Songs to sign along with!

June 26, 2012 5:40 PM

I'm learning sign language, and I thought it'd be fun to practice by making music videos. I'm hearing, but I'd like my videos to be interesting even without sound. Know any suitable songs for this?

I'm looking for...

- Songs that have lyrics right the way through. No long instrumental periods where I'll just be standing around looking awkward.

- Moderately fast songs. (By that I mean: not so slow that I'm holding the same sign for more than a few seconds, nor so fast that my hands become an incomprehensible blur!)

- Lyrics that don't rely on the use of too many synonyms or obscure words. I'm learning NZSL and the vocabulary is pretty limited.

-The genre doesn't matter, but it probably helps if it's funny, has a lot of emotion or tells a story...or all three. (And please don't recommend more Jonathan Coulton...I already know about those!)

posted by Yma to media & arts (6 answers total)

How about some of the literal music videos? The videos (which you could superimpose yourself over) are always interesting, the lyrics are amusing, and they tend to be pretty fast.

Take on Me was the first one I saw, but Total Eclipse of the Heart is popular. Just search youtube for "literal video" and you'd get a lot of options.
posted by Mad_Carew at 5:53 PM on June 26, 2012

"Cat's in the Cradle" by Harry Chapin.
"Share a Load" by the Bobs.
"Helmet" by the Bobs
posted by plinth at 5:57 PM on June 26, 2012

How about Spending the Day in the Shirt That You Wore by Poi Dog Pondering?

The lyrics are full of great imagry/vocab:

Oh the days of wine and roses
Aand the running of noses
Bare feet in new sprouts and garden hoses
Skipping stones while skipping home
Look at that tree! It's got a brand new leaf!

Candle light (candle light) for no reason
Eating fresh fruit when it's in season
Take an aimless drive behind the motor wheel
Sticking fingers on paintings just to see the way they feel (oooh!)

Spending the day in the shirt that you wore
I can sense your presence from the day before.
posted by carsonb at 6:59 PM on June 26, 2012

Pretty much anything by Britney Spears, LMFAO, or Shakira.
posted by spunweb at 7:32 PM on June 26, 2012

Um... There's a really great video of a song by Cee-Lo Green done in ESL... perhaps you've heard of the song...
posted by Nanukthedog at 8:12 PM on June 26, 2012 [3 favorites]

Um... There's a really great video of a song by Cee-Lo Green done in ESL ... perhaps you've heard of the song...

It's been quite a few years since I've studied it, but it looked like American Sign Language to me. Of course, NZSL will be substantially different, but I'm sure the effect of the song would be just as strong.
posted by QuakerMel at 12:53 PM on July 2, 2012