Remember the old TV game show “Name that Tune?” A contestant, having been given clues, would guess the name of the song in a certain number of notes. Technology has provided us with a number of ways to recreate this game very simply, and makes for a fun adult or children’s party game.
Number of players 2-20
Space requirements: A living room and a stereo/music device
Equipment needed: Anything that plays CD’s or, ideally, MP3’s.
For this game, you’ll need access to a large body of music, which, if you think about it, could be at your fingertips. If you have an I-pod, or if you’ve loaded a lot of your music onto a computer hard drive, you’ve got enough material for name that tune. You can also get a virtually limitless supply of 30-second samples from websites such as I-Tunes, Music Match Jukebox, Windows Media Player, or even online music stores like Amazon.
Choose a category that everyone at your gathering is fairly familiar with. This could be 80’s or 90’s pop, or if it’s a younger kid’s party, the songs used could be children’s songs. Children songs are often fun to use with adults. It’s easy to see who the moms and dads in the room are when children’s songs are used with adults.
To start, all the players except one gather in a circle around whatever device the music is coming from. The remaining player is the DJ Quizmaster. He or she chooses a style, genre or time period for songs, and then picks one song, or a group of songs for the rest of the players to guess. The players write the titles on a slip of paper in the first round, which can consist of as many songs as the players decide. Five is usually a good number to start with. The player with the most correct answers wins, and takes over the job of DJ Quizmaster.
As long as you have the appropriate technology, which a surprising number of households do, this can be a fun game that’s easy start on a moment’s notice. It can be played any number of ways – with the DJ Quizmaster providing clues, or having players for who can name the tune the fastest.