Music Trivia Quiz Questions with Answers

Trivia quiz questions with answers about music.

Music Trivia Quiz Questions with Answers

What is Music?
A: Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time.

In its most general form, the activities describing music as an art form or cultural activity include the creation of what?
A: Works of music (songs, tunes, symphonies, and so on), the criticism of music, the study of the history of music, and the aesthetic examination of music.

How did ancient Greek and Indian philosophers define music?
A: As tones ordered horizontally as melodies and vertically as harmonies.

What did 20th-century composer John Cage think?
A: That any sound can be music, saying, for example, "There is no noise, only sound."

The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music vary according to what?
A: Culture and social context.

Indeed, throughout history, some new forms or styles of music have been criticized as "not being music", including what?
A: Beethoven's Grosse Fuge string quartet in 1825, early jazz in the beginning of the 1900s and hardcore punk in the 1980s.

There are many types of music, including what?
A: Popular music, traditional music, art music, music written for religious ceremonies and work songs such as chanteys.

Music ranges from strictly organized compositions–such as Classical music symphonies from the 1700s and 1800s, through to spontaneously played improvisational music such as what?
A: Jazz, and avant-garde styles of chance-based contemporary music from the 20th and 21st centuries.

People may make music as a hobby, like a teen playing cello in a youth orchestra, or work as a what?
A: A professional musician or singer.

In Greek mythology, the nine Muses were the goddesses who inspired literature, science, and the arts and who were the source of the knowledge embodied in the what?
A: The poetry, song-lyrics, and myths in the Greek culture.

In classical Greece, the term "music" refers to what?
A: Any art in which the Muses presided, but especially music and lyric poetry."

When music was only available through sheet music scores, music lovers would buy the sheet music of their favorite pieces and songs so that they could do what?
A: Perform them at home on the piano.

With the advent of sound recording, records of popular songs, rather than sheet music became what?
A: The dominant way that music lovers would enjoy their favorite songs.

With the advent of home tape recorders in the 1980s and digital music in the 1990s, music lovers could make tapes or playlists of their favorite songs and take them with them on a what?
A: A portable cassette player or MP3 player.

Live concert recordings are popular in both classical music and in popular music forms such as rock, where illegally taped live concerts are what?
A: Prized by music lovers.

In the jam band scene, live, improvised jam sessions are preferred to what?
A: Studio recordings.

In Music, what is "Composition"?
A: It is the act or practice of creating a song, an instrumental music piece, a work with both singing and instruments, or another type of music.

In many cultures, including Western classical music, the act of composing also includes the creation of music notation, such as what?
A: A sheet music "score", which is then performed by the composer or by other singers or musicians.

The process of deciding how to perform music that has been previously composed and notated is called what?
A: "Interpretation".

Different performers' interpretations of the same work of music can vary widely, in terms of what?
A: The tempos that are chosen and the playing or singing style or phrasing of the melodies.

Composers and songwriters who present their own music are interpreting their songs, just as much as whom?
A: Those who perform the music of others.

In some styles of music, such as the blues, a composer/songwriter may create, perform and record new songs or pieces without what?
A: Ever writing them down in music notation.

Music that makes heavy use of randomness and chance is called what?
A: Aleatoric music, and is associated with contemporary composers active in the 20th century, such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, and Witold Lutosławski.

A more commonly known example of chance-based music is the sound of what?
A: Wind chimes jingling in a breeze.

In the 2000s, music notation typically means what?
A: The written expression of music notes and rhythms on paper using symbols.

When music is written down, what are notated?
A: The pitches and rhythm of the music, such as the notes of a melody.

Music notation also often provides instructions on what?
A: How to perform the music.

For example, the sheet music for a song may state that the song is a "slow blues" or a "fast swing", which indicates what?
A: The tempo and the genre.

To read music notation, a person must have an understanding of what?
A: Music theory, harmony and the performance practice associated with a particular song or piece's genre.

In ancient times, music notation was put onto what?
A: Stone or clay tablets.

In popular music, jazz, and blues, the standard musical notation is the what?
A: Lead sheet, which notates the melody, chords, lyrics (if it is a vocal piece), and structure of the music.

In popular music, guitarists and electric bass players often read music notated in tablature (often abbreviated as "tab"), which indicates what?
A: The location of the notes to be played on the instrument using a diagram of the guitar or bass fingerboard.

Tabulature was also used in the Baroque era to notate music for the what?
A: Lute, a stringed, fretted instrument.

Musical improvisation is the creation of what?
A: Spontaneous music, often within (or based on) a pre-existing harmonic framework or chord progression.

In the Western art music tradition, improvisation was an important skill during what era?
A: The Baroque era and during the Classical era.

In Indian classical music, improvisation is a what?
A: A core component and an essential criterion of performances.

Music has many different what?
A: Fundamentals or elements.

Depending on the definition of "element" being used, these can include what?
A: Pitch, beat or pulse, tempo, rhythm, melody, harmony, texture, style, allocation of voices, timbre or color, dynamics, expression, articulation, form and structure.

In the 1800s, the phrases "the elements of music" and "the rudiments of music" were used how?
A: Interchangeably.

Funk places most of its emphasis on what?
A: Rhythm and groove, with entire songs based around a vamp on a single chord.

Pitch is an aspect of a sound that we can hear, reflecting what?
A: Whether one musical sound, note or tone is "higher" or "lower" than another musical sound, note or tone.

Precise pitch can only be determined in sounds that have a frequency that is what?
A: Clear and stable enough to distinguish from noise.

For example, it is much easier for listeners to discern the pitch of a single note played on a piano than to try to discern the pitch of what?
A: A crash cymbal that is struck.

What is a melody (also called a "tune")?
A: It is a series of pitches (notes) sounding in succession (one after the other), often in a rising and falling pattern.

The notes of a melody are typically created using pitch systems such as what?
A: Scales or modes.

Melodies also often contain notes from what?
A: The chords used in the song.

A low, deep musical line played by bass instruments such as double bass, electric bass or tuba is called a what?
A: A bassline.

When musicians play three or more different notes at the same time, this creates a what?
A: A chord.

In Western music, including classical music, pop music, rock music and many related styles, the most common chords are what?
A: Triads– three notes usually played at the same time.

What are the most commonly used chords?
A: The major chord and the minor chord.

An example of a major chord is what?
A: The three pitches C, E and G.

An example of a minor chord is what?
A: The three pitches A, C and E