Hum the Song

🕹️ How to play

1. How to start the humming game: The page opens ready to play — P1 to P4, 2 laps, 60 seconds a turn. Tap Start without typing anything. Want real names or teams? Tap the player chips and rename them; 3 to 10 players work.
2. Pick a theme card in secret: Pass the phone to P1 while everyone else looks away. P1 taps “show my cards” and picks one of three theme cards — say “A song you'd play on a rainy day” — then thinks of a song that fits and hides the cards. Don't like the batch? You get one swap per turn.
3. Hum it, don't sing it: Tap “Start humming” and the clock starts. The hummer may only hum the tune: no lyrics, no miming the title. Everyone else shouts guesses. The ring is split in thirds — a guess in the first third is worth 3, the middle 2, the last 1.
4. Tap who got it — both of you score: When someone names the song, the hummer taps their name and both players get the same points. Tapped the wrong person? Undo. Someone sang the words? Call a foul. Time running out doesn't end the turn by itself: a last-second guess still counts as a 1-point buzzer call.
5. Pass the phone on: The verdict screen reveals the theme so the hummer can announce the song, then “Next” hands the phone on. Everyone hums once per lap. After the last turn, “See results” shows the podium, who guessed and who got guessed, the fastest guess and a recap of every theme.

📖 Rules & variants

In one line: the hummer reads a secret theme card, picks any song they can hum, and hums it without words. Whoever names the song first scores, and so does the hummer. It tests your ear and your performance, not your voice — being off-key is half the fun.

Scoring in thirds: a correct guess is worth 3 points in the first third of the turn, 2 in the middle third and 1 in the last (a guess exactly on a boundary gets the higher tier). The hummer and the guesser get the same points, so nobody gains by humming badly on purpose. Once per turn the guesser can earn +1 for also naming the singer.

Hints cost a point each, down to a floor of 1, three at most. Hint 1 shows the theme card on screen, hint 2 has the hummer say how many words the title has, hint 3 has them say whether it's a male singer, a female singer or a group. Reveal early and win less, hold out and risk zero.

The humming rule is simple: never sing a lyric and never mime the title. With “Level up the humming” on (default), lap 1 is free humming — mmm, la, doo or whistling — lap 2 is “la” only, and lap 3 draws a twist card such as half speed, pinched nose or only the highest line. Switch it off for free humming every lap.

The hummer is the judge. The page never listens or records anything; the hummer taps whoever shouted the right answer. Undo puts the turn back exactly where it was (clock paused), Foul voids the turn, Give up scores zero. When time is up, “Nobody got it” becomes the main button but names can still be tapped for a buzzer call worth 1.

Theme cards never name a song. Lap 1 only deals easy cards — moments, moods and crowds like “A road-trip song” — so everyone can think of something. Later laps mix in tricky cards built on title or lyric features, like “A song with a color in the title”. Pick the easiest of three; themes don't repeat across games.

Tips for hummers: hum the chorus, not the intro, and start with the catchiest line. Rhythm matters more than pitch — stress the beats. If nobody's close after about 20 seconds, take a hint; one point beats zero. Tips for guessers: throw out songs from the same era and genre fast, wrong guesses cost nothing.

Example round: Alex draws “A song you'd play on a rainy day” and hums; at 12 seconds Sam shouts the title, both score 3, and Sam names the singer for +1. On Sam's turn nobody gets it until a hint reveals the theme at 31 seconds — 1 point each. Jo's turn runs out with nobody close: “Nobody got it”, the theme is revealed and Jo hums the answer one more time to groans all round.

House rules people add: naming the singer counts as a guess, double points in the last lap, team play (rename players to teams and take turns humming), or the loser picks the next karaoke duet. The page doesn't score these — agree on them at the table.

❓ FAQ