Music Word Search PDF With Instruments, Notation and Composers

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Name Date

Music Word Search

Find every word hidden in the grid. Words go across and down.

0 of 16 words found

BLRFNGSYMPHONYJ

DRUMRCNYXAATAGT

NBFAPITCHLOCIWL

DICIFORTELSZREE

AAVOTREBLEOISHO

IEISHLYAZGTNIFD

XCONDUCTORJVWAS

ANLOSTAFFOGASMR

NMIIDCVNCLEFIIA

OSNLCRXHHOCACML

SAYMPESWOPUSEMT

IWWNEHIEREBCAZG

GRHYTHMIDRERVRE

RFLUTENQIAARFUO

DXGJETEMPOTEORR

This grid is wider and taller than its box. Slide it to see every letter.To drag, hold the first letter for a moment, then slide.Keyboard: Tab to the grid, arrow keys to move, Enter on the first and last letter.

ViolinVIOLIN
FluteFLUTE
DrumDRUM
StaffSTAFF
ClefCLEF
TrebleTREBLE
TempoTEMPO
ForteFORTE
AllegroALLEGRO
RhythmRHYTHM
BeatBEAT
PitchPITCH
ChordCHORD
ConductorCONDUCTOR
SymphonySYMPHONY
OperaOPERA

16 of 24 words from the Music Key Terms list.

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Answer key: Music Word Search

BLRFNGSYMPHONYJ

DRUMRCNYXAATAGT

NBFAPITCHLOCIWL

DICIFORTELSZREE

AAVOTREBLEOISHO

IEISHLYAZGTNIFD

XCONDUCTORJVWAS

ANLOSTAFFOGASMR

NMIIDCVNCLEFIIA

OSNLCRXHHOCACML

SAYMPESWOPUSEMT

IWWNEHIEREBCAZG

GRHYTHMIDRERVRE

RFLUTENQIAARFUO

DXGJETEMPOTEORR

VIOLIN, FLUTE, DRUM, STAFF, CLEF, TREBLE, TEMPO, FORTE, ALLEGRO, RHYTHM, BEAT, PITCH, CHORD, CONDUCTOR, SYMPHONY, OPERA

Next step Build a puzzle from your own concert vocabulary Print bingo cards from these music terms

All 189 words

String Instruments 17

Banjo A plucked instrument with a round body like a small drum and a long neck.
Bow A rod strung with horsehair, drawn across the strings of a violin or cello.
Cello A large string instrument played sitting down, held between the knees.
Double bass The biggest string instrument in the orchestra, played standing up; it sounds the deepest notes.
Fiddle Another name for a violin, used most for folk and country music.
Fret One of the ridges across the neck of a guitar that show where to press.
Guitar Six strings over a fretted neck and a hollow or solid body; you strum chords or pick notes.
Harp A tall frame of strings plucked with the fingers. A concert one has about 47 of them.
Lute A plucked instrument of Renaissance courts, with a deep rounded back and a short fretted neck.
Lyre A small harp with two curved arms and a crossbar, played in ancient Greece.
Mandolin A small plucked instrument with a pear-shaped body and four pairs of strings.
Pizzicato An Italian direction to pluck the strings with a finger, not to use the bow.
Sitar A string instrument of India with a long hollow neck and frets that can be moved.
String A tight cord or wire that sounds when it is bowed, plucked or struck.
Ukulele A small four-string instrument that came from Portugal and grew popular in Hawaii.
Viola A little larger and lower than its cousin the violin, and held under the jaw the same way.
Violin The smallest and highest string instrument in the orchestra, held under the jaw and bowed.

Show all 189 words (172 more)

Woodwinds and Brass 21

Bagpipes Reed pipes fed with air from a bag that the player squeezes.
Bassoon A low double-reed woodwind with a long wooden body.
Brass The family of metal instruments sounded by buzzing the lips, such as the trumpet.
Bugle A simple brass horn with no valves, used for army calls such as the wake-up call and Taps.
Clarinet A woodwind with one reed clipped to its mouthpiece; fingers cover holes and keys down its body.
Cornet A brass instrument much like a trumpet, with three valves worked by pistons.
English horn A double-reed woodwind pitched lower than the oboe. It is not from England.
Flute A woodwind held sideways. The player blows across a hole, with no reed.
French horn A brass instrument wound into a circle; the player rests one hand inside its wide bell.
Harmonica A small flat instrument with a row of air holes, played by breathing out and in.
Oboe A double-reed woodwind. It often gives the note the orchestra tunes to.
Piccolo A half-size flute that sounds an octave higher. Its name is Italian for small.
Recorder A flute blown from the end through a whistle mouthpiece, with finger holes.
Reed A thin strip of cane that vibrates in the mouthpiece of a clarinet or saxophone.
Saxophone A single-reed woodwind usually made of brass, invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s.
Sousaphone A tuba that wraps around the body for marching, first built in the 1890s for a bandmaster.
Trombone A brass instrument that changes pitch with a long slide, not with valves.
Trumpet The highest brass instrument: buzz your lips in the mouthpiece and press 3 valves to change notes.
Tuba The lowest brass instrument. Its name is Latin for trumpet.
Valve A button on a trumpet that sends air through extra tubing to change the pitch.
Woodwind The family of flutes and reed instruments, such as the oboe and clarinet.

