rachelkelly
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Learn English With Karaoke: Fun Resources, Song Recommendations and Tips
While karaoke is usually just for entertainment, it can also be a musical way to improve your English. I’ve listed down eight karaoke resources that English learners will enjoy, with features like pronunciation feedback and exercises.
Karaoke (pronounced kah-rah-oh-keh in Japanese) first started in Japan in the 1970s and quickly became a global phenomenon. If you already like karaoke, don’t miss out on the learning opportunities below.
Contents
- Awesome Karaoke Resources for Practicing English
- How Karaoke Helps You Learn English
- And One More Thing...
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
Awesome Karaoke Resources for Practicing English
1. Sing King Karaoke
Do you like singing along with your favorite songs on the radio? If you want to practice karaoke with some of these popular tunes, check out Sing King Karaoke on YouTube.
This channel is always being updated with karaoke versions of the latest hits. It also makes awesome and creative karaoke covers, such as acoustic or piano versions of songs. A well-known song you can sing along to on the channel is “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran.
2. FluentU
FluentU isn’t a karaoke service, but it does have a huge selection of music videos. The app is designed to teach new languages, so its music videos will help you do just that!
The lyrics will play as you watch, and you can also hover over the words. When do you this, it will provide a definition of the word, so you can easily learn about lyrics you don’t understand. It’s an easy and fun way to learn the lyrics of a song, as well as new vocabulary words.
3. The KARAOKE Channel
This is another great YouTube channel. It literally has thousands of videos and songs to choose from. Besides the YouTube channel, this service also has a website with even more karaoke resources.
You can use it on your phone and television or download the songs onto your computer! Browse around the channel and other resources to find yourself some great karaoke versions of newer songs or maybe some classic hit by bands like the Beatles.
- Thousands of learner friendly videos (especially beginners)
- Handpicked, organized, and annotated by FluentU's experts
- Integrated into courses for beginners
4. Karaoke Version
This website has a huge database of karaoke songs and lets you search for songs that go all the way back to the 1950s and beyond! It has more modern hit songs like “Can’t Stop The Feeling” by Justin Timberlake and a wide variety of popular older songs, such as the classic anthem “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey.
The website offers multiple versions of each song. You can buy a version with backup vocals or no backup vocals. They also have cover versions of the songs, as well as ones that only have the drum track or guitars.
It’s a great resource for karaoke and maybe even making your own rendition (version) of a song. Download each version and experiment until you’ve learned the song or maybe made your own cool cover!
5. Sing Snap
Do you want to try recording yourself singing karaoke, but feel too embarrassed to see yourself on camera? Sing Snap is another karaoke website that provides instrumental versions of songs so you can record yourself singing. However, the site only records your voice, which is good if you feel uncomfortable watching yourself or having others watch you on video.
Listening to yourself sing may still be embarrassing, but it can be very useful for trying to improve your English because you’ll be able to hear the mistakes you make. Sing Song has a huge selection to practice with and has all kinds of songs and artists, new and old. For example, if you’re a huge Rihanna fan, you can choose from some of Rihanna’s most popular songs from over the course of her musical career.
6. Lyrics Training
This is a website that lets you play with lyrics! The site shows you a music video and the lyrics appear at the bottom of the screen. However, some of the lyrics will be missing and it’s your job to fill in the missing words. It’s a fun way to learn a song and practice your English. The site also provides karaoke versions of its lyrics games!
- Interactive subtitles: click any word to see detailed examples and explanations
- Slow down or loop the tricky parts
- Show or hide subtitles
- Review words with our powerful learning engine
Like many of the other sites, it has both new songs and classic hits. Lorde, Grammy winner and popular artist, just came out with a new album. You can practice your English with her song “Perfect Places.” If that’s not your style, a classic pop song from the early 2000s you might enjoy is “Beautiful” by Christina Aguilera.
7. StarMaker Lite
What’s awesome about this app is that it is very focused on community. You can post your karaoke videos online and meet people who enjoy the same type of music as you. There are even karaoke singing competitions with prizes!
That means you can get feedback on both your English pronunciation and your singing skills in one place. There are tons of songs available and even fun features like audio effects.
If you subscribe for a VIP membership, you will get new songs weekly.
8. Smule
Smule is another app that allows you to sing karaoke by yourself or with a friend. The app can record a video of you and another person at the same time, even if they live on the other side of the world.
The app is very popular, and there are lots of opportunities to socialize and meet new people. So make some friends or find a singing partner, and they might just be able to help you improve your English.
Some hit songs you might start with are “Rockabye” by Clean Bandit and “Treat You Better” by Shawn Mendez.
- Learn words in the context of sentences
- Swipe left or right to see more examples from other videos
- Go beyond just a superficial understanding
But there’s more! On top of this, the company has made other musical apps that can make practicing English fun. For example, they have an Auto Rap app for iOS and Android devices that turns your regular spoken speech into an awesome rap!
How Karaoke Helps You Learn English
Music affects the way you learn and can help you improve your English fluency. In particular, lyrics are a great way to learn new vocabulary and familiarize yourself with English grammar.
In fact, as pointed out by this video, what starts out as just a catchy tune will become something you remember throughout your language learning journey.
A certain song may get your attention and then get stuck in your head, repeating the lyrics over and over. This helps you learn the words of the song and grammar that goes along with it. Later, you’ll find that you’ll be able to actually use these words and grammar constructions because you’ve heard them so much in a song!
Check out other videos like this one on FluentU’s YouTube channel for more ways to improve your English skills.
Here are other tips for making the most out of learning English with karaoke:
- Since there are no vocals included with karaoke, you’re forced to sing the lyrics yourself. This is more of a challenge because you won’t have the singer’s voice as an example.
- You also have to make sure you’re pronouncing and saying words correctly. Because of this, you’ll want to choose songs you already know.
- Pick a song where you have the lyrics and rhythm memorized. This way, you won’t depend on reading the lyrics. It’ll still be a challenge, but you’ll be more prepared.
While you’re focused on learning the lyrics and singing properly, you’ll also be practicing your English.
Start building sentences.
- FluentU builds you up, so you can build sentences on your own
- Start with multiple-choice questions and advance through sentence building to producing your own output
- Go from understanding to speaking in a natural progression.
If you love to sing or just love to have a good time, karaoke is a great way to hone your language skills. It’s something that you can start out doing by yourself if you feel shy or embarrassed.
But when you feel more confident, grab some friends and have a karaoke party using these resources. You’ll have a great time and practice your English while you’re at it.
Download: This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you can take anywhere. Click here to get a copy. (Download)
And One More Thing...
If you like learning English through movies and online media, you should also check out FluentU. FluentU lets you learn English from popular talk shows, catchy music videos and funny commercials, as you can see here:
If you want to watch it, the FluentU app has probably got it.
The FluentU app and website makes it really easy to watch English videos. There are captions that are interactive. That means you can tap on any word to see an image, definition, and useful examples.
FluentU lets you learn engaging content with world famous celebrities.
For example, when you tap on the word "searching," you see this:
FluentU lets you tap to look up any word.
Learn all the vocabulary in any video with quizzes. Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
FluentU helps you learn fast with useful questions and multiple examples. Learn more.
The best part? FluentU remembers the vocabulary that you’re learning. It gives you extra practice with difficult words—and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a truly personalized experience.
Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)
