Every subtopic of DP Music, ready to teach.

This unit addresses all four areas of inquiry prescribed by the DP Music syllabus across 12 lessons and 4 topics: music for dramatic impact, movement and entertainment; music for listening and performance; music for sociocultural and political expression; and music technology in the electronic and digital age. Students analyse how compositional choices, performance conventions, cultural contexts, and emerging technologies shape musical meaning and audience engagement.

Skills & assessment. Lessons develop the analytical and contextual skills central to the music journal and the musical links investigation, with structured tasks requiring students to compare repertoire, apply critical listening strategies, and articulate connections between musical works and their sociocultural contexts. Key concepts — including expression, identity, convention, and creativity — are foregrounded throughout.

Across 8 lessons and 4 topics, this unit develops students' capacity to investigate musical works and traditions within their broader contexts. Topics address stylistic analysis across cultures and genres, the impact of historical and societal change on musical development, responsible engagement with diverse musical material, and the use of primary and secondary research to document personal, local, and global musical encounters.

Skills & assessment. Lessons build the research and reflective habits essential to the music journal — including score annotation, critical listening, source evaluation, and journaling — while engaging students with the key concepts of context, exploration, identity, and expression. Tasks are designed to support the investigative strand of DP Music assessment throughout the course.

This unit addresses the creative and practical process of musical experimentation across 8 lessons and 4 topics: applying music technology in creative contexts; composition and improvisation as experimental starting points; developing competencies across the researcher, creator and performer roles; and solo and collaborative music-making in practical settings.

Skills & assessment. Lessons use the key concept of experimentation to scaffold students' creative decision-making — from sequencing and sound design to reflective journaling and ensemble communication. Tasks are structured to generate evidence for the music journal and to build the practical and metacognitive skills needed across all strands of DP Music assessment.

Across 6 lessons and 3 topics, this unit prepares students to communicate, deliver, and evaluate their musical work. Topics address how to articulate artistic intentions in written and oral forms, strategies for effective rehearsal and sustained practice, and approaches to evaluating presented work using feedback from peers, teachers, and audiences.

Skills & assessment. Lessons are closely aligned to the presentation strand of DP Music assessment — including the curation of music journal evidence and the delivery of solo and ensemble performances that demonstrate stylistic understanding and interpretive choice. The key concept of presentation is applied throughout, with tasks requiring students to connect stated intentions to realised outcomes.

This HL-only unit addresses the contemporary music maker project across 6 lessons and 3 topics: formulating and communicating clear artistic intentions grounded in real-life music-making practices; planning and executing a collaborative project with defined roles; and reflecting on development as a researcher, creator, and performer across the full DP Music course.

Skills & assessment. Lessons scaffold the distinct demands of the HL contemporary music maker component — from project proposal design and documentation of the collaborative process to final synthesis and evaluative reflection. Key concepts of identity, expression, and artistic vision are central, and tasks are structured to generate evidence directly usable in the HL submission.