Music quiz for the party – how to host one that works

Short clips, fast rounds. Ten songs per round, ten to fifteen seconds per clip and an answer right after each song is the rhythm that keeps a party awake. A quiz with thirty songs and the answers revealed at the end loses half the room by song twelve.

Mix decades and genres within the round, not between the rounds. A round with only 80s hits is fun for the people who were there then and quiet for the rest; a round where the 80s is every third song gives everyone a chance.

• Right artist AND right title gives full points, one of them gives half – so there's always something to write.
• A speed bonus means no one waits for their neighbour. Whoever answers in the first second gets more than the one who ponders for twenty.
• Teams of two to three people work better than solo play once the party is over eight people – otherwise everyone's competing against the table's music nerd.

The question to ask isn't which songs are good but which songs everyone in the room has heard at least ten times. Radio hits, choruses, the songs played at every wedding. Whoever picks songs by their own taste ends up with a quiz only they can win.

Ready-made playlists are the shortcut: Friday Night is built on exactly that criterion, Everyone Can Join In is gentler, and 80s Music Quiz or 90s & 00s suit a party that's all from the same generation.

The clips need to come out of a speaker everyone can hear, and the answer needs to go up on a screen everyone can see. The easiest way is a laptop connected to the TV with HDMI, or Chromecast from your phone. Musikräven has a sound check before you start where you pick the speaker and test it with a beep – do it before the guests arrive, not while everyone's sitting there waiting.

Phones are the answer sheets. No one needs to download anything: the room code or the QR code on the screen is enough.

The technical part takes under a minute, and it's one person who does it: the host. Everyone else just needs a phone.

• Open Create a game on a computer or phone connected to the TV or speaker – that's the device that plays the clips.
• Pick a game (Music Quiz is the classic one: hear the clip, type artist and title) and a playlist, for example Friday Night or 80s Music Quiz.
• Show the room code and the QR code on the big screen. Guests join from their phone without an account and without an app.
• Tap Let's go. The clip plays for everyone at once, everyone types their answer on their phone, and the fox marks it, tallies the score and shows the answer and leaderboard after every song.
• Ten songs take about ten minutes. Run another list, or switch to the Timeline for a round where you place the songs in the right order in time.