Any advice for a newbie to Karaoke?

Question

I am just a little nervous about my karaoke debut and was wondering if anyone had any useful pointers. I have never sung on stage singled out like that, and Im just a bit nervous.

Answer 1

Part of the fun about going to karaoke is watching and listening to people who don't sing very well. BUT.. if you notice, they all seem to be really enjoying themselves. Keep that in mind, it's all about the enjoyment. Don't take yourself too seriously, and just enjoy it! If you go with friends, I recommend you sing directly to them until you get over your nerves. Being nervious is perfectly natural, by the way, but just try to have FUN!!!

Answer 2

Have a good time. Sing out, but don't belt it out. Sing very clearly, so you can be understood. Learn to read just a little bit ahead. Practice at home if you get a chance. You don't need a full blown karaoke machine to do this. Grab a freee-ware program called VanBasco and download some midi files with lyrics attached (.kar files) They won't sound as good, but the files are very small and they are more than good enough to practice with. When you get in front of people, the combination of the better sounding MP3 or wave files, and the fact that you have built up your confidence will do amazing things for you.

Answer 3

First and foremost, make sure you know the words! Pick a song you know well so you know the breaks.

Relax, you're not on American Idol. Simon Cowell isn't there and the rest of the audience is probably buzzed from drinking. From my experience, bar audiences are very receptive to karaoke singers. They will applaud anyone who has the nerve to get on the stage.

One time I got up to sing and the DJ had the wrong song on. Fortunately, it was a song I knew fairly well, so I winged it. I did all right. You can too.

Oh, by the way, a bar is a good place to start for the above reasons. If you don't drink, don't worry, bars do have non-alcoholic drinks.

Answer 4

I've never done it before myself, but the best thing I can think of would be to KNOW THE SONG LYRICS (it kills me to hear someone sing what they THINK are the right words, and totally screw it up--especially if it is a fast song or there are some foreign language phrases in it), and keep up with the beat of the song--don't sing it slow in one part and fast in another to catch up, so to speak. Also, practice a few times, then decide what to do. If you can't carry a tune in a bucket, as the phrase goes, don't try to be a singer.