Updates as of September 22, 2026
Music produced the steepest cut-offs of the entire TGT recruitment when UPESSC released subject-wise figures on 28 July 2026 for Advertisement No. 01/2022. Music Vocal unreserved closed at 488 of 500 on boys'-school posts and 484 on girls'-school posts; Music Instrumental at 464 and 456. No other subject came close.
Adda247 (cut-off tables)The reason is arithmetic. Reported vacancy tables for that cycle show 23 Music Vocal posts, 7 in boys' schools and 16 in girls' schools, and 10 Music Instrumental posts, 4 and 6. Thirty-three posts across Uttar Pradesh make Music the smallest subject block in the recruitment by a wide margin.
Exampur Store (coaching source, sole source for the table)Music is examined as two entirely separate papers with separate syllabi and separate merit lists. UPESSC lists Music Vocal as subject code 12 and Music Instrumental as code 13; a candidate chooses one at the application stage and cannot be considered for the other.
PW (subject-wise syllabus)Eligibility here is qualification-led rather than degree-generic. Coaching compilations of the rule describe a B.A. in Music, or a Visharad or diploma from Bhatkhande Sangeet Vidyapeeth, Lucknow, together with a B.Ed. This narrows the applicant pool far more sharply than the graduate-plus-B.Ed. rule in academic subjects.
Exampur Store (reported eligibility, not verified against the advertisement)For the coming cycle the paper is reported as recast to 120 questions for 360 marks, 90 from the subject and 30 from General Studies, three marks each, two hours, offline OMR. Written merit plus document verification remains the whole of the TGT selection process, with no audition or performance test.
PW (revised pattern report)The two UP TGT Music papers at a glance
| Item | Vocal (code 12) | Instrumental (code 13) |
|---|---|---|
| Posts last cycle | 23: 7 boys' schools, 16 girls' schools | 10: 4 boys' schools, 6 girls' schools |
| Unreserved cut-off, boys' posts | 488 of 500 | 464 of 500 |
| Unreserved cut-off, girls' posts | 484 of 500 | 456 of 500 |
| Written paper, revised scheme | 90 subject plus 30 General Studies, 360 marks, 2 hours, OMR | Same scheme, separate question paper and merit list |
| Selection stages | Written merit then document verification, no audition | Written merit then document verification, no audition |
Music is the only subject in this recruitment split into two independent papers, and the only one of the four covered here where girls'-school posts outnumber boys'-school posts in both streams. Despite the theory-only assessment, the syllabus assumes a performer's familiarity with raag, taal and notation systems that cannot be acquired from reading alone.
Dates and windows
| What | When | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Written examination, TGT Advertisement 01/2022 (all subjects) | 3 and 4 June 2026 | Closed |
| Subject-wise and category-wise cut-off released | 28 July 2026 | Confirmed |
| Final merit list, 2,982 posts | 29 July 2026 | Confirmed |
| Separate merit lists for Music Vocal and Music Instrumental | Issued with the 29 July 2026 lists | Confirmed |
| Next TGT notification, from 17,740 posts identified | Awaiting approval of the eligibility amendment; no date announced | Tentative |
| UPESSC PGT Advertisement 06/2026 application window | 18 September to 17 October 2026 | Confirmed |
| UPESSC PGT written examination | 15 and 16 December 2026 | Confirmed |
The schedule above is common to every subject in the Trained Graduate Teacher recruitment: Music sits on the same notification, the same application window and the same examination dates as Mathematics, Home Science, Physical Education and the language papers. What is particular to Music is that the vocal and instrumental streams are scored and listed separately within that shared cycle.
What this means for your preparation
Music candidates prepare for a performance discipline and then sit a written theory paper at ninety-seven per cent difficulty. The unreserved Music Vocal cut-off in the last cycle was 488 of 500, meaning 122 correct out of 125 questions: three errors across the whole paper. That figure is not a measure of how hard the questions are but of how few posts exist. Twenty-three vocal and ten instrumental posts across the state is the tightest roster in the recruitment.
Choose the stream before you begin
Vocal and instrumental are separate papers under separate subject codes with separate merit lists, and the choice is made at application. The two syllabi overlap only in technical terminology and in the historical development of Indian music. Vocal runs to fourteen major raags including Bilawal, Bhupali, Kafi, Yaman, Bhairavi and Hamir, eight singing styles from Dhrupad and Dhamar through Khayal, Thumri, Bhajan and Kajri, and a general study of tanpura, tabla and harmonium. Instrumental runs to gats and kaydas, instrument classification, tuning method, gharana playing styles and the construction of the candidate's own instrument. Preparing for both wastes the time that a 488 cut-off does not allow.
The cut-off is a vacancy artefact, not a difficulty signal
Music Vocal unreserved stood at 488 for boys' posts and 484 for girls'; Scheduled Caste at 484; instrumental at 464 and 456 unreserved, 432 and 436 for Scheduled Caste. Compare Physical Education unreserved at 392. The gap is almost entirely explained by roster size: seven vocal posts in boys' schools cannot absorb any margin of error, while 157 Physical Education posts can. The practical consequence is that a Music candidate cannot plan around a target score. The target is effectively a clean paper, so the preparation question is not what to study but what can be left uncertain, and the answer is almost nothing.
