How’d it go? It sounds like you planned well and should enjoy it!
My first solo karaoke experience - twentyish years ago - was scary, and I told the host I was scared, and my friends helped me select an easy song, These Boots are Made for Walking. (I’d done a few group karaoke songs before that, but that doesn’t count).
Within a few months I was happily trying almost anything. Occasionally it went really badly but by then I knew how to brazen it out - told a joke during a long instrumental, danced with the host, etc. The worst was a Madness song (chosen because Sugg’s voice is easy) where I’d forgotten he essentially raps at 100mph. Made people laugh, with not at me, so that was fine. Note: do not choose rap.
Last time I sang Poison death metal style. I do NOT look like someone who’d sing death metal. It was fucking awesome.
I’m really looking forward to karaoke starting up again.
There’s a pretty good app called Sing! by a company called Smule. It has thousands of backing tracks and you can sing along with them on your phone with just your earbuds with microphone. You can sing lots of stuff without paying anything, and you’ll be able to hear yourself back and see how you did. It’s actually really fun, and you can sing with others if you want. I recommend it for anyone who wants to do Karaoke.
Sorry, but this is some of the worst advice I’ve ever seen on the Dope! Just how is a non-singer, who only ever sings alone in the shower or their car actually supposed to know if something is in their range? It’s the small minority of people who think they sound bad to themselves.
It’s like the joke about the guy who is horribly lost so he pulls over & asks the runner where he is. When the runner responds, “you’re in front of me.” the driver replies, “I bet you’re an engineer”.
Perplexed, the runner/engineer asks the driver how he knew that, to which the lost driver replies, "Because while what you told me is technically accurate it does absolutely nothing to help me figure out where I am.
Haven’t gone yet, my date last Wednesday fell through and I don’t want to do this in front of a bunch of strangers. Without someone who will make fun of me for decades to come, there’s no challenge or fun in this, lol.
Most people are not completely tone deaf. They can tell if they can’t reach certain notes. If you are so tone deaf that you can’t tell whether you can hit a note or not, perhaps karaoke is not for you.
What happens to a lot of people is that they see a song theynreally like and try to sing it, forgetting that the chorus is too high for them or whatever. If you are just singing along in the car yoh probably just skip those sections and don’t think about it.
So my suggestion wouod be to try to seriously sing along with the songs you want to do at Karaoke, and make sure you can actually hit the high or low notes.
I didn’t realize. I’m not a great singer. And I’m definitely not a “trained” singer.
However when I try to sing something out of my range, it isn’t just that it sounds bad, or offkey or a little flat or sharp which is something that it might be hard to hear. Sometimes, it hurts, actual physical pain. Sometimes my voice cracks or scratches - it isn’t a small subtle change, it’s a human-beings-shouldn’t-produce-that-sound kind of change. Sometimes, I just stop making sounds at all. I think those are things that non-singers will notice.
In your shower or car, you push through the note and keep going - if it’s a larger section, you hum along, start lip syncing, or scream/shout along for a while - no big. When that happens in karaoke on a microphone in front of people, you freeze or keep making ungodly/inhuman sounds, and you can’t get out of it because it feels like everyone is staring at you while you’re falling to pieces and it spirals out.
It’s basically a specific instance of the advice to sing something that you really, really know your first time at karaoke so that you’re not surprised. Certain kinds of surprises aren’t fun and you want to have fun at karaoke.
I find this surprising. I was no trained singer when I was a kid, but I could always tell when I couldn’t actually hit the note. If it’s too low, the note just won’t come out. If it’s too high, the note would feel like a struggle–either to keep from pinching off or from yelling.
In that case, I’ll say this: your singable range is going to be the notes that feel the most comfortable, which need the least amount of strain to hit. You can learn to extend this, but a beginner should stick with what is natural.
The other tip I would give is to record yourself. Your voice sounds different inside your head than outside. The pitches are the same, but it will sound different being conducted through your skull and through the air.
And, yes, if you’re having some pitch problems you didn’t notice while singing, you’ll hear those, too.
What rubbish. Some people are totally tone deaf but the vast majority of people can tell if they can hit a note or whether it’s too high or low for their voice.
And as others have said, if someone is one of the relatively small percentage who can’t even tell whether or not they are able to hit a note, then perhaps karaoke isn’t something they should attempt.
It’s like the joke about the guy who is horribly lost so he pulls over & asks the runner where he is. When the runner responds, “you’re roughly here on this map.” the driver replies, “Oh, OK, thanks"
And then bystander Spiderman starts berating the runner for giving useless advice because maybe the driver is blind and can’t see the map.
Yeah, almost everyone can tell that they’re sort of in the range, at least.
Though even if they can’t, I wouldn’t say no to them doing karaoke. It’s a sport where taking part really is the main thing. Generally you’ll only sing once, and if you’re terrible, it is not going to matter to anyone but you. So you can’t sing, so what? You still got up there and took part. It’s not a talent show.
That’s for UK karaoke, which I have the impression is the same as in the US; Japanese karaoke, where it originated, can be more competitive, but elsewhere it’s purely for fun.
Exactly. I hosted karaoke for a bit back in the early nineties, and there were always a few people who wanted to take part, but claimed to have little to no talent, and were a little intimidated by those who were obviously very good at it. I assured them that taking part was the main thing, and offered a number of suggestions that had a small range, or that they could get through by basically “talking” the lyrics (a lot of country songs–though certainly not all–fit these parameters).
So they got up, and even if they didn’t know the song, they could sing or talk along by following the color-changing words. They had a great time, and I still recall their their smiles when they finished and got a big hand. It may have been for the effort, but they had taken part, and they were happy.
Especially if it’s a date. Being unafraid - or very afraid but willing to try it - to potentially make a total tit of yourself for harmless fun is very attractive to the right kind of woman.
