Van Basco is another fantastic piece of free software that once you’re used to will become a part of your weekly teaching, particularly if you’re as bad a singer as me. Van Basco is basically a free karaoke machine which plays the music of a song and displays the words on the screen, which go red when they are to be sung. It is especially useful for those teachers who are not as confident teaching music and songs. There are thousands of songs available which can be searched for on the Van Basco Midi (songs) Search page. Bear in mind that not all songs have lyrics with them so try to find the ones that say “lyrics” after the song title. The screenshot below shows “When I’m 64″ by the Beatles being played. Songs are constantly being updated and they have a lot of modern songs that the kids love.
