How To Find A Song By Humming It

Have you ever heard a beautiful song on the street, in a bar, at the gym, in the car or in a waiting room and just can’t remember or understand its name? Do you only remember a few notes or a few phrases from the song and are in despair because you don’t know how to extract them from streaming platforms or YouTube? Don’t worry, because if you can sing it or even just whistle it, then following our tips, you will be able to find out its name.

There are free apps and services that make it easy to find songs using Android devices, iPhone, iPad and computers: all very easy to use methods that will work even for those who are not versed in music or technology.

SoundHound (Android/iOS/iPadOS)

SoundHound is a well-known app that allows you to listen to and identify music tracks with full videos and lyrics in real time. Unlike its better-known competitor Shazam, it has implemented a very useful and well-tested feature: identify the title of a song simply by humming or singing it. It is available as an app for Android and iOS/iPadOS.

To download SoundHound on your Android terminal, open the Play Store (colored ▶︎ symbol), search for SoundHound in it and first tap on the app icon in the search results, then on the “Install” button. If you are reading this guide directly from your device, you can open the SoundHound tab in the Play Store.

Once the installation is complete, launch the application. The first time you log in, SoundHound will ask you to access the device’s microphone to listen to and identify music: then tap the “Allow” button on Android or the “OK” button on iPhone/iPad, then decide whether you want to refuse the app’s ability to send you notifications by tapping “Allow” or “Don’t Allow”.

Now you are finally ready to get started. Press the orange button in the center of the display and start humming the song you want to identify for at least 10 seconds. When you’re done, the most relevant search results will appear on the screen, divided by artist. However, if no matches are found, a message will appear saying “Ah, we couldn’t find any.” In any case, don’t give up and try again: sometimes even just getting closer to the microphone input helps SoundHound understand your voice better.

When you start a song, you have the option to see its title, artist, album and release date, as well as an integrated player that allows you to scroll through the song, as well as add it to your favorites using the heart-shaped button located on the left.

The “Lyrics” section is also accessible from the main menu of the application in the lower right corner: this way, you can search for song lyrics by manually entering the lyrics in the top bar, using voice search or browsing the charts and highlighting popular songs.

Google (Android)

The Google app for Android also allows you to identify songs by simply humming or whistling them: to use this feature, make sure you are using the latest version of the app, launch it, click on the microphone icon (grant the necessary permissions if required), click on “Search for a song” and hum or whistle the song you want. The search engine should show you the artist and title within a few minutes.

Try it free

AHA Music (Chrome extension)

If you use Google Chrome, you should know that there is an extension that allows you to recognize the music of almost any song played in the browser: it is AHA Music, which finds the title of the audio content being played by recognizing the song title and artist, including any links to YouTube, Spotify and Deezer. As you may have guessed, this tool includes the identification of songs hummed and recorded using Chrome: let’s see together how to unleash its full potential.

Start by installing the extension in Chrome by visiting the Chrome Web Store link I provided earlier and clicking the Add button; then click the Add extension button again to confirm your choice. At this point, you will see the AHA Music button on your browser toolbar, which can be identified as a white magnifying glass on a blue background.

Now you need to use a site that allows you to record your voice. After clicking on the above page, click the red button in the center with a white microphone under the title. Click the button to start recording: if you haven’t already, click Allow to allow the site to use your microphone. If it works, you will be able to see the audio track being recorded as a progressive blue line, the time is indicated next to the Stop button and the Pause button on the left.

When you think you’re done, click the Stop button: you will be taken to the page with the recording wow, what were you just humming? Now click the Play button in the bottom left corner, then click the newly installed AHA Music extension while the song is playing: if it identifies it, a menu will appear after a few seconds showing the title, the album, and two buttons below that will allow you to play it on supported services (Deezer and Spotify).