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Music Trivia Questions
Bands, albums, instruments and chart history. Play the music trivia game, then read the full question and answer list underneath.
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Music trivia splits a room faster than any other category, because everyone's knowledge stops at a different decade and nobody quite believes that. That is exactly why it works as a quiz round: the questions below deliberately spread across eras, genres and the mechanics of music itself, so no one table can own the whole thing.
The facts here are the checkable kind — who released which album, which composer wrote which work, how many strings an instrument carries, what a marking on a page tells the player to do — rather than matters of taste. Classical sits alongside rock, jazz, country and reggae, and the theory questions are the sort a school music lesson covers rather than anything a listener would need a degree to answer.
Classical and composers: music trivia questions
Opera as an art form began in which country?
Answer: Italy EasyThe earliest surviving operas were written in Florence around 1600.
Who composed the Ninth Symphony that includes the Ode to Joy?
Answer: Beethoven MediumIt was the first major symphony to bring a choir into the final movement.
How many musicians are in a string quartet?
Answer: Four MediumNormally two violins, a viola and a cello.
Which composer wrote The Four Seasons?
Answer: Antonio Vivaldi MediumEach of the four concertos was published with a matching poem.
Who composed the opera The Magic Flute?
Answer: Mozart MediumIt premiered in Vienna in 1791, the year he died.
Which composer kept writing music after losing his hearing?
Answer: Beethoven HardHis deafness began in his late twenties and grew steadily worse.
What is the highest female singing voice type?
Answer: Soprano HardContralto is the lowest of the standard female voice types.
Who composed the Brandenburg Concertos?
Answer: Johann Sebastian Bach HardSix concertos, dedicated to a German margrave who seems never to have used them.
Which Russian composer wrote the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker?
Answer: Tchaikovsky HardHe also wrote the 1812 Overture, cannon and all.
Who composed the ballet The Rite of Spring, whose 1913 premiere caused a near-riot?
Answer: Igor Stravinsky MediumThe Paris premiere was staged by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes with choreography by Nijinsky.
Which composer wrote the oratorio Messiah?
Answer: George Frideric Handel MediumHandel composed it in 1741 and it was first performed in Dublin in 1742.
Which Polish-born composer is known almost entirely for his piano works?
Answer: Frederic Chopin MediumChopin spent most of his adult life in Paris and died there in 1849.
How many symphonies did Beethoven complete?
Answer: Nine MediumSketches for a tenth exist, but he died in 1827 without finishing it.
Which composer wrote the four-opera cycle The Ring of the Nibelung?
Answer: Richard Wagner HardThe complete cycle was first performed at Wagner's own theatre in Bayreuth in 1876.
Which Czech composer wrote the New World Symphony?
Answer: Antonin Dvorak HardHe wrote it in 1893 while directing the National Conservatory of Music in New York.
Whose Symphony No. 94 is nicknamed the Surprise Symphony?
Answer: Joseph Haydn HardHaydn wrote 104 numbered symphonies and is often called the father of the symphony.
Rock and pop history: music trivia questions
Who is known as the King of Pop?
Answer: Michael Jackson EasyElvis Presley is the one called the King of Rock and Roll.
Which country did the band ABBA come from?
Answer: Sweden EasyThe name is built from the four members' initials.
Which band's members included Freddie Mercury and Brian May?
Answer: Queen MediumMay built his own guitar with his father before the band formed.
Which city is the traditional home of country music in the United States?
Answer: Nashville MediumThe Grand Ole Opry radio show made it the centre of the industry.
Which genre of music originated in Jamaica in the 1960s?
Answer: Reggae MediumIt grew out of the earlier local styles ska and rocksteady.
The blues developed in which region of the United States?
Answer: The Mississippi Delta MediumIt fed almost directly into rock and roll a few decades later.
Which record label did Berry Gordy found in Detroit?
Answer: Motown MediumThe city's car industry gave the label its name.
What is the name of Elvis Presley's home in Memphis, now a museum?
