Advice on how to transfer certain files/documents to new macbook

I have backed up all my files on my old macbook through time machine with an external hard drive. I want to transfer my music but not my photos to my new macbook. Am I able to do this (and how)? Step by step please. Also, will my photos be permanently saved on my external hard drive, even though I will be using time machine with the external hard drive to back up with my new macbook, and the photos will not be on my new macbook?

You can use the Migration Assistant to bring files from your Time Machine backup to the new MacBook. You can choose to do everything or only certain items. See the article for how.
The photos are not permanently saved on the external hard drive. Leaving aside the fact that hard drives are mechanical devices that will eventually fail at some point, there is also the point that if the new MacBook is using that hard drive as a target  for Time Machine, eventually it will need to use the space on it  for current backups of the items on the MacBook, and thus will overwrite your photos. It would be good to have a separate backup of that data, either on a different hard drive or burned to DVDs.
Pondini, one of the high level users of these forums, has written a great page about the use of Time Machine. You might want to take a look at it.
Best of luck.

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