When creating music quizzes, it’s important to diversify the types of rounds and questions you’re giving. It can be more fun and gives an extra challenge for both you and the quizzers. This is because it’s not just the same repetitive format of questions, but it is a style of question that is new to people which means they have to think in a lateral way.
With music rounds, it’s ideal if you can actually play snippets of songs as part of the round, but if you can’t then there’s plenty of other ways to diversify your questions to make them interesting and engaging.
So if you’re looking to switch things up in your next music quiz, here are some ideas for music quiz rounds to help you widen your trivia question inventory.
1. Album Covers / Cover Stories
Name the album name and the artist from the picture of the album cover. And/or, you could also ask players to list 3 songs from each album.
2. Who Sang It? / Mic Drop
Use a couple of lines of lyrics and have players say which singer sang them (you decide whether you want them to name the band or the individual singer e.g. Queen vs Freddie Mercury). Or you could play the beginning of the song out loud.
For example: Nice to meet you, where you been? I could show you incredible things = Taylor Swift
3. Emoji Song Titles / Songs in Symbols
Use emojis to give clues for a song title
For Example: 🃏😐 = Poker Face by Lady Gaga
For Example: 🌊 + 👀 = Ocean Eyes by Billie Eillish
4. Finish The Lyrics / Lyric Cliffhangers
Give players some lyrics that they then have to provide the next line for.
For Example: Here's the thing, we started out friends, It was cool…………. but it was all pretend (Since U Been Gone by Kelly Clarkson)
5. Who Am I? / Identity Crisis
In first person, give three clues about a music artist.
For Example: I’m a welsh singer, I’ve been a judge on ‘The Voice’, I sang the theme song for 1965 James Bond film = Tom Jones
6. Name The Artist From The Fanbase / Beliebers & Beyond
Provide the name of a fanbase and players must provide the music artist that the fanbase relates to.
For Example: Little Monsters = Lady Gaga
7. Answer Smash
This can be a fun and challenging round to create. It involves giving two short trivia questions where the two answers smash together to form a new word. The new word should have at least 2 letters that overlap. One trivia question should be music related, the other question can be to do with anything.
For Example; The stage name for Marshall Mathers. The word meaning arch-enemy. [Eminem + Nemesis] = Eminemesis
8. Who Sang The Lyrics? / Lyric Matchmaker
Provide lyrics which players have to answer with the music artist who performed them, you can also have them provide the song title.
For Example: “We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year” = Pink Floyd (Wish You Were Here)
9. Odd One Out / Musical Misfit
Provide a list to do with a theme (e.g. the artist, the year a song came out…) but one of the answers doesn’t fit with the rest. For Example: Artist: Blank Space, We Are Never Getting Back Together, Pink Pony Club, Cruel Summer = Pink Pony Club [this is by Chappell Roan, the rest are Taylor Swift]
10. Connect The Dots / The Missing Link
Provide a list and players must name the things that link the list together.
For Example: Viva La Vida, Hymn For The Weekend, Fix You, Clocks = All songs by Coldplay
11. Real Name VS Stage Name / Born This Way?
Provide the real name of a music artist, players must then provide the stage name. For Example: Reginald Dwight = Elton John
12. Name The Missing Thing / The Missing Beat
Provide a list but exclude one of the answers that the players must provide.
For Example: John, Paul, George = Ringo (Beatles members)
13. Vowel-Less / Vwl-lss
This round (Vowel-less) has titles of songs that don’t contain any vowels. Players must simply name the song.
For Example: Kss Frm _ Rs = Kiss From A Rose
14. Were You Paying Attention?
This is a sneaky round for if you normally play music in between rounds or during breaks. During one of your breaks, play some famous songs, without giving your players a heads up. When you restart the quiz, you have to get players to name the songs and the artist that were playing during the break.
15. Direct Translations / The Synonym Challenge
Provide the title of a song by subbing out the words for synonyms. Players must suss out the real song title.
For Example: Nasty Love = Bad Romance
16. Antonyms / Opposites Attract
Provide the title of a song by subbing out the words for antonyms. Players must suss out the real song title.
For Example: Good Friendship = Bad Romance
17. Sequences / Remix
Provide a list and ask players to put in order of anything you can think of - such as release date of the song, age of the artist etc.
For Example: Put these artists from oldest to youngest by birth year: Rihanna, Billie Eillish, Meghan Trainor, Beyonce = Beyonce (1981), Rihanna (1988), Meghan Trainor (1993), Billie Eillish (2001) [players don’t have to know the birth year, as long as they get them in the right order)]
18. Two Truths, One Lie
Give two truths about a song or artist and one lie. Players must pick out the lie.
For Example: Adele - Her last name is Ashford, Her first album was called “19”, She’s from London = Her last name is Ashford (it’s actually Adkins)
19. Music General Knowledge
Keep it simple - good for an older crowd who like traditional styled questions. You could diversify the questions to cover lots of different songs and artists, or you could use a specific theme such as:
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Music festivals (Glastonbury, Coachella, Woodstock…)
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Specific artists (ABBA, Queen, The Beatls…)
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Different genres (Rock, pop, country…)
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Award winning songs and artists (Grammys…)
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Artists from specific countries
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Songs from particular decades/years
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One hit wonders
- Songs where the title isn't in the lyrics
20. Artists Baby Pictures / Glow Ups
Provide a picture of a singer or band member from when they were younger and have players name who it is.
21. Famous Couples / Coupling Up
Name one half of a famous couple and have players name who their other half is.
For Example: Beyonce = Jay Z
22. Scrambled Lyrics
Lyrics are written scrambled; teams must put them in the right order.
For Example: Never you can out leave any but time check like you can = You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave [Hotel California by Eagle]
23. Name The Instrument / Strings, Skins & Keys
Provide a picture of an instrument and players must provide what kind of instrument it is. Or you could play the sound of an instrument. You can take this one step harder for a challenge and show famous instruments, then players must say which artist it belongs to.
24. Audio Anagrams
Rearrange letters of a song title or artist name.
For Example: Bet Tile = Let it Be
25. Band Members / Meet the Band
Provide the band members names and teams must give the band name.
For Example: Freddie Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon = Queen
26. Guess The Song From The Instrumental/Cover
Provide a cover or instrumental version of a song and have teams name the original song and artist. It's great if you can have all the covers in a similar style e.g. jazz, or heavy metal...
27. Famous songs from movies
Choose some songs that were made for or made famous by a certain film. Players must name the film it's from (or the other way around).
For Example: (I've Had) The Time of My Life = Dirty Dancing
28. Anagrams
Come up with anagrams for artists or songs.
For Example: Hairy Camera = Mariah Carey
29. Song Association
Give a word to teams, and everybody has 10 seconds to think of a song name with the word in and they also have to name the artist. Alternatively, give quite an obscure word and they have to name as many songs with that word as possible.
For Example: ‘'Love' = 'Crazy In Love by Beyonce -
30. Whose Voice Is That?
Take a voice clip of a music artist speaking and players must name who it is.
I hope this has given you some unique ideas for your next quiz!
For film/tv quiz round ideas click here.
If you're still stuck for ideas or don't have the time or energy to create a quiz, then be sure to check out my pre-made quizzes for all ages. Don't forget to leave a comment if you have any other fun ideas for a music round.
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