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Kiddie Karaoke
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Author:  jamkaraoke [ Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:16 am ]
Post subject:  Kiddie Karaoke
I'v been approached to host a "kiddie karaoke" night for anyone under 18yrs of age.
Has anyone done one of these or visited one of these shows?
If so what are the kids singing this days ?  American Idol stuff?  Top 40? Brittany.Jessica, Kelly and the Backstreet Boys :oh yeah: ?
I'm a little leary of taking a gig like this..What are some of the pit falls to be consious of?   Do you have young ones home ...what are they singing ?

I know my 8yr old son likes to sing anything from Uncle Kracker to Big&Rich with a little hip hop in between  :)  :)
Author:  Lonman [ Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:42 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Kiddie Karaoke
JAMKARAOKE @ Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:16 am wrote:
I'v been approached to host a "kiddie karaoke" night for anyone under 18yrs of age.
Has anyone done one of these or visited one of these shows?
If so what are the kids singing this days ?  American Idol stuff?  Top 40? Brittany.Jessica, Kelly and the Backstreet Boys :oh yeah: ?
I'm a little leary of taking a gig like this..What are some of the pit falls to be consious of?   Do you have young ones home ...what are they singing ?

I know my 8yr old son likes to sing anything from Uncle Kracker to Big&Rich with a little hip hop in between  :)  :)


I've done them before, can be very fun if you let it.  WATCH language content in songs, even though some parents of the older kids don't really care, you get other parents with their 5 year olds in there & they don't want to hear other kids singing something with profanity in front of their children.  I created a separate book editing out ALL songs with profanity, drug reference or sexual content for the kid shows.  
Also if you have a vocal compressor - USE IT!.  Untrained voices can sometimes get VERY LOUD after being extremely soft.
Get the Disney series, anything that is on the kid stations like Nick Jr, Hillary Duff is a good one, Aaron Carter etc...
Also make sure you have a good selection of the Nursery Rhyme songs as well ie Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, ABC Song, BINGO, etc....

Also don't count on this to be a lasting gig, I have YET to hear of any successful (long lasting) underage shows, turnouts are great, but $$'s are not - this is partly why there aren't very many of them around.  Kids do not spend money - teens on occasion will buy a food plate & the whole table will share.  The parents will buy sodas & on occasion dinner, but no beer or hard alcohol (as a rule).  
Do this because you want to give the kids a taste of karaoke as they are the future of our livelihood.   It will actually be more work for you as they don't understand rotation rules.  You will get LOTS of group songs & single names that entire groups will come up to the mic - just go with it, but try to keep some kind of order at the same time.  Some of the younger kids will just stand holding the mic & not say a word through the entire song - but still NOT want help.
Author:  outdoorplaces [ Thu Jun 16, 2005 9:57 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Kiddie Karaoke
Overall, kids karaoke is a BLAST.  There is a growing demand for it.

Also, as a parent I can tell you that at least one show out there that could have impact on the under 18 mindset showed karaoke in a positive light.

Japanese pop stars Puffy Ami Yumi [sic?] have a show on Cartoon Network that is on Saturday AM.  While working on my laptop yesterday morning the real music stars Ami and Yumi in live video talked about how fun karoake was, and that their audience should be afraid to try.  They even covered all the bases:

1)  Order food and eat at the venue (translation spend money)

2)  Pick a song, don't worry about it

3)  Pay attention when people are singing (and even highlighted a distracted person as a no-no)

4)  Give lots of applause when singers are done

I have to tell you, I almost got a tear in my eye.  Sniff - thanks girls.

Anyway my advice is pretty simple:

1)  LOTS of encouragement

2)  Watch the language - if someone came to me to do a dedicated kids show I'd probably make up new song books just for the event to chaffe out about 5% to 10% of the material in my library

3)  Kids generally like pop top 40 stuff but it depends on your region.  It could be country, it could be hip hop (sans the gansta lyrics).  My focus group of two likes the Black Eyed Peas, Beatles, Maroon 5, U2, Seal, Bowling For Soup, Good Charlotte, Jay Z/Linkin Park, Usher, Will Smith.

I would kind of think tips would be better.  Parents seem pretty keen to teach their kids about tipping for some strange reason and the under 12 set gets a big thrill from throwing a $1 in a jar (of course that cuts both ways).

I would work with the venue on a plan to help generate revenue (kids don't drink alcohol and it's harder to make net revenue on food) and I would make sure that the venue has a policy that they are NOT a daycare and this is not a place to drop off their kids as a free babysitting service.  If parents can just drop off their kids and go, I wouldn't take the venue.

I'd also ask yourself about how patient you can be - children aren't going to know good microphone control (generally) and are going to be a bit rougher with the equipment (expect dropped mikes)
Author:  jamkaraoke [ Thu Jun 16, 2005 2:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Kiddie Karaoke
Great suggestions! - The whole story is a friend of mine is doing the "adult" karaoke downstairs in the Bar/Restaurant  and the "kids" of the adults keep wanting to sing in the bar area which is a big NO NO .  So they are thinking about doing something for the KIDS upstairs ...Like Lonnie said I don't plan on this being a LONG LASTING thing...  I'm not going to run out and buy a lot of Kiddie karaoke discs just for that reason -  I guess they are good to have for those private party engagements but I really don't do many of those ...So I guess we will have to see  

One thing for sure is I will definately need a seperate set of books !  I don't want some 9 year old singing ode to my car or becuase I got high  LOL.
Author:  outdoorplaces [ Thu Jun 16, 2005 5:49 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Kiddie Karaoke
JAMKARAOKE @ Thu Jun 16, 2005 2:13 pm wrote:
Great suggestions! - The whole story is a friend of mine is doing the "adult" karaoke downstairs in the Bar/Restaurant  and the "kids" of the adults keep wanting to sing in the bar area which is a big NO NO .  So they are thinking about doing something for the KIDS upstairs ...Like Lonnie said I don't plan on this being a LONG LASTING thing...  I'm not going to run out and buy a lot of Kiddie karaoke discs just for that reason -  I guess they are good to have for those private party engagements but I really don't do many of those ...So I guess we will have to see  

One thing for sure is I will definately need a seperate set of books !  I don't want some 9 year old singing ode to my car or becuase I got high  LOL.


Based on what you're describing I'd pass - if the adults are somewhere else you've just become a babysitter - it's a recipe for disaster.  If the adults are in the same room, different ballgame.  Just my opinion...
Author:  Lonman [ Thu Jun 16, 2005 6:16 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Kiddie Karaoke
Agreed.

If it is going to be a "family night", that's a whole different story because the "family" is right there.  You DO NOT want to get into a situation where the adults are partying in a whole different section with you as the supervisor.
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