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NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

11–12Music 1 11–12 Syllabus (2025)

Implementation from 2027
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Year 11

Creative practice

Students perform, compose, listen, analyse and respond to music to develop their creative practice as composers, performers and interpreters of music. They apply Compositional language to create and shape original material through improvisation, songwriting and composition, using voice, instruments and digital tools to explore timbral possibilities. Students use aural and analytical skills to examine how applications of Music language develop and extend musical ideas across a range of repertoire.

Performing
  • Apply knowledge of musical style, genre and conventions

  • Realise expression through articulation, dynamics and phrasing

  • Adjust expressive approaches to different repertoire and performance contexts

Listening, analysing and responding
  • Examine applications of Music language to develop, shape and extend musical ideas across a range of repertoire

  • Explain how stylistic conventions inform the presentation, development and variation of musical ideas

  • Investigate how instrument-specific techniques and digital processes affect timbre

  • Analyse the use of harmonic and textural devices to create expressive depth

  • Explore graphic scores and digital audio workstation (DAW) visualisations

  • Use aural skills to recognise melodic patterns, cadences, Dorian, Lydian and Mixolydian mode tonality, and harmonic progressions including chords ii/ii° (supertonic) and V7 (dominant seventh)

Creating and composing
  • Create musical ideas that reflect the stylistic and expressive characteristics of selected genres and traditions

  • Generate and develop musical material using improvisation, songwriting and compositional processes

  • Explore acoustic and digital sound sources, including DAWs, virtual instruments and effects, to create distinctive timbres and textures

  • Evaluate to refine structure, expression and stylistic impact

  • Document ideas and influences as part of the creative process

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