IB Music - what is honestly required

[Krazim]

I'm freaking out here. I don't know what the IB requires from 2010 Music SL students.

The only thing our teacher told us are the Investigative Questions, Recordings for our solos, and analysing the opera. He also told us that we're required to do a performance for school like ensemble or band, which is making me suspicious since I have not heard of that yet. o_o;; Help?

Edited July 5, 2009 by Krazim

[ibapiggie]

I'm freaking out here. I don't know what the IB requires from 2010 Music Theory SL students.

The only thing our teacher told us are the Investigative Questions, Recordings for our solos, and analysing the opera. He also told us that we're required to do a performance for school like ensemble or band, which is making me suspicious since I have not heard of that yet. o_o;; Help?

i too am freaking. it thought I'd only have to be in choir for 2 years, like i was already planning on doing, and then maybe do some little assesment thing like sing the scales at the end of the year.

but then my teacher randomly mentions that me and this other kid would have some summer reading so we could prepare for our investigation, nothing major.

and i was thinking "what? you mean i actually have to do work?" i thought it was gonna be an easy class and i'd get my ib elective and do something i love at the same time, but apparently i was wrong.

I'm sorry i don't know anything to tell you, except that it's not just your school that's not specific.

[iBella]

ok, so you're SL so what you do I believe is the musical investigation, exams and recital (solo or in a group where if it is a group they judge the group as a whole) or 3 compositions.

as far as i'm concerned these are the requirements.

and since when is it called music theory??? i thought it was just IB Music...

[Cubz]

Let me just prepare you guys

IB music actually requires a ****load of effort and work, specially for HL.

To actually get a good grade you need to know about compositional techniques specific to different eras and specific composers as well as being able to recognise them in pieces.

Performance is pretty easy so i guess thats quite good.

Musical investigation, depending on the teacher i spose requires reading, but you can bull**** your way. Its just time, and the more musical background and stuff the better. Take a theory class and stuff it'll really help. But im finding it the hardest out of all of mine atm!

[bohemian03]

and since when is it called music theory??? i thought it was just IB Music...

it is just IB music that's why some kids at my school want to take AP music theory.

i don't want to freak out or anything but my friends are having a lot of trouble and are working really hard for this course. They have recitals every month or so and apparently the exams are extremely hard. This is even for SLs.

[iBella]

well i don't really find it hard at all but that's because i completed grade 6 theory for ABRSM before i took this course... and everything seems to be going quite smoothly. i have an awesome teacher - he's a jazz musician!

[Krazim]

Yeah I know we don't honestly need to take Music Theory, but the teacher keeps telling us to learn Music Theory, and that's what's freaking me out. D= I mean I can look at a score and tell you the basic things. =\

[melshark]

Here's what I know about IB Music, our school was the first international school with IB so i'm pretty sure its right.

1) For the exams, we need to be able to pick out different musical techniques, describe music we hear, name instruments we hear, and explain why composers choose to use certain techniques and what effect they have on the piece as a whole.

-then there will be one studied piece that you should work on in class. you need to be able to figure out where you are in a score when given a recording of the song. You'll have to know something about the composer's life and explain the part of the piece you are given in as much detail as possible.

2) For work in class. There will be three main things you will be graded on in HL and two in SL

-Performance

-Musical investigation

-and Composition

SL students can choose whether to be graded fully on performance or on compostion.

for performance you will have to send in 25 minutes of you playing pieces of your choice. They will have to be diverse and be from a broad range of genres. They can be of you playing alone, or with a band/orchestra (as long as the examiner is clear as to which instrument you are playing within the song)

for composition, you send in another 25 minutes of recording of your own pieces. Again, these should be variated and not from just one genre. They will mark you down a lot for sending in pure regaee or rock for example. The same goes for purely classical or romantic. Basically, you want to show them all the different aspects of your techniques and abilities in writing music. You do not have to perform the pieces on your own. You can write the songs for anyone else to play (even professionals) as long as you wrote it. Just remember for compostion you will br graded on the difficulty of the song, not on how well the person is singing/playing.(that would only be for performance)

the Musical investigation is something I haven't started personally, but I know that you will have to choose a research topic, give an oral/recorded presentation about the topic and write an essay. You can find out about your own school deadlines and acceptable topics from your teacher.

I hope this helps everyone. I also thought music would be an easy class but its really a lot of work. But a lot of fun too. =]

Hang in there. and goodluck with your music.

[Krazim]

Okay, so it IS 25 minutes, correct? Not 15 minutes?

Also, if you're choosing on to sing, can you mix yourself singing overlapping parts? Like when a song is usually sung as a duet and there are overlapping parts, can you record both parts?

Sees how much my teacher really gave me details. He just said, "Just record them, just record them." which gets me angry.

But really, thanks for a lot of help! Really appreciate it!

[melshark]

Yeah, I'm almost positive its 25 minutes. Thats what it is for me in higher. Maybe double check with your school IB-coordinator.

As for recording your own voice in duet form. I'm pretty sure you can't do that seeing as the recording you send in has to be recorded live and one time only. Your teacher is supposed to be there while you record the piece. They don't accept anything that has been tampered with electronically. (unless you're sending in a purely synthesised composition)

And no problem, I hope it helps.

=]

[Ruan Chun Xian]

Check out the syllabus: http://www.ibsurvival.com/index.php?app=downloads&showfile=90

[KyleAdams]

I am taking IB Music SL, and it seems easy enough at this point. We haven't started on our Musical Investigations yet, but it doesn't sound too difficult. Everyone in my class is going to do the group performance option at the end of the year. We have excellent large music groups at our school, so we should do excellently in that area. Those are the two big things. They comprise 70% of your ending IB grade (I think the Investigation is worth 20%, and the Internal Assessment is 50%). Besides that, there is just a test of about 6 questions over a listening piece.

I found the info about the test on http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/IB_Music/Exam.