Music in the New Zealand Curriculum
Music education provides students with many opportunities for self-expression and assists them to develop to their full potential. It helps students to make sense of sound and to appreciate the aesthetic qualities in the sounds of natural and technological environments. Students also learn unique approaches to problem solving through the active and reflective processes of both listening to and making music.
Literacy in music involves the development of knowledge and skills relating to styles, genres, technologies, and musical structures. It implies an appreciation of the conventions that relate to creating, to performing, and to critically evaluating musical compositions and performances.
The development of aural skills is intrinsic to all music learning. As students listen to music, they develop understandings about music history, biography, and theory. They are actively listening and developing aural sensitivity while composing and performing, and they enhance their understandings of the world through listening to music within and from diverse musical contexts.
Music in the New Zealand Curriculum promotes the musical heritages of New Zealand's many diverse cultures. In particular, students should have opportunities to learn about the genres and styles of traditional and contemporary Māori music.
Music education enables all students to contribute to the cultural life of their schools, families, and communities through making and sharing music. It also makes available to students a wide range of future opportunities in arts-related employment.
