This action research aims to explore ways and develop a course that can empower Korean pre-service music teachers’ competency of Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (PCK) in Western music history education. To achieve this aim, a 15-week PCK-framework-based Music History course was developed and implemented with five pre-service music teachers at a graduate school of education in Seoul, Korea. I have collected the data through participants’ reflections and open-ended surveys conducted at Weeks 1, 8, and 15. The data were then analyzed using qualitative inductive coding. As a result, the PCK-based Music History course, designed using the Backward design model, overall enhanced their PCK competency. The study found that while pre-service teachers initially believed that they did not have sufficient knowledge regarding the subject matter, their confidence regarding the topic markedly improved. They also saw that their PCK competency improved through performer-based class activities, such as weekly lecture summary writing and presentations, school textbook analyses, and teaching demonstration practices, as well as the teacher educators’ constructive interactions with the preservice teachers in the context of Western music history teaching and learning. This study contributes to to bridging the PCK theory to music teacher education practice. It also contributes to underrepresented PCK-related theory and practice for effective pre-service music teacher education.