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Karaoke Party Ideas

Karaoke party ideas from Evite.com!

Lights, camera, karaoke! Why go to a crowded, smoky karaoke bar when you can put on the hits at home with your own karaoke singing party? Here are fancy tips for karaoke party planners:

Decoration
The most important karaoke party-planning ideas are all about the decorations. Karaoke party rental stores can provide you with the essential karaoke party supplies like a karaoke machine, a microphone and lots of karaoke CDs with your favorite songs (We will not be needing these of course! With MAGIC SING KARAOKE MICROPHONE, they’re all in one! No need for bulky machines and mics with wires you might slip over, nor karaoke cds, thanks to Magic Sing’s compact versatile design and built-in songs plus song chip slots!) but you’ll also want to create a stage and great lighting.

If you’re crafty, build a sturdy stage out of wood and paint it silver. If that’s too much effort or expense, use a silver throw rug to section off a part of your living room as the stage area. Position the stage in front of a door to a bedroom or a large closet, and let that serve as the dressing room. Hanging up a silver shower curtain in front of the door makes a sparkly curtain and lets your singers take the stage with style. (I looove this idea!)

Hang party lights around the stage for extra razzle-dazzle, and use a bright lamp as the singer’s spotlight. You can create a nightclub atmosphere in the room by hanging a disco ball from the ceiling and positioning card tables and folding chairs around the stage so your guests can sit and enjoy the show.

Etiquette
As the host, it’s your job to bring out your guests’ inner divas while respecting their wishes if they’d rather just watch. You’ll calm nerves by asking shy folks to sing back-up, so they can get used to being onstage.

If you’re faced with a lot of tentative performers, turn them all into karaoke kings and queens by starting things off as a group sing-along party, where you play classics like “YMCA” and “Greased Lightning” and get everybody singing, dancing and playing tambourine together. Boas, hats, funky glasses and wigs help your guests get into character, and they’ll appreciate a list of easy-to-sing hits (think Madonna, not Mariah).

Finally, during guitar solos and flubbed lyrics, every singer can use a hand, so give them one by clapping and cheering to fill that awkward space.

Activities
Take a tip from karaoke bars by creating songbooks featuring all the available songs that guests can look through to find what they’d like to sing (MAGIC SING has this too as an accessory! Weeeee!).

Put out notecards where guests can write down their names and their song choice, and play the selections in the order you receive them so no one has to wait too long to sing. If some guests start to hog the machine, switch to going around in a circle and letting every person have a turn.

Give out prizes for best song, best impersonation, biggest crowd pleaser, wackiest song choice and most enthusiastic (I love I love!).

Food
Since karaoke is the main attraction, you can keep your food simple. Room-temperature buffet foods like hummus and pita, chips and dip, cheese and crackers, and crudités let your guests graze between numbers and keeps the focus on the performers.

Put out bowls of salted nuts, olives and fresh berries on each table for guests to enjoy while watching the show. Finish with bite-size desserts like brownies and assorted cookies.

Drinks
Same Old Song (serves 4)
• 4 oz. sweet vermouth
• 2 oz. dry vermouth
• 4 oz. gin
• 4 oz. orange juice
• 4 teaspoons lemon juice
• 4 dashes orange bitters
• 4 orange wedges

Fill a cocktail shaker halfway with ice cubes, and pour in vermouth, gin, juices and orange bitters. Shake well and strain into 4 cocktail glasses. Garnish each with an orange wedge.

Non-Alcoholic - Make your own soda station with assorted flavored syrups, club soda and fruit garnishes.

Are you stuffed now with ideas for your karaoke party that you get so excited you want to begin planning the nearest time possible for your very own karaoke night with family and friends? If you are, then we’re in the same league! Reading the ideas from Evite made me so excited! C’mon let’s karaoke party! :)

Get Invited

Looking for karaoke party ideas on the net, I came across this funky website called Evite.com, a top online destination for invitations with party-planning tools and content. The site works like a personal party planner by guiding party hosts through every step of the event planning process – from deciding on the party specifica and inviting guests to preparing the party to finalizing the menu and sending eCard thank-you notes after the event. It offers everything a host needs to throw a great event, from free online invitations to planning checklists to a budget estimator and drink calculator. The website makes planning easy, saving hosts time and money.

Their karaoke party event planning is uber cool. They have free invitations, you can choose from eleven pre-designed invitations available (and they’re real cute). Here’s a sample invitation:

They likewise offer decoration tips, reminders on etiquette, ideas for activities, and what to serve as food and drinks! (Will post the ideas shared on this site on the next entry.)

Now all you have to do is do some note-taking and put them into action for your very own karaoke party at home. Your Magic Sing Microphone is the most essential tool for your party’s success! Have fun planning!

