Karaoke

Whether we are a professional singer or beginner, we always wanted to have fun in singing while in a karaoke bar. So, here are some simple karaoke singing tips to help you enjoy karaoke and improve your singing performance.

1. Choose songs that fit your voice and you are very familiar with. Remember that selecting a song which you like than what you think the audience will enjoy will create huge different outcome.

2.  Know your strength. If you know a song and you truly know how to sing it; then go for it. Singing a song that fits your vocal range is the perfect way to stand out.

3. Know your limitations. Whether you are an amateur or not, the most important tip is understand your limitations. Because knowing your boundaries and staying within your capacity will lead you to great performance.

4. Feel comfortable while on the stage. Some people are afraid to get up on stage because they have fear in singing out loud in public. So, the best way is to sing like nobody is listening. Also, sing from your heart you will see that you are doing fine.

5. Have fun. Don’t take karaoke singing too seriously. Loosen up and be yourself.

6. Try to learn new songs. Choosing other tracks that you know will improve your singing voice.

7. If you are in a karaoke bar that serves alcoholic drinks, don’t get yourself drunk because alcohol will make you shout and slur.

8. Practice. You will have good rhythm and timing if you practice.  Listening carefully to your favorites songs is one good method.

Enjoying singing your favorite song should not end there. When doing karaoke singing especially at the bar, club or in a party, it is great to observe good manners. Don’t be too deafening and inconsiderate in order to have a fun-filled karaoke time with your friends or other people.

Below is a list of karaoke etiquette that can bring out a truly entertaining karaoke party:

1. Respect the person on stage. Never boo whoever use the karaoke and sing on stage. Everyone who goes in the karaoke bar wants to have a good time just like you. So just enjoy like what everybody wants to do.

2. It is a best practice to clap when someone is done singing. No matter what they have been, they deserve a simple reward by clapping your hands.

3. Handle the karaoke microphone, song book and other accessories with care. Don’t sway or toss the mic into the air to catch because this may damage the equipment and you might pay it.

4. For beginners, try to sing those songs that you are familiar and know the melody. Difficult songs like rap songs may bring a hard time for you.

5. Never go in front of the stage unless you are invited or called on. If you like the song and it is not yet your turn, you can sing along softly from your table instead.

6. Don’t be pissed off if someone chose your favorite song to sing. You can still sing sit or better select a new one. Don’t worry because there are several songs that may fit for you.

7. Don’t try to “cheat” in order to have more turns. Don’t stay on stage singing several songs. Wait for your turn again so that others can perform.

Aside from providing full-scale music entertainment, karaoke singing gives several benefits that you may not notice. The favorite pastime of most people which is karaoke can provide wonderful benefits to ones health, behavior and physical state.

Below are some great benefits of karaoke:

1. Karaoke singing helps release endorphins from from our body. These “good hormones” makes us feel good and happy.

2. It helps boost the child’s self confidence and social skills. Once a child become more comfortable in singing in front of other people, he/she will gain self-esteem.

3. Singing English songs will also help increase your vocabulary and communication skills. It can also be used as a tool for music subject in school.

4. Karaoke singing is another way of socializing with your friends and other people as well. This leisure is an effective way to break the ice.

5. Bonding moment with your loved ones becomes deeper and stronger while having fun.

6. While singing together with other people who are not close to you yet, you may feel the sense of belonging and acceptance.

7. Karaoke is a great way to express your feelings and emotions. If you can’t say it, you can convey it by singing a song.

Other benefits can be found by your own self so try karaoke and see the wonderful things that you can gain.

Whenever I surf the net about karaoke, there’s always a CDG I see everywhere. ‘What does that mean?’ I often asked myself. And to answer the puzzle once and for all, I checked Wikipedia about this so-called CDG.
 
CDG actually means Compact Disc Graphics (also known as CD+Graphics) which is a special audio compact disc that contains graphics data in addition to the audio data on the disc. The disc can be played on a regular audio CD player, but when played on a special CD+G player, can output a graphics signal (typically, the CD+G player is connected to a television set or a computer monitor); these graphics are almost exclusively used to display lyrics on a television set for karaoke performers to sing along with.

Each of the 96 subchannel data bytes can be thought of as being divided into 8 bits. Each of these bits corresponds to a separate stream of information. These streams are called “channels”, and are labeled starting with the letter P, and so on.

Both the P and Q channels on a regular audio CD are used for timing information. They assist the CD player in tracking the current location on the disc, and to provide the timing information for the time display on the CD player. Note that same space is used for CD-Text as well.

Channel Q is used for control purposes of more sophisticated players. It contains position information the Media Catalog Number (MCN), and International Standard Recording Code (ISRC). The ISRC is used by the media industry, and contains information about the country of origin, the year of publication, owner of the rights, as well as a serial number, and some additional tags.

