# Search tool to find music withOUT lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 12, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107 "2006-11-12T15:13:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/1 "2006-11-12T15:13:01Z")
I’m trying to solve a strange problem & hope you all can point me at some online resources that can help … my Google-fu is not up to the task. My wife’s sorority has a bunch of standard silly in-group songs the girls sing. Learning them is part of the pledge process. The lyrics were made up years ago & are passed down as chapter lore. The tunes, however, were popular music tunes from the era when the various songs were adapted, ranging from the 1930s to probably the 1970s (which gives you some idea of when she went to school 🙂 ) The goal is to find the tunes’ original lyrics, correct name, author, etc. Most of you aged 45+ would vaguely recognize most of them as something you remember hearing on the Pop or Oldies radio lo those many years ago. But appealing to the collective memory of the alumnae is not getting many answers, and the few we’ve gotten are mostly wrong. They have enough musically literate folks that writing out the basic melody line on staff paper or guitar tabulature would be trivial. In a few cases they have unlabeled sheet music for piano. The hard part is finding a website to accept that musical notation in some format & search some archive for the info we seek. My attempts to find unusual music search engines vie Google was totally overwhelmed by the places trying to sell me MP3s of current popular songs. If anyone has an idea of a search site as I describe, or of a whole different way to approach solving this problem, I’d be much obliged. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/2 "2006-11-12T15:29:24Z")
Would this be helpful? [http://staffweb.cms.gre.ac.uk/~c.walshaw/abc/](http://staffweb.cms.gre.ac.uk/~c.walshaw/abc/) ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/3 "2006-11-12T16:06:03Z")
This is what you want: > **[Musipedia: Musipedia Melody Search Engine](https://www.musipedia.org/)** > > A search engine for tunes and musical themes and a collaborative music encyclopedia. Only the melody needs to be known to search Musipedia or the Web. The melody can be played on a keyboard or whistled or sung to the computer. The Musipedia... Use their “Contour Search” tool. All you need to do is write a few bars in an extremely simple notation of “up”, “down”, or “repeat” For example, do a query for that famous whistled tune in the Bridge Over the River Kwai: Go to the Melodic Contour (Parsons Code) search at [by Melodic Contour: Musipedia Melody Search Engine](http://www.musipedia.org/melodic_contour.0.html) Key in the code for that tune: \ ***druuurd** (the \*\*\*\*\* represents the first note since it isn’t up/down/repeat from anything) Put that in the engine and “Colonel Bogey” comes up as the second hit 🆒. Have fun! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/4 "2006-11-12T19:23:59Z")
You can also try [Song Tapper](http://www.songtapper.com). However, this is more for people who don’t have the luxury of trascriptions or even a good sense of melody. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/5 "2006-11-12T19:36:17Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] You can also try [Song Tapper](http://www.songtapper.com). However, this is more for people who don’t have the luxury of trascriptions or even a good sense of melody. [/QUOTE] Plus it really doesn’t work that well. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/6 "2006-11-12T23:00:00Z")
[QUOTE=Doctor Who] Plus it really doesn’t work that well. [/QUOTE] True, but while it doesn’t work “that well”, it works a lot better than I would have thought. I’m surprised it can work at all. I’ve had a moderately successful hit rate with it. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2006, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/7 "2006-11-12T23:55:43Z")
I just tapped in “Happy Birthday” and the first hit was “Tony Wright Has A Vagina.” [See for yourself](http://www.songtapper.com/s/online-music.bin?saveId=5119233&tapAuth=c872ae987482b97523ab5e1b77105f55). Either this has been cleverly hacked/vandalized, or the tapper is bogus. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/8 "2006-11-13T00:27:29Z")
I just tried and got “Happy Birthday Katie” as the first hit, then the original “Good Morning to You” as the second. Beyond that though, things get a bit weird, and I got something called “I Am a Transexual”, and another one “I Wanna Fuck Aaron Carter”. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/9 "2006-11-13T01:34:20Z")
Yeah, that’s sort of the experience I’ve had, Argent Towers. I mean, I’m happy that it works for you TheLoadedDog; I wanted it to work — I like the premise, but I just never got it to come out right. I tried it about 3 times, and even tried re-doing a song that I had “trained” it to know. But I could never get it to work. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/10 "2006-11-13T07:36:16Z")
[QUOTE=Doctor Who] Plus it really doesn’t work that well. [/QUOTE] Really? I’m amazed by it. I tapped the Notre Dame Fight Song, and it was the first hit. Same with Lady Madonna. Same with Bear Down Chicago Bears. Same with Rondo alla Turk. I can’t believe it works at all, much less as well as it does. Maybe I’m just a good tapper, I dunno. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/11 "2006-11-13T08:35:23Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] I just tapped in “Happy Birthday” and the first hit was “Tony Wright Has A Vagina.” [/QUOTE] Without casting undue aspersions on your tapping ability, **A T** , it seems you weren’t holding the notes when you tapped that out. I just did mine again, and got the same results I got the first time. Mine’s here: [http://www.songtapper.com/s/online-music.bin?saveId=5128191&tapAuth=251c8fde8773e94afb4b035537005c80](http://www.songtapper.com/s/online-music.bin?saveId=5128191&tapAuth=251c8fde8773e94afb4b035537005c80) ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/12 "2006-11-13T08:49:45Z")
Interesting. I wasn’t aware that the tapping system recorded the holding down of the space bar. I assumed the only thing that counted was the initial tap. I’ll have to try it again. With that said, I definitely want to hear “Tony Wright Has A Vagina.” I looked this up and there is exactly one hit for it on Google. And it is a link to a forum where people are discussing the tap program. Someone else is claiming that songs entitled “Fuck All Niggers” and “Joe Gallagher” are also appearing when “Happy Birthday” is tapped. Man, there is some strange shit going on over at the Songtapper. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/13 "2006-11-13T08:59:26Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Interesting. I wasn’t aware that the tapping system recorded the holding down of the space bar. [/QUOTE] No worries, mate. I wasn’t sure either, but I thought it was worth a shot. Seems it must be the case. ---
**Author:** ![Lama\_Pacos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Lama\_Pacos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lama_Pacos)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2006, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/search-tool-to-find-music-without-lyrics/380107/14 "2006-11-13T10:36:01Z")
I’m guessing the weird answers are from the user-input “Teach the Song Tapper” feature. It probably indiscriminately pairs what people input with what they tapped.