Are you struggling to identify a song stuck in your head? This guide shows you how to identify that earworm by simply humming or singing a few notes.
Shazam is a great tool to identify songs playing around you. But, what if you don’t have the music playing, or you don’t know enough of the lyrics to search? In those situations, humming the tune is the way to go. The apps on your phone can help you identify songs even if you don’t know the lyrics, artist, or album.
Here’s how to find a song by humming or singing.
Use SoundHound
SoundHound is similar to Shazam, but it also lets you search for songs by humming.
Step 1: Download the SoundHound Music Discovery app on your iPhone or Android phone and tap the SoundHound button in the Search tab.
Step 2: Now hum the song. Once you finish, tap the SoundHound button again to have the app search for the song.
Step 3: Once you see the relevant results, tap a result to open it on Spotify, Apple Music, or YouTube.
If you’re on a web browser, you can use Midomi (owned by SoundHound) to hum and find your song. Additionally, you can use the Musipedia website to find a song by whistling or singing, but the interface is old and may not work well on all computers.
Use the Google app
The Search Song feature is built into the Google app and its Home Screen widget on both iPhones and Android phones. It works for songs in English and other languages.
Step 1: Download the Google app on your iPhone from the Apple App Store or Android smartphone from Google Play Store.
Step 2: Tap the microphone button in the search bar and allow the app to use your phone’s mic when prompted.
Step 3: Hit the Search a song button.
Step 4: Now, hum the song like “Aaaa aa aaaa, naa naaa na…” or sing its lyrics for about 10 to 15 seconds. Google’s machine learning algorithm should match what you hummed with tracks in its database and show you some song names. Hopefully, the song you hummed will appear in the audio search results.
Use YouTube or YouTube Music
Google owns YouTube and has added the same hum to find music recognition technology to YouTube and YouTube Music apps on Android and the YouTube Music app on iOS.
Step 1: Open the YouTube or YouTube Music app on your Android phone or the YouTube Music app on your iPhone and tap the search button.
Step 2: Tap the microphone button next to the search bar in the YouTube app and then go to the Song tab.
If you’re in the YouTube Music app, tap the Find Song icon directly next to the microphone icon.
Step 3: Hum the song for 10-15 seconds, and YouTube or YouTube Music will display relevant results that match your humming. Hopefully, one of the songs is what you’re looking for.
Use Google Assistant
You can also ask Google Assistant on your Android phone to tell you the song name after you hum it.
Step 1: Open Google Assistant on your Android smartphone and say, “Search a song,” “What’s this song,” or something similar.
Step 2: Now hum the song so Google Assistant can listen to it, and it should show you relevant results for matching songs.
With these methods, you should be able to identify almost any song stuck in your head by just humming a few notes. Try these options out to find your earworm and relieve your frustration.