Yes, I’m a regular visitor at karaoke clubs. And I have things to share. Code of conduct, ethics, repertoire – all those Dos and Don’ts in the karaoke. 10 life-hacks for a karaoke club newcomer.
1. Don’t sing ballads
It’s not that you should stay away from them at all, but you’d better not sing slow melancholic songs at an undesirable moment. Nothing weighs the karaoke night down as quickly as a tedious song from the loudspeakers. When the guests come out to the dancing floor and eventually start showing some spirit, the best thing you can do is to fuel it rather than nipping it in the bud.
2. Don’t quarrel with a host or a sound operator
There is nothing good about quarrelling, especially with someone who decides how to present you (if at all) and how your song is going to sound. You need no troubles from that department. If you preach that “the customer is always right”, ask the manager how much effort and time it takes to find and hire a proper sound operator. We are not saying that the club staff are saints, but I beg you – solve your problems through the administrator. Don’t turn you personal problem into a common conundrum.
3. Don’t sing rogue songs
Just don’t. Besides, usually the rogue songs about aspired days out of prison and doves flying over the yard are “outlawed”. In the VIP-room, you can make your wildest vocal fantasies and perversions true, but don’t turn the audience in the common area into accomplices.
4. Avoid rap
You won’t make it.
5. Learn the lyrics
You don’t need to be a good singer to sing karaoke well. In fact, many great folks at the karaoke clubs are quite terrible singers. Yet, these terrible singers at least know that is going to come out of their mouth. Spend several minutes before going to the stage to learn the lyrics. No man or woman looks more helpless and pathetic than the one who is looking perplexedly at the monitor and has no idea what is happening.
6. Fail loudly!
If everything is truly horrible, enjoy it. Fail so loudly and brilliantly that it comes into legends. Seriously. A bad singer has a million times more fun than yet another “talent”, who is mumbling “Savage Love” a meter away from a mic.
7. A producer left the room
Yes, it is just a karaoke, not a talent show. There no ageing man in a brown suit who will nod at your table to the waitress and ask her to hand down his business card. Nobody is going to assess you. Relax and just enjoy singing.
8. Be kind to the audience
It’s not their fault something went wrong or you are not in a mood. Don’t snap at the people who came to the karaoke club to enjoy their time. Throwing a microphone, shouting, quarrelling, and behaving vulgarly won’t win you any friends but can easily put you on the club’s blacklist.
9. Don’t turn into a critique
It sums up what was said above. Nothing is worse than booing someone’s performance. Even if you do not do it publicly but slur “Karaoke is not your thing” to the singer in a toilet. It may flag karaoke is not your thing.
10. Have fun
If you came to a karaoke club for anything other than having fun then why coming at all?
