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PostPosted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 10:46 pm 
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Ok so I have volunteered to run a karaoke night for a youth center. I would say the age averages from about 12-18.

Everyone who comes seems to enjoy the music, but hardly anyone wants to sing, and they won't even look thru the books so it usually ends up being mostly me picking random songs to sing and play.

Anyone have any suggestions on how i can break the ice and get someone to step up and sing?

I've tried encouraging duets, I've tried bribary with candy and treats. I've even brought my autotune pedal for them to play around with. I've never had this much trouble getting to sing, even with my church group families who all have children around the same age range.


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 2:43 am 
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Play some of your Multiplex tracks (from PHM, THM, PS) so that the full vocals are also being played. Put your system on autopilot for a few of those songs and observe the audience. When you see someone singing along, casually walk up to them with your cordless mic, and offer them the mic to sing along. Once they take the mic, the chances are good that they will want to try another song. Offer to let them sing from their seat. Sometimes that helps too. Once you get that person to participate others will usually follow.


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 5:45 am 
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8) In my experience getting the person to sing the first song is always a challenge. In the many years I have hosted I can honestly say that I have only failed a handful of times to get a person up. Singing a song is like Lays Potato Chips "You Can't Only Eat One". Sometimes you create a monster who wants to do the whole show. One trick I used that worked pretty well was to sing the first song and totally mess it up. Potential patrons think gee I can do as good as he is doing and he is getting paid.


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 6:18 am 
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You are playing to an age group that lives in a "video world" so I'd make sure that you have a monitor that faces the audience for them to watch.

Then, ask one of them to "help YOU" sing a song that you can explain they know, but you're unsure of....

(make them the experts)


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 7:30 am 
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I normally get them drunk first.. :angel:


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 8:07 am 
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Pick a fun, catchy upbeat song everybody knows.


Ask them to sing along with you off mic from their seats. If you have a wireless, let them sing from their seat instead of getting HP to sing.


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:19 pm 
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Money usually works good. Offer 5 or 10 bucks to whoever sings the first song.

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 12:32 pm 
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jclaydon wrote:
Ok so I have volunteered to run a karaoke night for a youth center. I would say the age averages from about 12-18. <snipped> Anyone have any suggestions on how i can break the ice and get someone to step up and sing?
jdmeister wrote:
I normally get them drunk first.. :angel:
Well that would probably do it :lol:


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PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 1:30 pm 
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Following the good suggestions mentioned above (including JD’s :lol: ), ask their supervisor to manage the order of rotation. (from experience) once they get the hang of it, they’ll be singing in droves. Your own rotation management will go out the window.

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PostPosted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 4:40 pm 
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All excellent suggestions. Thank you very much everyone i'll start trying all of that.

As for getting them drunk, well it might make things easier but I definitely think I wouldn't be invited back! *lol*

-James


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 5:37 am 
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jdmeister wrote:
I normally get them drunk first.. :angel:


and there is the problem. You can't get teens drunk. In fact, having karaoke for a group of teens is actually a bad idea. Teens are the most self-conscious group on the planet. Even if one does sing, and even sings well, the gossip will eventually start somehow about something and then they'll never do it again. Teens know this and it doesn't take long for them to put 2 and 2 together. I even think you run the risk of alienating them from karaoke for a long time. Teens are just the wrong group for karaoke. I've seen a parent bring a teen to a show and they will sing because they're not singing in front of their peers. Those same teens would probably never do the same in front of a group of their peers. That's just how teens are. The times may have changed, but the teen mentality will always be one of self consciousness, and the one thing they hate the most is for adults telling them to "get over it".

You've got a better chance of getting hit by lightning than finding a group of teens that want to sing in front of each other (sober). Let them discover karaoke in the privacy of their home or when they get older and can drink.


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PostPosted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 1:53 pm 
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First, I'd discard any opinions of how "old farts" tell you teenagers are.

My experience at providing karaoke services during after-school programs for elementary through high school students has taught me tapping into the relative concepts in music will encourage participation.

I ask the groups what music they like. What songs resonate with them? What songs do you sing along to when you hear them? What songs do your family & friends play or listen to when you are around? The key is to engage in dialog that gets them thinking and responding.

Identify the "ring-leader". This is especially important with teens & tweens. If the perceived "cool" kid gets involved, you've won half the battle and the others will fall in line... so to speak.

I get a real kick out of watching a group of students go after the 8 microphones so that they get a chance to sing... I set them out and call out the title of the next song in the queue and merely say: "If you want to sing "song" come and grab a mic.

