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Musical Instruments Word Search

A word search dedicated to musical instruments, perfect for exploring the world of sound. Hidden in the grid are eight words to find: guitar, piano, violin, drums, flute, trumpet, saxophone and harp. Each instrument has its own unique voice. Print it for free or download it as a PDF: ideal for a music lesson or a fun classroom activity.

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Musical Instruments, one by one

Instruments are the tools of music, and the eight in this grid come from every corner of the orchestra and the band. Below is a short note on each one, useful for talking about sound once the grid is solved.

Guitar — Has six strings plucked or strummed and is used across every music genre, from rock to campfire songs.

Piano — Has 88 black and white keys and can sound gentle or powerful; a string instrument struck by tiny hammers.

Violin — A small four-stringed instrument played with a bow, with a sharp, expressive sound.

Drums — A set of drums and cymbals that gives rhythm to all kinds of music.

Flute — Played by blowing air and covering holes with the fingers; often the first instrument learned at school.

Trumpet — Made of gleaming metal, with a bright, powerful sound, played by pressing three valves.

Saxophone — Has a warm, rich sound and is the star instrument of jazz.

Harp — A large instrument with many strings, plucked by hand, producing a delicate, magical sound.

Strings, winds and keys: how instruments are grouped

Instruments are usually sorted into families according to how they make sound. In this grid there are strings (guitar, violin, harp), winds (flute, trumpet, saxophone), percussion (drums) and the piano, which sits between strings and percussion because its strings are struck by tiny hammers. The saxophone is a curious case: it is made of brass, but it counts as a woodwind because the sound begins with a thin reed and not with the player's lips, as it does in the trumpet.

Some of these instruments have well-known inventors. The piano was created in Florence around 1700 by Bartolomeo Cristofori, who called it gravicembalo col piano e forte, a harpsichord that could play both soft and loud, and the name was later shortened to pianoforte and then to piano. The saxophone was patented in Paris in 1846 by the Belgian Adolphe Sax, while the finest violins were made in Cremona by the Amati and Guarneri families and by Antonio Stradivari. The word “guitar” has travelled a long way too: from the Greek kithara through Arabic into Spanish.

Four activities for a small orchestra

Music is learned by listening and trying, and this word search can open a lesson with very few materials:

  • The families. Draw four boxes labelled strings, winds, percussion and keyboard, and ask the children to place the eight instruments. The discussion about the saxophone and the piano is the most interesting moment.
  • Guess the instrument. If you can play short recordings, or an adult plays, the children listen with their eyes closed and write down the name of the instrument; each correct answer earns a point.
  • Instruments from home. With tins, rubber bands, straws and rice, children can build simple instruments, such as a rubber-band guitar or a shaker, and discover that every sound begins with a vibration.
  • The class orchestra. Each child picks an instrument from the grid and imitates its sound with their voice; the conductor, a different child each time, raises a hand to start the sound and lowers it to stop.

How this grid is built

Eight instruments hide in 13×13 squares: five vertical, three diagonal and none horizontal. SAXOPHONE, with nine letters, is the longest word and HARP, with four letters, the shortest. GUITAR, PIANO and SAXOPHONE all start on the first row; GUITAR and FLUTE slope down to the right, while DRUMS slopes down to the left. No word crosses another, and the first and last columns are empty.

A bigger band

To bring in more instruments, open the generator with the Music theme, which already contains guitar, piano, violin, drums, flute and trumpet, plus singing, note, choir and melody, and add cello, clarinet, accordion or xylophone. You can also invent a mini-orchestra with the names of the children's own instruments.

Also in Italian

The Italian names are chitarra (guitar), pianoforte or piano (piano), violino (violin), batteria (drums), flauto (flute), tromba (trumpet), sax or sassofono (saxophone) and arpa (harp). Batteria also means a battery, which is why Italian drummers sometimes joke about their instrument. The Italian version of this puzzle, Crucipuzzle degli Strumenti Musicali, is a 12×12 grid with four horizontal words, three vertical ones and one diagonal.

More word searches to try

To stay in the world of sound, try these word searches too:

More ideas for educational games to print, with music and other themes, are in the article Educational printable games.