Music word search
A band's worth of music words is hiding in this grid, from a single drum to a whole orchestra. All eight directions are in play, so check the diagonals and read backwards too.
Curated by 
Esme Rook
·
Updated October 2026
Play it right here
Drag across the letters to select a word. Words hide across, down and diagonally, forwards and backwards. Works with mouse and touch.
What words are hidden in this music word search?
Twelve fun music words in a 12x12 grid: guitar, piano, drums, violin, trumpet, melody, rhythm, orchestra, saxophone, concert, singer and jazz. They hide in all eight directions, so words also run diagonally and backwards. ORCHESTRA and SAXOPHONE are the nine letter anchors; JAZZ, four letters with a double Z, is often the sneaky last find.
Music you can hunt for
No sheet music to read and no notes to name. This list is the fun side of music: the drums the neighbours regret, the trumpet that announces breakfast, the singer who never misses a shower concert. It plays well from about age 8 upward, and it makes a good warm-up before band practice or a long car ride with the radio on.
Print it or play it
Play it right on this page or print the free PDF; the separate solution sheet marks all twelve words on the same grid, so the puzzle can travel while the answers stay behind. The playable board, the PDF and the solution come from one generated puzzle, so they always match. If your table prefers clues to hidden words, the music crossword puzzle plays the same tune.
Seven music word searches to print, one for each section of the orchestra and after
Six extra boards: the strings, the wind, the percussion, the genres, the marks on the page and the names on the spines. The three instrument families are three genuinely different lists, not one list cut in three, and none of them repeats the guitar, piano, drums, violin, trumpet or saxophone on the board above. The Irish session has a board of its own on the St Patricks Day word search, with the fiddle and the bodhran, and it shares nothing with these. Two word terms run together on the grid: double bass is DOUBLEBASS, key signature is KEYSIGNATURE, French horn is FRENCHHORN.
The 12x12 board on this page
The board above as a printable sheet: twelve words about music in general, with ORCHESTRA and SAXOPHONE as the nine letter anchors and JAZZ hiding behind its own double Z.
The strings: everything you pluck or bow
A 12x12 board in all eight directions for the family with the most members: the cello, the double bass, the viola, the harpsichord, the banjo, the mandolin, the ukulele, the lute, the zither and the sitar.
The wind: everything you blow into
Twelve instruments that need breath, on a 12x12 board: the flute, the piccolo, the clarinet, the oboe, the bassoon, the recorder, the trombone, the tuba, the cornet, the French horn and the sousaphone.
The percussion: everything you hit
A 13x13 board, sized by the twelve letter glockenspiel: the snare drum, the timpani, the cymbals, the triangle, the tambourine, the marimba, the congas, the bongos, the castanets and the gong at the back.
The genres: twelve shelves in a record shop
The easiest board of the seven and the one a teenager will do without being asked: blues, reggae, flamenco, country, classical, hip hop, techno, soul, opera, folk, disco and salsa in a 12x12 grid.
The notation: what is printed on the page
The board for anyone who has ever had a music lesson, 12x12 and abstract: the stave, the treble clef, the crotchet, the quaver, the semibreve, the sharps, the flats, the key signature, the octave and the tempo.
The composers: twelve names on twelve spines
Twelve surnames in a 12x12 grid and BACH is four of the commonest letters going, so save it for last: Mozart, Beethoven, Vivaldi, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Handel, Debussy, Schubert, Dvorak and Gershwin.
Same theme, different puzzle: Music crossword puzzle