Answer: Graceland EasyGraceland opened to visitors in 1982, five years after Presley's death.
Hip hop emerged in the 1970s in which US city?
Answer: New York City EasyIt grew out of block parties in the Bronx, where DJs extended the instrumental breaks of funk records.
Which Irish rock band is fronted by Bono?
Answer: U2 EasyU2 formed in Dublin in 1976 while its members were still at school.
Which band's founding line-up included Mick Jagger and Keith Richards?
Answer: The Rolling Stones MediumThe band formed in London in 1962 and took its name from a Muddy Waters record.
Which genre of music grew up in New Orleans in the early twentieth century?
Answer: Jazz MediumIts blend of ragtime, blues and brass-band music spread north to Chicago after 1917.
Which 1969 festival was held on a dairy farm in Bethel, New York?
Answer: Woodstock MediumIt ran for three days in August 1969 and drew an estimated 400,000 people.
Which producer developed the Wall of Sound recording style in the early 1960s?
Answer: Phil Spector HardHe used it on records by the Ronettes and the Righteous Brothers.
Sun Records, which made Elvis Presley's first recordings, was based in which city?
Answer: Memphis HardSam Phillips founded the label in 1952 and sold Presley's contract to RCA in 1955.
Instruments and theory: music trivia questions
How many strings does a standard guitar have?
Answer: Six EasyA bass guitar normally has four.
Which instrument has 88 keys?
Answer: Piano EasyThat covers a range of seven octaves and a little more.
Which instrument is played by blowing across a hole while holding it sideways?
Answer: Flute EasyIt is the only common woodwind that uses no reed.
How many lines are there in a standard musical staff?
Answer: Five EasyNotes sit both on the lines and in the four spaces between them.
Which brass instrument uses a sliding tube instead of valves?
Answer: Trombone EasyThe slide lets a player glide smoothly between pitches.
Which is the largest and lowest string instrument in an orchestra?
Answer: The double bass EasyJazz players usually pluck it rather than use a bow.
In a choir, which is the lowest voice part?
Answer: Bass EasyThe usual four parts run soprano, alto, tenor and bass.
Which percussion instrument is made of wooden bars struck with mallets?
Answer: Xylophone MediumIts metal-barred cousin is the glockenspiel.
What is a group of three notes sounded together called?
Answer: A triad MediumStacking two thirds gives the major and minor triads.
Which four-string instrument became closely associated with Hawaii?
Answer: The ukulele MediumIt descends from a small guitar brought over by Portuguese migrants.
In written music, what does a sharp sign do to a note?
Answer: Raises it a semitone MediumA flat sign does the opposite, and a natural cancels both.
How many different notes are there in a chromatic scale?
Answer: Twelve HardEach step is a semitone, which on a piano means every key in turn.
Which instrument family does the saxophone belong to?
Answer: Woodwind HardIt is made of brass, but it sounds through a reed, which puts it with the woodwinds.
A time signature of three-four is typical of which dance?
Answer: The waltz HardThe count falls in threes, which is what gives the waltz its swing.
Stradivarius instruments were made in which country?
Answer: Italy HardAntonio Stradivari worked in the northern Italian town of Cremona.
Played from C to C on a piano, which scale uses only the white keys?
Answer: C major HardThat is why it has no sharps or flats in its key signature.
How many strings does a violin have?
Answer: Four EasyThe strings are tuned a fifth apart: G, D, A and E.
The trumpet and the tuba belong to which family of instruments?
Answer: Brass EasyBrass instruments produce sound from the player's vibrating lips, whatever metal they are made of.
The harp belongs to which family of instruments?
Answer: Strings EasyA concert harp has around 47 strings and seven pedals that change their pitch.
Which woodwind instrument traditionally gives the orchestra its tuning note?
Answer: Oboe EasyThe oboe's stable, penetrating tone made it the traditional source of the A the other players tune to.
Which double-reed instrument plays the bass line of the woodwind section?