Percussion and Keyboards 21

Accordion A box squeezed in and out to push air past metal reeds, with keys or buttons.
Bongos Two small drums, one a bit bigger, joined side by side and tapped with the fingers and palms.
Castanets Two small shells, often of hardwood, clicked together in one hand and heard in Spanish dance.
Chimes Tuned metal tubes hung in a frame and struck with a hammer to sound like church bells.
Cymbal A thin round metal plate that crashes when struck or clashed against another.
Djembe A goblet-shaped drum from West Africa, tuned with rope and played with bare hands.
Drum A hollow body with a skin stretched over it, struck with sticks or hands.
Glockenspiel Metal bars struck with mallets. Its name joins the German words for bells and play.
Gong A big hanging metal disk; hit it with a soft beater and it booms and shimmers.
Harpsichord A keyboard instrument of the 1600s and 1700s: pressing a key plucks the string with a quill.
Mallet The beater for a xylophone or drum: a stick tipped with a ball of yarn, rubber or felt.
Maracas A pair of rattles with handles, filled with seeds or beads and shaken in Latin American music.
Marimba A large wooden instrument like a xylophone, with a resonator under the bars.
Organ A keyboard instrument whose sound comes from air sent through rows of pipes.
Percussion The family of instruments that are struck, shaken or scraped, such as drums and cymbals.
Piano A keyboard with 88 keys whose hammers strike strings. In sheet music the same word means soft.
Snare One of the wires under a small drum that rattle when it is hit, or that drum itself.
Tambourine A shallow hand drum with pairs of metal jingles set in its frame; shake it or tap it.
Timpani Large copper bowls with a skin on top, also called kettledrums. A pedal changes the pitch.
Triangle A steel rod bent into three sides that rings when tapped with a metal beater.
Xylophone Wooden bars struck with mallets. Its name is Greek for wood and sound.

Reading Music 22

Bass The lowest singing voice, and the clef for low notes, whose two dots mark the line for F.
Clef The sign at the start of each line that fixes which notes the lines stand for. French for key.
Eighth note A filled oval with a stem and one flag. Two of them last as long as one quarter note.
Fermata A sign over a note or rest that tells the player to hold it longer than written.
Flat The sign that lowers a note by a half step.
Half note An open oval with a stem. Two of them last as long as one whole note.
Key signature The sharps or flats placed just after the clef on every line.
Ledger line A short extra line above or below the staff for a note too high or low to fit.
Measure The group of beats between two upright lines on the staff. Also called a bar.
Middle C The note on the first ledger line below the treble staff, and the first above the bass staff.
Natural The sign that cancels a sharp or flat written earlier.
Octave The distance of eight steps between two notes that share a letter name.
Quarter note A filled oval with a stem. Four of them last as long as one whole note.
Repeat A sign that sends the player back to play a section again.
Rest A sign for a silence of a set length.
Sharp The sign that raises a note by a half step.
Slur A curved line over notes of different pitch that are to be played smoothly.
Staff The five lines and four spaces that notes are written on.
Tie A curved line joining two notes of the same pitch into one longer sound.
Time signature The two numbers at the start. The top one tells how many beats are in each measure.
Treble The clef for high notes, also called the G clef: its curl circles the line for G.
Whole note An open oval with no stem. It lasts as long as four quarter notes.

Tempo and Dynamics 21

Accelerando Speeding up little by little, often shortened to accel.
Accent Extra stress given to one note or chord, and the mark that asks for it.
Adagio A tempo marking: slow, with great expression.
Allegro Fast and bright. The Italian word means cheerful.
Andante A tempo marking: at a walking pace.
Crescendo Getting louder little by little. The Italian word means growing.
Diminuendo Getting quieter little by little.
Dynamics How loud or soft the music is, and the signs that show it.
Forte Italian for loud or strong, written as the letter f.
Fortissimo Very loud, written ff.
Largo A tempo marking: slow and broad.
Legato Smooth and joined, with no gap between one note and the next.
Lento A tempo marking that simply means slow.
Metronome A device that clicks a set number of beats each minute to keep players in time.
Moderato A tempo marking: at a medium speed, between a walking pace and fast.
Pianissimo Very quiet, written pp.
Presto A tempo marking: very fast.
Ritardando Slowing down little by little, often shortened to rit.
Staccato Short and detached, shown by a dot above or below the note.
Tempo How fast a piece of music goes. The word is Italian for time.
Vivace A tempo marking: lively and fast.

