11–12Music Extension 11–12 Syllabus (2025)

Style, including the characteristic manner in which music is composed, performed or understood

Genre, including categorisations of music based on formal and cultural criteria

Musical conventions, including established practices, norms and rules that govern the composition, performance and interpretation of music within specific genres, cultures or historical periods

Metre, including regular, simple and compound, irregular metres, mixed metres, poly-metres

Tempo, including gradations, metronome markings and expressive indications

All note values and rhythm groupings appropriate to styles

Scales, modes and tonality, including pentatonic, modal, diatonic major and diatonic minor scales, polytonality, bitonality, whole tone, tone row, experimental scale forms, microtonal scales, interval sets, pitch sets

Chord qualities, including triads, diminished and augmented chords, dominant sevenths, secondary sevenths and inversion in major and minor keys, extended chords, altered chords, diatonic harmony and chromatic harmony

Chord progressions and cadences

Rhythmic devices, including syncopation, triplets, hemiola, ostinato, polyrhythm, swing, cross-rhythm, augmentation, diminution

Melodic devices, including sequence, imitation, inversion, leitmotif, melisma, chromaticism, inversion, retrograde, suspension, ornamentation

Harmonic devices, including modulation, dissonance and resolution, circle of fifths, pedal point, ground bass, alberti bass, broken chords, suspension, chromatic harmony

Structural devices, including motif, cell, theme, structures specific to styles, hybrid forms

Textural devices, including melody, accompaniment, harmonic accompaniment, bass line, canon, call and response, doubling, antiphony, layering, countermelody, heterophony, voicing, register and range of voices and instruments

Performing media, including choices of instrumental and vocal sounds, instrument-specific techniques, transposition, acoustic, electronic and digital manipulation of timbres

Expressive devices, including dynamics, articulation, vibrato, mute, accent, portamento, rubato, tremolo, glissando, harmonics

Digital techniques, including looping, sampling, delay, echo, pitch shifting, digital reverb, electroacoustic

Treble, bass, alto, tenor and percussion clefs

Graphic notation

Open scores

Nonlinear scoring

Spatial scoring

Contemporary music notation

Digital music documentation

Systems associated with music from specific cultural or performance traditions which may include oral, kinaesthetic gesture-based systems