Answer: Bassoon MediumThe oboe also uses a double reed but sits much higher in pitch.
What is the distance in pitch between two notes called?
Answer: An interval MediumAn octave is one particular interval, the gap between a note and the next note of the same name.
In four-four time, how many beats does a semibreve (whole note) last?
Answer: Four MediumA minim lasts two beats and a crotchet one.
What does the circle of fifths show?
Answer: The relationships among the twelve keys HardMoving clockwise around the circle adds one sharp to each successive key signature.
Which clef is normally used for viola parts?
Answer: Alto clef HardThe alto clef places middle C on the middle line of the staff.
What is the term for rhythm that stresses the off-beats?
Answer: Syncopation HardSyncopation is central to ragtime, jazz and most popular music.
The theremin, an electronic instrument played without being touched, was invented in which country?
Answer: Russia HardLeon Theremin demonstrated it in 1920 and it later featured in 1950s science fiction film scores.
Albums and artists: music trivia questions
Which band released the album Abbey Road?
Answer: The Beatles EasyIt was the last album the group recorded together, in 1969.
Which band recorded the album The Dark Side of the Moon?
Answer: Pink Floyd EasyIt was released in 1973 and stayed on the charts for years.
Which instrument did Louis Armstrong play?
Answer: Trumpet MediumHe was also a singer with one of the most imitated voices in jazz.
What was Elton John's birth name?
Answer: Reginald Dwight HardGordon Sumner is Sting; the other two are Bowie and Bono.
Which singer is known as the Queen of Soul?
Answer: Aretha Franklin EasyFranklin became the first woman inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Which country does the singer Shakira come from?
Answer: Colombia EasyShe was born in Barranquilla and recorded in Spanish for a decade before her first English-language album.
Adele's album 21, released in 2011, is named after what?
Answer: Her age when she wrote it EasyAll of Adele's studio albums carry the age she was while writing them.
Taylor Swift's album 1989 is named after what?
Answer: Her birth year EasySwift was born in December 1989 and released the album in 2014.
Which instrument was Jimi Hendrix famous for playing?
Answer: Electric guitar EasyHendrix played a right-handed Stratocaster turned over and restrung for his left hand.
Which band released the album Rumours in 1977?
Answer: Fleetwood Mac MediumRumours won the Grammy for Album of the Year in 1978.
Which Michael Jackson album followed Thriller in 1987?
Answer: Bad MediumBad produced five US number-one singles.
Which country singer was known as the Man in Black?
Answer: Johnny Cash MediumCash is a member of both the Country Music and the Rock and Roll Halls of Fame.
Which Beach Boys album of 1966 was largely written and produced by Brian Wilson?
Answer: Pet Sounds HardWilson recorded much of it with session musicians while the rest of the band was on tour.
Which 1966 Bob Dylan album was a double LP?
Answer: Blonde on Blonde HardIt is often cited as rock's first studio double album.
The 1959 album Kind of Blue was recorded by which jazz musician?
Answer: Miles Davis HardThe sessions took just two days and featured Coltrane and pianist Bill Evans.
What was David Bowie's surname at birth?
Answer: Jones HardHe adopted the stage name in 1965 to avoid confusion with Davy Jones of the Monkees.
Musicals and film music: music trivia questions
The musical The Sound of Music is set in which country?
Answer: Austria EasyThe 1965 film version starring Julie Andrews was shot largely in and around Salzburg.
Who composed the music for the stage musical Cats?
Answer: Andrew Lloyd Webber EasyCats is based on poems by T. S. Eliot and opened in London in 1981.
The musical Hamilton tells the story of a founding father of which country?
Answer: United States EasyLin-Manuel Miranda based the show on Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton.
The musical Wicked tells the back story of characters from which classic tale?
Answer: The Wizard of Oz EasyWicked is based on Gregory Maguire's 1995 novel and opened on Broadway in 2003.
Which pop musician wrote the songs for the 1994 film The Lion King with lyricist Tim Rice?
