You know what’s funny? I’m an excellent singer. Years of formal training, sang professionally for years. But take me to a karaoke bar and I will be the suckiest sucky fuck there. Why? Because on a professional stage it’s a different vibe. Very focused, very intense, and if you try to do that in a karaoke bar you look like a fucking tool, so instead I try to be casual, not use my “pro” technique, and I end up sounding like shit.
When taken to karaoke, I’ll sing only one song, and it’ll be an aggressive metal song sung and screamed with my full energy and passion that I used to give at live performances. And then I’ll quietly sit for the rest of the night, enjoying the knowledge that no one else will try to pressure me into singing another song.
They’ll allow literally anything! One time, they even let someone perform Living on a Prayer, if you can believe that! And Hooked on a Feeling. And Born in the U.S.A. Now that I think about it, maybe New Jersey isn’t the barrier you were referencing.
Which is hillarious because I’ve been kicked out of Karaoke bars for laughing too hard at my own rendition of Islands in the stream by Dolly Parton with my drunk buddy as Kenny Rogers. It was magical and hillarious. I am a respectable Karaoke singer drunk or sober.
Karaoke bars are often polluted with a pestillence of people who think they are undiscovered musical geniuses who are minutes away from being discovered by a record label executive trolling the depths of karaoke shitholes looking for the next great pop-star. Anything that fucks with their discoverability makes them go coocoo.
Is it true that karaoke shifts the pitch by a couple semitones — because people normally don’t hear their own voice from outside their skull — and this ends up throwing professional singers off?
No formal training whatsoever, basically only sing in the car, shower, or karaoke bars.
I am nowhere near good enough to be some kind of professional vocalist, but I am usually in the top 3 singers by actual ability to hit the right notes on songs, at any given karaoke / bar outing.
I’ll usually try to cajole another actually good singer into some kind of duet, be it either an actual proper duet, or basically if its like a song from a singer with incredible range in the song, i do the baritone lines, they do the tenor or falsetto, we both sing the mid range, we basically act as live backing tracks for each other.
Why? Singing and making music is a worthwhile goal that you generally achieve by some other means than doing a lot of karaoke. But to get good at bowling you have to specifically have practiced bowling.
I dunno what “good at karaoke” means other than singing well.
Don’t get me wrong, I also find it annoying when a group goes to karaoke and there’s the one theatre kid who can actually sing and just embarrasses everyone else, but I’d still say they’re good
Karaoke is kinda like improv comedy: You need an easy, quick setup, then a punchline that’s also easily understood, but not too crude. High-brow comedy has a place, but a low-brow club generally isn’t it.
For Karaoke, the song is the setup, so ideally you’ll pick a well-known one, while the punchline is the mediocre singing. Singing well is like telling an anecdote: interesting, for the right audience, but not what people go to Karaoke for. Take too long to get to the funny part and the anticipation is gone. Sing too poorly and it becomes unpleasant rather than funny.
You can be good at Karaoke as a form of entertainment without strictly being an actual good singer, if you nail that balance and deliver it well.
i think it’s genuinely worse when people are good at karaoke
You know what’s funny? I’m an excellent singer. Years of formal training, sang professionally for years. But take me to a karaoke bar and I will be the suckiest sucky fuck there. Why? Because on a professional stage it’s a different vibe. Very focused, very intense, and if you try to do that in a karaoke bar you look like a fucking tool, so instead I try to be casual, not use my “pro” technique, and I end up sounding like shit.
When taken to karaoke, I’ll sing only one song, and it’ll be an aggressive metal song sung and screamed with my full energy and passion that I used to give at live performances. And then I’ll quietly sit for the rest of the night, enjoying the knowledge that no one else will try to pressure me into singing another song.
Do they do Lorna Shore songs at karaoke bars???
They’ll allow literally anything! One time, they even let someone perform Living on a Prayer, if you can believe that! And Hooked on a Feeling. And Born in the U.S.A. Now that I think about it, maybe New Jersey isn’t the barrier you were referencing.
Which is hillarious because I’ve been kicked out of Karaoke bars for laughing too hard at my own rendition of Islands in the stream by Dolly Parton with my drunk buddy as Kenny Rogers. It was magical and hillarious. I am a respectable Karaoke singer drunk or sober.
Karaoke bars are often polluted with a pestillence of people who think they are undiscovered musical geniuses who are minutes away from being discovered by a record label executive trolling the depths of karaoke shitholes looking for the next great pop-star. Anything that fucks with their discoverability makes them go coocoo.
Yup, my ex is literally a professional singer. Take her to kareoke and it’s like strangling a cat. On purpose, because she doesn’t want to be a dick.
Meanwhile I mumble while keeping the mic as far from me as possible, because I suck at singing in an entirely organic manner
Is it true that karaoke shifts the pitch by a couple semitones — because people normally don’t hear their own voice from outside their skull — and this ends up throwing professional singers off?
Strangely, I am basically the opposite of this.
No formal training whatsoever, basically only sing in the car, shower, or karaoke bars.
I am nowhere near good enough to be some kind of professional vocalist, but I am usually in the top 3 singers by actual ability to hit the right notes on songs, at any given karaoke / bar outing.
I’ll usually try to cajole another actually good singer into some kind of duet, be it either an actual proper duet, or basically if its like a song from a singer with incredible range in the song, i do the baritone lines, they do the tenor or falsetto, we both sing the mid range, we basically act as live backing tracks for each other.
I also have this problem
Yeah you have to like unlearn so much to not look like a tryhard
That’s why they always use really shitty microphones— to level the playing field
Why? Singing and making music is a worthwhile goal that you generally achieve by some other means than doing a lot of karaoke. But to get good at bowling you have to specifically have practiced bowling.
Singing is not karaoke. Karaoke is bad singing with enthusiasm.
I dunno what “good at karaoke” means other than singing well.
Don’t get me wrong, I also find it annoying when a group goes to karaoke and there’s the one theatre kid who can actually sing and just embarrasses everyone else, but I’d still say they’re good
Karaoke is kinda like improv comedy: You need an easy, quick setup, then a punchline that’s also easily understood, but not too crude. High-brow comedy has a place, but a low-brow club generally isn’t it.
For Karaoke, the song is the setup, so ideally you’ll pick a well-known one, while the punchline is the mediocre singing. Singing well is like telling an anecdote: interesting, for the right audience, but not what people go to Karaoke for. Take too long to get to the funny part and the anticipation is gone. Sing too poorly and it becomes unpleasant rather than funny.
You can be good at Karaoke as a form of entertainment without strictly being an actual good singer, if you nail that balance and deliver it well.
You guys are making me want to try karaoke again, which is not something I’ve ever felt before.