NCEA Level 3 Music

Music study at Year 13 provides the opportunity for students to be able to specialise in the areas of their strengths and abilities, eg. performance, composition or musical knowledge/research (musicology). This course is a culmination for students who have completed Levels 1 and 2 standards in these areas. Performance, music studies, composition and harmonic analysis are extended to an in-depth level of understanding. Students must be committed to a course of study from the classroom teacher as well as separate weekly tuition from their instrumental music teacher and will often have to work independently to achieve the set tasks. Learning and assessment activities are based around the four strands from the Arts Curriculum document:

• Developing practical knowledge in music (theory, aural, score reading)
• Developing ideas in music (composing music)
• Communicating and interpreting in music (listen to, read and play music)
• Understand music in context (developing knowledge and understanding of a variety of music styles both past and present).

Please Note – While students have the opportunity to further their own interests in music this course has a set programme of teaching and learning based on the curriculum and NCEA assessment standards. In addtion to music and music technology standards an electronics standard has been created to follow on from the electronics in Level 2 music. Students use their skills from Level 2 to build a cable tester and consolidate their soldering skills. 

Psychology as a full year course is offered as part of music at this level. Students once again examine the approaches of psychology toward a subject of their choice  and additionally  look at psychological research, ethics and examine the different fields of psychology in more detail. There is also an external at this level. The psychology of conformity (in a music and social context) approaches to psychology, and students can undertake research after designing a supervised experiment. This opens a pathway to further study in psychology at a tertiary level and builds on the Level 2 psychology standards.

Special Conditions:

• As part of the performance requirements for assessment, students need to continue with their course of instrumental tuition on their performance instrument throughout the year (either privately or via the college). It is recommended that lessons be on an individual basis for at least ½ hour per week. Extra charges may apply in some cases.
• Students must be prepared to take part in performance opportunities.
• Music technology is offered to students who have completed levels 1 & 2 tech standards.
• It is expected that students will attend scheduled lessons with their tutor and non-attendance for unjustified reasons may result in the student losing this opportunity. Students who have lessons with an outside tutor may continue with their current teacher.

A student will be withdrawn from a standard if the teacher is not confident that the achievement of the standard is within the reach of the student or there is no evidence of the student attempting the assessment.