Praxis Music: Content and Instruction Online Center
This Praxis Music: Content and Instruction Online Center brings together practice, lessons, worksheets, flashcards and review tools. Choose the resource that matches the skill you want to work on next.
Praxis Music Practice Center
Take a full form, then read the explanation under every question you missed. One difference from the real test is worth naming: the real Section I plays recorded excerpts, and these forms cannot. Where the real test would play something, these describe the notation or ask the theory or history question underneath it. Practise ear training separately.
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Praxis Music: Content and Instruction at a glance
Two things shape this test. It opens with a listening section of about twenty-five minutes in which each recorded excerpt is played once, so the skill being tested is as much listening under pressure as it is knowledge. And the title matters: 5114 is Content and Instruction and includes three written responses about teaching; 5113 is Music: Content Knowledge, a separate current test.
| Test code | 5114 (Music: Content and Instruction) |
|---|---|
| Not to be confused with | 5113, Music: Content Knowledge, which is a separate live test. |
| Status | Current. |
| Number of questions | 84 selected-response questions and 3 constructed-response questions |
| The listening section | Section I is the listening section, about 25 minutes, built on recorded excerpts with narration. Each excerpt is played once unless the question says otherwise. ETS does not publish how many questions it contains. |
| The written responses | Three, one instrumental, one vocal, and one general music, about 30 minutes in total and 25 percent of the score. Each is scored 0 to 3. |
| Time limit | 2 hours total |
| Format | Computer-delivered |
| Score scale | 100 to 200 |
| Passing score | ETS does not set one. Each state sets its own qualifying score. |
ETS publishes counts and percentages: Music History and Theory 32 questions and 29 percent, Instruction Professional Issues and Technology 28 and 25 percent, Performance 24 and 21 percent, and Instructional Activities, which is the three written responses, 25 percent. Teaching is a quarter of the selected-response section and the whole of the written one, which is what the word Instruction in the title is telling you.
The four sections, in plain language
ETS lists each category and the topics under it. Here is what each one asks of you.
Music history and theory (29 percent, 32 questions)
The largest selected-response category.
- Notation, rhythm, and meter
- Scales, modes, and key signatures
- Intervals, triads, and seventh chords
- Harmonic function and cadences
- Form and analysis
- The periods of Western music and their characteristics
- Jazz, folk, and world traditions
Instruction, professional issues, and technology (25 percent, 28 questions)
Teaching music, and the job around it.
- Sequencing instruction and lesson design
- Orff, Kodaly, Dalcroze, and Suzuki approaches
- Assessment in music
- Rehearsal and ensemble management
- Music technology in the classroom
- Copyright as it affects a music teacher
- Advocacy and professional practice
Performance (21 percent, 24 questions)
Making music and leading others in it.
- Vocal technique and the changing voice
- Instrumental technique and common problems
- Transposition and instrument transpositions
- Score reading and study
- Conducting patterns and gesture
- Diagnosing and fixing an ensemble problem
Instructional activities: the three written responses (25 percent)
One instrumental, one vocal, one general music.
- Read the teaching situation you are given
- Name a specific musical objective
- Describe an activity that actually reaches it
- Say how you would know it worked
- Answer directly; these are scored 0 to 3
A study routine for a test that starts with listening
The listening section comes first and each excerpt plays once, so the worst outcome is arriving cold to it. Practise listening under time before anything else.
Complete topic map
Every topic ETS lists under the categories, weighted the way the test is weighted.
