# What is an easy song to learn to sing? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 8, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132 "2015-02-08T17:18:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/1 "2015-02-08T17:18:47Z")
I have zero training in singing (although I can read music and play an instrument). Suppose I want to come as close as I can to mastering a song. What would be some examples of popular/commonly known songs that are considered relatively easy to sing? Assume tenor range. mmm ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/2 "2015-02-08T17:28:28Z")
Don’t laugh–I always warm up with “Margaritaville.” ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/3 "2015-02-08T17:30:46Z")
Probably not something by Led Zeppelin. How about “Old McDonald Had A Farm”? ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/4 "2015-02-08T17:34:11Z")
With A Little Help From My Friends. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/5 "2015-02-08T17:34:58Z")
You have to sing what you like. Keep the songs up-beat & fun; that feeling of laughter and joy inside of you will spackle the cracks of almost any performance. So to recap, 1) Nobody is perfect, and 2) Anyone can have fun. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/6 "2015-02-08T17:46:19Z")
Probably _not_ “Take On Me” by a-ha. I always hurt myself whenever I try to sing along to that. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/7 "2015-02-08T17:51:23Z")
“Three Blind Mice”. And if you sing [a punk version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzvdja8mJOs), you don’t have to worry about remembering all the lyrics. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/8 "2015-02-08T17:55:33Z")
Most of Neil Diamond’s stuff is pretty easy. The lyrics were simple, and so were the melodies. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/9 "2015-02-08T19:18:38Z")
Most of the more common Christmas songs like Silent Night. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/10 "2015-02-08T20:00:21Z")
I tried to find a cite for something I’m remembering I read a while back about how Fred Astaire’s singing range was just at an octave so when Cole Porter wrote for him (including _Night and Day_) in a movie score he had to keep that in mind. There may be others with even narrower range but that one messed with my mind! ---
**Author:** ![get\_lives](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@get\_lives](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/get_lives)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/11 "2015-02-08T21:59:55Z")
> [@Zeldar](#): > > I tried to find a cite for something I’m remembering I read a while back about how Fred Astaire’s singing range was just at an octave so when Cole Porter wrote for him (including _Night and Day_) in a movie score he had to keep that in mind. There may be others with even narrower range but that one messed with my mind! That’s bizarre. I am a totally untrained singer (although I have a degree in music performance), and I have a good-sounding octave and a half in chest voice, plus another few notes in head voice, and some weak notes down to about a 4th below my good low-end notes. Total range=2.5 octaves, plus falsetto. And I am pretty average in that, I think. Granted, people lose some range as they age, but that’s unusual. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/12 "2015-02-08T22:27:20Z")
A popular story, possibly exaggerated, is that Fred Astaire’s RKO screen test was notated, “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Balding. Can dance a little.” Yeah, he wasn’t a great singer. I find his singing voice a bit thin, but pleasant enough. It’s definitely not, to put it mildly, the main attraction. Looking at the sheet music for _Night and Day_, I see that it has about an octave and a half range, so old Fred was doing better than just a single octave, at least on that one. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/13 "2015-02-08T22:46:01Z")
“Love Me Tender” should be fairly easy to master _sol do ti do re la re, do ti la ti do sol do ti do re la re, do ti la ti do mi mi mi mi mi mi mi, mi re do re mi mi mi fa mi re la re, do ti mi re do_ One octave, no sequential intervals larger than a fourth, nothing dramatic happens, and singing it as a quasi-lullaby is pretty much SOP. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/14 "2015-02-09T00:38:57Z")
Frank Sinatra had a surprisingly limited range, especially mid-60s and onwards. Lots of the classics he sang were slightly modified to fit a baritone/tenor range. **TreacherousCretin** also brings up a good point - Lennon/McCartney would write songs with an intentionally small range for Ringo (With A Little Help, Yellow Submarine, etc). ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/15 "2015-02-09T03:25:20Z")
A lot of Pink Floyd songs would qualify. They often sang kind of monotone. And Bob Dylan and Grateful Dead. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/16 "2015-02-09T04:51:48Z")
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/17 "2015-02-09T15:52:42Z")
I’d recommend “Mack the Knife” as a good starter. It’s got a limited range, it’s repetitive, and if it turns out you have a problem keeping pitch, it’s one of those songs that can be quasi-spoken through. > [@Greg\_Charles](#): > > A popular story, possibly exaggerated, is that Fred Astaire’s RKO screen test was notated, “Can’t sing. Can’t act. Balding. Can dance a little.” Yeah, he wasn’t a great singer. I find his singing voice a bit thin, but pleasant enough. It’s definitely not, to put it mildly, the main attraction. To each his own, but I disagree: Astaire had an absolutely wonderful way with a song. He brought out the best in composers, with Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, and the Gershwin brothers writing some of their very best stuff specifically for him. I don’t have a cite but I believe I’ve read that he was many songwriters’ favorite vocalist. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/18 "2015-02-09T16:03:26Z")
Get the CD of the musical “Woman of the Year,” starring Lauren Bacall, and learn one of the songs that she sings. I guarantee you will outsing her, no matter what your skill level. Seriously . . . Learning to sing is basically learning to listen. I learned to sing by joining a chorus, and listening to the other singers, both the good and the bad. And singing loud enough to hear myself as well. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/19 "2015-02-09T16:54:45Z")
Another vote for learning some of the popular Christmas carols. We all know what they should sound like and in many cases they were written with the average individual’s vocal range in mind. One of the biggest favors you can do for yourself when learning to sing is learning where to take a breath. Map out the breath breaks in a song before you learn to sing it. If you aren’t always struggling to get to the next breath break, you can keep your pitch much more even. Another hint - sing as though your voice were coming from the back of your head. It prevents nasality. It may sound silly, but it’s relatively easy to do with a little concentration and greatly improves your tone. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [February 9, 2015, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132/20 "2015-02-09T18:51:20Z")
I think “All My Loving” by the Beatles would be pretty easy. The main melody is only an octave in range. You can sing it in whatever key fits your voice. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-an-easy-song-to-learn-to-sing/712132.md?page=2)