SACE Stage 2 Music Explorations case studies
SACE Stage 2 Music Explorations · Put your knowledge to work in context.
Music Explorations is a Stage 2 SACE subject worth 20 credits, coded 2MEX20, offered by the SACE Board of South Australia for students in their final year of senior secondary schooling. It suits students who learn best by doing: the subject emphasises learning through exploring and experimenting with music, rather than through a single fixed pathway. The SACE Stage 2 Music Explorations case studies are 5 cases and about 2,147 words.
1The Twelve-Minute Performance Portfolio
A student is assembling their SACE Stage 2 Music Explorations performance portfolio. The school's assessment plan allocates 40% to a performance component requiring a total of 12 minutes of contrasting repertoire, either as a soloist or as part of an ensemble.
480 words, about 2 min2The Explorations Folio and the Borrowed Arrangement
A student's Music Explorations folio includes a creative work: an arrangement of a well-known Australian folk tune for string quartet plus loop pedal. The student's research journal documents listening to three recorded versions, transcribing the melody by ear, and experimenting with two loop textures.
452 words, about 2 min3The External Performance Exam: Programme Timing and Stamina
For the external performance assessment, a student proposes a programme of four works totalling 18 minutes: a 6-minute Romantic piano work, a 5-minute contemporary work with extended techniques, a 4-minute Baroque movement, and a 3-minute own composition. The exam session allows a maximum of 20 minutes including setup and tuning.
416 words, about 2 min4The Aural Test and the Anxious Student
A student consistently scores well in prepared performance and composition but poorly in the aural component of the external assessment. In mock tests the student correctly identifies intervals and chords when given unlimited time but freezes under timed conditions, scoring 40% on timed mocks versus 85% on untimed equivalents.
388 words, about 2 min5Group Composition: Unequal Contribution
Three students submit a group composition for the school assessment. The 5-minute work is credited equally, but the teacher's observations and the students' process journal show that one student wrote nearly all the melodic and harmonic material, a second engineered the recording and mixed it, and a third contributed two lyric lines and attended most rehearsals but produced little else.
411 words, about 2 min