This music trivia for kids quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the music children meet at school and at home: how many keys a piano has, which family the trumpet belongs to, what a conductor does, why the recorder is plastic, and what a metronome is for. Then it moves to the songs and singers kids know: Baby Shark, Let It Go, Happy Birthday, We Don't Talk About Bruno, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Billie Eilish, Bruno Mars, BTS, Sabrina Carpenter, KPop Demon Hunters, the Beatles, Michael Jackson's Thriller and the Super Mario theme. Every question is answerable by kids aged about 7 to 13, and older kids and parents will find a few harder ones about clefs, composers and chart records. It works for a music class warm-up, a car ride or a family quiz night. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia's article on the instrument, artist or song, and each question shows its source once you have answered.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How many keys does a piano have?
88
When you press a key, a little felt hammer inside strikes a string.
Q 02How many strings does a normal guitar have?
Six
You press the strings against the frets with one hand and strum or pluck with the other.
Q 03Which is the smallest and highest-sounding instrument in the orchestra's string family?
The violin
It has four strings and is played by pulling a bow across them; some people call it a fiddle.
Q 04Which is the biggest and lowest-sounding string instrument in an orchestra?
The double bass
Players usually stand up or sit on a tall stool to play it.
Q 05What does a drummer usually hit the drums with?
Drumsticks
Foot pedals work the bass drum and the hi-hat cymbals.
Q 06The trumpet belongs to which family of instruments?
Brass
Its tubing is bent twice into a rounded rectangle shape.
Q 07The flute belongs to which family?
Woodwind
You make the sound by blowing across a hole to vibrate a column of air.
Q 08What is the person who stands in front of an orchestra and waves a stick called?
A conductor
The stick is called a baton, and it helps the musicians see the beat.
Q 09How many main sections are there in an orchestra?
Four
Strings, woodwind, brass and percussion.
Q 10Which composer could already play keyboard and fiddle, and had started composing, by the age of five?
Mozart
He was born in Salzburg and performed for kings and queens as a small child.
Q 11Which famous composer kept writing music even after he started to go deaf?
Beethoven
His Ninth Symphony, with the 'Ode to Joy', was first performed in 1824.
Q 12Which children's song became the most-viewed YouTube video of all time in 2020?
Baby Shark
Pinkfong's version has a hand dance to go with it and passed seven billion views.
Q 13Which character sings 'Let It Go' in Frozen?
Elsa
Idina Menzel sings it in the film, and it won the Oscar for Best Original Song.
Q 14According to Guinness World Records, what is the most recognised song in the English language?
Q 21Bruno Mars sings on which Mark Ronson song, the biggest hit of the 2010s?
Uptown Funk
It won Record of the Year at the Grammys in 2016.
Q 22Which girl group was Beyoncé the lead singer of before going solo?
Destiny's Child
It broke up in 2005; her 2024 country album is called Cowboy Carter.
Q 23Where does the boy band BTS come from?
South Korea
Their name means 'Bulletproof Boy Scouts', and 'Dynamite' was their first song fully in English.
Q 24Which song was BTS's first recorded fully in English?
Happy Birthday to You
Its tune comes from an 1893 song called 'Good Morning to All'.
Q 15The words to 'Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star' come from a poem written by whom?
Jane Taylor
The tune is an old French song that Mozart also wrote variations on, so people wrongly think he wrote the whole thing.
Q 16What style of music did Taylor Swift start out singing?
Country
Her first two albums came out in 2006 and 2008 before she moved into pop.
Q 17'Shake It Off' was the first single from which Taylor Swift album, her first pop record?
1989
The album is named after the year she was born.
Q 18Which Disney+ show did Olivia Rodrigo star in before her first hit song?
High School Musical: The Series
Her first single, 'Drivers License', came out in January 2021 and made her a star.
Q 19Who writes and produces most of Billie Eilish's songs with her?
Her brother Finneas
Her first song, 'Ocean Eyes', was put on SoundCloud in 2015.
Q 20Where did Bruno Mars grow up?
Hawaii
As a little boy in Honolulu he was famous for pretending to be Elvis Presley.
Dynamite
It came out in August 2020 and sounds like 1970s disco.
Q 25Where does Ed Sheeran come from?
England
He grew up in Suffolk and started writing songs at about eleven.
Q 26Which Disney Channel show made Sabrina Carpenter famous before her music career took off?
Girl Meets World
Her 2024 album Short n' Sweet, with 'Espresso' on it, won two Grammys.
Q 27In KPop Demon Hunters, what is the name of the girl group who secretly fight demons?
Huntrix
The Netflix film came out in 2025 and stars the voices of Arden Cho and Ahn Hyo-seop.
Q 28Which English city were The Beatles from?
Liverpool
John, Paul, George and Ringo formed the band in 1960.
Q 29Which Beatles song ends with a long 'na na na' sing-along and topped the chart for nine weeks in 1968?
Hey Jude
Paul McCartney wrote it for John Lennon's young son Julian.
Q 30In Michael Jackson's 'Thriller' music video, what does he dance with?
Zombies
Horror actor Vincent Price does the spooky talking part in the song.