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 3:45 pm 
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KaraokeIan wrote:
You've got a better chance of getting hit by lightning than finding a group of teens that want to sing in front of each other (sober). Let them discover karaoke in the privacy of their home or when they get older and can drink.

well aren't you just a ray of !@#$%^& sunshine....but wrong.
Teens are some of the most enthusiastic singers if you have what they want. have the new songs making waves on youtube and Pandora? if you do, then you will get them going, all it takes is the first one to break the ice.

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PostPosted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 3:56 pm 
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Paradigm Karaoke wrote:
KaraokeIan wrote:
You've got a better chance of getting hit by lightning than finding a group of teens that want to sing in front of each other (sober). Let them discover karaoke in the privacy of their home or when they get older and can drink.

well aren't you just a ray of !@#$%^& sunshine....but wrong.
Teens are some of the most enthusiastic singers if you have what they want. have the new songs making waves on youtube and Pandora? if you do, then you will get them going, all it takes is the first one to break the ice.

I have to agree with Paradigm on this one. If you think that karaoke for teens is somehow a bad idea, then you've obviously never done an all-night high school party.... especially when all the (choir) music and drama kids find you.... It's non-stop.


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 1:19 am 
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i keep a 3-page ditto always with me full of karaoke cliches-- all the common, popular karaoke songs that everyone always sings, since karaoke started

so when i'm somewhere that folks don't seem interested in looking through the thick book or i have shy teeny boppers, i hand them my handy 3-page song list.

it has *ALL* the easy, cliche-ish songs i could think of that everyone always sings nightly in karaoke.

there's pretty much no way somebody isn't singing ONE of those songs after seeing the 3-page easy-to-read list that i typed up

so my 3-page list looks like this: 1st page is all new school songs that everyone sings; new school meaning after the year 2000 (think alicia keys - fallin). 2nd page are all the stand-out classic old-school songs before 2000 that everyone sings (think journey - don't stop believing). 3rd page is a mix of specialty genres like duets, latino (think la bamba), etc

my 3-page cliff notes also gives them great ideas of stuff to sing if they don't wanna sing what's on the list.

also, try to get them to sing tv shows theme songs in karaoke. those are short and sweet.


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:28 am 
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also, switch it up on the teens and ask them to sing like their parents. can any of them find their parent's favorite song or rap and do it? just like their parent would. what's their parent favorite song?


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PostPosted: Mon Feb 27, 2017 8:46 am 
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Songs made SEVENTEEN years ago in 2000 qualify as "new school?" Alicia Keys Fallin is a staple on the "light and easy favorites" channel :) Most kids wouldn't be caught dead singing the stuff their parents listen to on the old farts channel.

Kids want the latest and greatest fad. My ex GF was a 6th grade teacher and I KJd her classroom holiday parties for a few years. The kids went nuts for whatever was the song on the radio that played every 10 minutes. You know the one.

Right now, I think that'd be along the lines of Closer by the Chainsmokers, Starboy by The Weeknd, Don't Wanna Know by Maroon 5, Side to Side by Ariana Grande, Cheap Thrills by Sia, etc.

AND, that age group all want to sing the same song over and over again. It wasn't uncommon in some of my sessions for the same song to be done 4-5 times, and you have to just let that go with that age group.

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:05 pm 
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it may depend on the age too
we did fundraisers for elementary schools and the kids 5th grade and under sang most of their songs off the DK 1-99.
the number one song (i'm not going to restrict kids to no duplicate songs) Billie Jean (7 times.....).

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PostPosted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 3:58 pm 
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TopherM wrote:
Songs made SEVENTEEN years ago in 2000 qualify as "new school?" Alicia Keys Fallin is a staple on the "light and easy favorites" channel :) Most kids wouldn't be caught dead singing the stuff their parents listen to on the old farts channel.
Depends, many kids will sing the 'oldies' because that is what they grew up on with their parents so they already know the songs to a point. I get 21 yo's that come in all the time and they tend to sing stuff from the 80's & 90's quite a bit. The ones that will do todays flavor of the weeks are the younger tween to pre 18 crowd.

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PostPosted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 2:57 pm 
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I used to offer to buy the next 3 *new* singers (meaning they have not performed yet that evening) a frosty beverage of their choice so long as it cost less than $10.

I have probably done this a dozen times over the last 6 years (only about 3 years of regular weekly hosting.

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