In the CD+G system, 16-color (4-bit) graphics are displayed on a raster field which is 300×216 pixels in size.

Among the consumer devices that play CD+G format CDs are the NEC TurboGrafx CD (a CD-ROM peripheral for the TurboGrafx 16) and Turbo Duo, the Philips CD-i, the Sega Saturn and Mega-CD (Sega CD in North America), the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer, the Commodore Amiga CD32 and CDTV, and the Atari Jaguar CD (which was an attachment for the Atari Jaguar).

CD+G has had a resurgence of late, and is being used for CDs for karaoke systems, with the graphics used to display song lyrics.

That’s pretty technical, but it well answered my CDG question. (: Thanks Wikipedia!

There is a growing number of online karaoke sites nowadays, which fits for you if you are the timid and reserved kind who can’t sing in a public karaoke bar. In an online karaoke site, you have audience too, but virtual online audience who can rate you and tell if you have the potential star power. There is a trend that is observed to be occurring with the online karaoke sites, and new websites are arising swiftly on cyberspace. This happens to be the time of cyber karaoke!

Some very famous sites include kSolo. kSolo was obtained by Fox Interactive, which is a karaoke service that is generated by the user, with the use of a mic and the Internet connection. The visitors can browse music catalog, record, share and rate audio performances. There is a wide selection of genres, including kids’ songs, as well as a feature that recommends music based on other users’ recordings. Another is SingShot. I have mentioned SingShot before in my posts, particularly in the Sims on Stage entry, since SingShot is one of the most popular online karaoke sites in the Internet. You can record and post audio online, and users can mark their songs private or public, and can assign tags. Your recordings can also be embedded into your MySpace profiles and other sites, therefore letting individuals share their vocal talent with friends of their other online social networks. SingShot is also partnered with the online image host Photobucket, so photos and videos can as well be uploaded to go together with your audio. Another popular karaoke site is Bix. Like the other sites, you can sing and share recordings using the service. Bix has multiple talent contests, which includes comedy, dance, and beauty, among others. You can record and upload videos to the site as well. And get this, there are cash prizes for users and at present a spot in The Game’s next music video! If you’re the winner, you might be seeing yourself in a music vid! Bix also allows anyone to create their own contest. How about that. (: 

 Here’s a little game, to give you some karaoke fun! enjoy. (:

Karaoke Be a karaoke legend and sing to all your favourite songs!

Play this free game now!!

Karaoke is “kara” and “oke” in Japanese. Kara comes from “karappo” meaning empty, and oke comes from “okesutura” meaning orchestra. Commonly, a song when recorded has vocals and accompaniment, but music tapes with only the accompaniment recorded were named “karaoke.”

Today, this Japanese word is a Japanese word no more. Take a look at the most renowned of English dictionaries, The Oxford English Dictionary, and there you’ll see your favorite piece of entertainment listed. From the typical kind of entertainment for Japanese business people dropping to karaoke bars after work to have some drink and unwind while singing karaoke songs, now karaoke has been entertaining people all around the world since its invention twenty years ago.

According to karaoke history, the use of karaoke began at a snack bar in Kobe City. The story began when a strolling guitarist could not come to play at the bar because of illness, so the bar owner arranged accompaniment tape recordings, and the singers at the bar enjoyed singing to the tapes. This is only a legend though, but it might have been indeed the beginning of karaoke. Since then, karaoke has been commercialized and has become popular all over Japan.

Moving on to karaoke’s history, it was born in a night amusement quarter at the end of the high economic growth period in Japan. Before that, the clientele were accustomed to listening to famous songs via wire broadcasting, asking for their favorite songs by telephone, and the wire broadcasting company would put the songs on the air. The system like such continued for quite a while. Then again, it was not natural for many Japanese who like singing to only listen to other people sing. There karaoke entered the scene. Holding a microphone and singing a song to the accompaniment of an “orchestra,” they can feel like a professional singer. If the other customers as listeners applause for their performance, there’s the extra satisfaction they get. Karaoke has thus enthused people’s desire to sing. It also served as a pick-me-up tonic in removing stress to those business people and corporate men. As a result, karaoke immediately spread from Kansai (the region of its origin) to all over Japan… and to the rest of the world.

Do you know that karaoke has its own competition that covers contestants across the globe? It’s karaoke world championships!

This competition originated in Finland in 2003 with seven countries. The international karaoke competition features almost thirty countries around the world! It works like any other global competition, where there is a national contest initially held in each competing country, and the winner in each nation will represent their country in the world championships. Talk about how far karaoke has taken you, as far as the entire planet!

