What is IB Music?
IB Music
One of the fundamental aims of this course is to ensure that all students have a range of experiences that merge the roles of researchers, creators, and performers to develop the holistic learner.
IB Music is one of the offerings in the Group 6 category (The Arts), along with dance, visual arts, theatre, and film. You can read more about these options here. The Standard Level course for Film (as of March 2023) is also available through Pamoja (online learning courses). Click HERE for a complete range of courses offered through online learning.
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It is possible for students NOT to study one of the Arts subjects, but take on one of the Experimental Sciences (Group 4), subjects in Individuals and Societies (Group 3) OR one of the Language courses (Group 1 or 2) instead. This can be the reason that the number of students is often low in the Group 6 subjects (see below for statistics in this area). It depends on several factors of course, including the school culture, and the pathways that students map out for themselves.
For more information on this CLICK here, which will take you to Arts Aims.
Here is a summary of the Subject Groups in the IB diploma, as well as the CORE components:
Ordinarily, students take THREE subjects at Higher Level (HL) and THREE subjects at Standard Level (SL), but it is possible to take four subjects at HL. This will depend on timetabling, school flexibility, and likely student ability.
We would certainly encourage students to take on one of the Arts subjects when possible, as this broadens the student's diploma experience.
On page 7 of the Music Guide, it states, "Music not only offers a way of understanding the world but also a means by which we can express and share our understanding of it with others".
This connects with the IB Mission Statement that states, in part, that one of its aims is to develop 'intercultural understanding and respect'.
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Here is a summary of the IB Music Syllabus (first assessment 2022) in the form of a spoken commentary and accompanying visuals, including important features that dictate its framework.
There are THREE versions for you (all of these versions have been embedded in this thread below). You may use this as a chapter guide (see "Show More" on YouTube to navigate this):
0:52 Differences Between the Previous Syllabus (last examinations Nov 2021) and the New (first assessment May 2022)
2:37 Summary of the Key Differences
3:53 Key Changes to the New Course
4:15 Additional Components for the New Course
6:50 Overview of the New Course
8:25 Summary of Components and Their Interplay
9:44 The Four Areas of Inquiry
13:30 Contexts
15:24 Musical Processes
16:16 Musical Roles
17:36 Assessment Objectives
20:31 Graphic Summary of all Components
22:13 Assessment Summary
24:41 Conclusion
Here is another version that addresses all the key components of the course.
This version contains a video with commentary, as well as a downloadable PDF illustrating all of its key features.
Here is an accompanying pdf containing the important features of the course.
Here are the direct links to the four assessment components of the IB DP Course as discussed in the introductory video above. These links cover the components in more detail.
- The EXPLORING MUSIC Component - SL AND HL. Link: Exploring Music in Context
- The EXPERIMENTING WITH MUSIC Component - SL AND HL. Link: Experimenting with Music
- The PRESENTING MUSIC Component - SL AND HL: Presenting Music
- The CONTEMPORARY MUSIC MAKER (CMM) - HL ONLY: The Contemporary Music Maker
Statistics in Music
Some of the recent statistics for music are as follows:
(These figures have been extracted from the IB Statistical Bulletins for May 2022 and Nov 2022). If you wish to progress even further back, early statistical summaries are available to you as well. However, this data may be misleading as it relates to the previous course and not the latest curriculum that was first assessed (in a limited capacity) in May 2022.
May 2022 SL HL Total
Number of Students Taking IB Music: 1580 1615 3195
Nov 2022
Number of Students Taking IB Music: 107 220 327
Total for 2022: 3522
Students are awarded a Grade on a scale of 1 to 7 for each of their subjects, based on their total percentages for their internal and external assessment (no examinations are required for Group 6 subjects). There are changes to how the percentages are converted for each subject in each assessment period. In other words, for one cohort 79% in music, for example, may be enough to be awarded grade "7", but in other years, it may only be enough for a grade "6".
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GRADE BOUNDARIES for MAY 2022
These summaries have been extracted from the materials on MyIB, for a complete summary of ALL subjects visit HERE.
GRADE BOUNDARIES for NOVEMBER 2022
For November 2022 in IB Music, the percentages were identical (77% and 79% for standard level and higher level subjects were required to achieve a level 7 respectively).
A summary of the Group 6 subjects for each of the 2022 assessment periods is as follows:
|
Group 6 Statistics for Nov 2022
Subject | Candidates | Mean Grade | % 1 | % 2 | % 3 | % 4 | % 5 | % 6 | % 7 |
Dance HL | 47 | 6.62 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 10.6 | 17.0 | 72.3 |
Dance SL | 13 | 5.31 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 15.4 | 38.5 | 46.2 | 0.0 |
Film HL | 201 | 5.20 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 11.3 | 20.0 | 19.5 | 33.3 | 15.4 |
FIlm SL | 73 | 4.42 | 1.4 | 4.2 | 29.2 | 11.1 | 31.9 | 15.3 | 6.9 |
Music HL | 220 | 5.63 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.8 | 11.5 | 28.4 | 34.9 | 22.5 |
Music SL | 107 | 4.33 | 1.0 | 2.0 | 18.8 | 43.6 | 16.8 | 11.9 | 5.9 |
Theatre HL | 205 | 5.86 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.9 | 9.8 | 18.1 | 36.3 | 32.8 |
Theatre SL | 109 | 4.68 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11.2 | 39.3 | 27.1 | 15.0 | 7.5 |
Visual Arts HL | 874 | 4.79 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 12.4 | 25.1 | 36.5 | 20.5 | 5.0 |
Visual Arts SL | 1071 | 4.27 | 0.0 | 0.7 | 17.0 | 46.1 | 28.2 | 6.7 | 1.4 |
Based on the information that appears above, here is a summary of the number of students who manage to achieve a level 7:
May 2022 - Number of 7s
Higher Level students: 175 (11.1% of 1580)
Standard Level students: 97 (6% of 1615)
Nov 2022 - Number of 7s
Higher Level students: 49 (22.5% of 220)
Standard Level students: 6 (5.9% of 107)
Interestingly, for the standard-level students in both periods of assessment (May and Nov), the percentages remained more or less the same (around 6% of the number of candidates). However, for the higher-level students, a remarkably significant number of students managed to achieve a 7 in the November assessment period (22.5%), as opposed to less than half that figure (11.1%) for the corresponding May period of assessment.
It is worth noting however that these were extraordinary global circumstances and one of the higher-level components (The Contemporary Music Maker) was not assessed in this period. This is the first year of the new curriculum (May 2022) so comparing these numbers to previous years (with the rather different older curriculum) may not be that revealing.
For the LATEST global statistics, click HERE.
The Music Guide (First Assessment 2022) and accompanying materials (Music Teacher Support Materials) can be found on the site MyIB (click HERE, remember that you require a login and password, ordinarily given by your Diploma Level Coordinator)
The IB produces these documents and should form the basis of your decision-making in designing your course.
You can gain additional support from Global Music Concepts and/or the IBDP Music Teachers Worldwide.