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DS will have to record his ensemble piece for his gcse music soon & is struggling to think of a song. He has a strong tenor voice & would like to sing a musical theatre song. The main vocal needs to be him and ideally should be accompanied by another vocalist, preferably harmonies to show good skill and an instrumentalist. Any ideas greatly appreciated.

My dd's is a vocalist also and took her Music GCSE in June. I don't know if it varies from one exam board to another, but my dd had to do two separate perfomances during the year. One was a solo perfomance ( O mio Babbino Caro ) and that obviously had to be all about her! She was accompanied by a teacher, but another pupil could have played for her if they were able to, but their contribution wouldn't have been marked anyway if they had, as only the soloist was marked.
For her ensemble piece however, she and another girl sang Mozart's Letter Duet, which was perfect as it important that they both had an equal opportunity to show the examiners what they were capable of. If your son's ensemble piece is with another pupil who is also a vocalist you would probably need to find a duet which gives them both an opportunity to shine, rather than your son being 'accompanied' by another vocalist.
She was advised by the teacher to stick to something classical as she was able to do it because they said she would have the chance to get a higher mark than if she'd chosen pop or even musical theatre.
Do you know if your ds is planning to sing with a girl or a boy, because that would make it a bit easier to try to think of possibles.

I think it will depend on the exam board. Both my DDs did GCSE Music, and there was no bias towards classical pieces - you were marked on ability rather than what type of music you were singing. It also was no difference whether you were singing, playing the violin or the drums (hard to think of a classical drum solo ). However, there were 2 elements, a solo and an ensemble. In the ensemble both/all the perfromers were marked. This meant that people could perform duets, trios etc. This seems an easier option than looking for piece where there is on emain singer and another just doing "back up " and harmonies. I would check the brief carefully before making a decision.

He is in a class of 7 & the only vocalist !!! He will have to find a vocalist out of school & they obviously won't be marked so the ensemble piece can be all about him. For his solo he will probably do This is the moment or Empty Chairs as they are deemed to quite a high grade 7 or 8. So far ideas hes had for ensemble are Come What May Moulin Rouge,My Best Friend Blood Brothers & the duet between the judge & Sweeney in Sweeney Todd. Classical really doesn't rock his boat .

It is REALLY important to find out the course specification, and go online and download the mark schemes and any examiners reports from the previous year. You need to know what they examiners are looking for, how what they hear (and maybe even see) impacts on the marks, and then make your selections. As with all public exams, these are not secret so you can really see how the rules match what the kids want to do. Some select music they think will work well and then discover somebody who chose a different piece and didn't do it very well got better marks. If they are looking at melody, harmony, pitch, intonation, phrasing etc - then you know some kinds of music just won't work, but it's just as possible that the mark scheme suits a Lady Gaga pop piece, and doing something technically difficult may not produce decent marks. Each year they tweak the rules. Sometimes the teachers do't spot the changes and don't pass them on. The Chief or Principal examiner's report is really useful because all the petty niggles and daft entries get itemised, and common problems detailed. In A Level music one year we had a comment about a particularly common (God knows why) piece that loads of centres 'inflicted' on their students that generated universally rotten marks. The popular song had deliberate mistuning - the clash being intentional, but the mark scheme that year required accuracy of pitch - and a nasty flat note, even though popularised by somebody famous was an error - the sheet music they used had no such flat note. One school used Rite of Spring as a piece of orchestral music - this sounds wrong, even when played 100% accurately - examiners found it almost impossible to mark properly.

GCSE is designed to cater for students who are NOT musically excellent - hence the amount of popular songs that can be 'fitted in'. You need to compare your chosen piece with the mark scheme, imagine what an average (not A*) student could do to it, and see how your son/daughter would do better - and where the extra marks would come from. You often find some quite unexpected things in mark schemes. Sometimes the beginning, before they start and the end, after they've finished is part of it - sort of presentation/stage presence marks, and you need to know this so you can help them work on it.

Last thing is to look very carefully at the teacher - do they have the experience to guide the candidates through the process? My son's, when he was doing his GCSEs didn't know drum music could be notated! Never assume a level of knowledge - they could be a PE teacher who does music as a hobby - and got 'told' they were now the music teacher!

Crikey Oscar that is a small class ! My dd's class was massive in comparison and that does make it a bit more difficult when it comes to pairing up with another vocalist if your dd's the only one !
They did seem to prefer my dd to stick to something operatic but I think the teacher is quite old school tbh. I think it is a good idea for your ds to chose songs which are from a high grade because we were told that our dd would bet better marks automatically if she chose a piece that was grade 7 or 8.
Wishing your son the best of luck for his exam !

Definately look at the spec - the pieces are given a difficulty factor and your mark is multiplied by that so you get more marks for performing a harder piece well than an easier one.

However in my husband's experience what he would consider a difficult piece technically for singers (He is a vocal coach and has inthe past taught singing at a school preparing GCSE students) is not always what the exam board specifies. Things like vocal range, dynamics etc are often specified.

I agree there sho9uld be no bias towards classical however if a music teacher is';t familiar with the pop/music theatre repertoire it is often easier for them to say that is a Grade 5 classical piece with x, x and x so it has a difficulty factor of y and I should be looking for z.

Thanks for all your comments.I will get DS to find out the board and do the research. Paulears had to laugh at your comments about the music category, I'm afraid DS teacher falls into that category too. He just said that what he sand didn't need to be perfect and that if it was a musical theatre piece allowances could be made for his own dramatic interpretation. I THINK NOT !!!! Hence we are doing this on our own. Still struggling for song choices though x