How to sing karaoke

Song choice

Watch out for the trap for new singers. Many newcomers choose their favourite song. While this can be ok, many times it's not. Thats because, your favourite song can be very difficult to sing. Especially if it's R'nB or Rap. We often underestimate the quality of the voice of our favourite artists because we sing along with their music so much that we start to think that it sounds pretty ok (with the original artist singing at the same time) and tend to think that's our best chance to give a good performance! Aint necessarily so. Once your voice is out there on it's own, the song takes on a whole new perspective. A classic example of this is how many fella's try an AC/DC song only to discover that Bon Scott and Brian Johnson go higher in their range leaving the karaoke performer struggling on the high notes.

So, what to do? Well to give yourself the best chance of giving a good performance, try a song that has the following singability attributes.

Singability attributes

• Simple lyrics that you know well. (allows you to concentrate on pitch and delivery)
• Slow lyrics (give you time to read the lyrics before singing.)
• Within your range of pitch.
• Well rehearsed.

The temptation here is to sing your favourite. Well if you know it really well and can sing all the notes then maybe this is the song for you. I always encourage singers to make their first song of a night to be one that they know really well. This makes for a good warm up and lets you know where you are on that particular night vocally and then it's time for something a bit more challenging.

When you go to a karaoke show, you often hear some of these easy starter songs because they are very singable. One thing that should be mentioned is funny songs. Now, you can often take on a funny song even though it's not as singable as others as they tend to take the pressure off the singer. If everyone's having a laugh, we tend to worry less about the technical stuff.

Easy Starters Songs

• My way
• The gambler
• Friends in low places
• New York New York
• Dancing queen
• Killing me softly
• I'm gonna be 500 miles

Singing

Wow, you're actually considering singing, welcome to the club of those that took that little risk (Not everyone does). Anyway, I'll preface this chapter with the note that these tips are non-technical and designed to give basic assistance to someone just starting out. If you'd like technical training then get yourself along to a professional singing school.

Breathing must be the easiest thing to improve that most people don't give any thought to. Bearing in mind, that it's hard to learn more than one thing at a time when you're singing, it's easiest to learn to breathe better when doing a very familiar song. Now, that said, this tip is really simple conceptually: just sing with a full lung full of air. The beginners trap here is to only breathe in as much air as you think you're going to need for the next line of the song. This is just wrong. You should try to have a full lung full of air prior to every line you sing and that way you'll have lots of power and endurance in reserve. You can practice your breathing control by taking a deep breath and letting it out as evenly and for as long a time as possible. Can you go for one minute, because that will get you through pretty much any sustained note that you may wish to hold.

Next thing, be prepared to make a noise. When singers are starting out and feeling a bit shy, they tend to be very quiet. This is ok if thats where you're at, but when your confidence is up, be prepared to make some sound when you sing. It doesn't matter how much your host turns up the mike volume if you simply turn down your own vocal volume. Newbies often feel quite comfortable yelling or screaming (no do, no do) on a loud mike, but then go quiet when it comes to singing (not that you're trying to make it hard for your host or anything). Lastly practice, obvious yes, but it really applies to singing karaoke. The first time you do it, when you're looking out at all those faces looking back, it's easy to lose your focus, so the environment will seem a bit strange at first, but the next time, you can just go for it!