Musical Instruments Quiz

Musical Instruments Quiz: 9 Quizzes to Identify Strings, Winds, Percussion, and Keyboards

On Quizoland, the musical instruments quiz is played across nine rounds, 90 verified questions, three difficulty levels. From the violin to the double bass, the oboe to the bassoon, the piano to the harp, every instrument family gets its own set of questions. Play directly in your browser, no sign-up or download required. This page is part of the music hub, which also covers song-guessing games, song lyrics, and major musical styles. Here, the focus is purely on organology: who makes what, who plays what, who invented what.

The Four Major Instrument Families

The Western classification system traditionally distinguishes strings, winds (woodwinds and brass), percussion, and keyboards. Strings are divided between bowed (violin, viola, cello, double bass), plucked (guitar, harp, harpsichord), and struck (piano, cimbalom). Winds separate woodwinds — flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, saxophone — from brass: trumpet, French horn, trombone, tuba. Our questions cover how many strings a violin has, how many valves a trumpet has, and the double reed shared by the oboe and bassoon. Great prep before a chamber music concert.

Instrument Making, Craftsmanship, and Instruments from Around the World

Seventeenth-century Italian instrument making remains the gold standard: Stradivari, Guarneri, and Amati all worked in Cremona, in Lombardy. Our quizzes ask about these giants of instrument craftsmanship, about Adolphe Sax and his 1846 patent, and about Bartolomeo Cristofori and the invention of the piano-forte around 1700. Instruments from around the world aren't left out either: the Aboriginal didgeridoo from Australia, the Scottish bagpipe, the steelpan from Trinidad and Tobago, and the Viennese accordion patented by Cyrill Demian in 1829. Plenty of precise dates to keep straight.

A Timeline Format for a Change of Pace

If you want a break from multiple choice, check out the timeline quizzes: you'll need to put events or inventions in order, against a ticking clock. The type-the-answer format is even more demanding: no multiple choice, you type in the answer yourself.

Score, Timer, Overall Leaderboard

Every musical instruments quiz is timed and scored out of 10. Your result feeds into the site's overall leaderboard, across all quizzes. For a quick round before bed, try the quiz of the day: a single set, refreshed every morning.

Want to Go Further?

These 9 musical instruments quizzes cover just one facet of the subject. The music hub is gradually adding more sub-topics: major styles, decades, repertoires. In the meantime, keep going with the quiz of the day or climb the overall leaderboard.