Pitch Perfect Inspired Musical Party Games

These Pitch Perfect inspired musical party games are perfect for anyone who loves the Pitch Perfect movies or anyone who just loves music!

I love music and always have. When I was in high school I sang in all of the choirs possible including our very own high school show choir. It was nothing like the awesome acapella groups and show choirs now. We wore crazy sequin outfits and sang outdated songs. Even so, I loved it.

And every time I go see a musical or watch a singing movie, it makes me want to get back into singing. So you can probably guess that I loved Pitch Perfect. And when Pitch Perfect 2 came out, I was there on opening night with a couple of my girl friends. And it lived up to all of my expectations other than one – I wish there’d been more Becca and Jessie!

One of my favorite parts of both movies is the acapella battles. In Pitch Perfect it’s the riff-off and in Pitch Perfect 2 it’s the secret society of singers or whatever it’s called. I loved the competitive nature of having to come up with a song off the top of your head and getting to hear acapella clips of a bunch of different songs. Every time I watch either of the movies, I just want to have friends over for my own little music inspired game night complete with popcorn, movies, and musical competitions.

Because of the nature of the songs (and the movies), they’re more fit for a girls night or an adults-only party but if you’re looking for kid-friendly games, you can still play these games just use a playlist of kid-friendly songs.

The first two games require a list of songs to use for the games and luckily I’ve done all of the hard work for you, well if hard work means watching both Pitch Perfect and Pitch Perfect 2 to put together a playlist full of songs that one of the acapella groups sang in one of the movies anyway. Not sure I would really consider it hard, but I did the work for you.

Musical Party Games

#1 – Name That Tune

This is one of my all-time favorite games, probably because my family plays it at almost every family reunion. You can get all of the exact details on how to play in this post but the general idea is that you’ll create a playlist or use this Pitch Perfect inspired one that I created for you. You start playing a song from the playlist and teams compete to be the first person to name the song. The team with the most points at the end of the playlist wins.

st. patrick's day game

You can either play this game like these instructions say or change it up and have players compete head to head to see who can guess the song first. Here’s how that version of that game is played.

1. Split your group into two teams.
2. At the beginning of each turn, have one player from each team come to the front of the room with you.
3. Ask one of the players (alternate players each turn) how many seconds of a song they need to hear to name the tune.
4. Once the player says how many seconds they will need to name the song, the player from the other team can say they will name it in fewer seconds if they wish. Players continue to go lower until you get to the point where one person tells the other to “name that tune,” telling them to name it in the amount of seconds they bid last.
5. Play one of the songs from your playlist for as many seconds as the final bid. If the player can name the song within the number of seconds, they get the point. If they can’t, they lose a point and the other team can have a turn to name the song. If the other team can name the song, they get a point so it’s possible to have a two-point swing each turn.
6. Team with the most points at the end of your playlist or after everyone has had a turn (you decide), wins.

#2 – Musical Charades

Supplies Needed:

• Playlist of songs (get a free printable song + category list at the bottom of this post)
• Noise canceling head phones

Play:

1. Break into two teams.
2. Choose one player on the first team to go first and put noise canceling head phones on their head.
3. Play one of the songs on your playlist out loud so everyone other than the player who will be guessing can hear it.
4. Have ALL of the members from the rest of the team act out of the song that is playing just like charades, trying to get the guessing player to guess the song before the time runs out. This is just like reverse charades with music.
5. If the player guesses the song correctly, the team gets a point and you move to the next song. See how many songs they can guess correctly in a set amount of time, such as a minute.
6. Once the time is up, the other team goes.
7. Continue playing until you’re through the entire playlist or until everyone on the team has had a turn to go once. Team with the most points wins.

#3 – List Off

This game is directly inspired by the riff-offs in the movies. The only thing you’ll need to play this game is the list of categories that I put together for you at the bottom of this post. If you run out of categories just brainstorm more. You can play this game in two different ways and instructions for both are below.

Version 1

1. Split your group into two teams and have them on two opposite sides of the room with you in the middle.
2. Choose a category card and show the category to the teams.
3. Once you’ve shown the category to the teams, say go and any player from any team can step in the middle of the circle and say a song title that meets that category. Once they’ve said their title, they step back and if the title was correct, they earn a point for their team.
4. Continue having players step forward saying titles of songs until someone says one incorrectly or until a timer runs out (e.g. 2 minutes). Tally up points from teams and move on to the next category. Continue playing until you’ve gone through all of the categories and team with the most points wins.

Version 2

1. Split your group into two teams. Have the two teams stand in one straight line, alternating teams. So the first person in line would be from team A, second person would be from Team B, third person would be from Team A, etc.
2. Choose a category card and show the category to the entire group.
3. Starting at the beginning of the line, each player has to name a title of a song that fits into that category. If they can name a song, move on to the next player in the line. If they can’t, their team loses that round and the other team wins a point. Once a team loses a round, switch categories and start where you left off in line.
4. Continue playing until you’ve gone through all of your different categories. Team with the most points wins.

Note: If you think coming up with song titles is too hard for your guests, you can give them the option to sing a line of the song as well if they can’t come up with the title, but they must SING it for it to count, kind of a penalty for not knowing the title of the song.

And there you have it, three (well, really five) great party games for music lovers! And if you’re so inclined, a Pitch Perfect gift basket like this one would make a perfect gift for the winning team!

Get the List of Pitch Perfect Songs & Categories

Get the list of Pitch Perfect songs and categories to play these musical party games by clicking here !