St. Patrick’s Day Hangover

I’m having a St. Patrick’s Day hangover, because for one, I can’t get John Mayer’s song St. Patrick’s Day off my head. It has been playing there since a few days ago. Another, this week is green week. I’m just inclined to wear green these past days (no one can pinch me!) since green too is my favorite color of all. A verdant lover I am. And because of this hangover, Magic Sing’s karaoke mic is so sooo much always there to make me happy. Singing John Mayer using Magic Sing is my thing for now.
Lemme share to you the lyrics of the song…

St. Patrick’s Day
John Mayer

Here comes the cold
Break out the winter clothes
And find a love to call your own
You - enter you
Your cheeks a shade of pink
And the rest of you in powder blue

Who knows what will be
But I’ll make you this guarantee

No way November will see our goodbye
When it comes to December it’s obvious why
No one wants to be alone at Christmas time

In the dark, on the phone
You tell me the names of your brothers
And your favorite colors
I’m learning you
And when it snows again
We’ll take a walk outside
And search the sky
Like children do

No way November will see our goodbye
When it comes to December it’s obvious why
No one wants to be alone at Christmas time
And come January we’re frozen inside
Making new resolutions a hundred times
February, won’t you be my valentine?

And we’ll both be safe ’til St. Patrrick’s Day

We should take a ride tonight around the town
and look around at all the beautiful houses
something in the way that blue lights on a black night
can make you feel more
everybody, it seems to me, just wants to be
just like you and me

No one wants to be alone at Christmas time
Come January we’re frozen inside
Making new resolutions a hundred times
February, won’t you be my valentine?

And if our always is all that we gave
And we someday take that away
I’ll be alright if it was just ’til St. Patrick’s Day. :)

Karaoke: Fun + Functional

We all know that the karaoke microphone is one of the most ingenious inventions in the area of entertainment. Why? For one, singing is just everybody’s favorite hobby, and what entertainment gadget to use during a singing itch? A karaoke mic of course! That’s why our very own Magic Sing microphones are always selling hot at Webbyshop! We all love singing sprees, going to karaoke joints, enjoying our own chance at the limelight, especially during parties since a karaoke microphone is the source of the life of a party. A party just wouldn’t be complete without it. All that being said, karaoke microphone simply means FUN.

But a karaoke mic is not just used for fun, it can be a very functional tool for singers—amateur, professionals and even those striving to be one. It is a good investment to those who want a career in singing, because karaoke singing can be an excellent kind of vocal training. It can help you to keep your voice in top form. How? Let’s share some:
1.    Karaoke singing can teach you how to pay attention to cues, timing and pitch.
2.    With karaoke microphones, you can choose whatever song you want and arrange it piece by piece—the beginning notes, the middle phrases, and the end notes. You can train yourself to perform the right pitches at the beginning until the end.
3.    If you practice by karaoke singing, you can spot which errors you make personally and as a result, learn to correct them quicker. You will be able to learn to avoid making mistakes in the pitches, cueing and timing.
4.    In karaoke microphones, you can record your performance. Through this, you are able to hear yourself and know the parts you can still enhance. Through time, you will know how much you have improved through recording and re-recording your performance.
Thus, karaoke singing is not just fun, it’s very functional to singers as well. You’ll not just be able to impress your friends when you have karaoke parties, you can even wow audiences when you sing live as a singer. That’s what karaoke microphones are all about. :)

How to Successfully Have Fun doing Karaoke

I found this very amusing how-to from ehow. I enjoy ehow! They give easy-to-follow tips including the instructions, difficulty, and materials which are simple and fun. Since this is all about Karaoke singing, let me share what I’ve read.

Karaoke is where non singers can feel confident about getting in front of people to sing their hearts out. The following are suggestions on the best way to have the best time.

Difficulty:  Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:  Voice, energy, courage and a friend.

Instructions:
Step1. Be familiar with the song selection the karaoke joint has. Try to stay away from places that don’t update their song selection often, this means they may have faulty discs. Though, lately karaoke jockeys are switching to computerized methods. Also, stay away from crowded places because you’ll be waiting forever and only sing one song.
Step2. Also try to sing songs with in your vocal range. To find your range, sing the shower and try to hear yourself.
Step3. Find songs you tend to sing along with in the car or at a concert. This helps with putting on a show, people like to see you move around and interact with the audience.
Step4. When you have carefully looked to the selection and chosen your song go up to the karaoke jockey to submit you song and then sit and enjoy the singers before you. The your turn shows up and song along with the words on the screen in front of you and rock out!

