a photo. When you have uploaded a photo to your blog, right-click on the image and click the two lines beside the plus + symbol to add a caption below your photo. 

image from https://content.techgig.com/8-online-courses-for-programmers-offered-by-harvard-university-for-free/articleshow/75120114.cms

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