How To Play a Song on a Cell Phone

Sometimes you're just bored - when you're in a car, on the subway, or in a waiting room. You're carrying a musical instrument in your pocket; why not play a quick tune on your cell phone? Maybe you just want to impress your friends. Whip out your phone and play your favorite song! Playing songs on cell phones is not a hard task - it just requires practice, like any other musical instrument. Here's how you do it!

Step 1  

Evaluate your cell phone. 

• Press the 1, 2, and 3 keys. You should find that the 2 key is higher than the 1 key, and the 3 key is higher than the 2 key.
• Press the 1 and 4 keys. The 4 key should be slightly higher than the one key.
• Press the *, 0, and # keys. You should find that these keys are much higher than the 1, 2, and 3 keys with # being the highest key of them all.

Step 2  

Understand the basics. 

• Remember that 1 is the lowest key and # is the highest key.
• Remember that the farther you go to the right on the keypad, the higher the keys' pitches are.
• Remember that the father you go down the keypad, the higher the pitches are.

Step 3  

Start slow. Play easy songs for beginners.  

• The easiest song is "Hot Cross Buns". If you do not know the tune, you can listen to it here or play along with it.
  1. Press the sequence "3 2 1" twice. This is the "hot cross buns" part.
  2. Press the sequence "1 1 1 1 2 2 2 2". This is the "one a penny, two a penny" part.
  3. Press the sequence "3 2 1" once more.
  4. Press the sequence "3 3 3 3 2 2- 2 2 2 2 1". This is the "if you have no daughters, give them to your sons" part.
  5. Finally, press the sequence "3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 3 2 1". This is the ending.
• Play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" next. This is also a pretty easy song.
• Play "Mary Had a Little Lamb". If you do not know the tune, listen to it here

Step 4  

Frere Jaques is also easy its: 1234x2 256x2 369251x2 275x2. Every key/note is a syllable.  

• Continue to practice these three songs until you can play them well.

Step 5  

Progress to harder songs. 

• One example is "Linus and Lucy" (the Charlie Brown theme). Listen to it here. Note that this example is a very simple version (only the melody).
  1. Press the sequence "1 2 3- 3 2 1- 2 1".
  2. Press the sequence "1 2 3 3-".
  3. Repeat the first sequence.
  4. Press the sequence "1 2 2" twice with a short rest in between.
  5. Press the sequence "2 6 6 6 9". Follow with a short rest.
  6. Press the sequence "9 9 9 #". Follow with a short rest.
  7. Press the sequence "# 0 #- # 0 # * 9 9".
  8. End with the sequence "2 2 3".

Step 6  

Congratulations! You can play tunes on a cell phone! There are numerous things you can do now.  

• Make up your own songs on the cell phone.
• Convert your favorite song to cell phone music.

Tips

• Check to see if your cell phone has a "xylophone", "piano", etc. mode. This will make it so each key is higher than the last, which can make playing songs much easier.
• Try putting your cell phone on speakerphone mode, if available. This will make it louder.
• This will work on any phone, landline or mobile.

Warnings

• Try not to do this in public places. It may be annoying to people around you.

Things You'll Need

• A cellular phone (brand, model, carrier don't matter).