Free or not, karaoke is an interesting tool to learn how to place your voice on a piece of music. Indeed, thanks to the lyrics that are displayed indicating when to place the words, it will be a great help to you to learn rhythmic placement. Of course, karaoke won’t help you learn to sing in tune, but it will at least help you understand how to place your voice at the right tempo while having fun.
What is Karaoke?
The beginnings of the first karaoke were born in the United States in 1950 thanks to the singer Mitch Miller. The audience sang along with him thanks to the lyrics displayed on the screen, a ball bounced on the lyrics when they had to be sung: the bouncing ball.
But it was in Japan, in 1960, that karaoke was truly invented by a record store owner, Kisaburō Takagi, who had noticed that many people liked to sing the songs played by jukeboxes.
This is how he came up with the idea of creating a machine that would play songs in instrumental versions, allowing fans to put themselves in the singer’s shoes by following the lyrics of the song, which scroll across the screen as they go. He gave it the name Karaoke, a contraction of two Japanese words, kakapo which means “empty” and ōkesutora which means “orchestra”.
Free karaoke in bars and other dedicated places became a real phenomenon in Asia in the 1960s. It then invaded the United States, England, Canada, and Australia in the 1980s before sweeping across France and all of Europe in the 1990s…
Free karaoke or how everyone can play at becoming a singer
Free or almost free karaoke, since it is offered to customers of a bar or accessible at home with a simple DVD or even on the Internet, is a very popular leisure activity with a large number of followers.
Thanks to this system, everyone can feel like a star by imitating their favorite singers… In public or in private, with friends or family, karaoke becomes a fun activity that lights up evenings.
Singing becomes accessible to everyone, whether you are already a good singer or the king or queen of pots and pans… Karaoke makes singing accessible to everyone without fear of ridicule. This is how this activity allows everyone to show off their talent, whether vocal or, sometimes, humorous…
There you will come across real performing artists as well as bathroom singers who can even try to share a musical moment in a duo or group. No fear of being judged or mocked since the primary goal of this hobby is to have fun playing the singer without any pretensions.
Karaoke would surely have pleased Bernard Meltzer, who had this very apt quote: “The woods would be a particularly silent place if only the most gifted birds sang.”
Learn to sing with free karaoke
Can you learn to sing with karaoke? It’s obvious that no! Using free or paid karaoke will not be enough to teach you the vocal techniques necessary for good singing practice.
The use of karaoke can nevertheless be an interesting support in your learning of singing. Indeed, it can be a good complementary tool to singing lessons… The practice of karaoke will be an ally in the work of vocal and rhythmic placement since it will help you to set up your phrasing and identify the pause times and the flow of the text. The use of free karaoke will also allow you to try certain songs and its practice in public will be an asset to dare and gain self-confidence.
Be careful, however, to choose your videos carefully… Free karaoke is not always well done and its quality can vary greatly. Indeed, some do not correctly indicate the moments where to place your singing and can mislead you…
So, free or paid karaoke?
So how do you choose the right karaoke so that it is useful for your singing training? Can I use free karaoke or should I switch to paid karaoke?
Free Karaoke
There is a huge selection of free karaoke videos on YouTube, for example. But as I explained earlier, the quality varies greatly, not only in terms of the precision of the placement (bouncing ball) but also in terms of the musical quality and arrangements. And I won’t even mention the lyrics of the songs, which aren’t always accurate…
However, you can still find free karaoke of quite good quality on YouTube, such as on the channels Sing King, or Karafun, even if some karaokes keep the voice of the original singer in the background. But this type of free karaoke video is not downloadable and requires an internet connection… To tell the truth, few sites offer a real choice of songs in free karaoke that can be downloaded. You will still find some free titles to download on the site Version Karaoké, for example.
Paid karaoke
This site also offers you in its paid section, a vast catalog of karaoke videos of excellent quality. Expect a rate of 2.49 euros per title. You can also find what you are looking for by purchasing karaoke DVDs which offer a wide choice of titles mixed or grouped by artists or by year.
But there are other options, such as using karaoke video games like SingStar and Let’s Sing or even the game The Voice. Another possibility will be to download karaoke applications like Smule, the Voice karaoke, or Yokee. These apps have a free karaoke section and a paid section, they will also be the subject of another article dedicated to them…
Acoustic and tone cover
The main problem with free or paid karaoke is that they are often played in the original key which is not necessarily adapted to your vocal range… In addition, they do not always allow you to take some liberties in your interpretation since they reproduce identically the version that is played on the radio…
Free karaoke acoustic cover
It is sometimes interesting to go and confront yourself with acoustic versions on piano or guitar, for example. On condition that you know the original version of the song well, of course! I often tell my students that you have to master the basic musical construction, to be able to properly have fun deconstructing it… These acoustic versions of your favorite songs give you more freedom of interpretation and allow you to be more creative. This is what we call a cover, understand by that, a re-interpretation of the song. It is a way of appropriating the piece and making a more personal version of it.
You will find several of these acoustic instrumentals in free karaoke on the internet. I recommend versions made by Sing2piano or Sing2guitar, for example. You will also find a wide choice of free karaoke on AcoustiClub or Popup Karaoke instrumentals and many others… The choice is indeed wider in free Anglo-Saxon karaoke, but you can find what you are looking for in French with PianoVoix or Jérémy Spark.
Be careful though, because some of these karaoke, even if they show you the lyrics on the screen, do not always tell you when to place the words and your voice. At the same time, it is the principle of a cover to have freedom of rhythmic placement and phrasing… So make sure you master the melody of the song before tackling it and do not hesitate to film yourself or record yourself in audio so that you can listen to your performance again. It is a very good method to become aware of what you do well or not, and therefore to improve your singing…
Free karaoke adapted to my voice
Of course, we all want to sing our favorite songs, whether with the original arrangements or in an acoustic version. But how do you do it when you dream of singing Celine Dion while you have the range of Julien Doré or when you would like to sing Barry White with a voice close to that of the Snow Queen??!!!
Unless you can sing in the original key by going an octave above or below, you will have to find a version with a key that fits your voice. That is a musical version whose pitch has been altered by changing the fundamental note on which the music is played.
For this, you can find modified versions of free karaoke on YouTube, including acoustic versions. They indicate a key “-1 or +1” or “male or female key” and for English titles, “higher key” when the version is higher or “lower key” when it is lower. It is possible to modify your karaoke more precisely and adapt to your voice, but you will then have to turn to paid content like the Karafun app, for example.
In conclusion
It is therefore relatively easy to find free karaoke on the internet that is close to the original version or readapted in terms of pitch and even musical arrangement. It would therefore be a shame not to use this medium as a tool for learning to sing…!
Free or paid karaoke will therefore complement singing lessons to allow you to work on your vocal placement alone. It will be a valuable help to help you identify the tempo of the song, but also the pauses and the flow of the text.
However, it will not be able to replace singing lessons with a real teacher or a vocal coach. Learning to sing requires educational support to learn to master vocal techniques, but also the notion of accuracy and the basis of singing: Breathing. Finally, let’s not forget that all the work of emotional management, accuracy of interpretation, and stage expression will not be transmitted to you by the karaoke singing machine…! ^^
In any case, what is certain is that free karaoke will allow everyone, whatever their level and goals, to have fun and enjoy themselves. It can help you dare to sing in public and at the same time, combat your fear and stress.
Karaoke is a leisure activity that will bring together young and old to share laughter and strong emotions. So don’t forget that singing is accessible to everyone and allows you to blossom by sharing a little happiness… Happy singing!