With non-musical omitted:
by title
by author
by availability
by year
Smaller tables by topic:
Bez Shahriari
Board Game Geek
Body Percussion
Bruno Faidutti
Holly Gramazio
Itch.io
Karaoke
Memory
Modular Synth and Studio
Notation Cards
Oblique Strategies
Rhythm game
RPG
Rule Cards
The Art of Adaptation
Tonic (Card Set)
Toy Instruments
| A Clave de Candombe | Emanuel Sánchez | rare |
A rhythm game with traditional South American inspirations |
| Aphorisms Decks | Robert Fripp | sold |
Guitar Craft Aphorisms are loose, inspirational rule cards and have three decks/parts: Discipline, Silence, Love |
| Are You Phrazy? Holiday Carols Edition | Dave Rockenbaugh | rare |
A game based on singing existing songs about winter |
| Art Deck | Holly Gramazio | rare |
Non-musical, rule cards for drawing pictures |
| Art of Noises | Kim Foale | free |
A limited communication game with a Creative Commons license |
| Beeline | Joyce Johnson Colleen McCarthy-Evans | rare |
Non-musical, but with a buzzer |
| Benny Goodman Swings into a Game of Musical Information | rare |
Game of musical challenges on popular songs and classical music, like guessing a song played on a xylophone |
|
| Biff Baff | sold |
A rhythm game where you drum on the box |
|
| Burmeister cards | Elam Rotem | sold |
Cards showcasing a theory from early music sources |
| Cacophony | sold |
Noisy charades with physical constraints |
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| Card Games | Christopher Walker | free |
a modern card composition with a Creative Commons license |
| Cascade | rpgnatalie | sold |
A vowel-based songmaking game with roles for hero, monster, and chorus |
| Chief Boom Pat-a-bang | Stefan Dorra Manfred Reindl | rare |
Native American setting, a drum, and rhythm recognition |
| Cinematique | Alan Skinner Linda Skinner | sold |
Comes with kazoos for film-related tune guessing |
| Cobra: Game of the Normandy Breakout | Brad Hessel David James Ritchie | rare |
Only a wargame, but also an inspiration and namesake for John Zorn's gamepiece |
| CopyCat | Scott Hughes | sold |
A call-and-response card game to teach ear training, from the author of Tonic |
| Cute Comical Creatures | Bez Shahriari | sold |
A redrawn version of A game about WEE WHIMSICAL CREATURES and trying to identify them after someone makes noises |
| Das Neunundneunzigmusikspiel | Lee-Sean Huang | free |
A goose roll-and-move game made of 99 carefully chosen musical prompts |
| Ding Dong Forest | Dietlind Löbker | rare |
Two toy instruments and five educational games to be facilitated by the adult |
| Disney Song Challenge | sold |
Karaoke with additional challenges narrowed down to a single source of repertoire |
|
| Dixit | Jean-Louis Roubira | sold |
With many extensions this game is a huge set of inspire cards, rules allow musical play although by default it's for speaking |
| Do It for the Music | David Berg | free |
An RPG about a band on a jazz-rock scale, with encouraging options for music-making |
| Dragons of Despair | Tracy Hickman Carl Smith et al | rare |
An AD&D module with music provided to be sang by one of the characters |
| Drakkar Tum Tum | Alexander F. Francisco | sold |
A rhythm game done in sync to recitation, with a rowing boat setting |
| echoes: The Dancer | Matthew Dunstan Dave Neale | sold |
The first in a series of "audio mystery games" to solve through listening but with some influence on what sample is being played |
| Ell Deck | Bez Shahriari | sold |
Abstract game system with numbers, letters, and patterns; design contests are regular, and a musical ruleset is yet to be seen |
| Empty Orchestra | Jeff Stormer | mix | |
| Encore | sold |
Song association with many titles seeked to a single word |
|
| Etudes | Sharon Gal | sold |
Cues deck with occasional non-standard, involved typography and Tarot inspirations |
| Fairy Prank | Jeremie Kletzkine | sold |
Charming game of found sound and listening |
| FiveLines | Takashi Saito | sold |
Music-themed rhythm game played to a backing track (now as: Hey Yo) |
| Flail and Wail | Dave Rockenbaugh | rare |
A rhythm game with a CD and a transparent maraca with a dice inside |
| FlipSpark: Music Production | rare |
An announced Kickstarter project for the studio game with 4 types of cards |
|
| Four Sung Mechanics | Eleanor Estragon | free |
Playtesting version of token mechanics suitable for RPGs |
| Grand Staff Flash Cards | Kasper Hviid | free |
A set of helpful notation cards for treble and bass clefs |
