• 200 team names

Music Trivia Team Names

Press Pick 5 new team names for music puns to print, from Tempo Tantrum to The Octaves.

Music Trivia Team Names

All 200
  1. Tacet AgreementA tacit agreement. Tacet in a part means keep silent and do not play.
  2. ConcertmastersThe concertmaster is the principal first violin, who leads the orchestra in tuning.
  3. Scat CatsScat singing is jazz improvised on nonsense syllables instead of words.
  4. Polka DotsThe polka is a dance in two-four time from nineteenth-century Bohemia.
  5. Harping OnTo harp on is to keep raising the same point. Every table has one.

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All 200 team names

Notes, keys and theory 28

  • A Major Upset A major is a key. A major upset is what happens if this table wins.
  • A Minor Inconvenience A minor is a key with no sharps or flats. The name also covers losing by one point.
  • Accidentally Right Accidentals are the sharps, flats and naturals written outside the key signature.
  • All Cows Eat Grass The mnemonic for the four spaces of the bass clef: A, C, E, G.
  • C Sharp or B Flat Read aloud it turns into advice: see sharp or be flat.
  • Circle of Fifths The wheel diagram that sets out all twelve keys in order of their sharps and flats.
  • Clef Hangers Cliffhangers, with the sign that opens every staff.
  • Counterpoint Taken Point taken, plus counterpoint: two or more melodies that work at the same time.
  • Deceptive Cadence A cadence that sets up the home chord, then lands somewhere else. Like a confident wrong answer.
  • Diminished Expectations A diminished interval is a semitone smaller than usual. So are the hopes.
  • End on a High Note The plan for the last round, whatever happened in the others.
  • Enharmonic Equivalents Two names for one pitch, such as F sharp and G flat. For a team that gives the same answer twice.
  • Every Good Boy Does Fine The classroom mnemonic for the five lines of the treble clef: E, G, B, D, F.
  • Face the Music The idiom for owning up. The four spaces of the treble clef also spell F, A, C, E.
  • For Good Measure A measure is one counted slice of music, marked off by vertical lines on the staff.
  • Grace Notes Small ornamental notes squeezed in before the beat, like an answer added as the sheet goes in.
  • Here Comes Treble Here comes trouble, in the higher clef.
  • Lost in Transposition Bends lost in translation. Transposing moves a piece into another key.
  • Middle C Students Middle C is the C nearest the middle of a piano. A C is also a passing grade.
  • Natural Talent A natural sign cancels a sharp or a flat. No practice was involved.
  • Perfect Pitch The rare knack of naming a note on hearing it. Claimed here without evidence.
  • Relative Minors Every major key has a relative minor with the same key signature. For A flat major it is F minor.
  • Rest Assured A rest is a measured silence. It is also what you tell the table before the music round.
  • Sight Readers Sight-reading is playing a piece you have never seen. So is every quiz.
  • Staff Meeting The five lines that music is written on are called the staff.
  • Treble Makers Troublemakers, moved up to the treble clef. Any host can say it without a run-up.
  • Treble Threat Bends triple threat. The treble clef marks the higher notes.
  • Twelve-Tone Deaf Twelve-tone music uses each of the chromatic scale's twelve notes equally often. Tone deaf needs no help.

