The concepts of music are duration, pitch, dynamics and expressive techniques, tone colour, texture and structure.

The HSC exam may also ask students about compositional devices, the development, treatment or use of a musical idea, interest, roles of instruments and the relationship between them, tension, unity, contrast, and more. I have labelled these "metaconcepts" as I believe they are concepts about concepts. Tension may be achieved through the use of pitch, dynamics, expressive techniques, and tone colour. Roles can be described with an exploration of texture, pitch, and duration.