Throughout the course, students embody three roles: the researcher, the creator and the performer. In these roles, they inquire, create, perform and reflect on the course’s three musical processes:

• exploring music in context

• experimenting with music

• presenting music

A framework of Areas of Inquiry and Contexts (as detailed below) has been devised to ensure that musical engagement during the course has sufficient diversity and breadth.

The exploration of diverse musical material is focused through the lenses of four Areas of Inquiry (AoIs):

• music for sociocultural and political expression

• examples may include protest songs, liturgical music, national anthems

• music for listening and performance

• examples may include chamber music of the Western art tradition, cool jazz, experimental music

• music for dramatic impact, movement and entertainment

• examples may include music for film, ballet or musical theatre

• music technology in the electronic and digital age

• examples may include electronic dance music, technology in popular music production

Engagement with these AoIs takes place across three contexts:

• personal context – music that has significance to the student, and that they are most familiar with. Students consider their immediate cultural context and interests that contribute to their emerging musical identity.

• local context – music that has local significance, but that may be unfamiliar to the student. This can be music from within the student’s local, regional or cultural communities, and may include music that the student is not currently engaged with.

• global context – unfamiliar music from a variety of places, societies and cultures. This will include music that the student has not yet connected or engaged with. The music may be from a distant global region or even music in closer geographical proximity but more culturally distant that has not been previously accessible to the student.

For the Music HL and SL Guide, please click here.

Through the course, students will be empowered to recognize how technical training and creative competencies combine to inform practical work and contribute to the formation of well-rounded modern musicians. The course achieves this by scaffolded and guided approaches to:

• deep listening skills

• performance proficiency

• compositional craft

• the ability to discuss music critically

• the ability to justify creative choices

• the capacity for entrepreneurship in the musical world

Each assessment submission links directly to one of the course’s three musical processes and requires candidates to evidence engagement with that process through the three musical roles.

SL external assessment – 70%

• exploring music in context – 30%

students select samples of their work for a portfolio submission (maximum 2,400 words).

• exploring as a researcher: written work demonstrating engagement with, and understanding of, diverse musical material from at least two areas of inquiry

• exploring as a creator and as a performer: one practical creating exercise (score maximum 32 bars and/or audio 1 minute as appropriate to style) and one performed adaptation of music from a local or global context for the student’s own instrument (maximum 2 minutes)

• supporting audio reference material, (not assessed).

• presenting music – 40%

students submit a collection of works demonstrating engagement with diverse musical material from four areas of inquiry. 

• presenting as a researcher: programme notes (maximum 600 words)

• presenting as a creator: composition and/or improvisation (maximum 6 minutes)

• presenting as a performer: solo and/or ensemble (maximum 12 minutes) excerpts, where applicable (maximum 2 minutes)

SL internal assessment –30%

• experimenting with music – 30%

students submit an experimentation report with evidence of their musical processes in creating and performing focused through at least two areas of inquiry in a local and/or global context. The report provides a rationale and commentary for each process.

• experimenting as a researcher: a written experimentation report that supports the experimentation (maximum 1,500 words)

• experimenting as a creator and as a performer: practical musical evidence of the experimentation process in the form of -

• three related excerpts of creating (total maximum 5 minutes) and  three related excerpts of performing (total maximum 5 minutes)

HL external assessment  – 50%

• exploring music in context – 20%

students select samples of their work for a portfolio submission (maximum 2,400 words).

• exploring as a researcher: written work demonstrating engagement with, and understanding of, diverse musical material from at least two areas of inquiry

• exploring as a creator and as a performer: one practical creating exercise (score maximum 32 bars and/or audio 1 minute as appropriate to style) and one performed adaptation of music from a local or global context for the student’s own instrument (maximum 2 minutes)

• supporting audio reference material, (not assessed).

• presenting music – 30%

students submit a collection of works demonstrating engagement with diverse musical material from four areas of inquiry. 

• presenting as a researcher: programme notes (maximum 600 words)

• presenting as a creator: composition and/or improvisation (maximum 6 minutes)

• presenting as a performer: solo and/or ensemble (maximum 12 minutes) excerpts, where applicable (maximum 2 minutes)

HL internal assessment –50%

• experimenting with music – 20%

students submit an experimentation report with evidence of their musical processes in creating and performing focused through at least two areas of inquiry in a local and/or global context. The report provides a rationale and commentary for each process. 

• experimenting as a researcher: a written experimentation report that supports the experimentation (maximum 1,500 words)

• experimenting as a creator and as a performer: practical musical evidence of the experimentation process in the form of -

• three related excerpts of creating (total maximum 5 minutes) and  three related excerpts of performing (total maximum 5 minutes)

• contemporary music-maker (HL only) – 30%

students submit a continuous multimedia presentation documenting their real-life project.

• multimedia presentation (maximum 15 minutes), evidencing the project proposal, the process and evaluation and the realized project, or curated selections of it.

An excellent foundation for further study in musicology, music performance, arts and music management, the recording industry and media. Graduating students have typically gone on to study performance, music technology or composition at conservatoire or university, or have combined music with other areas in order to follow courses in arts and music management.