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NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

7–10Music 7–10 Syllabus

Record of changes
Implementation from 2026
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Stage 5

Listening

For students who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing, Listening may include the use of assistive technology, score-reading activities, watching performances and accessing music through other senses including the use of sign language.

Music in practice
  • Listen to live and recorded music and evaluate musical features and the communication of ideas

  • Listen to and explore a range of repertoire to analyse and compare pieces of music

  • Evaluate and explain the use of technologies in a range of repertoire

  • Interpret and analyse musical scores relevant to the genre and style

  • Transcribe music using notations relevant to the repertoire such as staff, regional, stylistic or instrument-specific systems

  • Use listening skills and memory to identify, sing or play rhythmic and melodic patterns

  • Use written, verbal and multimodal forms to analyse how musical ideas are communicated

  • Use appropriate musical terminology and text structures to analyse, evaluate and compare music

  • Use listening skills to reflect on and evaluate own performances or compositions live or through recordings

Music in context
  • Explain how genre and style are characterised and represented through musical features and conventions

  • Examine the relationship between musical contexts of a piece of music and its purpose

  • Evaluate how music can influence and challenge ideas and contribute to developing cultural understandings at local, national and international levels

  • Evaluate how a work reflects personal or shared understandings, identities, values and experiences

  • Examine music from the perspectives of composer, performer and audience

  • Compare and discuss different interpretations of a work

  • Explore aesthetic qualities of music across a range of styles and approaches to interpretation

  • Identify and describe how Place, Country and/or Languages are reflected in the music of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and apply understanding of respectful protocols to inform how music is studied and interpreted

  • Show understanding of stylistic, cultural, historical or social contexts in written form using appropriate musical terminology

Elements of music
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  • Aurally identify the elements of music

  • Analyse and discuss the elements of music in repertoire

  • Evaluate how the elements of music are manipulated and combined in music from a range of musical genres and styles

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