| GSG Strategy Jam Cards | Actitect | sold |
Rule cards targeted at live electronic jamming with polished graphics |
| Hard to be the Bard | J.D. Mills Nate Trier et al. | sold |
A campaign for D&D with options of running it as a musical (and backing tracks) |
| Heroic Echoic | David B. H. Barton | sold |
Assemble a super-hero team by playing cards with sound effects from comics |
| Hossa! | Andrea Meyer | sold |
A cooperative song association game |
| Host Your Own Music Night | rare |
Many modes, props, and four kazoos for song recognition |
|
| If It Wasn't For... | Starshine Scribbles | sold |
A cooperative storytelling game about drunken singing and nostalgic tales |
| Igloo Pop | Heinz Meister Klaus Zoch | rare | |
| Images | Peter Brötzmann | rare |
Integrates with the game Signs (visual cues) |
| Improvisation & Composition Inspiration Cards | Joy Morin | free |
A set of clip-arts for piano teaching studio |
| Instant Songs | Olusanya Blessing Oluwafemi | rare |
Song association with options |
| Jammonit! | nemoinslumber | free |
Genre, instrument, and structure constraints for writing and performing a song |
| Jazz: The Singing Card Game | Anxietydecending | rare |
A memory game organized around scat vocals |
| Juego de Tonos | Agustín Lozano | sold |
A universal deck for musical activities based on pitch classes. |
| Karaokards | Ste Curran Holly Gramazio | rare |
A game for karaoke with combining cues |
| Kazoo That Tune | rare |
Guessing songs played on kazoos |
|
| Kleine Musik-Maher | Dietlind Löbker | rare |
German children game with four bells |
| Lyryx | Craig Candelaria | rare |
Song association with a sand timer and player elimination |
| Maracas | Bruno Faidutti Hervé Marly | sold |
A listening and guessing game with percussion but minimum musical performance |
| Ménestrels | Bruno Faidutti Sandra Petrini | sold |
Theme-only, medieval party with minstrels |
| Mixtape | Ian Feral | mix | |
| Morgan Page Quick Tips | Morgan Page | sold |
48 cards with longer tips from a Grammy-nominated producer |
| Morning Phase | Kyle David Frost | mix |
Drawing/listening-only (to Beck) and nostalgia cartography solo RPG |
| Muse | Jordan Sorenson | sold |
Beautiful set of inspire cards; one of inspirations explicitly tells to hum a melody |
| Music, A Role-Playing Game | Jared Sinclair | mix | |
| Music Bravo | Rrrrrose Azerty | mix |
Rule cards and inspire cards combined |
| Music City | Ian Howard | rare |
A full musical micro-game made as a promo for a board gaming convent |
| Music Rocks | rare |
A set of dice with words/objects frequently occurring in popular songs |
|
| Musical Casino:The Major-Minor Game | Carl W. Grimm | rare |
Notation cards for forming chords and hand management. |
| Musical Dominoes | C. W. Grimm | rare |
Classic Dominoes adapted to musical notes |
| Musical Multiverse of Mayhem | Ross A Coulbeck | mix |
On an adventure between the worlds, find a proper tune for a given setting |
| Musical RPG in 12 words | odolany | free |
A nano-RPG (here, limited to only 12 words due to game jam concept). |
| Muzoracle | J. S. Kingfisher | rare |
The Tarot of Music, system with cards and dice |
| Muzundrum | J. S. Kingfisher | rare |
Theory-only. This game introduced the 12-sided Musician's Dice with pitch classes on the sides |
| Nebuta Beat | Nagisa Kujira | rare |
A rhythm game with elements from a traditional Japanese festival |
| Noisy Neighbors | Westley Ciaramella Keith Millman | rare |
A game of making noises, listening, and guessing |
| Noteability | rare |
A guessing game with a small electronic plastic piano |
|
| Oblique Strategies | Brian Eno Peter Schmidt | sold |
Traditionally used in the studio this deck is now the classic of a rule cards genre |
| Onk-Onk | Jean-Baptiste Fremaux Thomas Luzurier Paul-Adrien Tournier | rare | |
| Ooga Booga | David Boniffacy Daniel Quodbach | sold |
A memory-based party game about a cavemen language with some body percussion |
| Orchestrion | Eaves Mendes | sold |
A Song for Five Players and One Listener Online |
| Our People's Song | Eleonor Estragon | mix |
"A sung TTRPG for creating epic tales", a ritual setting weaved with improvised music and token-based story negotiation. |
| PARTYtura | Katarzyna Cioch Wojciech Wiśniewski | sold |
Polish music-themed rhythm game with a quite loose synchronization |
| Patch: The Card Game | James Cigler | sold |
A deck for exploring modular synthesis with card types like "Abstraction", "Progression", or "Disruption" |