Tempo and Italian terms 22

  • Al Fine Mess A fine mess. Al fine means to the end.
  • Andante Up Ante up, at andante, a walking pace.
  • Coda Conduct Code of conduct. A coda is the tail, the closing section of a piece.
  • Con Brio Artists Con artists, with brio. Con brio means with spirit.
  • Diminuendo Returns Diminishing returns. A diminuendo gets gradually softer.
  • Forte Winks Forty winks. Forte means strong or loud, which a nap is not.
  • Grave Doubts To have grave doubts is to have serious ones. As a tempo marking, grave means slow and serious, which is also how we answer.
  • Hold That Fermata A fermata holds a note or a rest for as long as the conductor likes.
  • Hold the Forte Hold the fort, played loud.
  • Largo Than Life Larger than life. Largo means broad and slow.
  • Moderato Expectations Moderate expectations. Moderato is a moderate speed.
  • Opus Pocus Hocus pocus with an opus, the Latin word for a work, used to number a composer's pieces.
  • Poco a Poco Little by little, which is how the score goes up.
  • Presto Change-o The magician's phrase. Presto means very quickly, like changing an answer at the last second.
  • Rubato Robbers Rubato means stolen time. For a team that always needs ten more seconds.
  • Sotto Voce In an undertone, which is how to confer when the next table is listening.
  • Staccato Answers Staccato notes are brief and detached. So are answers given under pressure.
  • Subito Piano Suddenly soft. The sound of a table that was sure until the answer was read out.
  • Tacet Agreement A tacit agreement. Tacet in a part means keep silent and do not play.
  • Tempo Tantrum A temper tantrum, held at a steady speed.
  • We'll Be Fine In a score, fine means the end and is said fee-nay. On paper the joke keeps quiet.
  • Wrong, but Fortissimo Fortissimo is very loud. Confidence is not accuracy.

Strings and keyboards 19

  • 88 Keys, No Clue A full-size piano has 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black.
  • Baby Grand The smallest of the grand pianos, about a meter and a half long.
  • Capo-ble Hands Capable hands. A capo clamps across the frets to raise the pitch of every string.
  • Cello There Hello there, from the low strings. It works aloud and on paper.
  • Fret Not Frets are the metal strips across a guitar neck. Fret not means do not worry.
  • Harping On To harp on is to keep raising the same point. Every table has one.
  • Look, No Hands The theremin is played without touching it. Two antennas sense where the player's hands are.
  • Lute Force Brute force, with a lute: the round-backed plucked instrument of old court music.
  • Lyre, Lyre, Pants on Fire The playground rhyme, with the small harp of ancient Greece.
  • No Strings Attached For the table with no guitarist, violinist or harpist.
  • Pluck of the Draw Luck of the draw, for harpists, banjo players and guessers.
  • Power Chords The two-note guitar chord behind a lot of rock: simple and loud.
  • Pull Out All the Stops From the pipe organ, where pulling out every stop turns on every set of pipes at once.
  • Second Fiddles To play second fiddle is to take the supporting part. Second place would be fine.
  • Soft Pedal The left pedal of a piano softens the sound. To soft-pedal something is to play it down.
  • Take a Bow What a performer does at the end, and what a violinist picks up at the start.
  • Tickle the Ivories Old slang for playing the piano, from the days of ivory key tops.
  • Uke Can Do It You can do it, on the four strings of a ukulele.
  • Viola, Voilà Two words that spellcheck loves to swap. One is the violin's slightly larger, lower cousin.

Woodwind and brass 17

  • Accordion to Us According to us, which is not the same as according to the answer sheet.
  • Bagpipe Dreams Pipe dreams, with a drone.
  • Bassoon as Possible As soon as possible, from the big double reed at the back of the woodwinds.
  • Blowing Our Own Trumpet To blow your own trumpet is to boast. Somebody has to.
  • Flute Salad Fruit salad, with a flute in it.
  • Kazoo Section The one instrument everybody at the table can already play.
  • Oboe Oh Boy Say it three times quickly. The oboe sounds the A that an orchestra tunes to.
  • Pay the Piper The idiom for settling up after the fun.
  • Piccolo and Proud Piccolo is Italian for small. The piccolo is a half-size flute that plays an octave higher.
  • Reed Between the Lines Read between the lines. Clarinets and saxophones sound through a vibrating reed.
  • School Recorder Survivors For everyone who learned one squeaky tune on a plastic recorder.
  • Second Wind Section A second wind is the energy that arrives late. Here it is due in round five.
  • Slide Rule Trombones A trombone changes note by moving its slide. A slide rule did the sums before calculators.
  • Toot Sweet Tout de suite, French for right away, as a trumpet spells it.
  • Top Brass The people in charge, or the trumpets.
  • Tuba or Not Tuba Hamlet's question, asked from the back row of the brass.
  • Tuba Toothpaste A tube of toothpaste, as a brass player hears it. The pun is for the ear.