Elements of Music 23

Beat The steady pulse of the music that you tap your foot to.
Chord Three or more pitches sounded at the same time.
Harmony Two or more notes sounding together to support the main line.
Improvise To make up music on the spot while playing or singing.
Key The family of seven pitches a piece is built on, named for its home pitch.
Lyrics The words of a song.
Major The scale sung as do re mi, with half steps after its third and seventh notes.
Melody The line of single notes that you could hum or sing: the main idea of a song.
Meter The way beats are divided into measures, such as in twos, threes or fours.
Minor A scale with a half step between its second and third notes.
Note A single musical sound, or the written sign for one.
Ostinato A short pattern repeated over and over. The word is Italian for obstinate.
Pentatonic Describes a scale that uses only five pitches to the octave.
Pitch How high or low a sound is.
Refrain The lines of a song that come back at the end of every stanza.
Rhythm The pattern of long and short sounds and silences in music.
Scale A run of pitches going up or down in a set pattern of steps.
Syncopation Stress on beats that are usually weak, as in ragtime.
Texture How the layers of sound in a piece fit together.
Timbre The quality that makes a flute and a violin sound different on the same pitch.
Tune A melody, above all one that is simple and easy to remember.
Unison Everyone singing or playing the very same pitch together.
Verse A part of a song whose words change each time while the music stays the same.

Voices and Ensembles 20

A cappella Sung with no instruments playing. The Italian words refer to singing in a chapel.
Alto The lowest female singing voice, and the second part down in a four-part choir.
Audience The people who come to watch and listen to a performance.
Band A group of musicians who play together, such as a marching or jazz group.
Baritone The male voice between the highest and lowest, and the most common one for men.
Baton The thin stick used to show the beat to an orchestra.
Choir A group of singers who perform together, often in four parts.
Chorus A large group of singers, or the part of a song repeated after each verse.
Composer A person who writes music.
Concert A performance of music in front of listeners.
Conductor The person who leads an orchestra or choir and sets the tempo, often with a baton.
Duet Music for two performers.
Ensemble Any group of musicians who perform together.
Musician A person who plays an instrument, sings or writes music.
Orchestra A large group of players in four sections: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion.
Quartet Music for four performers, or the four who perform it.
Solo Music for one performer.
Soprano The highest singing voice.
Tenor A high male singing voice, the third part down in a four-part choir.
Trio Music for three performers, or the three who perform it.

Styles and Forms 22

Anthem A song of praise or loyalty, such as the official song of a country.
Ballet A story told in dance to music, such as Swan Lake.
Blues Music created by African Americans in the Deep South, often in a twelve-bar pattern.
Canon A piece in which each voice copies the same melody, starting a little after the one before.
Carol A song of joy, most often one sung at Christmas.
Concerto A work for a solo instrument with an orchestra, usually in three movements.
Fanfare A short, loud flourish of trumpets or other brass to announce something.
Folk Music of the ordinary people of a region, passed down by ear.
Gospel Christian music with strong rhythms and refrains that draws on spirituals, blues and jazz.
Hymn A song of praise, often sung together in worship.
Jazz Music born in the Black communities of New Orleans around 1900, rich in improvising.
Lullaby A soft song sung to send a child to sleep.
March Music with a strong, even beat, usually in twos, that people can walk in step to.
Mariachi Traditional music of Mexico played by a group with violins, trumpets and guitars.
Opera A play set to music, in which the actors sing their lines with an orchestra.
Ragtime Piano music with a ragged, off-beat rhythm, most popular from the 1890s to the 1910s.
Reggae A style of popular music that began in Jamaica in the late 1960s.
Round A song in which each voice enters at a different time with the same melody.
Sonata A work in three or four movements for one or two instruments, often with a keyboard.
Spiritual A religious folk song of African American origin.
Symphony A long work for orchestra, often in four movements.
Waltz A ballroom dance in triple time with a strong first beat, and the music for it.

