Level 6
Developing Practical Knowledge in Music (PK)
Students will use focused listening, practical activities, instruments, and technologies to explore and describe musical structures and devices and to transcribe, transpose, and notate music in a range of styles.
Developing Ideas in Music (DI)
Students will use musical elements, structural devices, instruments, and technologies to improvise, arrange, and compose music for specific purposes.
Students will notate and record original music.
Communicating and Interpreting in Music (CI)
Students will prepare, rehearse, present, record, and evaluate individual and group performances of contrasting pieces, in keeping with the composers' intentions and in style.
Understanding Music in Context (UC)
Students will compare and contrast a range of musical styles and genres in relation to past and present contexts.
Students will investigate the purposes and significance of music in contemporary contexts.
Learning Examples
- Listen to selected instruments (including the voice) and discuss their sonorities, ranges, and strengths and limitations in performance. Compose and notate an original piece of music that shows the performance capabilities of a specified instrument. Present and record the piece and evaluate its effectiveness. (DI, PK, CI)
- Listen to a range of songs (e.g., waiata, lieder, contemporary songs) and identify specific vocal techniques and styles. Describe the social and cultural contexts of the songs and their significance for the intended audiences. Select a text and set it to original music. Notate, present, and record the piece, and refine it in response to feedback. (UC, DI, CI)
- Select one genre of media music (e.g., film, muzak, advertising jingles) and research and describe its purpose, musical derivations, and ideas. Compose a piece in that genre for a specific purpose, with appropriate character and structure. Notate, present, record, and evaluate the composition. (UC, DI, CI)
- Compare and contrast works by two or more New Zealand composers. Use listening, background reading, and studying scores (where appropriate) to explain and describe differences and similarities in the works. (UC)
- Listen to, transcribe, and play back rhythms and melodies and aurally identify performance directions (e.g., articulation, phrasing, tempo) in a contemporary New Zealand work. (PK)
- Compare and contrast the use of MIDI applications (e.g., with drum machines, sequencing software) in a range of contemporary works. Use a MIDI application to create and present an original work. (UC, PK, DI, CI)
- Prepare and rehearse for group performance a five-minute programme of works in a range of styles. Present and record the programme, and critique the recording with reference to fluency, musicianship, style, and the composers' intentions. (CI)
- Make a study of a contemporary musical style. Listen to a range of examples within it, analyse its structures and use of musical devices, and describe the influence of other styles on it (e.g., the influence of world music, jazz, reggae; the fusion of jazz and rock; the influence of traditional Māori music on contemporary New Zealand music). (PK, UC)
- Listen to a range of songs and instrumental pieces that use a simple, repeated chord structure (e.g., twelve-bar blues, three-chord pop songs). Select two or three songs or pieces, analyse their harmonic structures, and play arrangements of them. In a group, devise an original repeated chord structure and improvise over it. (PK, DI)
