Norebang - Korean Karaoke

Hey guys, did you have a nice weekend? ^^ I just went downtown with my boyfriend, had some lunch, did some shopping, had some cake and went to norebang ^^

Norebang is basically a Korean version of Japanese karaoke. 'Nore' means a song in Korean and 'bang' means a room, so it can also be translated as a singing room. It is definitely one of my favorite things to do in Korea :D

Lately, karaoke is also possible in my country in some pubs or bars where you have to sing in front of strangers. Here it is different. When you go to norebang or the singing room, you actually get your own room. You pay per hour and then go in the room with your friends or even by yourself if you want to. And then you can have fun and sing AND you can relax, 'cause there'll be no strangers listening to you. Although, sometimes when your song ends and before you pick a new song you can hear people from other rooms and sometimes they're really good and other times you think "oh man, I hope I don't sound that bad..." it's really fun :D

This is the norebang we went to this weekend.

 There are lots of norebangs pretty much everywhere in Korea. Some are better quality than others: better sound, the right balance between the volume of microphone and music, cordless microphones etc. Some are cleaner than others, in some you can order alcohol in others you can't, in some you have to take your shoes off... and therefore the price can vary a lot. Last time, my boyfriend and I tried this new norebang that just opened and it was 20.000krw (20$) per hour!!! But we usually go downtown where we pay 12.000krw (12$) for 2 hours, so only 6.000krw per hour and that's the weekend price! :)

So this is how it works, you pay for as long as you want to stay, then they tell you what room number to go to. There you have places to sit, a huge screen, a book with songs to choose from and a special type of a remote for choosing songs. Basically, even if you don't speak Korean, you can still go to norebang as you can find all the songs in the book and then you just type in the number of the song you want to sing. But using the remote is way better. 

There are different types of remotes, but they all work in the same way. It is much easier to find songs using the remote. Also you can easily make the song a couple of tones higher or lower if it's too hard to sing. You can change male songs to female versions. You can turn on or off the scoring system, you can even give yourself a real applause, you can jump ahead and skip the instrumental part if it's too long etc.

There are lots of songs to choose from. In pretty much every norebang you have Korean, Japanese, Chinese and American songs and in some norebangs there are also Philippine, Vietnamese and Russian songs available. They add some new songs every month too. 

But you have to be careful, some norebangs are a bit different and offer girls to join and sing with you (and possibly do other stuff too) - obviously meant for guys, so I've never been there. Sometimes there is no special sign outside, so you might enter one of these norebangs by mistake, but even if you do, you'd probably realize pretty soon that it's not a regular norebang.

There are also tiny norebangs available at Korean game arcades. I've tried that once too and it can be just as fun if you really like to sing, but I wouldn't call them singing rooms, since they are really really tiny, I think singing closets would be a better term ;) But, an interesting experience nevertheless. The difference here is, you don't pay per hour but insert coins for each song. I don't remember the price, but it should be around 1000krw (1$) for 3 or 4 songs.

And then there is another type of Coin Norebangs. They are something in between regular norebangs and the 'closet' types. They're not available all over Korea, there are for example none in Jeonju, where I live now :'( There are also not that many in Seoul, but they are really popular in Daegu. Especially around Keimyung University where I used to study. The rooms are not huge, but not that much smaller than in a regular norebang either. Three people can easily sing there without feeling claustrophobic. And it is perfect if you want to sing by yourself or with only one friend, because it is much cheaper than regular norebang. The usual price is 1000krw for 4 songs.

These photos are from last Christmas, taken at my favorite coin norebang in Daegu:

I love norebang and I think everyone should try it if they visit Korea. It is really really fun! And it really doesn't matter whether you can sing well or not, it is just about having fun. I go to norebang about once a week or once every two weeks. Back in Daegu, where I could go to coin norebangs by myself, I went even more often. Of course not all Koreans are this crazy about norebang, especially after the age of 25 and some of them just go to norebang with large groups of friends while they're out drinking and partying. Others really like to sing and therefore go with fewer people. For me, going with just one friend is the best, because I get to sing A LOT. I sing one song, then rest while my friend sings one. And if that friend is a really good friend of mine, then I can also try out some new songs or practice the songs that I'm not good at (which I usually wouldn't do while partying with a large group of people). But it's totally up to you.

I definitely encourage everyone to try it at least once. It might not be your thing, but I'm sure it would be a memorable experience. ^^

I really want to include a video so you could see better how it looks like and hear how it sounds, but... I am not sure if that's such a good idea, since I know how mean people can be on the internet. It doesn't matter how well you can sing, there are always some people who leave the rudest comments ever. Most of the people reading this blog are my friends so I don't worry, but according to the blogger statistics there are some random visitors from different country every now and then... I decided to post it anyway and I really hope I don't regret it.

So this is a video of me singing My Heart Will Go On in my favorite coin norebang in Daegu. I was there by myself and recorded a couple of videos to show my mom. I don't consider myself a really good singer, I just really like to sing. So if you decide to leave a comment on youtube, please keep in mind that I am sharing the video NOT to show off my singing skills but to show how norebang looks like to people who haven't experienced it yet. Anyway, enjoy :P

Feel free to ask any questions about norebang or share your experience or opinion. But you all know that this is a hard song to sing, so if you decide to leave a comment... please don't be rude :P