Smule Sing! - A guide for new users

Hello guys! It's been a long time and I'll admit it's because I've either been working or spending my time on Smule Sing! the karaoke app.

What is Smule Sing? It's a karaoke phone app that lets you sing with people all over the world or by yourself to popular and obscure tracks without the original vocals. What I love most about Smule is its amazing community. I have never once seen a negative comment, even on the less than brilliant cover songs. It's a place that very much lives by the rule of 'If you have nothing nice to say, say nothing at all'.

You shouldn't be afraid to sing your heart out, brilliantly or like a dying cat, because no one will judge you and tell you to stop. If  you need to let your stress out, this is the place to do it.

I'll get down to the basics, the stuff  I wanted to know when I first joined the app.

Is Smule Sing! free to use?

Yes! Absolutely. There is no joining fee. However, in the normal membership you get to choose any first song to sing. After that, if you want to sing a solo, you will either have to upgrade to the paid VIP account, or use the hashtag #solo in the search bar to find people with VIP accounts that have opened songs for you to sing by yourself.

Don't be shy to message one of the VIP users, asking if they will open a song for you to sing alone. I am always willing to do so, so if you can't find anyone, come and ask me.

If you don't mind singing with another person, either singing the entire song together, or splitting the verses and choruses up between the two (or more) of you, then use the search bar at the top to find a song you want and get cracking! Again, don't worry if you don't think you can sing and you want to tag on to a song opened by someone with the vocals of Celine Dion - they WON'T mind.

What can I do with a VIP account?

Okay so VIP accounts, in my opinion, are totally worth it. A couple of my friend had issues where they were asked to pay something silly like £70 for a year of VIP access, however use this link and it will only cost you £4.79 for a month or £23.99 for the year. 

With a VIP account, you have unlimited access to every song in the official Smule Sing! songbook, which includes some VIP-only songs like Evanescence's Bring Me To Life and Omi's Cheerleader, Meghan Trailor's No, plus any song submitted by the Smule Sing! community (which includes all the songs in the VIP-only category tbh, you just can't use them when trying to get featured).

The main perk of having a VIP account is that you can sing unlimited solo songs and you can 'open' songs for others to sing with you. 'Open' here means singing some of the song and leaving the other half available for the other users to sing with you; any number of users can tag onto your open song and each different user's tag will be a separate song; it's not one mad mess of singers in the same song. That only happens in a group song, which you can also choose to open with VIP.

How do I get followers?

Probably the most asked question. There's no two ways about it, unless you have the voice of an angel the way to get followers is through opening songs for others to sing. A mix of solos and duets will get you the best following. Some users may love your voice and want to sing with you, others may want the opportunity to sing a song by themselves without having to pay for VIP.

To open a solo for someone else to sing, choose the song, press sing, then press duet. Once the song starts playing, don't make a sound. It's better to use headphones too to remove background noise. This will leave the entire song free for the other person to sing. Once you're done, put #solo in the description and open it up.

Popular types of songs sure to get you followers are Disney, current chart music and ballads. 

On the other hand, if you're good, some users will follow you purely because they like the sound of your voice. If you don't have VIP and you get followers, feel really proud because they like you for you.

How do I get my song featured?

You want to get featured so that you get the greatest exposure, either to gain more followers, to find talented singers to join you in the future or just to get your song heard. There are a few ways to go about it, and you can do it either on a VIP account or a normal one.

Each Friday, the official Smule blog posts a new '#SmulePick' hashtag and you can sing any song from the official smule songbook that fits with the theme to try and get featured. Some recent examples are #SmulePickCountry, #SmulePickPride and #SmulePickWeddingBells. If you try the same song but a version submitted by the community, chances are your song won't get chosen.

For VIP users, choose any song that you think is appropriate for the theme and open it, putting the #SmulePick hashtag in the description. For normal users, search for the #SmulePick hashtag in the search bar and it will show all the open songs for you to tag on to.