Answer: Elton John EasyJohn and Rice won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for the film.
Who composed the music for West Side Story and Candide?
Answer: Leonard Bernstein MediumBernstein also served as music director of the New York Philharmonic for over a decade.
Which musical is set in a Paris opera house and features a masked composer?
Answer: The Phantom of the Opera MediumBased on Gaston Leroux's 1910 novel, the show opened in London in 1986.
The musical Les Miserables is based on a novel by which author?
Answer: Victor Hugo MediumThe stage show premiered in Paris in 1980 before its English-language version opened in London in 1985.
Which musical, set in 1920s Chicago, follows Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly?
Answer: Chicago MediumThe 2002 film version won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Who wrote the music and lyrics for Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods?
Answer: Stephen Sondheim HardSondheim wrote the lyrics for West Side Story before composing his own shows.
Which 1927 show by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II is regarded as the first modern book musical?
Answer: Show Boat HardAdapted from Edna Ferber's novel, it wove its songs into a serious dramatic plot.
Who composed the score for the 1993 film Schindler's List?
Answer: John Williams HardItzhak Perlman played the violin solos and Williams won his fifth Academy Award for the score.
Words and terms: music trivia questions
What does the word 'forte' mean in music?
Answer: Loud EasyIt is marked f in a score; piano, marked p, means the opposite.
Which musical instruction tells a player to get gradually louder?
Answer: Crescendo EasyDiminuendo is the instruction to fade back down.
What does BPM stand for in music?
Answer: Beats per minute HardIt is the standard way of writing down a tempo.
Which Italian term tells a musician to play very fast?
Answer: Presto HardLargo is at the other end of the scale, meaning broad and slow.
What is the technique of combining two or more independent melodies called?
Answer: Counterpoint HardBach's fugues are the textbook example of it.
What does a fermata instruct a performer to do?
Answer: Hold the note longer than written HardIt is written as a dot beneath a small arc above the note.
What is the person who leads an orchestra with a baton called?
Answer: A conductor EasyThe concertmaster is the leading first violinist, not the person holding the baton.
Which Italian word in a score tells a musician to play softly?
Answer: Piano EasyThe keyboard instrument took its name from the marking, as a shortening of pianoforte.
What does it mean to sing 'a cappella'?
Answer: Without instrumental accompaniment EasyThe Italian phrase refers to church-style singing done without instruments.
What does 'tempo' refer to in music?
Answer: Speed MediumTempo markings are traditionally given in Italian, from largo to presto.
What is a libretto?
Answer: The text of an opera or musical MediumThe word is Italian for 'little book' and was originally sold to audiences before performances.
Which term tells a performer to slow down gradually?
Answer: Ritardando HardRallentando means much the same and the two are used almost interchangeably.
What does the marking 'da capo' instruct a performer to do?
Answer: Return to the beginning HardIt is often paired with 'al fine', meaning play through to the marked end.
What is a leitmotif?
Answer: A recurring theme tied to a character or idea HardWagner's operas made the device famous and film composers adopted it widely.