Music history and theory (29 percent, about 32 questions)
- 01Identify the characteristics of the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Impressionist, early twentieth century and mid twentieth century to present style periods
- 02Identify the characteristics of jazz, rock, folk and popular genres
- 03Recognize style through melody, harmony, rhythm and meter, tempo, dynamics, texture, compositional organization, form and genre, historical context, and representative composers and ensembles
- 04Recognize world music traditions of North America, South America, Europe, Africa, Australia and the Pacific, and Asia, and their cultural functions and origins
- 05Analyze music aurally and from notation for pitch organization, harmony, chords, chord progressions and ornamentation
- 06Identify modes, scales and tone rows
- 07Identify theme, melody, melodic contour and motive
- 08Analyze rhythm, meter and tempo
- 09Identify form and structure and describe texture
- 10Apply music theory to chords and voice leading
- 11Apply knowledge of ranges, transpositions, intervals, keys, clefs, instruments and voices
- 12Evaluate balance, instrumentation and voicing, and identify functions within a score
- 13Interpret expressive elements in a score
- 14Identify variation in musical sound through the timbre of instruments and voices and through dynamics
Performance (21 percent, about 24 questions)
- 15Listen critically and identify errors in pitch and intonation, including individual and ensemble tuning
- 16Identify errors in rhythm and in unified section and ensemble performance
- 17Identify problems of balance and blend and errors in articulation and dynamics
- 18Apply conducting technique, including beat patterns, baton and freehand technique, eye contact and facial expression
- 19Conduct tempo and tempo changes, attacks, holds and releases, dynamics, expressive gestures and cues
- 20Interpret notation, including symbols for pitch and rhythm, dynamic markings, articulation and tempo markings, and composers’ written comments
- 21Interpret timbre appropriately for the style period
- 22Prepare a score through study, research, interpretive decisions and score marking
- 23Apply accompaniment techniques, including harmonizing tonal melodies and using arpeggiation, block chords and ostinato patterns on piano, guitar and voice
- 24Select warm-up techniques, including breathing, physical warm-ups such as stretching and posture, and technical warm-ups such as scales, arpeggios, chorales and vocalises
- 25Apply tuning and intonation techniques for instruments and for choral and vocal ensembles, including palate position, vowel uniformity, breath support and posture
- 26Prepare program notes, educational materials, performance remarks and publicity, and apply venue-appropriate concert etiquette
- 27Apply acoustics to performance, including sound production and tone quality, rehearsal and performance space configuration, reverberation, reflection and refraction
- 28Apply knowledge of frequency, amplitude, sound amplification, harmonics, partials and overtones
Instruction, professional issues, and technology (25 percent, about 28 questions)
- 29Select instructional strategies for performance settings, including full ensemble, sectionals, small groups, individual lessons and rehearsal planning, and for general music settings, including full class, small groups, labs and independent projects
- 30Align instruction with local, state and national standards and evaluate the links between pedagogy and standards
- 31Manage the classroom through physical environment, rules and consequences, legal implications, planning and pacing, procedures and routines, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
- 32Plan and differentiate instruction for students’ physical, cognitive and social stages of growth, using scope and sequence and lesson and unit planning across ability levels
- 33Teach through aural, visual and kinesthetic learning modalities
- 34Accommodate students with physical, cognitive, behavioral and emotional disabilities, culturally diverse students, gifted learners and English-language learners
- 35Select assessment strategies, including standardized tests, portfolios, multiple-choice testing, scoring rubrics, performance skills assessment, grading criteria, formative assessment, instructional taxonomies, and program and curriculum evaluation
- 36Care for and maintain woodwinds, strings, guitar, brass, percussion, keyboards, classroom and electronic instruments, printed materials, recorded media, risers, stands and audiovisual and computer equipment
- 37Teach improvisation through imitation, variation and style-specific approaches
- 38Teach composition and arranging, including improvisation and completion exercises, pitch and rhythmic organization, form, style and thematic construction, harmonization, accompaniment and imitation, and vocal and instrumental ranges
- 39Teach musical concepts through literature, including melody, harmony, rhythm, form, timbre, texture and expressive elements, plus theory, history, interdisciplinary connections, creativity and aesthetics
- 40Develop musical expression through performance, improvisation and composition, and teach aesthetics through guided listening, analysis, reflection, evaluation and modeling
- 41Integrate music within the fine arts and across other disciplines
- 42Apply professional ethics and legal requirements, including copyright law, confidentiality and appropriate conduct
Instructional activities (constructed response) (25 percent, about 3 questions)
- 43Respond in writing to one instrumental music instruction question, one vocal music instruction question and one general music instruction question
- 44Select repertoire across diverse genres for developmental appropriateness, vocal and instrumental ranges and transpositions, cultural diversity and community traditions, state and local guidelines, and quality of literature
- 45Locate repertoire through recommended lists, conferences, colleagues and mentors, and publisher resources
- 46Diagnose and resolve performance challenges in reading pitches and rhythms, balance and blend, intonation, technical difficulty, style and interpretation, physical causes and comprehension issues
- 47Program and organize a concert, considering repertoire diversity including vocal text, difficulty relative to preparation time, pacing and endurance, special occasions and venues, pedagogical philosophy, building and district expectations, and logistics such as scheduling, facilities, publicity, communication and programs
- 48Develop sight-reading skills through solfege and other systems, pitch, interval and rhythm perception, mental practice and score scanning
- 49Apply instrumental techniques and teaching for woodwinds, strings, guitar, brass, percussion, keyboards and classroom instruments, including health and wellness for instrumentalists
- 50Apply knowledge of vocal production and performance, including the vocal mechanism, health and wellness, the changing voice and tessitura
- 51Apply pedagogical approaches including Suzuki, Dalcroze, Kodaly, Orff Schulwerk, Edwin Gordon’s Music Learning Theory, Comprehensive Musicianship, Laban and Phyllis Weikart
Before test day
Prepare for the listening section the way you would prepare for an audition rather than an exam: one pass, decide, move on. Beyond that, remember what the word Instruction in the title is doing. A quarter of the selected-response questions and all three written responses are about teaching music rather than knowing it, and a strong musician who has not thought about sequencing, assessment, or how to fix an ensemble problem will feel that gap on the day.
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Praxis Music: Content and Instruction: study questions
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