Music Trivia Questions

How many strings does a standard acoustic or electric guitar have?

• Four
• Five
• Eight
• Six

Answer: Six. A standard guitar has six strings, usually tuned E, A, D, G, B, E from lowest to highest. Bass guitars usually have four.

How many keys does a standard modern piano have?

• 76
• 88
• 92
• 100

Answer: 88. A full-size piano has 88 keys: 52 white and 36 black, covering just over seven octaves.

Which Italian composer wrote the set of violin concertos called "The Four Seasons"?

• Antonio Vivaldi
• Johann Sebastian Bach
• George Frideric Handel
• Joseph Haydn

Answer: Antonio Vivaldi. Antonio Vivaldi published The Four Seasons in 1725. Each concerto paints a season, from birdsong in spring to shivering in winter.

The Beatles were formed in which English city?

• London
• Manchester
• Liverpool
• Birmingham

Answer: Liverpool. John, Paul, George and Ringo came from Liverpool, where they played hundreds of shows at the Cavern Club before becoming famous.

In sheet music, what does the Italian word "forte" tell a musician to do?

• Play slowly
• Play softly
• Play loudly
• Speed up gradually

Answer: Play loudly. Forte (marked f) means loud. Its opposite, piano (p), means soft, which is how the piano got its name: it could play both.

How many lines make up a standard musical staff?

• Five
• Four
• Six
• Seven

Answer: Five. The staff (or stave) has five lines and four spaces. Notes are placed on them to show pitch.

The saxophone is made of brass, but which family of instruments does it belong to?

• Brass
• Percussion
• Strings
• Woodwind

Answer: Woodwind. The saxophone makes its sound with a reed, like a clarinet, so it counts as a woodwind instrument despite its metal body.

Which album is widely recognised as the best-selling album of all time?

• Back in Black
• Thriller
• The Dark Side of the Moon
• Abbey Road

Answer: Thriller. Michael Jackson's Thriller (1982) is estimated to have sold around 70 million copies worldwide.

Roughly how long does the full version of India's national anthem, Jana Gana Mana, take to play?

• 20 seconds
• 2 minutes
• 90 seconds
• 52 seconds

Answer: 52 seconds. The full anthem takes about 52 seconds. A short version, using the first and last lines, takes about 20 seconds.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born in 1756 in which city?

• Vienna
• Salzburg
• Berlin
• Prague

Answer: Salzburg. Mozart was born in Salzburg, Austria. He later moved to Vienna, where he wrote many of his most famous works.

The famous Woodstock music festival of August 1969 was held on a dairy farm in which US state?

• New York
• California
• Texas
• Florida

Answer: New York. Woodstock took place on Max Yasgur's farm in Bethel, New York, and drew an estimated 400,000 people.

Which artist holds the record for the most Grammy Awards ever won, with 35?

• Taylor Swift
• Quincy Jones
• Beyoncé
• Georg Solti

Answer: Beyoncé. Beyoncé holds the record. Conductor Georg Solti held it before her, with 31 wins.

In Indian classical music, how many basic notes (swaras) make up the saptak, from Sa to Ni?

• Seven
• Five
• Eight
• Twelve

Answer: Seven. The seven swaras are Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha and Ni. 'Saptak' itself comes from 'sapta', meaning seven.

Ustad Bismillah Khan, who played at the Red Fort on India's first Independence Day, was a master of which instrument?

• Sitar
• Sarod
• Tabla
• Shehnai

Answer: Shehnai. Bismillah Khan made the shehnai, once mainly a wedding instrument, a concert star. He received the Bharat Ratna in 2001.

What does the tempo marking "Largo" mean?

• Very fast
• Very slow and broad
• At a walking pace
• Gradually getting softer

Answer: Very slow and broad. Largo means slow and broad. A walking pace is andante, and gradually getting softer is diminuendo or decrescendo.