Drums and percussion 17

  • Ba Dum Tsh The drum fill after a punchline. Drummers call it a sting, and the host gets to perform it.
  • Beats Me The honest answer to question seven.
  • Conga Line of Questioning A line of questioning, danced in single file.
  • The Cowbell Curve The bell curve, with a cowbell. Most teams land in the middle of it.
  • Cymbalic Gesture A symbolic gesture, such as answering a question you know you have wrong.
  • Different Drummers To march to a different drummer is to go your own way.
  • Glockenspell Check A spell check for the glockenspiel, whose German name joins bells and play.
  • Gong but Not Forgotten Gone but not forgotten, for a team that has been away a while.
  • Hi-Hat Trick A hat trick is three in a row. A hi-hat is the pair of cymbals worked by a foot pedal.
  • Human Metronomes A metronome ticks out a steady beat for practice. These ones tap the table.
  • Offbeat Answers The offbeat falls between the main beats. Offbeat also means odd.
  • Paradiddle Riddlers A paradiddle is a drum pattern: right, left, right, right, then left, right, left, left.
  • Snare We Go Here we go, from the drum with the rattling wires underneath.
  • Status Cymbals Aloud it is just status symbols, so this one lands on paper only.
  • Timpani Alley Tin Pan Alley was the New York street of song publishers. Timpani are kettledrums.
  • Triangle Soloists The smallest part in the orchestra, played with total commitment.
  • Xylophone a Friend Phone a friend, the quiz-show lifeline. A xylophone has wooden keys where a glockenspiel has metal ones.

Voices and choir 18

  • A Cappella Answers A cappella means voices only, with no instruments. No phones either.
  • Alto-gether Now All together now, from the second-highest part in a choir.
  • Aria Sure Are you sure, asked in an opera house. An aria is a solo song in an opera.
  • Bass-ically Correct Basically correct. Aloud the spelling vanishes, so it lands on paper only.
  • Descant Be Right This can't be right. A descant is a high tune sung above the main melody.
  • Do Re Mi Fa So Lost The sol-fa scale, abandoned partway up.
  • Falsetto Teeth A false set of teeth. Falsetto is the light, high voice above a singer's normal range.
  • First Bass First base, from the lowest voice in the choir. This bass rhymes with base, not with class.
  • In Choir Within Enquire within, the sign on a shop door, as a choir spells it.
  • Lip Sync or Swim Sink or swim, for people who mouth the words.
  • Mi Mi Mi Mi A singer's warm-up. Aloud it is me, me, me, me, which suits a confident table.
  • Mumbled Second Verses Everyone knows the chorus.
  • Shower Soloists Flawless at home, under running water.
  • Swan Song A last performance, from the old belief that a swan sings once, at the very end of its life. It does not.
  • Tenor Eleven Aloud it is ten or eleven, a fair forecast of the score.
  • Tenor So Right The host hears ten or so right. On paper it is a tenor.
  • Tone Deaf and Proud Unable to carry a tune, able to name one.
  • Yodel-Ay-Hee-Who A yodel that turns into a question halfway through.

