Music words for Alias — a set by level

Instruments, genres, everything around the stage. The one set where humming is allowed.

A set about music: instruments, genres, the jobs and everything that happens between rehearsal and applause. The only set where using your voice is not cheating but the shortest route to the answer.

What makes this set different

Music does not have to be described — it can be performed: hum the tune, mime how the instrument is held, tap out the rhythm. The rounds turn loud and unexpectedly theatrical, and even the shy players end up humming under their breath. Works beautifully after an evening with a guitar or a karaoke machine.

Who this set is for

A group prepared to make noise: humming is allowed here, and without it the set loses half its point. It plays best after an evening with a guitar or karaoke, when everyone has already sung and nobody feels awkward. In a quiet flat late at night, pick something else — this set is loud by design.

Bow

Works through movement: draw your hand through the air and say “you run this across the strings.” Does not work: “a wooden stick with hair on it” — too close to a fishing rod, and that is where the room will go. Everything to do with instruments is explained fastest with the body.

Conductor

Works: “stands with his back to the audience and waves a stick.” Funny and exact. Does not work: “the leader of an orchestra” — orchestra sits too close, the room says it first, and the word you want is left standing.

Pause

Works through the sensation: “it is when everyone suddenly goes quiet and it feels like something has broken.” Does not work: “an interruption in the sound” — too neutral, and it leads to silence, interval and stop. Musical terms land through what the listener hears, not through what is written on the stave.

Where groups go wrong

The main mistake is not settling the singing question at the start. Half the genres and melodies are guessed from two notes, and the ban turns this into an ordinary set, only harder. The second is explaining instruments by appearance: “large, wooden, with strings” fits a guitar, a harp and a double bass alike, while the way you hold the thing separates them instantly. The third is the hard tier, which is heavy on theory and barely lands — even with musicians in the room — unless you anchor it to a sound.

Hum it, if you agreed to allow that: a melody reaches the genre faster than any description.
Explain instruments through the body: "you hold it on your shoulder", "you blow and move your fingers".
For the terms, start from what a listener hears: "it is when everyone suddenly goes quiet".

Easy

Familiar words that land on the first clue. For warming up, for kids and for mixed groups.

music, song, singing, voice, choir, band, guitar, violin, piano, drum, flute, trumpet, saxophone, accordion, tambourine, bell, whistle, harp, organ, cello, clarinet, microphone, speaker, headphones, record, cassette, disc, radio, concert, stage, hall, ticket, poster, applause, bow, dance, rhythm, melody, note, chord, string, key, pedal, bowstring, stick, case, amplifier, cable, mixer, rehearsal, performance, solo, duet, trio, orchestra, conductor, composer, singer, musician, guitarist, pianist, violinist, drummer, listener, fan, autograph, album, video, lyrics, chorus, verse, tune, volume, silence, sound, noise, echo, scale, octave, tempo, pause, intro, finale, wedding, karaoke, disco, party, lullaby, anthem, march, waltz, polka, jazz, rock, pop, rap, classical, blues, folk, opera

Medium

Takes a few sentences and some imagination. The default setting for an ordinary evening.

accompaniment, acoustics, ensemble, arrangement, aria, ballad, balalaika, banjo, bassguitar, vocals, harmony, dressrehearsal, conducting, dissonance, variety, recording, improvisation, instrumental, interval, cover, chamber, canon, cantata, chapel, quartet, quintet, lute, composition, conservatoire, doublebass, repetiteur, label, libretto, lyre, major, mandolin, maestro, metronome, minor, musical, kit, stave, adaptation, operetta, score, part, percussion, semitone, songbook, producer, premiere, refrainlet, remix, reprise, review, rhythmics, resolution, romance, rotation, soundtrack, swing, serenade, symphony, synthesiser, solfeggio, sonata, soprano, style, stringed, studio, suite, timbre, tenor, credits, tonality, transposition, triumph, trombone, troubadour, flourish, overture, falsetto, fanfare, festival, folklore, backing, fortepiano, fugue, choral, hit, gypsy, particle, chart, chanson, evergreen, stroke, jubilee, sonority, dulcimer, baritone

Hard

Rare or abstract words. More failed rounds, and more laughing at them.

agogics, accentuation, aleatorics, alteration, arranger, arpeggio, atonality, belcanto, flat, glissando, homophony, cluster, soundboard, tenth, dixieland, descant, refinement, dominant, dramaturgy, conceit, gamut, juxtaposition, intonation, cadencing, cadenza, tuningfork, cantilena, caprice, fifth, clavier, harpsichord, coloratura, comma, consonance, counterpoint, culmination, mode, leitmotif, ligature, melisma, melodics, metrics, microtonality, modulation, mordent, musicology, ninthchord, nuancing, overtone, organum, ornamentation, ostinato, partesny, pedalling, pizzicato, polyphony, polyrhythm, portamento, prefix, consonantal, dotted, rhapsody, register, requiem, refrain, recitative, ritornello, rubato, swung, sequence, seventh, syncopation, scherzo, sonorism, staccato, subdominant, mute, beating, metrical, tessitura, tetrachord, transcription, tremolo, triad, unison, texture, fermata, filigree, phrasing, chromaticism, caesura, cyclicity, durational, calm, noisebased, jubilation, iambic, plainchant, appoggiatura, diatonicism