From roughly late mid 2021 to early 2025, I frequented karaoke bars; in case anyone is wondering, I mean the stage-type, not the ones with private rooms. What I mean by ‘frequent’ actually grew in intensity over time. At first it was once a week, then it became twice a week, then it was thrice or even as many as 4 or 5 times a week in limited stretches before eventually stabilizing back at 2-3 times a week.
It wasn’t that I’d never been to karaoke before — by then I’d already been to karaoke in 6 countries — but that period, especially the first 60-70% of it, would say was a formative era for me second only to college. It was the time in which I grew more comfortable in my own skin and at ease with talking to strangers than ever before. Karaoke played a big role in that.
Over the course of my time doing karaoke at various bars all across LA, I picked up a certain set of skills, as Liam Neeson says in Taken. Oftentimes, upon either hearing me sing or learning how often I go to karaoke, people will ask me for tips. I thought I’d take some time to gather my thoughts and share a few such pointers here.
Clap for everyone
Rule #1 of karaoke is you clap for everyone. This is the hallmark of a supportive, positive karaoke audience and establishment. I don’t give a shit how mediocre you think that last singer sounded, shut up and clap.
It’s not all about you
This is one of the more subjective ones here, but when picking a song, remember it’s not all about you! I understand some would say, “Who cares what the crowd wants, sing what you want to sing!” But it is incredibly selfish and just straight up tone deaf to kill the vibe by singing a downer out of nowhere just because you felt like it. The only time it’s more acceptable to pick songs that make people wanna die a little is Valentine’s Day, and that’s only if you’re single. I would never sing Dreaming With A Broken Heart most days at karaoke, but on Valentine’s Day? Whip dat shit out!
Read the room
Try to get a feel for the audience at the venue and what songs they might be into, and pick your songs accordingly. Not all songs are equally appreciated by all audiences, and your ability to align your song choice with the tastes of the crowd will heavily influence the audience’s reaction. For example, do you really think Avicii would go down well in front of an older crowd? Or some tier 2/tier 3 fame song from the 70s in front of a Gen Z crowd? Didn’t think so.
Timing matters
Relating to the above, the time of night (or day) in which you sing a particular song absolutely matters, in two regards. First, if there’s a song you don’t know as well but wanna try out, it’s best to sing it early on when there’s fewer people, that way it’s a smaller test crowd and you have time to redeem yourself with songs you know better later in the night if you bomb it. Conversely, there are songs that while popular won’t hit with their full impact until later in the night when people are drunker; for example, while people might politely clap for Bohemian Rhapsody early on, they might drunkenly sing along to the whole thing later in the evening.
Make sure you know the verses
This is one of the most common mistakes karaoke novices make. Do NOT sign up for a song where you only know the chorus, you will make a fool of yourself! Even if it’s a super popular song, you will spend 70% of your time onstage mumbling like an idiot if you don’t know the verses. And be careful, there are lots of songs where you might not realize you don’t know the verse until you get up there and barely sing anything for the first 45 seconds of the song that are not the famous part you know.
Rapping is hard
One of the hardest things to do at karaoke in my opinion is rap. Believe it or not, it’s not just saying words fast. It can also sometimes be made harder by any latency in the lyric display if you don’t know the words by heart, the upcoming words might not appear fast enough. Practice accordingly.
Falsetto is also hard
Using falsetto to hit high notes sounds easy in theory, but it’s not in practice. While getting the pitch right might be straightforward enough, getting enough projection to sound good in falsetto, even with a mic, can be difficult. I recommend using it sparingly.
Transposition is your friend
Also called pitch shifting, transposition can make possible songs you would not be able to hit the high notes (or low notes) in otherwise. Asking the KJ to nudge the song 1 to 3 half-steps either up or down is generally reasonable, any more and the backing track can start to sound weird. But know which of your songs you can or cannot handle without transposition, as some venues will not/know how to pitch shift songs.
Sign up first, ask questions later
Do not wait to get drunk then sign up; sign up first then get drunk while you wait. This is especially true in popular venues with long queues as the wait time can grow exponentially the longer you wait to sign up. If you’re at a crowded venue at the start of the night, whether your first song is 1st overall or 6th overall can impact whether you get to sing 2 songs or 3 songs total that night.
It’s an exhibition not a competition
You are here to perform, not to ‘defeat’ or ‘outshine’ anyone else. Obviously, you can be a little playfully competitive with your friends, but keep that shit between you two. Don’t be competitive with strangers for no reason.
But seriously, don’t be a piece of shit
Do not boo people. Do not heckle people. Don’t go around shit talking people. The classic mantra say something nice, or say nothing at all absolutely applies in karaoke. Being a piece of shit at karaoke is unacceptable regardless of singing ability, but it becomes more heinous a sin the worse you yourself are at singing.
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