Genres 28

  • Barely Funk-tional Barely functional, with funk. It describes the table by round six.
  • Big Band Theory The big bang theory of how the universe began, arranged for a full horn section.
  • Bluegrass Is Greener The grass is greener on the other side, picked on a banjo.
  • Bossa Novices Bossa nova is a laid-back kind of samba that arose in Rio de Janeiro in the late 1950s.
  • Elevator Music Background music nobody chose. It plays while the scores are added up.
  • Emo-tional Support Team An emotional support team, in black eyeliner.
  • Grunge Match A grudge match. Grunge came out of Washington state, around Seattle, in the mid-1980s.
  • Heavy Metal Detectors Metal detectors, turned up loud.
  • Hip-Hop Replacements Hip replacements, for a table that remembers the early records.
  • House Rules House music was created in Chicago in the early 1980s. House rules are whatever the host says.
  • If It Ain't Baroque If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Baroque music runs from about 1600 to 1750.
  • Indie-cisive Indecisive, like a table stuck between two answers. Indie is short for independent.
  • Jazz Hands Palms out, fingers spread and shaking. Do it when your name is read out.
  • K-Pop Quiz A pop quiz, routed through South Korean pop.
  • Lo-Fi Expectations Low expectations. Lo-fi is short for low fidelity: rough, homemade sound.
  • Opera-tors Standing By Operators are standing by, the old TV sales line, sung.
  • Polka Dots The polka is a dance in two-four time from nineteenth-century Bohemia.
  • Punk Rock Paper Scissors Two things run together. It also settles a split vote on the last answer.
  • Punk-tuation Marks Punctuation marks with a punk in front. Spell it out for the scorer.
  • Rap Scallions Rapscallions, an old word for rascals. Scallions are green onions.
  • Reggae to Riches Rags to riches, by way of Jamaica.
  • Scat Cats Scat singing is jazz improvised on nonsense syllables instead of words.
  • Ska-ry Smart Scary smart. Ska began in Jamaica in the late 1950s and led to rocksteady and reggae.
  • Soft Rock, Hard Questions The host reads it as a complaint.
  • Soul Survivors Sole survivors, with soul. For the last table standing.
  • Techno-logically Challenged Technologically challenged. The friend who cannot work the playlist.
  • Voyage of Disco-very A voyage of discovery, under a mirror ball.
  • Waltz Right In To waltz in is to arrive as if it were easy. A waltz is in three-four time.

Stage and orchestra pit 16

  • Air Guitar Virtuosos No instrument, full commitment.
  • Backup Singers Standing slightly behind the person who knows the answer.
  • Battle of the Bandwidth A battle of the bands, held over a slow connection.
  • Concertmasters The concertmaster is the principal first violin, who leads the orchestra in tuning.
  • Drum Majors, Trivia Minors The drum major leads a marching band. A minor is the subject you studied less.
  • Encore Values Core values. Encore is French for again.
  • Feedback Loop The howl when a microphone hears its own speaker.
  • Mic Drop Letting the microphone fall after a line nobody can follow.
  • Orchestra Pit Crew The orchestra pit is the sunken space in front of a stage. A pit crew changes tires.
  • Page Turners The person who turns the pianist's pages. Also a book you cannot put down.
  • Poor Conductors Shaky with a baton, and no use for carrying electricity.
  • Roadie Scholars Rhodes scholars, carrying amplifiers.
  • Second Chair In an orchestra section, the player who sits beside the principal.
  • Stage Fright It strikes when the host asks a table to explain its answer.
  • Tribute Act A band that plays another band's songs. This is a tribute to a team that knew things.
  • Tuning Fork in the Road A fork in the road. A tuning fork rings one steady note to tune to.

Records and playlists 16

  • 33 and a Third An LP record turns at 33 and a third revolutions a minute.
  • Album Filler The tracks between the singles. Every album has some.
  • B-Sides The song on the back of a single, where the odd ones lived.
  • Broken Records To sound like a broken record is to repeat yourself. It is also how records get set.
  • Deep Cuts Album tracks that only the keen listeners know.
  • Earworms A tune that loops in your head. It is never the one the host is asking about.
  • Greatest Hits and Misses An honest compilation.
  • Hidden Tracks A song left off the track list, found by letting the album run on.
  • Liner Notes The small print inside an album sleeve: who played what, and who was thanked.
  • Needle Drop The moment the stylus lands and the song starts.
  • One-Hit Wonders An act known for a single hit song. One correct answer would do.
  • The Radio Edit The shortened, cleaned-up cut of a song. Like this list, it is safe for any room.
  • Remix and Match Mix and match, reworked for the dance floor.
  • Side One, Track One Where an album puts its strongest foot forward.
  • Vinyl Answer Final answer, pressed on a record.
  • We Know It in Three Notes Music rounds often play only the intro. This table claims to need less.

