Rationale
This rationale complements and extends the rationale for The Arts learning area.Music is uniquely an aural art form. The essential nature of music is abstract. Music encompasses existing sounds that are selected and shaped, new sounds created by composers and performers, and the placement of sounds in time and space.
Aims
In addition to the overarching aims of the Australian Curriculum: The Arts, music knowledge, understanding and skills ensure that, individually and collaboratively, students develop:the confidence to be creative, innovative, thoughtful, skilful and informed musicians
Structure
Learning in MusicStudents learning Music listen, perform and compose. They learn about the elements of music comprising rhythm, pitch, dynamics and expression, form and structure, timbre and texture.
Example of knowledge and skills
Years 3 and 4
Years 3 and 4 Band Description
In Years 3 and 4, learning in The Arts builds on the experience of the previous band. It involves students making and responding to artworks independently and collaboratively with their classmates and teachers.
As they experience The Arts, students draw on artworks from a range of cultures, times and locations. They explore the arts of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and of the Asia region and learn that they are used for different purposes. While the arts in the local community should be the initial focus for learning, students are also aware of and interested in the arts from more distant locations and the curriculum provides opportunities to build on this curiosity.
As they make and respond to artworks, students explore meaning and interpretation, elements and forms, and social and cultural contexts of the arts. They make personal evaluations of their own and others’ artworks, making connections between their own artistic intentions and those of other artists.
Students continue to learn about safe practices in the arts and in their interactions with other artists. Their understanding of the role of the artist and the audience builds on their experience from the previous band. As an audience, students focus their attention on the artwork and respond to it. They consider why and how audiences respond to artworks.
In Years 3 and 4, students’ awareness of themselves and others as audiences is extended beyond the classroom to the broader school context.
In Music, students:
- extend their understanding of the elements of music as they develop their aural skills
- match pitch and show the direction of a tune with gesture or drawings
- recognise difference between notes moving by step and by leap
- recognise and discriminate between rhythm and beat
- explore meaning and interpretation, forms, and elements including rhythm, pitch, dynamics and expression, form and structure, timbre and texture as they make and respond to music
- learn to listen as performers and as audience, extending their awareness of themselves and others as performers and as audience.
Years 3 and 4 Content Descriptions
Years 3 and 4 Achievement Standards
By the end of Year 4, students describe and discuss similarities and differences between artworks they make and those to which they respond. They discuss how they and others organise the elements and processes in artworks.
Students collaborate to plan and make artworks that communicate ideas.