Tips & Warnings
* Unless the karaoke jockey allows it, submit one song at a time. Some don’t mind getting multiple songs at once, they can form a rotation.
* Bribery with money can help to get better placement sometimes.
* Once you feel comfortable with familiar songs, then jump out of your comfort zone. Many regular singers love seeing people trying new songs.
* Don’t continue to bug the karaoke jockey about when you’re up, they may put you later on their rotation.

Are you ready for some karaoke joint-ing? Hope this helps!

Hello Valentines

First of all, happy hearts day! Since it is Valentines, I did some research about this much-celebrated event.

Here’s what Wikipedia says:

Valentine’s Day or Saint Valentine’s Day is a holiday celebrated on February 14 by many people throughout the world. In the West, it is the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine’s cards, presenting flowers, or offering confectionery. The day was originally a pagan festival that was renamed after two Early Christian martyrs named Valentine. The day became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished.

The day is most closely associated with the mutual exchange of love notes in the form of “valentines.” Modern Valentine symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten notes have largely given way to mass-produced greeting cards. The sending of Valentines was a fashion in nineteenth-century Great Britain, and, in 1847, Esther Howland developed a successful business in her Worcester, Massachusetts home with hand-made Valentine cards based on British models. The popularity of Valentine cards in 19th-century America was a harbinger of the future commercialization of holidays in the United States.

The U.S. Greeting Card Association estimates that approximately one billion valentines are sent each year worldwide, making the day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year, behind Christmas. The association estimates that, in the US, men spend in average twice as much money as women. (hmmm, really now?)

And what do we karaoke lovers do? Sing love songs of course! I wasn’t able to find many songs with Valentines in the title, so here’s a list instead of songs with LOVE in the title (which actually came from an ultimate love song mash-up). I tell you, you will be needing this list tonight!

Outkast - The Love Below
Tupac - California Love
Beyonce - Crazy in Love
The Game - Hate It or Love It
Maroon 5 - This Love
Talib Kweli - Never Been In Love
Wilco - I’m the Man Who Loves You
Crookers - Love to Edit
Keyshia Cole - Love
Air - Highschool Lover
Stevie Wonder - I Was Made to Love Her
MSTRKRFT - Easy Love
Huey Lewis and the News - Power of Love
The Emotions - Best of My Love
Alicia Keys - Teenage Love Affair
Brian Holland - Standing in the Shadows of Love
Death Cab for Cutie - Someday You Will Be Loved
Bon Iver - Skinny Love
Jay-Z - Heart of the City (Ain’t No Love)
Marvin Gaye - God Is Love
Masqueraders - Can’t Nobody Love Me Like You Do
Bloc Party - This Modern Love
The Delfonics - La La Means I Love You
Kanye West - Love Lockdown
Herold Melvin - The Love I lost
Daft Punk - Digital Love
Justin Timberlake - Like I Love You
John Legend - Used to Love U
Bright Eyes - Lover I Don’t Have to Love
Jose Gonzalez - Killing for Love
LCD Soundsystem - New York I Love You
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
Arcade Fire - Crown of Love

New Products and Specials for the Love Month

This February, Webbyshop offers its latest products:

Enter Tech Magic Sing ET-9000 Hindi

The latest Hindi microphone in Enter Tech’s popular range of magic microphones has finally arrived. The ET9K Hindi is a multiplex microphone with improved sound quality. It comes with 2,088 Hindi songs (Hindi 700 + Tamil 100 + Malayam 100 + Telgu 18 + Bengali 100 + Punjabi 70 + EMI 1000 English) that you can enjoy all year long. You can store your favorite songs using the My Mic feature and play games with the Name That Tune game.

The ET9K comes with a 1 year U.S. manufacturer warranty.

Enter Tech Magic Sing ET-9000 Spanish

Magic Sing ET-9000 Spanish (ET9K) Multiplex Karaoke Microphone 2009 Edition comes with 1,573 Spanish songs that you can enjoy all year long. The ET9K comes with a 1 year U.S. manufacturer warranty.

Enter Tech Magic Sing ET-18000 Hindi

Magic Sing ET-18000 Hindi (ET18K) Multiplex Karaoke Microphone 2009 Edition includes great new features such as 2,088 Hindi songs (Hindi 700 + Tamil 100 + Malayam 100 + Telgu 18 + Bengali 100 + Punjabi 70 + EMI 1000 English) songs await the magic sing fanatics. Gather your favorite crowd and start turning your living room into a real concert hall like you’ve never done before.

And some of its song chip specials:

Enter Tech Magic Sing Indian Song Chip

Magic Sing Indian song chip with 200 popular Indian songs. Visit the Magic Sing Indian Song List page to view the songs.

Enter Tech Magic Sing French 1 Song Chip

Magic Sing French 1 song chip with 150 popular French songs. Visit the Magic Sing French 1 song list page to view the songs.

