My Favorite Books About Musicians // Country Singers, Rappers, and Marching Bands To Inspire You To Pick Up That Instrument (quarantine activity??)

So we are all doing random various things to fight off boredom as we are all stuck inside.

Back in the olden days when I was a child, I played piano, violin, and was in choir. Not really good at any of them, quit them all because apparently I can’t commit to any instrument. Especially since I messed around on guitar after all of that.

Well, one of the things I decided to do was go back to playing guitar! I’ve fooled around on the guitar before, but never seriously, and I’m not good at all, but now that we’re all stuck inside is the perfect time to get good, right?

I also randomly wrote a couple of songs to play/sing on guitar and it’s pretty fun! I’ve written novels before, but never songs, but it honestly felt so natural!

This is all a very long winded way to say that I’ve been thinking about music and musicians lately, and I decided to put together a list of some excellent YA books about musicians!

And if you’re bored during quarantine, maybe you can take inspiration from these characters to spend more time practicing your instrument, or even pick up a new one!

You’d Be Mine

I love this book so much! The characters passion and love for music shines so clearly on the page. I can just close my eyes and imagine myself in their songs. There are some great songs the author wrote in this book too, and I loved the whole road trip summery aspect of a music tour!

If I Stay

An oldie, but a goodie! I loved reading this back in the day! I love how both of the main characters are musicians, united by their love of music, but they love different styles of music, so this book really explores both classical music and cello, and pop rock guitar bands!

Harley In The Sky

I had to find a way to shove my new favorite book on this list, right? Harley in the Sky features an amazing violinist/composer and I love the descriptions of the music he writes, especially in how deeply personal he makes it, and how the characters use it to do trapeze to ❤

Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon is such a perfect book, and it features a group of girls putting together their own band! This band is featured even more in Leah on the Offbeat, but I really disliked that book so not gonna recommend it lmao, but I loved the little we were exposed to it in Simon!

On The Come Up

This book was so amazing and deep and meaningful, of course, but also the main character Bree is a rapper, and I loved seeing her in her element, making up verses on the fly!

Songs From The Deep

This is a great creepy atmospheric read, and it features the main character, a violinist, playing her songs for sirens on the cliffs. Intrigued yet?

The Brightsiders

This fun diverse read features an amazing squad of a band, famous rockstars having fun playing their songs together!

Famous In A Small Town

I’m super biased towards marching band since I was a part of it in high school (the color guard!), and I loved reading about the marching band musicians and their adventures together.

This Is What It Feels Like

This is a great book about a broken up band coming back together, moving past their differences and arguments and messy pasts to come together and make music together again.

Summer Bird Blue

This is such a beautiful book! I love the story of a girl, a musician, a songwriter, who is suddenly without her sister and learns to go back to her music and sing on her own.

Let’s Chat

Have you read any of these books? Do you like books about musicians? Do you play an instrument? I’d love to chat in the comments below.