The Praxis Music: Content Knowledge (5113) exam measures the music knowledge and professional readiness expected of beginning K–12 music teachers. The test covers music history, theory, composition, performance, pedagogy, professional issues, and music technology, with a substantial listening component. This guide covers the current exam format, content outline, cost, scoring, testing options, retake rules, and study resources.
What Is the Praxis Music: Content Knowledge Exam?
The Praxis Music: Content Knowledge (5113) exam is designed for prospective K–12 music teachers. Candidates have typically completed, or are close to completing, an undergraduate music education program.
The assessment includes material relevant to instrumental, vocal, jazz, and general music instruction across the K–12 grade range. Questions include knowledge that is common to all music teachers as well as material related to individual teaching specialties.
Check your state requirements before registering. Praxis requirements and qualifying scores are established by individual states and licensing agencies. Make sure your certification program specifically accepts Music: Content Knowledge (5113).
Who Is Eligible to Take the Exam?
ETS does not establish one universal degree or experience requirement simply to register for Praxis Music: Content Knowledge.
However, states, educator-preparation programs, and licensing agencies may establish their own requirements concerning education, coursework, clinical experience, or when the exam must be completed.
The test is designed around knowledge normally developed in an undergraduate music education program rather than the narrower expertise of someone teaching only a single instrument or highly specialized music course.
Praxis Music Exam Format
All 120 questions are selected-response questions. The exam is divided into two sections.
30 questions use recorded musical excerpts. You read the questions and answer choices on screen while working with the audio provided by the testing system.
90 questions do not use recorded excerpts. You have 85 minutes to complete this portion of the examination.
Listening-section warning: After you advance from a listening question, its audio does not play again. You may review the question while you are still in Section 1, but the recording will not be replayed. Once you move into Section 2, you cannot return to Section 1.
What Is on the Praxis Music: Content Knowledge Exam?
The exam contains four major content categories. Pedagogy, Professional Issues, and Technology is the largest category, representing nearly half of the examination.
| Content Category | Questions | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Music History and Literature | 18 | 15% |
| Theory and Composition | 19 | 16% |
| Performance | 27 | 22% |
| Pedagogy, Professional Issues, and Technology | 56 | 47% |
Music History and Literature – 15%
This category contains approximately 18 questions: nine in the listening section and nine in the non-listening section.
You should understand major developments in musical style and be able to identify important characteristics of historical periods and genres.
Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic music
Impressionism and early twentieth-century music
Music from the mid-twentieth century to the present
Jazz, rock, folk, and other popular genres
Representative composers, performers, ensembles, genres, and works
Melody, harmony, rhythm, meter, texture, form, dynamics, and other stylistic characteristics
World music traditions and their functions within different cultures
Printed and electronic sources of information about music history and literature
Theory and Composition – 16%
This category contains approximately 19 questions: nine listening questions and 10 non-listening questions.
You need to analyze music both aurally and in written notation.
Topics include:
Pitch organization and harmony
Chords, progressions, cadences, and ornamentation
Modes, scales, and other systems of pitch organization
Melody, motives, rhythm, meter, and tempo
Musical form and structure
Monophonic, homophonic, polyphonic, and heterophonic textures
Instrumental and vocal timbre and dynamics
Voice leading, orchestration, and arranging
Ranges, transposition, clefs, instrumentation, balance, and voicing
Performance – 22%
Performance accounts for approximately 27 questions: 12 in Section 1 and 15 in Section 2.
The listening portion may require you to identify errors or performance characteristics by comparing what you hear with printed music.
Pitch and rhythm errors
Instrumental and vocal intonation
Balance, blend, articulation, and dynamics
Conducting patterns, cues, attacks, releases, tempo changes, and expressive gestures
Interpretation of notation and expressive markings
Score study, score preparation, and interpretive decisions
Instrumental and vocal warm-ups and tuning techniques
Basic piano, guitar, and vocal accompaniment techniques
Concert etiquette and communication with audiences
Acoustics, sound production, reverberation, amplification, harmonics, and performance spaces
Pedagogy, Professional Issues, and Technology – 47%
This is the largest section of the exam, containing approximately 56 non-listening questions.
The pedagogy portion covers instruction across general music, instrumental, vocal, ensemble, small-group, and individual settings.
Rehearsal planning and instructional strategies
Local, state, and national music standards
Classroom management
Lesson planning, scope and sequence, pacing, and differentiation
Instruction for students with disabilities, gifted students, and English-language learners
Aural, visual, and kinesthetic learning
Formative and summative assessment, rubrics, portfolios, and performance assessment
Selecting developmentally and culturally appropriate repertoire
Vocal production and instrumental techniques
Instrument care and maintenance
Suzuki, Dalcroze, Kodály, Orff Schulwerk, Gordon Music Learning Theory, and other pedagogical approaches
Sight-reading, improvisation, composition, and arranging instruction
Integrating music with other arts and academic subjects
Professional Issues
The professional-issues portion includes ethics, copyright, confidentiality, communication with families, collaboration with colleagues, program administration, advocacy, current issues in music education, professional organizations, and healthy performance practices.
You should also understand basic administrative responsibilities such as budgeting, scheduling, inventory, concert planning, and maintaining a music program.
