Song Finder
Got a tune stuck in your head but no title? Hum it, type the lyrics you remember, or tell us where you heard it — we match your melody and build the exact searches that track it down. No app, no upload, no account.
Hum the tune, we match the melody
Press start, hum or sing the most memorable part (the chorus works best), then stop. Your browser detects the pitch of your voice, converts it to a melody-shape code, and compares it against our library of 31 famous melodies. Nothing is uploaded — the audio never leaves your device.
Or type the melody shape manually
Write the contour with U (up), D (down), R (repeat) —
e.g. RUDUD. This is Parson’s code, explained below.
- Hum the chorus or hook, not the verse — hooks are the most distinctive part.
- Keep a steady rhythm; pauses confuse pitch tracking more than wrong notes do.
- Being in the wrong key is fine — only the up/down shape matters.
- Microphone needs a secure (https) page; on desktop Chrome/Edge/Firefox it just works.
Find a song by the lyrics you remember
Type every word you can recall, in order — even 3 or 4 words can be enough. We build exact-phrase searches (the single most effective lyric trick) plus common mishearing variants.
Where did you hear it?
Pick the situation — each one has a proven playbook with the exact steps and links.
Melody code lab
Parson’s code writes a melody as pure shape: for each step to the next note,
U = up, D = down, R = repeat (same pitch). Key, tempo, and
singing skill don’t matter — only the shape. That is why it is perfect for finding a song
from a hummed memory.
Try it:
Famous melody shapes (from our library)
| Melody | Artist | Parson’s code |
|---|---|---|
| Happy Birthday to You | Traditional | RUDUD |
| Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star | Traditional | RURURD |
| Ode to Joy (Symphony No. 9) | Beethoven | RUURDDDDRUURDR |
| Jaws theme (ostinato) | John Williams | UDUDU |
| Super Mario Bros. theme | Koji Kondo | RRDUU |
| Smoke on the Water (riff) | Deep Purple | UUDUUD |
| Für Elise | Beethoven | DUDUDUDD |
| Symphony No. 5 (opening) | Beethoven | RRDURRD |
| Imperial March | John Williams | RRDUDDUD |
| Tetris theme (Korobeiniki) | Traditional | DUUDDD |
How song identification actually works
Every “what song is this” technology is one of two ideas. Acoustic fingerprinting (Shazam, SoundHound’s listen mode) turns a few seconds of actual audio into a compact hash and looks it up in a database of tens of millions of recordings. It is extremely accurate — but it has a hard requirement: the recording must be playing right now, and the lookup needs giant servers. Melody-contour matching is the older, humbler idea: reduce a melody to its shape — up, down, same — and compare shapes. It was invented for printed melody indexes before computers could hear at all, and it is the only method that works when the song exists solely in your memory.
This tool is built on the second idea, deliberately. Fingerprinting already has excellent apps; what was missing is a memory-first finder: hum what you remember, describe what you remember, and get both a shape match and the exact search queries that finish the job. The pitch detection, the contour math, and the whole melody library run as JavaScript in this page — your humming is analyzed on your device and never uploaded anywhere.
Pick the right method for your situation
| What you remember | Best method | Why it works |
|---|---|---|
| The tune / melody | Hum tab — shape matching | Contour survives bad singing, wrong key, and wrong tempo. |
| A few lyric words | Lyrics tab — exact-phrase search | Quoted phrases are the highest-precision web search there is. |
| Where you heard it | Where-heard-it tab — context playbook | Movies, ads, and games have documented track lists. |
| The actual recording | An app (honest advice) | If the audio is playing now, fingerprinting beats everything. |
How to hum so the matcher understands you
- Chorus first. Verses of different songs often share shapes; choruses don’t.
- 8–16 notes minimum. Four notes match hundreds of melodies; twelve narrows it hard.
- One note per syllable, steady beat. Don’t rush the distinctive jumps.
- Don’t whisper. Pitch trackers need a clear voiced tone — hum with your mouth closed or sing “la”.
- Background quiet. TV or chatter in the room becomes phantom notes.
Lyric search operators cheat sheet
| Operator | Example | What it does |
|---|---|---|
"exact phrase" | "dancing in the dark" | Only pages containing those words in that order. |
lyrics | "dancing in the dark" lyrics | Biases results toward lyric sites and videos. |
- (minus) | "dancing in the dark" lyrics -springsteen | Excludes a wrong artist you keep getting. |
site: | site:genius.com "dancing in the dark" | Searches inside one lyric site only. |
* (wildcard) | "dancing in the *" | Fills a word you can’t remember. |
Misheard lyrics: the usual suspects
When an exact-phrase search returns nothing, suspect your memory, not the search engine. These are real, common mishearings — searching the wrong version is often what finds the song:
| You remember | The real lyric | Song |
|---|---|---|
| “kiss this guy” | “kiss the sky” | Jimi Hendrix — Purple Haze |
| “hold me closer, Tony Danza” | “hold me closer, tiny dancer” | Elton John — Tiny Dancer |
| “excuse me while I kiss the sky” | (same — it really is “kiss the sky”) | Check: many lyric sites confirm it |
| “blinded by the light, wrapped up like a douche” | “revved up like a deuce” | Manfred Mann — Blinded by the Light |
| “there’s a bathroom on the right” | “there’s a bad moon on the rise” | Creedence — Bad Moon Rising |
The Lyrics tab generates these variants automatically from whatever you type.