Solo to octet 19

  • Barbershop Quiztet For four players. A barbershop quartet sings four-part harmony with no instruments.
  • The Diminished Fifth For a team of five that is one short tonight. A diminished fifth is one semitone less than a perfect fifth.
  • The Dominant Seventh For seven players. A dominant seventh is the restless chord that wants to resolve home.
  • Double Stops For two players. A double stop is two strings bowed at once on a violin.
  • Duet Yourself Do it yourself, for a team of two.
  • Dynamic Duet A dynamic duo, singing. For two players.
  • The Octaves For eight players. An octave spans eight note names and twelve semitones.
  • Octet Rule For eight players. In chemistry, the octet rule says atoms tend to bond until they have eight outer electrons.
  • One-Person Band For one player, covering the drums, the guitar and the pencil.
  • The Pentatonic Five For five players. A pentatonic scale has five notes to the octave, like a piano's black keys.
  • Perfect Fifths For five players. A perfect fifth is an interval seven semitones wide.
  • Perfect Fourths For four players. A perfect fourth is an interval five semitones wide.
  • Power Trio For three players. A rock power trio is electric guitar, bass guitar and drums.
  • Quintet-ssential Quintessential, for a team of five.
  • Six-String Theory For six players. A standard guitar has six strings.
  • Solo Cadenza For one player. A cadenza is the soloist's showy passage while the orchestra waits.
  • String Theory Quartet For four players. A string quartet is two violins, a viola and a cello. String theory is physics.
  • Trio Grande For three players. Bends the Rio Grande, the river between Texas and Mexico.
  • The Tritones For three players. A tritone is an interval of three whole tones, six semitones wide.

How it works

These music trivia team names are 200 clean puns on instruments, genres, notation and the Italian words in a score, with no band names or song titles. Press Pick 5 new team names; to keep any the table hums along to, take the others away with × and press again.

Read the full guide

Pick a group by who is playing

The All team names menu holds ten groups. Notes, keys and theory and Genres are the largest, with 28 names each. The one few people guess is Solo to octet, 19 names sorted by head count. The Tempo and Italian terms group rewards anybody who has read a score. Largo Than Life is broad and slow. Tacet Agreement comes from the marking that tells a player to keep silent. With no musician at the table, stay in Genres.

Funny music trivia team names get tested aloud

If your host reads the scores out, a music pun has to survive the microphone. Tenor So Right only works spoken, where it turns into ten or so right. Bass-ically Correct is the reverse: aloud it is plain basically correct, so the joke lives on the answer sheet. We'll Be Fine needs fine said fee-nay, the Italian way, and few hosts will. Say a name across the table before you write it down.

  • Count heads first. Solo to octet has a name for every table from one player to eight, and The Diminished Fifth suits a five with one missing.
  • Got a drummer or a choir singer? Choose Drums and percussion or Voices and choir and let them pick. The joke lands harder when somebody can explain a paradiddle.
  • Take away all but two or three with ×, then press Copy the list for the group chat. A pun everybody gets, such as Tuba Toothpaste, beats one only the pianist can defend.

Questions and answers

Which music team names will only musicians get?

The theory ones. A Deceptive Cadence sets up the home chord, then lands somewhere else. Enharmonic Equivalents are two names for one pitch, such as F sharp and G flat. The line under each name explains it, so the table can decide.

Which names suit a music teacher, a school band or a choir?

Every Good Boy Does Fine and All Cows Eat Grass are the classroom mnemonics for the lines of the treble clef and the spaces of the bass clef. School Recorder Survivors is for everybody who learned one squeaky tune on a plastic recorder.

How does a music round work at a quiz night?

Usually the host plays short excerpts of songs, often only the intro, and teams write down the title, the artist or the year. The team name goes on every sheet you hand in, so a short one such as B-Sides saves ink.

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