Music Technology
Technology topics include current recording and performance systems, sound reinforcement, MIDI, virtual instruments, microphones, audio interfaces, digital audio workstations, notation software, music assessment software, classroom technology, music publishing, and the ethical use of online and digital resources.
How Much Does Praxis Music: Content Knowledge Cost?
The current registration fee for Praxis Music: Content Knowledge (5113) is $130. Additional charges can apply for optional registration services or changes to an appointment.
How Do I Register?
Registration is completed through your Praxis account.
1. Check your certification requirements.
Confirm that your state, educator-preparation program, or licensing agency requires or accepts Music: Content Knowledge (5113).
2. Sign in to your Praxis account.
Create an account if you do not already have one.
3. Select Music: Content Knowledge (5113).
Be careful not to confuse 5113 with Music: Content and Instruction (5114), Music: Instrumental and General Knowledge (5115), or Music: Vocal and General Knowledge (5116).
4. Choose your testing method.
Select an available test-center appointment or at-home online appointment.
5. Select your test date and pay the fee.
Complete the registration process and review the appointment information carefully.
6. Choose score recipients.
You can designate up to four qualifying institutions or agencies to receive your scores at no additional charge during the applicable selection period.
Test Center or At Home?
Praxis Music: Content Knowledge is currently offered both at testing centers and as an at-home online examination.
Take the computer-delivered exam at an approved testing location using the center’s equipment and audio system.
Take the exam remotely if you meet the current computer, audio, room, identification, and proctoring requirements.
If you choose at-home testing, complete the required equipment check before your appointment. Because this examination includes listening questions, make sure your computer’s audio output works properly during the equipment check.
What to Know Before Test Day
Review your appointment and current Praxis identification requirements before test day.
Be prepared for 30 questions based on recorded musical excerpts.
Answer listening questions before advancing because their audio will not replay when you return to review them.
Finish reviewing Section 1 before entering Section 2 because you cannot return to the listening section afterward.
You have 85 minutes for the 90-question non-listening section, so that portion requires a faster pace than the listening section.
Answer every question. Unanswered questions receive no credit, so guessing is preferable to leaving an item blank.
How Is Praxis Music: Content Knowledge Scored?
Your raw performance on scored questions is converted to a scaled Praxis score. The reported score range for Music: Content Knowledge is 100 to 200.
Some questions may be included for pretesting and do not count toward your score. These questions are not identified while you are testing.
There is no single nationwide passing score. Each state or licensing agency decides what score is required for certification.
Check your state’s qualifying score. Do not assume that a score requirement used by another state automatically applies to your certification program.
When Will I Get My Score?
Because Music: Content Knowledge contains only selected-response questions, you will normally have an opportunity to view an unofficial score at the end of the testing session. In some cases, additional analysis may be necessary before an unofficial score can be displayed.
Your official score is posted to your Praxis account on the score-reporting date assigned to your test date and delivery method. Praxis currently reports scores on scheduled reporting days rather than using one fixed number of days for every appointment.
Official scores reported on or after July 21, 2017 remain downloadable through your Praxis account for 10 years from the reporting date.
What If I Don’t Pass?
You may take Praxis Music: Content Knowledge again if you do not achieve the score required by your state or if you want to improve your previous result.
Current Praxis retake rule: Your new test date must be at least 28 days after your previous test date. This waiting period applies even if you chose to cancel your previous score.
You may register for another attempt before the 28-day period has ended as long as the new testing date itself occurs at least 28 days after your prior test date.
Praxis does not impose a general lifetime limit on the number of times you may retake the examination, although an individual state or certification program may have additional rules.
How Can I Prepare for Praxis Music: Content Knowledge?
The biggest preparation mistake would be concentrating entirely on music theory and history. Those two categories together account for only about 31% of the exam. Nearly half of the assessment is devoted to pedagogy, professional issues, and technology.
You also need to prepare specifically for the listening section. Recognizing a concept on paper is different from identifying a period, mode, chord progression, intonation error, rhythm error, or instrumental timbre from a recording under time pressure.
Praxis Music Study Checklist
Practice identifying musical periods, genres, composers, styles, forms, and characteristics from both scores and recordings.
Review harmony, scales, modes, cadences, intervals, rhythm, meter, texture, form, and voice leading.
Practice transposition, instrumental and vocal ranges, clefs, arranging, and orchestration.
Develop aural skills for identifying pitch, rhythm, harmony, timbre, articulation, dynamics, balance, blend, and intonation.
Review conducting, rehearsal preparation, warm-ups, tuning, accompaniment, score study, and performance practices.
Spend substantial time on pedagogy because it appears within the 47% Pedagogy, Professional Issues, and Technology category.
Know major approaches such as Orff, Kodály, Dalcroze, Suzuki, and Gordon Music Learning Theory.
Review differentiation, assessment, classroom management, standards, repertoire selection, and student development.
Study copyright, confidentiality, professional conduct, program administration, advocacy, and healthy performance practices.
Practice music technology concepts including MIDI, recording, microphones, audio interfaces, notation software, digital audio workstations, and classroom technology.
Praxis Music: Content Knowledge Study Resources
Use these resources to review current 5113 content and practice before your examination.
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