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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteQuery by humming (QbH) is a way to identify music by searching with a melody you hum, sing, or whistle. It helps when you remember how a song sounds but not its title, artist, or lyrics; you do not need the original recording.
How query by humming works
You perform the melody as a search query, and a recognition system compares it with musical representations in its catalog. The query is not a recording of the song itself: it is your rendition of the tune, which may differ from the original in pitch, key, tempo, and rhythm.
Google’s 2020 explanation says its system converts input audio into a number-based sequence representing the melody, while discounting details such as accompaniment and voice timbre. Google Research later described an embedding-based approach that matches a hummed query directly to original, polyphonic recordings. The system must therefore find a melody match even though your query lacks the instruments and vocals of the studio track. Google’s launch explanation and Google Research’s technical account describe those approaches.
Google Research wrote in 2020 that its system reached “a high level of accuracy” on a database containing over half a million songs that was continually updated. That is Google’s published description at the time, not a precise catalog count, an independently measured accuracy result, or a verified current catalog size.
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How to search for a song by humming
Google on Android
- Open the Google app and tap the microphone.
- Choose Search a song.
- Hum, whistle, sing, or play the melody.
Google’s current Android help page also lists Circle to Search, Quick Settings, a home-screen shortcut, and asking Gemini as access options. Which options appear can depend on the device, software version, and region. See Google’s Android song-search help for its current instructions.
SoundHound
SoundHound says it can search for music a person hears, sings, or hums. For humming or singing, it recommends that one person provide at least 10 seconds of input. It also says an attempt made without internet access can be saved as pending and retried later. These are SoundHound’s own instructions, not an independent comparison of recognition performance. Its guidance is on Searching For Music.
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Query by humming versus music recognition from a recording
These methods use different search inputs. Query by humming uses a melody you perform; music fingerprinting uses a portion of the original recording as the search key. As a result, a fingerprinting system may not be suited to a hummed rendition, while QbH is intended for that situation. The distinction is described in the 2006 VocalSearch system article.
| What you have | Search approach | Documented example |
|---|---|---|
| A melody you remember, but not the recording | Query by humming, singing, or whistling | Google Search and SoundHound document melody input. |
| A sample of the song’s original recording | Recording-based music fingerprinting | VocalSearch distinguishes fingerprinting by its use of a recording excerpt. |
The cited sources do not establish a universal accuracy ranking between services or methods. Choose based on whether you have the melody or the recording, which documented access route is available to you, and whether you can connect to the internet.
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What to say or do when starting a search
You can simply start the melody search and perform the tune. Google’s launch article uses the prompts “Do you know that song that goes…” and “what’s this song?” SoundHound lists “What song am I humming?” and “Start a hum search” in its song-identification guidance. These are examples of phrasing, not evidence that one prompt improves recognition.
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