Music is created, experienced, and understood in relation to cultural, social, historical, and environmental contexts. Engaging in music from diverse contexts can deepen our understanding of people and cultures all over the world.

Through exploring a wide range of music more locally, we can appreciate and develop understanding of our diverse heritages in Aotearoa New Zealand. Engaging with customary and contemporary music from te ao Māori and the broader Pacific region is central to developing a musical identity that is special to our region of the world, and is uniquely ours.

This Big Idea also acknowledges the mauri of the learner. It encourages ākonga to seek out and embrace the rich music of their communities, homes, and heritages. Ākonga can learn to negotiate their space and place in educational, social, and cultural settings as they explore their identities and stories through music. 

As a sound art, music is a form of communication that has its own concepts and whakapapa. In music, meaning is conveyed through organising and making sense of a variety of sounds and vibrations, such as those generated by musical instruments, voices, and electronic technologies, as well as through natural and found sounds. In te ao Māori, the voice, body, and taonga puoro enable the generation of vibrations and sounds to communicate meaning and intent, both in the physical and the spiritual.

Many cultures have well established aural systems for retaining, transmitting, and passing music on. There are also systems for visually representing music through the use of a vast range of signs, symbols, and formats. As ākonga develop their music making capabilities, they can also expand their ability to understand and use systems of visual representation.

Music is a creative artform that is expressed through the application of music literacies. These literacies can be expanded and strengthened through processes of participation, reflection, evaluation, and iteration. The nature of music literacies varies because they whakapapa back to different settings and contexts. Music literacies include listening and aural capabilities, playing and performance, music creation, technical and theoretical skills, and wider musical and cultural knowledges and functions.

Through continual development and refinement of their musical craft, ākonga can expand their capacity to communicate ideas, intent, and emotion through music, and interpret and construct meaning as engaged listeners. They can also look to the music of those who have gone before them to help inform how they will engage as musicians today and into the future.

Music is a waka for musicians to express and communicate feelings, ideas, stories, and knowledges. Composers and performers may develop their own creative voice as they draw on experiences and perspectives in relation to their special place in the world.

Ākonga make deliberate decisions about how to communicate their intent through the imaginative use of music concepts during the creation or sharing of music. These decisions are based on a growing understanding of how music concepts can be combined and manipulated, to produce intended effects that resonate with the audience.

Expressing and sharing emotions and intent through music can involve an exchange of the intangible, such as the ihi, wehi, and wana within te ao Māori. This involves the energy and personal magnetism of the performer, which heightens the emotional experience for all involved. 

This Big Idea recognises the sensory nature of music. Although music is a sound art, it can also be experienced through multiple senses. Vibrations can be felt, the intent or drama of the music can be visibly expressed, and pieces of music can be visually represented in many different forms. Ideas, feelings, and perspectives can be evoked through the sharing of music. The Arts whakataukī acknowledges te ao Māori concepts such as ihi, wehi, and wana, which speak directly to the intangible qualities of music. At its peak, music can inspire a sense of awe and wonder, or wehi, which can deeply affect the audience, performer, and composer.

A musician recognises that their music can resonate with audiences differently, depending on personal perspectives and life experiences. Meaning can be constructed by the person experiencing the music. Emotions and memories can be stimulated, and the audience can be moved to respond in unique ways.