In a society with many changes, education aimed at fostering competency, which is based on big idea education. Accordingly, the purpose of this study is to extract the elements of big ideas in school music education and to present music education contents based on these big ideas. To achieve the research purpose, competency, which is the goal of the big idea, was examined, and the meaning, content, composition, and characteristics of competency were investigated. In addition, cases in other countries where music contents were composed based on big ideas were analyzed. These studies were conducted through the documentary research method and case study method, and the main results are as follows. First, the big idea of music education should be centered on methods and processes, connection and application, not specific content or knowledge. Second, how humans perform music, what the process is like, in what context humans make music, and what kind of musical experiences or expressions are the main issues of music big ideas. In the end, big ideas in music education should be presented in terms of music itself, people who perform music, and society/culture/context to which people and music belong.