| Pit | Edgar Cayce Harry Gavitt George S. Parker | sold |
Old and non-musical but vigorous, open-outcry trading game with a bell |
| Play that Tune | rare |
Song recognition with a sound-making stepping mat |
|
| Rhythm Blox | Wes Crawford | sold |
A rhythm game with notation cards and backing tracks |
| Rock the Beat | Gabriel Ecoutin | sold |
Gesture rhythmically to "We Will Rock You!" body percussion |
| Rohema Groove Cubes | sold |
A set of dice for drumming |
|
| Scherzando | Amber Autumn vinegarviola | sold |
A role-playing game where you either act out a scene or provide the soundtrack. |
| Scott Joplin Melody Dicer | rare |
A take on Musikalisches Würfelspiel in the ragtime genre |
|
| Shake'n Play | rare |
Acoustic memory (Memo-like) game with 16 shakers of 8 distinct sounds to listen |
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| Shanty Hunters | Tristan Zimmerman | sold |
A role-playing game (GUMSHOE engine) where you're on a quest to document sea shanties (and sing them on your way) |
| Signs | Peter Brötzmann | rare |
Abstract inspire cards designed specifically for musical improvisation |
| Silent Prayer | Eric Stein | mix | |
| Sing it! | Vangelis Bagiartakis | sold |
A song association game with word choice and time pressure |
| Sing Out | Occasional Ell | sold |
A virtual LARP based on singing shanties |
| Smash or Trash | Jeanine Calkin Daniel Calkin | rare |
Sing a famous song but make up new lyrics for it on a given subject |
| Songerist | Kanding Tuquiero | sold |
A tabletop roleplaying game about making a song on your own or with other people |
| Songnario | Kevin Williams | sold |
Find and perform a song fitting to a given scenario |
| Songwriting Cards | Eric Grivilers | sold |
A set of chord progressions and Circle of Fifths operations for songwriters |
| Space Rock Opera | Andrew J. Young | free |
In the role of Earthlings abducted into space (by accident) save the Earth with "name that tune" skills. |
| Spontuneous | Rob Ridgeway | sold |
A direct application of song association mechanic for singing snippets of songs |
| Swan Song | Oliver Hong Syncope Coding | mix |
A dark comedy LARP in a corporate setting played in a karaoke booth |
| Symphony | Iliya | free |
A process for co-creating a duet |
| Tasty Score | Kosmologym | free |
A larger spatial piece of found sound, rhythm, and recipes |
| Tempo | Francisco Gallego Arredondo | sold |
A rhythm game where a player marks the beat and gives to others syllables to perform |
| The Songwriting Decks | Friedemann Findeiser | sold |
From Holistic Songwriting, text-based, split into Melody, Harmony, Lyrics, Rhythm, and Structure |
| Theatre in a Box: The Musical Theatre Board Game | free |
A game of songs and trivia |
|
| Three Chord Twister | Jess Driscoll | free |
Funny chord randomizer concept |
| Tonic | Scott Hughes | sold |
This game comes with dice and a deck where each card is a simple improvisational activity |
| TrollFest | Bruno Faidutti Camille Mathieu | sold |
Theme-only, fantasy creatures in bands on festivals |
| Vocal | Pascale Loiseau Marc-Éric Gervais | rare |
French karaoke with betting on performance |
| Wee Whimsical Creatures | Bez Shahriari | sold |
The actual full title says all: "A game about WEE WHIMSICAL CREATURES and trying to identify them after someone makes noises", 80 pictures |
| What's That Sound? | Jonathan Favre-Godal Corentin Lebrat | sold |
Listening, guessing, and performing sound effects |
| With Feeling! | Raymond Vermeulen | free |
A role-played musical that uses a tarot deck for randomization. |
| Wordy Connections | Bez Shahriari | free |
A soundscape game based on words forming sentences |
| Yogi | Bez Shahriari | sold |
A successful party game, and also a set of general physical constraints possible to use |
| Zombie Crisis: Party Edition | Anthony Gill | rare |
A rhythm game played to an audio track |
Would you like to make this list longer? (102 musical games so far)
The links here are to games outside of our wiki. They appear throughout the page in tables like above.
Some links have an image (small size), preferably of the game's cover (e.g. from Board Game Geek). We consider that fair use, similarly to book covers.
Please add games where players make sounds. If the connection is only through a theme or topic, please add the game only if it is needed on the specific list, and mark it clearly in the description. To add a game, start with the game title below:
