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Guide

Easy Songs to Start the Reverse Singing Challenge

By The Reverse Song Team · October 20, 2026

If this is your first go at the reverse singing challenge, pick one of these and keep it under eight seconds:

• Amazing Grace — “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound”
• Michael Row the Boat Ashore — “Michael, row the boat ashore, hallelujah”
• Auld Lang Syne — “Should auld acquaintance be forgot”
• Jingle Bells — “Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way”

All four are in the Easy group in Reverse Song, alongside When the Saints Go Marching In, Oh! Susanna, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. The rest of this post explains what makes a line easy to reverse, so you can also judge any free line you pick yourself.

What makes a song easy to sing backwards

Reversing scrambles words, so the easiest lines are the ones where the melody does most of the work. Four things matter.

1. Short length. Fewer sounds to memorise, fewer places to drift. One breath is a good limit. Reverse Song caps recordings at 15 seconds, but most beginners do best with five to eight.

2. Steady tempo. A line with an even, walking pace is easier to copy than one that speeds up, slows down or has lots of quick notes. Timing is 40% of the score in Reverse Song, and a steady pace is much easier to hold.

3. Long, held notes. Held vowels make the pitch clear and give you time to find each note. Lines packed with quick syllables give you no room.

4. Small melodic steps. Melodies that move to the next note up or down are easier to copy than ones that leap around. Big jumps are where pitch goes wrong, and melody is 60% of the score.

Familiarity helps too. You already know how Amazing Grace sounds forwards, so when your attempt is reversed back you can hear at once whether you got close.

Why public-domain songs

Every built-in line in Reverse Song is from a song in the public domain: traditional songs, hymns, folk tunes and old popular songs whose copyright has long expired. That means they can be included freely, and it also means most people already know them. They were passed around for generations precisely because they are simple and singable, which is exactly what you want for this challenge.

The full list is on the songs page.

The Easy list, line by line

Here is what to expect from each Easy song. Difficulty within the group still varies a little.

Song	Why it is easy	Watch out for
Amazing Grace	Slow, long notes, small steps	Holding notes long enough
Michael Row the Boat Ashore	Steady pace, repetitive	The stretched “hallelujah”
Auld Lang Syne	Familiar, even rhythm	The upward leap near the start
Jingle Bells	Repetitive, everyone knows it	Rushing; it is quick
When the Saints Go Marching In	Simple tune, few notes	Keeping the bounce even
Oh! Susanna	Bright and regular	Lots of syllables
We Wish You a Merry Christmas	Very familiar, short phrases	The repeated words blur together
My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean	Smooth, flowing melody	The wide swoop on “Bonnie”

If you want the gentlest start, Amazing Grace and Michael Row the Boat Ashore are the two to try first. Both are slow, and both give you long vowels to hang the pitch on.

How to approach your first line

1. Choose one of the Easy songs in Reverse Song, or record it yourself as a free line.
2. Listen to the reversed version at 0.5x several times before you sing.
3. Hum the reversed melody first, then add the sounds.
4. Learn it in two or three chunks.
5. Sing along at 0.75x, then 1x, then on your own.
6. Let the app reverse your attempt and score it.

Our full method is in how to sing a song backwards, and if you want to write down what you hear, see how to write lyrics backwards phonetically.

When to move up to Medium

There is no fixed rule, but a reasonable signal is when you can reach the “So close!” band (75 to 89) on two or three different Easy lines. That means your pitch and pacing are working.

Medium includes Clementine, Home on the Range, She’ll Be Coming ‘Round the Mountain, Swing Low Sweet Chariot, Aura Lea, Down by the Riverside, Daisy Bell and Red River Valley. These tend to have more syllables, longer phrases or a less regular rhythm. Daisy Bell, for example, has a lilting waltz rhythm that is easy to drift away from.

Hard includes Greensleeves, Shenandoah, Danny Boy, Ode to Joy (sung in German), In the Good Old Summertime, Molly Malone, Loch Lomond and Wellerman. These bring wider melodic leaps, long phrases, quick words or, in the case of Ode to Joy, a language many people are not used to singing. Do not be discouraged by low scores here. A 60 on Shenandoah is a solid effort.

Choosing your own easy free line

You can sing any line of your own choosing in Reverse Song. If you do, use the same checklist:

• Can you sing it in one breath?
• Is the tempo steady?
• Are there long notes, not just fast words?
• Does the melody move in small steps?
• Do you know it well enough to hear if the result is right?

If the answer to most of these is yes, it is a good starter. If not, try just the first half of the line.

Make it a habit

Once you have one Easy line down, the daily challenge is a good way to keep going. Everyone gets the same line each day, and your streak builds as you come back. See daily challenge and streaks for details, and tips to improve your reverse singing score when you are ready to push further.

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