The titles to vie are Male Karaoke World Champion and Female Karaoke World Champion. The host country of this world championship has been in the country of its origin, in Finland. But this year is the first time since the birth of the contest that another country other than Finland has hosted the championships. It was held in Thailand last   September 2007.

The participating countries in the Karaoke World Championships are Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan Republic, Canada, China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, Macao, Malaysia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand, United Kingdom, and United States Of America.

The champions have had their own chance of fame and recognition as winners of Karaoke World Championships. During the tsunami fundraising concert in Bangkok, Thailand in December 2005, the top five male and female champions were given invitation to sing for the Princess of Thailand. The concert was broadcasted all over Thailand and raised funds for the tsunami victims of that previous year, in 2004. Also, just this April 2007, the winner of the Finnish version of the UK show Pop Idol, Ari Koivunen, happens to be the 2005 Finnish National Karaoke World Champion and the 3rd Place Karaoke World Champion in 2005.

Karaoke World Championships is without a doubt a solid venue for singers’ dreams to come true!

Karaoke becoming a widespread phenomenon has penetrated different aspects of entertainment, including video games, in mobile phones, computers and the Internet.

In video games, there is the Karaoke Revolution by Konami, which is produced for PlayStation2.  This console was made available in North America in 2003 and was finally released for the Microsoft Xbox in late 2004. This console works similarly like a normal karaoke, where a player sings the song with the lyrics on screen. The player is given a score based on rhythm, timing and pitch. Karaoke Revolution gained Karaoke Revolution Vol. 2, Karaoke Revolution Vol. 3, Karaoke Revolution Party Edition and CMT Presents Karaoke Revolution: Country. There is also SingStar created by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. This video game is especially well-liked in Europe and Australia.

You can also enjoy karaoke on your mobile phone! With the use of Java Midlet where a text file having the lyrics and Midi file having the music are run. Karaokini is one popular mobile karaoke provider.

In computers and the Internet, there had been plenty of softwares and websites that were created in line with karaoke success. There are computer softwares where you can play karaoke songs in your personal computer, and in the Internet, there are sites where you can sing and the entire world can listen as your audience and rate your song. There are a lot of online karaoke communities like singsnap.com, bix.com, singshot.com and ksolo.com.

In the East and Southeast side of Asia, video CDs became a widely popular means of entertainment, owing to the fame of karaoke. And they are continually selling up to these days! Even with the advent of DVDs and other high-tech entertainment bits and pieces, VCD players with karaoke functions are still part of the people’s entertainment systems.

Indeed, you can go where karaoke takes you, even in cars! In China, there has been a car furnished with a karaoke machine! Talk about karaoke transport!

How many times have you seen karaoke as part of the cast in movies? If you’re a karaoke fan, you know when your favorite singing gadget has appeared as a film prop. Like in my My Best Friend’s Wedding, when Julia Robert’s character wanted to embarrass Cameron Diaz’ character in front of everyone, including obviously the fiancé (Dermot Mulroney’s character) by pushing her to sing which she knows the fiancée can’t, with karaoke of course as our valuable prop. In turn, the planned turned out the opposite, with the fiancée’s croaking voice becoming adorable to the audience. We all know what happened after that. Actually, that part of the movie was pretty memorable to me, since the first time I sang with a karaoke in a big class party, my classmate said my voice was similar to that of Cameron’s character, which also, such croaky voice became adorable to them. Haha.

How about in High School Musical, where Zac Ephron and Vannessa Hudgens’ characters first met in a party as randomly chosen guests to sing a duet, making initially visible their chemistry for singing and visible our valuable prop once more! Until they met again in school and tried out for the school play. There are in the list, like in Jim Carrey’s The Cable Guy, Lost in Translation, and Rush Hour 2, where Chris Tucker had his own karaoke act, including outmaneuvering another karaoke singer. Duets is also another film featuring karaoke as the central theme. Jackpot, also featured karaoke bars as locations where the lead character toured, taking chances to fame as a country singer.

Then there’s also the 2006 independent film “The Karaoke King” and the Thai comedy-movie Fun Bar Karaoke, where the lead actress’ father fell in love with a karaoke bar hostess who’s the girlfriend of a mobster. A hitman is dispatched to kill the father, and the lead actress ends up falling in love with the hitman. There is also the documentary “Karaoke Fever” featuring karaoke contestants. In the documentary they go after six aspirants as they vie for one of the coveted spaces in America’s largest singing contest, the Karaoke fest. Competing for fifteen thousand dollars and a recording contract, they are not only singing for the audience’s enjoyment, they are also singing for their lives.

Wow, look! She’s a star, the karaoke!