Note: Don't be disheartened if you don't get featured. The standard for featured songs is incredibly high. Usefully, looking through the featured songs is a good way to hunt down awesome singers to follow.

What are some useful hashtags to get me started?

There are a number of useful hashtags and it took me a while to hunt them down because there doesn't seem to be one place with all of them in a list.

#collab - at the top of this list will be all the official artists' songs, half sung by the original artists themselves. These are the 'partner artists'. Fancy duetting with Ed Sheeran or Anastasia ? This is how to find them.

#freestyle - there's a feature in Smule Sing! that allows you to sing without using a backing track. Perhaps you want to use your own guitar or you want to acapella it. If you use this hashtag, you're in with a chance of being featured in the freestyle category on the website. Similarly, you can look through open freestyle songs by using this hashtag.

#(insert your native speaking language) - Smule Sing! is a vast community and you'd be surprised how many songs aren't in English. When in doubt, use this hashtag

#killerkaraoke - one of the hashtags to know if you're trying to get featured. The official Smule team pick new features regularly.

#smulepick - #smulepick... will bring up all the available open songs to sing if you're trying to get featured. Be sure to check what the latest theme is so that you can look for the right hashtag.

#smulepicks - again, if you're looking to get featured, this one is a good one to know

#solo - if you want to sing by yourself, this is how to find open songs with no vocals at all yet.

#YGAudition - this is the official Smule team. They open songs daily and will give you feedback too. If you're lucky, you will end up on their featured list, which is shown on the official website.

Okay, I've sung my song. Now what?

You've either sung a solo or you've just added yourself to someone else's song. The final notes have ended and now you're on a new screen with a bunch of weird icons. This is the editing screen. Here, you can remaster your vocals in all kinds of funky ways to make them sound professional. 

The different effects (FX) are None, Magic, Studio, Polish, Super Harmony, Pop Star, Indie, Double  You, Star Dust and Grunge. If you are VIP you will also be able to use Super Pop and Super Studio.

None leaves your vocal track unedited.

Magic gives your voice a lot of reverb but takes away the sharpness of it; sometimes this is used as a backing track.

Studio gives you some reverb, makes you a little louder and more prominent.

Polish cleans up the volume level of your piece and takes away some of the edginess but little else.

Super Harmony overlays your voice with two extra vocals, slightly above and below the tone you've used. You can alter the pitch of the extra vocals with a sliding bar, and choose to use the harmonies in just the chorus or the whole song.

Pop Star gives you some reverb and alters the pitch of your voice. Often it makes the vocals sound robotic but can remove dud notes.

Indie gives you a little reverb, less than Magic or Studio, and is the most popular non-VIP FX. It gives you the closest-to-normal sounding voice whilst still using some effects.

Double You includes an exact double of your original vocals on top of it, giving it the effect that there are two of you singing at the same time for the entire song.

Star Dust does something weird to your voice. It alters it drastically, altering the pitch, volume and tone of your vocal track, and does sound really good in some songs. More often than not, people don't like you using this in duets unless the opener of the song has also used it. Check the song description.

Grunge is another total voice changing one. It removes all depth to your track, giving it the feel of being recorded on a very old tape recorder, leaving it with some static. This can be useful in some rock and metal songs.

For VIP users:

Super Pop lets you adjust the amount of pitch-correction and reverb you want in your vocals using sliders.

Super Studio lets you alter the amount of reverb in your voice and the size of the room it thinks you're singing in, giving you some echo, using sliders. This is the most popular FX to use on Smule Sing.

Okay so that's pretty much the basics of Smule. Obviously I won't have covered everything but hopefully this will give you a basic idea. If you have any questions feel free to message me.

If you want to find me on Smule, come check me out here. And if you ever want me to open a song for you, don't hesitate to ask. The only reason I won't respond is if I've accidentally missed your message amongst the others. If that happens, feel free to message me again after a week.