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Last Updated: 09 October 2024

MOE Music Programmes and Subjects

MOE Music Programmes and Subjects include the Music Elective Programme (MEP), the Enhanced Music Programme (EMP), G1 Music and G3 Music.

MOE Music Programmes

The Enhanced Music Programme (EMP) and Music Elective Programme (MEP) allow students with music potential, aptitude and passion to pursue an in-depth study of music and are offered in selected secondary schools.

Learn more about each programme, where to take it and how to join:

  • EMP, a 2-year upper secondary programme
  • MEP, a 4-year programme

MOE Music subjects

Besides the EMP and MEP, G1 Music and G3 Music allow students who have interest, potential and ability in music to further their music learning at the upper-secondary levels and pursue their interest as examinable subjects.

G1 Music

The G1 Music syllabus is designed to provide students with a broad-based music education and a foundation to enable them to further their interest in music and sound-related areas. It provides students with authentic hands-on learning experiences and exposure to a range of music genres and context, with music technology being an integral part of learning. Students will sit for the SEC G1 Music examination at the end of 2 years.

How to take it

Students will need to be enrolled in one of the following schools offering upper secondary G1 Music course and indicate their interest to the music teacher in Secondary 2. There will be no selection required.

Schools offering G1 Music in 2024:

Learn more about the subject (432kb).

If you have any questions about G1 Music, contact us.

G3 Music

The G3 Music syllabus is designed to allow students who have the interest, potential and ability to acquire a range of musical knowledge and skills and learn across different music traditions and practices through experiences in listening, performing and composing. Students will sit for the SEC G3 Music or Higher Music examination at the end of 2 years.

How to take it

All students regardless of which course can take G3 Music if they pass the G3 Music Selection Exercise. Students can choose to take up the subject in their own secondary school or at a G3 Music Centre.

Students taking the subject at an G3 Music Centre must not be enrolled in a school that offers the MEP, EMP or G3 Music.

Students taking G3 Music in their own secondary school

Interested P6 students are encouraged to seek admission into schools offering G3 Music by selecting them as their top choices:

Interested students will indicate their interest to the music teacher in Secondary 2 to sit for the selection exercise.

Students taking the subject at G3 Music Centres

Interested students who enrolled in schools that do not offer MEP, EMP or G3 Music can apply to sit for the centralised selection exercise in Secondary 2.

G3 Music Centres:

Students will attend music lessons at one of the G3 Music Centres on a weekday afternoon.

G3 Music Selection Exercise

All students who want to take G3 Music must pass the selection exercise at Secondary 2. The application window opens from mid-May to early July each year. Interested students can check with the school’s music coordinator for more information.

The G3 Music Selection Exercise requires some experience and competence in:

  • Instrumental performance or singing (for example, learning an instrument in school CCA or school-based Music programme). Student must be able to display basic fluency and sound fundamental techniques.
  • Listening and evaluating music.

Components of the selection exercise are:

Listening Test
Listening Test

Listen to 8 – 10 short musical extracts, taken from both Western and non-Western musical traditions, and respond to 25 MCQ questions.

The scope of the questions will include the identification or description of the following:

  • Melody (for example, accidentals, articulation, contour, intervals, melodic devices, phrase structure and mood)
  • Tonality (major and minor keys up to 1 sharp and flat, pentatonic mode)
  • Harmony (chords I, IV, V, vi)
  • Rhythm (for example, dotted rhythms, syncopations, triplets, rhythmic devices)
  • Time Signature (simple and compound duple, triple and quadruple)
  • Tempo
  • Instrumentation or tone colour (description of tone colours of musical instruments from western and non-western traditions, families of instruments, and how they are played)
  • Texture (for example, call and response, monophony, unison, homophony, polyphony, heterophony), and functions of musical layer(s)
  • Dynamics and Expression (for example, loud/soft, performing decisions)
  • Form or Structure (for example, Binary, Ternary, Rondo, Theme and Variations, 12-Bar Blues, Popular song structures)
Audition

Perform 2 contrasting solo pieces on an instrument (for example, piano, trumpet, rebab, erhu, sitar) or voice, lasting no longer than 5 minutes in total.

If you have any questions about G3 Music, contact us.

Find out about other school-specific opportunities in secondary schools.