It used to be that creating aural masterpieces meant having expertise in a musical instrument. Nowadays, you can compose music simply with your keyboard’s number pad and a YouTube video of a screaming frog.
By itself, the video, titled “Amazing: Frog screams out “Weed Poop” for all to hear,” is kind of horrible. The frog lets out an ear-shattering shriek, not unlike one you’d hear from a mandrake in one of the Harry Potter films.
And yet, some enterprising YouTubers and redditors have found a way to make sweet music using the video and the number pad shortcuts that help you skip through YouTube clips. If you hit ‘4’ on your keyboard’s number pad, you’ll skip to 40 percent of a YouTube video’s running time, 70 percent when you hit ‘7’ and so on.
Since the frog emits a sliding scale of notes, some redditors and YouTubers have spent some time create versions of popular songs and video game soundtracks.
One of the first “songs” to be created using the video, as noted in its description and the accompanying Reddit thread, is the ‘Imperial March’ from Star Wars. When done correctly, it sounds a little something like this:
Though there’s a subreddit devoted to creating music in this way, r/YoutubeKeyTunes/, this video’s particularly useful for creating music through the number pad.
As redditor Farmerj0hn notes, “This is seriously amazing, 2-8 is the pentatonic scale, which is pretty much what all blues and Rock and Roll is based off.”
You probably won’t be able to replicate the melodies of “Bohemian Rhapsody” (challenge accepted, anyone?), though it’s very fun trying.
Here’s a list of some of the best “KeyTunes” we’ve found for the clip. Try them out, and let us know if you come up with any of your own in the comments.
- Lipps, Inc, “Funkytown,” by YouTuber S1mply11
66768 86456 - Deep Purple, “Smoke on the Water,” by redditor BasedLight
6 5 4, 6 5 34, 6 5 4, 5 6 - Kansas, “Carry On My Wayward Son,” by YouTuber tombombadil0101
6765 6763 32345 46 57 - Lastly, and, inevitably, Rick Astley, “Never Gonna Give You Up”, by YouTuber notbrandondinh
8767 4 4 5 8767 5 5 6 8767 6 5 7 88 5 6