Singing Around The World

Cynthia Lopinto Feature Article Leave a comment 2,621 Views

By MADI LoPINTO

Here I am in the white tee shirt smiling with my singing buddies.

Once upon a time, a girl who could not stop singing around the house went on the app store of her phone and typed in “sing.”

She saw an app called Sing!Karaoke and thought it sounded like fun.

She began singing on there actively and posting her music.

One day, she got a comment on one of her performances asking her to be in a group. She had no idea what that meant, but gave it a try.

Long story short, the group consisted of 35 amazing musicians who developed amazing friendships over the phone. This miraculous group of friends was formed by the love of music. After a bit less than a year of keeping in contact and making music together, this group decided to meet in person. A couple of times!

There is no end to this story. To this day, I, the girl, still talk to this group of people daily. Some of them are my best friends and we miss each other all the time. We know we’ll see each other again someday, but we all live around the world and live completely different lives besides the fact of our love for music.

Welcome readers!

My name is Madi. I am a Performing Arts major at The Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA. I have been singing since I was a toddler. Being around a musical family has changed my life for the better.

I want to share a tablet application that has also altered my life in an amazing and beautiful way. The application is called Sing! Karaoke by the company Smule.

You don’t have to be in a group like I am to connect with people through music. You can see the passion through the performances and 99 percent of comments are genuine and kind.

If you don’t want to sing, but you play an instrument, you can still participate. I had someone join one of my songs with their flute and it was absolutely beautiful. Sing! Karaoke is your musical playground.

Basics and Navigation Through Sing! Karaoke

When you first download Sing! Karaoke, it asks you what you would like to sing. Whether that is rock, gospel, jazz, country, Christian, or even musicals, the application takes that into account and it shows in your “Recommended” tab which I will get into later.

After selecting up to four of their many genres, you get to “unlock” a song of your choice from a list they give you. The list is made up of the genres you selected. You can select that song and start singing or you can pause the song, exit, and explore more options!

Once you are in the main menu of the app, you will see icons at the bottom.

The first icon that looks like two people is your feed. This just displays songs performed by other people. Sometimes it shows songs sung by celebrities, recommended musicians for you, or people you are following.

The next icon you will see is the one that looks like a pair of headphones. This is when you’ve had enough of singing and you want to listen to the world! Within this tab, you can swipe left or right to view categories such as “Smule Picks” or “Video!” which are the contest winners of the week.

The next icon is probably the most important. The songbook! This is the list of songs you can choose from and sing! You can scroll through the list, or you can search a song you have in mind by clicking the magnifying glass on the top right.

The next icon that looks like a bell is your notifications. If you have Facebook, you know what this is. Basically, if someone likes or comments on one of your songs, a little pink icon will show up to alert you. Within this icon, on the top left is where you can message other users.

The final icon is your profile. You can add a picture and description at the top. Your profile includes your followers, people you are following and all of your recordings.

The number of recordings you see on my profile (4441), does not only include songs performed by me. It also includes people who have joined my duets. These duets are called open calls. You can find these in the “invites” tab in your profile.

In this picture, you can see that it says “15 singers have joined.” What that means is I opened a song by singing the parts the app told me to sing; it’s like a karaoke duet! Then anyone can join the other half that I didn’t sing or left open. So the list of singers you see in this picture joined me in the song I provided. Pretty cool!

Here, you can see there is a globe. This shows a general location of you and whom you are singing with! In this example, I sang with my friend Emi. It’s a blast to view your distance and listen to the music created long-distance.

These two pictures serve as an amazing visual showing many people singing together for this one song! My group and another group got together and sang a group song! The globe was almost filled!

This application does wonders for bringing musicians together.

How to Start Singing!

Here’s the part you came for! Here are the simple steps needed to start singing on Sing! Karaoke

Navigate to the “songbook”
Pick a song by searching or browsing
Select the “sing” button next to the song of your choice
You can join another musician for free, or you can become a VIP to sing a solo, open your own duet, or open a group song.
You can choose to sing with video or with only audio
Use headphones!!! Without headphones there is a terrible feedback sound. I use regular apple earbuds with a mic attached for better sound. These can be found for less than $15 on Amazon.
Like when singing live karaoke, there are colors for when you sing and when your partner sings. Blue means you sing, Orange means you both sing and grey means only your partner sings.
Listen back, pick a filter and volume that suits your song and your voice and save it!

That’s it! Pretty simple. You may be thinking “yeah but what if I want to open my own song or sing a solo?” It’s not free, but if you love music I strongly believe it’s worth the money.

They offer a 7-Day free trial and after that you pay $2.99 per week. This may seem like a lot, and if you don’t find your heart is 100 percent in it, joining already opened duets and groups can absolutely be just as fun! Since it can be a little difficult to immediately find musicians you like on Smule, here is the list of usernames from my lovely and active group, @_FreeSoulzMusic_:

@_Amber_Hines_

@_SarahBeth_

@_Sarahx

@AaronJamesCole

@ALimone_SR

@Annah_TV

@blikestea

@BobbayK

@CassieTheGinger

@CharlieOwen_xo

@CollinPittman

@considermecat

@EffinALYKINZ

@ElliceAmendolare

@haliiii

@HANNxA93

@iCharlotteSofia

@its_mllr_time

@jmr2ful

@JonCarrilloMusic

@JustLalo

@Kamco_

@manawallace

@MarioMcClean

@ninavee

@pleehost

@RainyDayMan

@SalleeChatfield

@SchmidtsnGiggls

@sharon_from_ohio

@sophea18

@WillToy

HAPPY SINGING!

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Cynthia Lopinto

Cyn LoPinto, M.A. is a gerontologist focusing on significant issues affecting older adults and their families. Her areas of interest include lifestyle enrichment, family dynamics, and caregiver support. Cyn has worked in both the recreational and healthcare industries.