Music A-Level

Professional Musician

Armed Forces musicians are members of the army, the Royal Air Force (RAF) or the Royal Marines. They play at a wide variety of events and their work involves:

• Playing one or more musical instruments to the highest professional standards.
• Providing music for occasions ranging from military parades and tattoos, to sporting events, concerts, regimental dinners, and state occasions – such as visits from overseas dignitaries and royal weddings and funerals.
• Playing a wide variety of musical styles, including marching music, classical music, jazz, folk, dance music, rock and pop.
• Travelling throughout the UK and overseas, playing to military and civilian audiences.
• Making recordings and sometimes performing for radio and TV broadcasts.

Musicians create and/or perform music in a variety of genres, such as classical, rock, pop, indie, jazz or folk. You could be a composer, instrumentalist and/or a singer performing either in the studio or to a live audience. You may work alone, as a freelance artist, in collaboration with others, or as a salaried member of a:

• Band
• Choir
• Theatrical ensemble
• Opera company
• Orchestra
• Music Producer/Sound Engineer

Sound engineers are responsible for manipulating acoustics to achieve a desired result. You may work in many different contexts, including live events (music concerts, theatre performances and sporting events), weddings or graduation ceremonies. As a sound engineer you could also work in a studio, recording for commercial music, film, TV, radio, advertising, gaming or interactive media purposes. In a live context, your role could involve setting up and testing sound equipment, conducting sound checks and combining signals from the various instruments and microphones to make a mix for the audience and performers to listen to. As a front-of-house live sound engineer, you’re responsible for audience satisfaction, ensuring that every member of the audience can hear the show and that the sound is balanced and controlled in a specified way. This may involve adding sound effects. Monitor engineers also work in live sound and mix the sound that performers will hear through a stage monitor system. As a front-of-house live sound engineer, you’re responsible for audience satisfaction, ensuring that every member of the audience can hear the show and that the sound is balanced and controlled in a specified way. This may involve adding sound effects. Monitor engineers also work in live sound and mix the sound that performers will hear through a stage monitor system.
As a studio sound engineer you could be responsible for planning a recording session with an artist or musician, setting up the required equipment, recording each instrument separately and then editing and mixing recorded tracks, enhancing the sound to achieve a high quality recording. You may also master the sound, which involves listening to the mixed tracks in a good acoustic environment and then working on the edited mix to refine and perfect the audio. A master engineer strives to ensure consistency of sound across different playback formats and produces a master copy, which is a final, replicable, version of the track.
Sound engineers may also be known by other titles, such as audio engineer, recording engineer, mastering engineer or audio technology executive.

Music Teaching

Classroom Music Teaching
By teaching music, you’ll be responsible for unlocking your pupils’ creativity and developing their passion for music. As a music teacher, you’ll play an important role in young people’s learning – whether they go on to become talented musicians, or just gain a deeper understanding of different forms and styles of music. By teaching the subject, you’ll nurture pupils’ self-confidence, creativity, and their ability to collaborate and express themselves. Your training will provide you with the skills needed to support pupils to develop their musical knowledge and understanding, while learning to make music accessible and enjoyable. As your career progresses, so will your salary.

Peripatetic Music Teaching
As a private music teacher you’ll combine your musical and teaching ability to provide music lessons to teach pupils to play a musical instrument or to sing. Private, visiting and peripatetic music teachers provide instrumental, vocal and music training for children and adults of all ages. You’ll work at a variety of levels teaching different musical skills to individuals or groups. Teaching can take place in a school, college, university, conservatoire or a community-based setting. Alternatively, you may work in your own home, travel to various locations to teach students, be hired by a local authority music service or music education hub to teach in schools or be employed by a privately or publicly-funded music centre. Many private music teachers and musicians combine a number of these roles. In this role, you may also be referred to as an instrumental or vocal music teacher. Most private music teachers are self-employed.

Music Therapist
Music therapists use music creatively to help their clients address social, emotional or physical difficulties. You won’t teach your clients to sing or play an instrument, but will communicate through music making and a shared musical experience to support them and facilitate positive changes in their behaviour, communication and wellbeing. You’ll work with children and adults of all ages and social backgrounds, either individually or in groups, in a range of clinical settings. Your clients may be affected by a range of injuries, illnesses, disabilities, challenges or difficulties including:

• acquired brain injury or stroke
• addiction
• autism
• communication delay
• dementia
• learning disabilities
• mental ill health
• school exclusion
• serious illness, such as cancer
• social, behavioural and emotional difficulties.

You’ll also work with those who want to gain an insight into themselves and how they relate to others.

Arts Administrator
As an arts administrator, you’ll manage activities and projects provided by a range of organisations in the arts sector. It’s your job to facilitate the work of artists and arts programmes. These include:

• arts festivals and centres
• community and disability arts organisations
• dance companies
• local authorities and arts councils
• theatres, galleries and museums.

Many organisations rely heavily on funding, which affects the staffing structure they can maintain.
Types of art administrator
The type of work you’ll do will depend on the size of the organisation you work for and the type of service it provides. This may include some or all of the following:
education

• front of house administration
• programming
• sponsorship