Answer key
- Six
- Piano
- The Beatles
- Michael Jackson
- Flute
- Five
- Sweden
- Loud
- Trombone
- The double bass
- Bass
- Crescendo
- Italy
- Pink Floyd
- Beethoven
- Queen
- Xylophone
- Four
- Antonio Vivaldi
- Nashville
- Reggae
- A triad
- Trumpet
- Mozart
- The Mississippi Delta
- The ukulele
- Raises it a semitone
- Motown
- Twelve
- Reginald Dwight
- Beethoven
- Soprano
- Woodwind
- Beats per minute
- Presto
- Counterpoint
- The waltz
- Johann Sebastian Bach
- Italy
- Hold the note longer than written
- C major
- Tchaikovsky
- Austria
- Andrew Lloyd Webber
- United States
- Four
- Brass
- A conductor
- Aretha Franklin
- Colombia
- Graceland
- New York City
- Piano
- Strings
- U2
- Her age when she wrote it
- Her birth year
- The Wizard of Oz
- Elton John
- Electric guitar
- Oboe
- Without instrumental accompaniment
- Igor Stravinsky
- George Frideric Handel
- Frederic Chopin
- Nine
- Bassoon
- An interval
- Four
- Fleetwood Mac
- Bad
- The Rolling Stones
- Jazz
- Woodstock
- Johnny Cash
- Leonard Bernstein
- The Phantom of the Opera
- Victor Hugo
- Chicago
- Speed
- The text of an opera or musical
- Richard Wagner
- Antonin Dvorak
- Joseph Haydn
- The relationships among the twelve keys
- Alto clef
- Syncopation
- Russia
- Pet Sounds
- Blonde on Blonde
- Miles Davis
- Jones
- Phil Spector
- Memphis
- Ritardando
- Return to the beginning
- A recurring theme tied to a character or idea
- Stephen Sondheim
- Show Boat
- John Williams
How to play
- Pick a mode: multiple choice, true or false, a 60-second sprint, or the daily quiz.
- Answer with a tap, or press 1 to 4 on a keyboard. The right answer appears straight away with a line explaining it.
- Finish the round to see your score, copy the result grid, and step up a difficulty.
- Hosting a night? The full music list and a separate answer key are printed below, and the print layout drops the game and keeps the paper.
Tiebreaker questions
Closest guess wins. Read one out when two tables finish level.
In which year did the Beatles release Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band?
Answer: 1967 year The album came out in the UK on 26 May 1967 and in the US a week later.
In which year was Beethoven's Ninth Symphony first performed?
Answer: 1824 year The premiere took place in Vienna on 7 May 1824, with the nearly deaf composer on stage.
In which year was the first Grammy Awards ceremony held?
Answer: 1959 year The first ceremony took place on 4 May 1959, honouring recordings from 1958.
Common mistakes in music trivia
- Salieri poisoned Mozart.
There is no evidence for it. The story comes from later gossip and the play and film Amadeus; Mozart most likely died of illness in 1791.
- Beethoven was completely deaf when he wrote all his famous music.
His hearing declined gradually from his late twenties. Many well-known works, including the first two symphonies, date from before the loss was severe.
- Let It Be was the last album the Beatles recorded.
Let It Be was released last, in 1970, but most of it was recorded in early 1969. Abbey Road was recorded afterwards and released in 1969.
- Handel was an English composer.
He was born in Halle, Germany, in 1685 and only became a British subject in 1727, after settling in London.
- Elvis Presley wrote his own hits.
He rarely wrote songs. His early publishing credits were mostly contractual, and his hits came from professional songwriters.
- The saxophone is a brass instrument.
It is made of brass but classified as woodwind, because its sound comes from a single reed like a clarinet.
Running this round at a quiz night
Spread the round deliberately: a few classical and theory questions, a few from before 1980, a few from the 1980s and 1990s, and a few from the last twenty years, so the table with the oldest players does not sweep it. Release dates are the usual argument, because singles and albums often came out in the UK and the US in different weeks or years, so say which country you mean or accept either. Ask for a band name rather than a member's name unless you want to accept both, and accept either the birth name or the stage name when a question invites it. Use the tiebreakers only for a genuine tie and take the closest guess.
Frequently asked questions
Do these music questions cover all genres?
They spread across pop, rock, jazz, classical, country and reggae, and a good share are about instruments and notation rather than any genre at all. A mixed group should all find questions they can answer.
Are there any listening or audio rounds?
No. Every question here is text, so the page works anywhere, including on a phone with the sound off. Nothing has to load before you can play.
How current are the music questions?
They lean towards facts that stay true rather than this week's charts. Nothing in the set depends on a record that could be broken next month, so the answers do not go stale between visits.
Not in a quiz mood?
The question games are a different kind of round: no right answers, just prompts you read out and argue about. Would You RatherNever Have I EverTruth or DareThis or That