Worked example 1 — the birthday tune
Goal: identify the tune everyone sings at birthdays.
- Notes in: G G A G C B (the opening six notes).
- Contour step by step: G→G same =
R, G→A up =U, A→G down =D, G→C up =U, C→B down =D→ Parson's codeRUDUD. - Match: the engine compares
RUDUDagainst every melody in the library. Top result: Happy Birthday to You — edit distance 0, score 100. Runner-up: Take Me Out to the Ball Game (distance 1, score 83.3), then Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star (distance 2, score 66.7). The exact contour wins by a clear margin.
Worked example 2 — humming it slightly wrong still works
Goal: identify Beethoven's famous choral melody when you hum one step wrong.
- True contour:
RUURDDDDRUURDR(14 steps from 15 notes). - Hummed contour (one slip):
RUURDDDRUURDR— oneDmissing in the long descent. - Match: edit distance to the true code = 1 (a single deletion). Score = (1 − 1/14) × 100 = 92.9. Top result is still Ode to Joy (Symphony No. 9) — the matcher tolerates small humming mistakes instead of failing on them.
Honest limits
- Our melody library is curated, not comprehensive: 31 famous melodies. It identifies the tunes everyone knows; it cannot name an obscure B-side from a contour alone — for those, the Lyrics and Where-heard-it tabs do the heavy lifting.
- Contour matching cannot distinguish songs that genuinely share a shape (many folk tunes do). When scores tie, the results list shows every candidate.
- If the recording is playing right now, a fingerprinting app will beat any humming tool. Use the right tool for the situation.
Not what you’re looking for?
Frequently asked questions
How can I find a song if I only remember the tune?
Hum or sing it into the Hum tab above. Your browser detects the pitch of your voice, turns the melody into a shape code (Parson's code: U for up, D for down, R for repeat), and compares that shape against our library of famous melodies. It works best with well-known tunes — the chorus or the most distinctive 8 to 12 notes give the best results. If the tune is obscure, try the Lyrics or Where-heard-it tabs instead.
I only remember a few words of the lyrics. How do I search for the song?
Put the exact words you remember in quotation marks in Google, for example "dancing in the dark" — quotes force an exact-phrase match and filter out most noise. Add the word lyrics to bias results toward lyric sites. The Lyrics tab above builds these exact searches for you, with one-click links to Google, Genius, and YouTube.
What is Parson's code?
Parson's code is a compact way to write down the shape of a melody. For every step from one note to the next you write U if the pitch goes up, D if it goes down, and R if it stays the same. "Happy Birthday" (G G A G C B) becomes R U D U D. It ignores key and tempo, which is exactly what you want when matching a tune someone hums from memory.
Can this tool identify a song from an audio recording or video file?
No — and it is honest about it. Identifying a recording needs acoustic fingerprinting against a database of tens of millions of tracks, which requires servers. If you have the actual recording, apps like Shazam or Google's hum-to-search will be faster. This tool is built for the opposite case: the song exists only in your memory.
Is my humming uploaded to a server?
No. Everything runs 100% in your browser. Your microphone audio is analyzed locally by JavaScript and never leaves your device. There is no account, no upload, and nothing to install.
How accurate is the humming matcher?
It is approximate by design. It compares melodic shape, so it tolerates the wrong key, the wrong tempo, and imperfect pitch — but it needs the right up/down contour. Hum the most distinctive part of the song (usually the chorus), use at least 8 notes, and keep a steady pace. Obscure songs are unlikely to be in our curated library of famous melodies.
How do I find a song I heard in a movie, TV show, or advertisement?
Use the Where-heard-it tab. For movies and TV, Tunefind catalogs songs scene by scene — search the title plus season and episode. For ads, search the brand name plus "commercial song" plus the year; ad music is heavily documented and brand YouTube channels usually credit the track in the description or comments.
What are misheard lyrics, and how do they help me find a song?
Misheard lyrics (mondegreens) are words your brain substitutes for the real lyric — the classic is hearing "kiss this guy" instead of "kiss the sky". If your lyric search finds nothing, you may be searching the wrong words. The Lyrics tab generates common mishearing variants (for example "hold me closer Tony Danza" for "hold me closer tiny dancer") so you can search those too.
How is this different from Shazam or SoundHound?
Those apps listen to the actual recording playing around you — they need the audio to be present. This tool works from memory: your humming, lyric fragments, or where you heard it. It needs no install, no account, and uploads nothing.
I heard the song on TikTok, Reels, or Shorts. What should I do?
Tap the spinning disc or sound title at the bottom of the video — it usually names the track. If the sound is labeled something generic like "original sound", play the video and Shazam it, or catch any lyric fragment and search it with the Lyrics tab.
I remember the artist but not the song title. Any tricks?
Search the artist name plus any distinctive word you remember, even a non-lyric detail ("that song about a red dress"). Check the artist's most-played tracks and live setlists first — the song you half-remember is usually a hit. Humming the chorus into the Hum tab works here too.
I want to know a song's musical key, not its title. Can this tool help?
No — that is a different job. If you have the chords and want to estimate the key (with a Camelot wheel for DJs), use our song-key finder. This tool answers "which song is this", not "what key is it in".
I want to discover new music in a genre I like. Is this the right tool?
No — this tool identifies a specific song you already half-remember. To explore genres and find new music by style or mood, use our music genre finder instead.
Song Finder runs 100% in your browser — no uploads, no account, no install.
Free tool by NRTechStudio