|
How To Make Science Karaoke by Lynda Williams | |
|
Home The Physics Chanteuse Cosmic Cabaret Science Songs & Lyrics Press
Science Karaoke
Contact Us!
|
||
Science Music
There are essentially three ways to get the science music for your karaoke: write and produce your own science songs; use existing science songs from other artists; or rewrite the lyrics of non-science songs to make science parodies.
There exists quite a bit of great science music with educational lyrics that range in scale from the genius of Tom Lerher to the classic folk tunes of Hy Zaret and Lou Singer to more pop songs like School House Rock and Bill Nye. A treasure trove of science music can be found at the Science Songwriters Association (SSA) whose members produce educational songs in just about every field of science.
Science ParodiesScience parodies of popular songs work well for Karaoke because the audience already knows the melody and the parody makes it humorous. The advantage of doing parodies is that it's easy to get the background music (with no vocals) from either Karaoke music companies or from an endless supply of websites with free midi music files. Many midi sites have the current pop and hip hop tunes that are great for young students to write parodies of. You can do a Google search for any song you want adding + midi to the search field to find it as a midi file and you probably will!I write many parodies for my Physics Chanteuse shows and have a new CD with a collection of them called "Parity Parody" (coming soon!) For example, I have rewritten "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" as "Carbon is a Girl's Best Friend," "Material Girl" as "High Tech Girl," "Black Bird" as "Black Hole," etc. Many of the science songwriters at SSA write parodies. Here are some (silly) parody ideas with midi files.
Science LyricsWriting lyrics that are educational, accurate, and easy to sing is no trivial task. When writing lyrics for a parody, I have the original lyrics in front of me and I try to make clever word plays so the phrasing doesn't change. When writing original science tunes for karaoke I try to keep phrasing as simple as possible and strive for the killer hook and chorus. Most importantly, KEEP IT SIMPLE! Tom Lehrer is a genius but who can sing his Elements Song? Hy Zaret is a master at writing easy to sing science songs. And be sure to check the accuracy of lyrics in your science songs. Even some of the Zaret tunes have flaws in them. The science in a science song should not be wrong!! Here are a sampling of science lyrics for use and inspiration.
Music Media FormatsPower Point can play wave music files so you have to get your science music into that format. The easiest way besides downloading wave files from the internet (not the most typical format) is to copy a music CD song using a utility such as Windows Media Player. This is quite simple. The songs are saved as wave files in your "MY MUSIC" directory. Other music media formats such as midi, mp3, real audio, etc, will have to be converted to wave files via different methods. Midi files must be played and recorded (just connect a mini cable out of your computer headphone jack into a tape recorder) and then redigitized as a wave file (just reverse the process: connect a mini cable out of the tape recorder into your computer's microphone jack) using a utility that comes with your sound card.
Copyrights
Since I use science karaokes for educational and non-profit purposes I invoke the FAIR USE DOCTRINE and I always give credit where credit is due. As Lord Lehrer sings in Lobachevsky :
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes, Science Music PowerPoint Karaoke Linking Music Timing Playing | ||