Eligibility narrows the field more than the syllabus
Reported eligibility for Music is a B.A. in Music or a Visharad or diploma from Bhatkhande Sangeet Vidyapeeth, Lucknow, together with a B.Ed. One compilation describes the older instrumental route as high school plus a music examination from a recognised institution. This is a named-institution qualification rule of a kind absent from Mathematics or Home Science, and it is also the part most exposed to the eligibility amendment the commission is reported to be awaiting before the next TGT round opens. Anyone holding a Visharad rather than a university degree should read the amended rule carefully rather than assuming the previous cycle's wording carries over.
Theory-only assessment rewards notation and history
There is no audition, performance or practical stage at TGT level; selection is written merit followed by document verification. That inverts the usual preparation instinct. The marks sit in the parts of the discipline a practising musician tends to treat as background: definitions of naad, shruti, swar, saptak, taan and murchana, the Bhatkhande and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar notation systems, taal identification from bols across Teentaal, Jhaptal, Ektal, Dadra, Kaharwa, Rupak and Jhumra, the Carnatic and Hindustani comparison, and biographical detail on Tansen, Swami Haridas and other named figures. Write out notations by hand and count taals on paper; recognising them by ear will not be tested.
Thirty General Studies questions against thirty-three posts
The revised scheme reported for the coming cycle replaces 35 subject questions with a 30-question General Studies section on current affairs, teaching and research aptitude, ICT, environment, Indian history and geography, the Constitution and the economy. For most subjects this is an inconvenience. For Music, where selection has historically required near-perfect papers, ninety marks of material with no overlap at all with the subject is decisive: the candidate who scores full marks in music theory and loses fifteen in General Studies will finish behind one who is slightly weaker in both. Confirm whether the reported negative marking applies at TGT level, because on a paper this tight the guessing strategy changes completely.
Common questions
What is the difference between UP TGT Music Vocal and Music Instrumental?
They are two separate posts with separate syllabi, separate question papers and separate merit lists. UPESSC lists Music Vocal as subject code 12 and Music Instrumental as code 13. Vocal covers raags, singing styles such as Dhrupad, Dhamar, Khayal and Thumri, and a general study of tanpura, tabla and harmonium. Instrumental covers gats, kaydas, peshkar and paran, instrument classification and construction, tuning, and gharana playing styles. A candidate selects one stream when applying and is considered only for that stream's vacancies.
What is the UP TGT Music syllabus?
The vocal paper covers the origin and development of Indian music, technical terms including naad, shruti, swar, saptak, raag, taan and murchana, fourteen major raags such as Bilawal, Bhupali, Kafi, Yaman, Bhairavi and Hamir, taals including Dadra, Kaharwa, Rupak and Jhumra, eight singing styles, instruments in general, a Carnatic and Hindustani comparison, and biographies of figures such as Tansen and Swami Haridas. The instrumental paper covers terminology, taals including Teentaal, Jhaptal and Ektal, notation systems, instrument parts and tuning, gharanas and written compositions.
Why is the UP TGT Music cut-off so high?
Because the roster is tiny. Reported tables for Advertisement No. 01/2022 show 23 Music Vocal posts and 10 Music Instrumental posts for the whole state, against 533 in Mathematics. With so few seats, the unreserved cut-off released on 28 July 2026 reached 488 of 500 for vocal on boys'-school posts and 484 on girls'-school posts, and 464 and 456 for instrumental. On a 125-question paper of four marks with no negative marking, 488 means 122 correct answers. The figure reflects scarcity, not question difficulty.
Is there an audition or practical test for UP TGT Music?
No. At Trained Graduate Teacher level the selection process is the written objective paper followed by document verification, with no interview, audition or performance component; the interview stage exists in the Post Graduate Teacher recruitment, not here. Everything is assessed on paper, which means notation systems, taal bols, terminology and the history and biography sections carry the marks. Practical command of the instrument or voice matters for the job and for the qualifying degree, but it is not separately scored in selection.
What qualification do I need for UP TGT Music?
Coaching compilations of the rule describe a B.A. in Music, or a Visharad or diploma from Bhatkhande Sangeet Vidyapeeth, Lucknow, together with a B.Ed. An older description of the instrumental route mentions high school plus a music examination from a recognised institution. These summaries are not the advertisement, and the commission is reported to be holding the next TGT round until an eligibility amendment is approved, so the named-institution requirement in particular should be checked against the published rule before applying.
When will the next UP TGT Music vacancy be announced?
No date has been announced. A pipeline of 36,557 teaching posts was reported on 5 September 2026, of which 17,740 are Trained Graduate Teacher posts, with TGT applications said to be waiting on approval of an eligibility amendment. The commission has meanwhile opened PGT Advertisement 06/2026, running from 18 September to 17 October 2026 with the examination on 15 and 16 December. Music's share of the TGT total has not been published; in the last cycle it was 33 posts across both streams.
