Hello and welcome to Reigate College’s Music Department.
My name is David Preston and I’m the Course Leader for Music A Level.
I’m pleased you’ve chosen to study Music at Reigate College and I’m looking forward to welcoming you in person to our friendly team at the beginning of the academic year. We’re incredibly lucky to have such a well resourced Music Department, together with talented students and amazingly supportive staff and music alumni.
In order to study Music A Level at Reigate College you have to successfully pass the audition process.
If you would like to study A Level Music and have not yet been through the audition process, please contact admissions@reigate.ac.uk.
PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW AND THEN SUBMIT YOUR FILES, USING YOUR FULL NAME WITHIN THE FILE TITLES, USING THE ‘MUSIC’ FOLDER ON THE LINE BELOW.
Task 1: Theory Skills
The first New Starters task is to make sure you have all the underlying skills in order to be able to access and engage with the A Level Music course.
For A Level Music it’s expected you have theory skills to Grade 5 theory level. If you haven’t, in order to be able to demonstrate this to us in September please undertake the most relevant tasks below (A, B and/or C) to ensure you will be ‘up to speed’ when you start.
If you have a Grade 5 Theory Certificate you will already have been asked to present it at your audition. If you have your Grade 5 but haven’t already presented your certificate, you should complete Task A below. You may also want to look at Task B below as a refresher.
If you don’t have Grade 5 Theory, you will need to complete the whole of Task C.
A. Submit a copy of your Grade 5 Theory Certificate if you haven’t done so already, using the ‘Music’ folder link above.
B. Use www.musictheory.net to ensure you are familiar with the topics in the following sections:
- The Basics: All sections
- Rhythm and Metre: All sections
- Scales and Key Signatures: All sections
- Intervals: All sections
- The first two lessons from Chords, Diatonic Chords and the first from Chord Progressions would be a bonus.
C. Work through the ABRSM Grade 5 Theory Book
For your ‘Get Going’ task for A Level Music, I’d like you to listen to the opening of ‘Pagodes’ from Estampes by Debussy, written in 1903 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lswHSnJ0Rlw
The first four bars of ‘Pagodes’ are based on a B pentatonic (five-note) scale: B, C#, D#, F# and G#.
Write a one minute pentatonic piece for any combination of instruments using ‘Pagodes’ as your inspiration.
Please use Musescore (free download available at https://musescore.org/en) to notate your composition, then export it as a .xml file and submit it using the link below.
Please make sure you use your full name as the file name when you upload your work via the Music folder link above. For Musescore you should also give your full name in the title/composer section of the file.
If you would prefer to use manuscript paper, then please upload a photograph of your work ensuring your full name is clearly visible on the page.
Composition piece
Your final task before the start of the course is to compose an eight-bar theme for string quartet in the style of Haydn. You should listen to the following excerpts from Haydn’s String Quartet 76 no.5 for inspiration:
Movement II 4.20 – 5.03
Movement III 10.50-10.58
Movement IV 13.25-13.45
Please use noteflight, musescore or Sibelius and upload a pdf of your score to the link below.
Please make sure you use your full name as the file name when you upload your work. For Musescore you should also give your full name in the title/composer section of the file.
If you have any queries regarding any of these tasks, or regarding the A Level course in general, please contact either the Head of Music john.evans@reigate.ac.uk or me david.preston@reigate.ac.uk
Course Leader – Music A Level
