A recorded dance tune has a steady pulse that groups itself strong, weak, weak from start to finish. Which meter is heard?Wikipedia, "Triple metre". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0001
A recorded march is played fast and bright, then gradually slows in its last four bars. Which pair of terms describes the tempo?Wikipedia, "Tempo". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0003
A recorded melody keeps returning to its tonic, and the third note of its scale lies a minor third above that tonic. On which kind of scale is the melody built?Wikipedia, "Minor scale". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0001
A recorded melody opens with a leap from do up to sol. Which interval is heard?Wikipedia, "Perfect fifth". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0001
A recorded phrase ends with the subdominant chord moving to the tonic chord, IV to I. Which cadence is heard?Wikipedia, "Cadence". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0001
Show all 50 questions (45 more)
Aural analysis skills, continued
A recorded piano piece sets a syncopated, "ragged" melody in the right hand against a steady march-like bass in the left. Which style is heard?Wikipedia, "Ragtime". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0002
A recorded song follows a twelve-bar chord pattern, flattens the third and seventh of the scale, and answers each sung line with a guitar phrase. Which genre is heard?Wikipedia, "Blues". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0002
A recording presents an ensemble made up mostly of metallophones struck with mallets, with hand drums keeping the beat. Which tradition is heard?Wikipedia, "Gamelan". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0002
A recording presents an unaccompanied sacred song in Latin, sung as a single melodic line. To which tradition does it most likely belong?Wikipedia, "Gregorian chant". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0002
A recording presents one melodic line, sung by a whole choir in unison with no accompaniment. Which texture is heard?Wikipedia, "Texture (music)". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0001
In a recorded concerto movement a keyboard and a cello play the bass line and fill in the chords beneath the soloists from start to finish. Which period does this basso continuo accompaniment point to?Wikipedia, "Baroque music". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0002
In a recorded flute solo, each note is shortened and separated from the next by a brief silence. Which articulation is heard?Wikipedia, "Staccato". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0003
In a recording, an orchestra tunes to a single A played by a double-reed woodwind. Which instrument gives that A?Wikipedia, "Oboe". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0003
In a recording, the orchestra grows gradually louder over eight bars. Which term names this change?Wikipedia, "Dynamics (music)". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0003
In a recording, the violin section stops bowing and plucks the strings with the fingers, giving short, percussive notes. Which technique is heard?Wikipedia, "Pizzicato". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 304, competency 0003
Composition and music theory 10
A key signature shows three sharps. Which major key does it stand for?Wikipedia, "Key signature". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0001
A piece returns to its opening theme after each contrasting episode, in the pattern ABACA. Which form is this?Wikipedia, "Rondo". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0002
A student improvises over a basic twelve-bar blues in the key of C. On which three chords is the progression mainly based?Wikipedia, "Twelve-bar blues". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0002
An arranger wants a B♭ clarinet to sound a concert C. Which note must be written in the clarinet part?Wikipedia, "Transposing instrument". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0002
How is a measure of 6/8 time most often felt?Wikipedia, "Time signature". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0001
How many semitones does a major sixth, such as C up to A, span?Wikipedia, "Major sixth". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0001
In 4/4 time, how many quarter-note beats does a dotted half note last?Wikipedia, "Dotted note". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0002
Which clef places middle C on the third line of the staff and is used most prominently by the viola?Wikipedia, "Clef". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0002
Which notes form the dominant seventh chord of G major?Wikipedia, "Dominant seventh chord". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0001
Which three notes form a C minor triad?Wikipedia, "Minor chord". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 305, competency 0001
Music education and performance 15
A band director corrects the way a trumpet student shapes the lips and uses the facial muscles at the mouthpiece. What is this part of playing called?Wikipedia, "Embouchure". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0002
A lesson combines speech, movement and playing on small xylophones and metallophones with removable bars, and much of the music is improvised. Which approach is this?Wikipedia, "Orff Schulwerk". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0001
A teacher leads sight-singing with movable-do solfège syllables and a hand sign for each scale degree, drawing on folk songs. Which approach is this?Wikipedia, "Kodály method". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0001
Choosing repertoire, a choir director asks which range is most comfortable for the tenors, not only how high and how low they can sing. Which term names that comfortable range?Wikipedia, "Tessitura". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0003
In a conductor's beat pattern, what does the downbeat indicate?Wikipedia, "Conducting". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0003
In a transposed score, the flute part is written in C major and the B♭ clarinet part in D major for the same passage. Why?Wikipedia, "Transposing instrument". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0003
In a violin program, beginners learn their pieces by ear before reading notation, and a parent attends each lesson and supervises daily practice. Which method is this?Wikipedia, "Suzuki method". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0001
In the National Core Arts Standards, "Refine and complete artistic work" is an anchor standard of which artistic process?National Core Arts Standards, anchor standards (National Coalition for Core Arts Standards). Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0001