Composers 22

Bach Johann Sebastian, German, 1685 to 1750. He wrote the Brandenburg Concertos.
Beethoven Ludwig van, born in Bonn in 1770. He kept composing as his hearing failed.
Brahms Johannes, German, 1833 to 1897. He wrote four symphonies and a famous lullaby.
Chopin Frédéric, Polish, 1810 to 1849. He wrote mainly for solo piano.
Debussy Claude, French, 1862 to 1918. Clair de lune comes from his piano work Suite bergamasque.
Dvořák Antonín, Czech, 1841 to 1904. His New World Symphony was first played in New York in 1893.
Gershwin George, American, 1898 to 1937. He wrote Rhapsody in Blue in 1924.
Grieg Edvard, Norwegian, 1843 to 1907. He wrote the music for the play Peer Gynt.
Handel George Frideric, 1685 to 1759, born in Germany and later British. He wrote Messiah in 1741.
Haydn Joseph, Austrian, 1732 to 1809, often called the father of the symphony.
Holst Gustav, English, 1874 to 1934. His suite The Planets has seven movements.
Joplin Scott, American, 1868 to 1917, the King of Ragtime who wrote Maple Leaf Rag.
Mendelssohn Felix, German, 1809 to 1847, wrote the Wedding March. His sister Fanny composed too.
Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus, born in Salzburg in 1756. He composed from the age of five: over 800 works.
Pachelbel Johann, German, 1653 to 1706, best known today for his Canon in D.
Rossini Gioachino, Italian, 1792 to 1868. William Tell was the last of his 39 operas.
Schubert Franz, Austrian, 1797 to 1828. He wrote more than 600 songs.
Schumann Robert, German, 1810 to 1856. His wife Clara was a pianist and composed too.
Sousa John Philip, American, 1854 to 1932, the March King who wrote The Stars and Stripes Forever.
Strauss Johann the younger, Austrian, 1825 to 1899, the Waltz King who wrote The Blue Danube.
Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich, Russian, 1840 to 1893. His ballets include Swan Lake and The Nutcracker.
Vivaldi Antonio, Italian, 1678 to 1741. The Four Seasons is his set of four violin concertos.

How this list was compiled: 189 music vocabulary words chosen and defined for this site, in nine themed lists plus a key terms list, an easy list and a hard list. Every spelling, and the form of each two-word term, was checked in the American Heritage Dictionary, https://www.ahdictionary.com/, on 2026-09-19. Facts about instruments, musical terms and composers were checked the same day in the English Wikipedia article on each, https://en.wikipedia.org/. The composers list holds surnames only, all of people who died in 1937 or earlier; Dvořák keeps its accents in the word list and is hidden as DVORAK. No band, record label, instrument maker or living person is named. Meanings are our own wording, written for pupils. Licence: own work

How it works

A music word search PDF takes two presses: Print or save as PDF, then Save as PDF as the printer. This word search about music hides 16 of 24 key terms, such as Tempo and Treble, and 11 more lists cover instruments, notation and composers.

Read the full guide

Instrument word search lists by family

Start from a list holds a musical instruments word search in three parts: String Instruments (17 words), Woodwinds and Brass (21), and Percussion and Keyboards (21). Six more lists are Reading Music, Tempo and Dynamics, Elements of Music, Voices and Ensembles, Styles and Forms, and Composers.

Print it or save the PDF

Print or save as PDF gives a music word search printable on Letter or A4: page 1 is the puzzle with a Name and Date line, page 2 the answer key. It is a music word search free of any sign-up, with no download button: for a file, choose Save as PDF in the print window. New puzzle between prints gives music word search puzzles printable as a class set.

For an end-of-unit quiz, tick Show clues, not words: "Getting quieter little by little" is Diminuendo.
As a music word search for kids, pick Easy Music (60 short words), then 10 by 10 and Large print under More options.
To make the music word search hard, pick Hard Music and press Hard: a difficult music word search.

Questions and answers

Which instruments are in the band word search?

Woodwinds and Brass holds 21 words, from Flute and Clarinet to Trombone, Tuba and Sousaphone, the tuba that wraps around the body for marching. Percussion and Keyboards adds Snare, Cymbal and Timpani. These are school band instruments: no band or living musician is named.

Which composers are on the list?

Twenty-two surnames, from Bach and Vivaldi to Joplin and Gershwin, all of whom died in 1937 or earlier. A clue gives dates and a work or a fact: Tchaikovsky's "ballets include Swan Lake and The Nutcracker". Clue facts were read on Wikipedia in September 2026.

Does it fit an instruments of the orchestra unit?

Yes. The clues explain the sorting: the saxophone is a single-reed woodwind, although it is usually made of brass. Orchestra is on the Hard Music list: "A large group of players in four sections: strings, woodwinds, brass and percussion."

How are two-word terms such as Quarter note hidden?

As one run: QUARTERNOTE. Dvořák hides without accents. Time signature needs 13 squares, so keep Reading Music at 13 by 13 or larger. For more music word puzzles printable at home, try the music crossword puzzles.

All 189 words

String Instruments 17

Woodwinds and Brass 21

Percussion and Keyboards 21

Reading Music 22

Tempo and Dynamics 21

Elements of Music 23

Voices and Ensembles 20

Styles and Forms 22

Composers 22

How it works

Instrument word search lists by family

Print it or save the PDF

Questions and answers

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