Enter Tech Magic Sing Pop 800 Song Chip

Magic Sing Pop 800 song chip with 800 popular English songs. Visit the Magic Sing Pop 800 song list page to view the songs. Older microphone models have these 800 songs built-in.

Visit Webbyshop now and see for yourself. :)

I Can Live

This weekend, I found myself reconnecting with the child in me and it was through this wonderful song that I empowered myself and liberated myself from beliefs that curtailed me from reaching my full potentials.

Singing this song, I realized that nothing is impossible–see if you break down the word impossible, it would say I M POSSIBLE.

Singing is more than entertainment and a showcase of your prowess as a singer, it is an expression, a language that tells you who you can be and what you can be.  (So can just imagine what power you hold when you have that Magic Mic in your hand!?)  You definitely can perform MAGIC with your Magic Mic, friends, literally, metaphorically.

Here it goes…

I can love
I can reach the
Heavens above
I can write what is wrong
I can sing just any song

I can dance
I can fly
And touch the rainbow in the sky
I can be your good friend
I can love you
Until the end

What took you so long to make me feel
I can give love a love so real
What took you so long to make me know…

What took you so long to make me cry
So I will know the reason why
What took you so long to let me know…

So if by any chance you can look for this song in your Magic Mic chips, feel free to sing it with all your heart!  Sing the song with all gusto, feel it, breathe it, and live it and see how it makes a difference knowing that you believe in yourself that you can!

Music to Your Ears

I’m always fascinated with World music, since it features the different sounds of all corners of the globe. It’s the various musical instruments used in the songs that I find very entertaining. There’s a distinct sound for each group; play them side by side and it’s all musical bliss.

I love the brass instruments of North America Western Europe, even the synthesizers which is very much employed in the mainstream music as well. No strings, tubes or hammers, just electric current. Total ear candy! I also enjoy listening to mariachi of Mexico, with their non-electric guitars and accordions, you know, those keyboard instruments that you squeeze to make sounds. Even the panpipes and marimbas of Ecuador sounds good, their historical Inca musicians played them. Moving towards  the Asian region, the Chinese plays a lot of bells, drums, gongs, flutes and stringed instruments call the quin and pipa. Same as the Chinese, the Japanese plays a lot of bells, drums, gongs and flutes too, including their own kinds of ancient stringed instruments. But my most favorite of all is the gamelan orchestra of Indonesia, where they play main instruments by striking them. In college I used to sit at the university garden and enjoy the music every time the Gamelan Ensemble play and practice their sets outdoors. Beautiful!

But well, there could not be an instrument more amazing than our own voice, which is the universal musical instrument and available in all places in the world.  The human voice, so flexible, is the only instrument that can give goosebumps. Just by watching really great singers sing on stage, or even on TV makes my hair stand up! I absolutely don’t have a gift like theirs, but oh well, it doesn’t hurt to sing once in a while especially with the karaoke mic and loud speakers turned on. Besides, karaoke microphones, like our very own Magic Sing, were not invented for those with great voices only. It was invented for everybody who loves singing!

So just let the music reach your ears, and always enjoy!

Latest Song Chips Available

Here are the newest song chips available for your much-loved Magic Sing.

Enter Tech Magic Sing Korean 9 Song Chip

Magic Sing Korean 9 song chip with 300 songs. Visit the Magic Sing Korean 9 song list page to view the songs. Only compatible with the ET series of microphones.

Enter Tech Magic Sing Korean 8 Song Chip

Magic Sing Korean 8 song chip with 300 songs. Visit the Magic Sing Korean 8 song list page to view the songs. Only compatible with the ET series of microphones.

Enter Tech Magic Sing Korean 7 Song Chip

Magic Sing Korean 7 song chip with 300 songs. Visit the Magic Sing Korean 7 song list page to view the songs. Only compatible with the ET series of microphones.

Enter Tech Magic Sing Korean Trot Song Chip

Magic Sing Korean Trot song chip with 300 songs. Visit the Magic Sing Korean Trot song list page to view the songs. Only compatible with the ET series of microphones.

Enter Tech Magic Sing Tagalog 9 Song Chip

Magic Sing Tagalog 9 song chip with 300 popular Tagalog and English songs. Visit the Magic Sing Tagalog 9 Song List page to view the songs. It includes popular artists like Amy Winehouse, Britney Spears, Chris Daughtry, Coldplay, Fall Out Boy, Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake, Maroon 5, Michael Buble, My Chemical Romance, Plain White T’s, Pussycat Dolls, Rihanna, Switchfoot and many more. It also includes popular Filipino artists like River Maya, Eraserheads, Gary Valenciano, Jaya, Journey, Piolo Pascual, Rachel Alejandro, Regine Velasquez, Sarah Balabagan, Sarah Geronimo, and more.