Reading a score, a director sees the trombone part leave the bass clef for a C clef that puts middle C on the fourth line. Which clef is it?Wikipedia, "Clef". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0003
Students learn rhythm, structure and musical expression by stepping, swaying and moving through the room to music. Which approach is best known for this body-based learning?Wikipedia, "Dalcroze eurhythmics". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0001
To which notes are the four strings of a violin usually tuned, from lowest to highest?Wikipedia, "Violin". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0002
What do the letters SATB stand for in choral scoring?Wikipedia, "SATB". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0002
Which brass instrument alters its pitch with a telescoping slide, in place of the valves that other brass instruments have?Wikipedia, "Trombone". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0002
Which percussion instruments can a player retune quickly to specific pitches with a foot pedal?Wikipedia, "Timpani". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0002
While one hand beats time, what is a conductor's second hand often used for?Wikipedia, "Conducting". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 306, competency 0003
Music history and culture 10
A piece opens with one voice stating a subject alone. Other voices then enter with it in imitation at different pitches, and the subject keeps returning. Which technique is this?Wikipedia, "Fugue". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0001
An ensemble has several violins, two trumpets, a guitar, a high-pitched vihuela and a bass guitarrón, and its players take turns singing lead. Which tradition is this?Wikipedia, "Mariachi". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0001
An orchestral work with no words sets out to depict a storm and then a shepherd's song by instruments alone. What is such music called?Wikipedia, "Program music". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0002
How does an oratorio typically differ from an opera?Wikipedia, "Oratorio". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0002
In Indian classical music, what is a raga?Wikipedia, "Raga". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0001
Jazz originated in the African-American communities of which city, in the late 1800s and early 1900s?Wikipedia, "Jazz". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0002
Which genre of Christian music arose among African Americans, merging African cultural influences with the experience of being held in slavery?Wikipedia, "Spirituals". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0002
Which period of Western classical music, from about 1600 to 1750, followed the Renaissance and came before the Classical period?Wikipedia, "Baroque music". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0001
Which three main sections make up sonata form?Wikipedia, "Sonata form". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0001
The words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" come from a poem written in 1814. Which event had its author just witnessed?Wikipedia, "The Star-Spangled Banner". Written to GACE Music (723) testlet 307, competency 0002
How this list was compiled: Our own questions, written to the framework of the GACE Music (P–12) assessment (723) on the GACE website of the Evaluation Systems group of Pearson, https://www.gace.es.pearson.com/studyguide/framework/723 and https://www.gace.es.pearson.com/test/723, read 2026-10-09: four testlets of about 30, 20, 30 and 20 selected-response questions (Aural Analysis Skills; Composition and Music Theory; Music Education and Performance; Music History and Culture), 100 in all, with equal competency shares inside each testlet. This bank holds 15, 10, 15 and 10, split 5/5/5, 5/5, 5/5/5 and 5/5. The real Aural Analysis Skills testlet plays recorded examples through headphones; this page plays no sound, so its questions for that testlet describe in words what a recording presents. Every fact was read on the page named under its question, each opened 2026-10-09: 45 Wikipedia articles and the anchor standards page of the National Core Arts Standards. Answers about intervals, chords and note values were each worked out a second time. Licence: Questions, choices and explanations are original work of this site.
How it works
This GACE music practice test asks 50 questions of our own on Music (P–12), test 723. No recordings play: listening questions describe the sound in words. It is unofficial and not affiliated with the Georgia Professional Standards Commission or Pearson.
Read the full guide
The four testlets
Aural Analysis Skills (304) and Music Education and Performance (306) carry about 30 questions each; Composition and Music Theory (305) and Music History and Culture (307) about 20 each. This bank keeps those shares with 15, 10, 15 and 10.
Listening without sound
The real Aural Analysis Skills testlet plays recorded examples. The 15 questions for it here say what a recording presents and ask what you would call it, so practise naming meters, cadences, textures and styles from real recordings too.
Clock and exam mode
Thirty questions get 45 minutes on the real test and twenty get 30, a minute and a half each. Exam mode here runs 50 questions in 75 minutes.
Learn the four processes of the National Core Arts Standards: Creating, Performing, Responding and Connecting.
Questions and answers
Is there a GACE music study guide?
Yes: the GACE website has one for Music (P–12), test 723, organised by the same four testlets as the questions here.
How many questions are on the GACE music test?
A hundred, all selected-response, across the four testlets. Their clocks total 2 hours 30 minutes, and each testing session adds 15 minutes for a tutorial and a nondisclosure agreement.
Does the GACE music test have a listening section?
Yes. Testlet 304, Aural Analysis Skills, has about 30 questions on the theoretical, stylistic and performance elements of music presented in recorded examples. The GACE site says headphones are provided for it.
What is a passing score on the GACE music test?
All four testlets must be taken, each has a floor to meet, and together the results must produce an assessment-level score of 220 or higher. This page gives a number right, never a pass or a fail.
Is this GACE Music Test I and Test II?
The GACE site today lists one music assessment, Music (P–12), test 723, taken as four testlets. The Commission says the supplier changed from ETS to Pearson and that passing scores cannot be split between the two suppliers.