Not everything works
First thing you learn with a musical Tesla coil: most music sounds awful on it. The coil can only play one note at a time and it sounds like an angry 8-bit synthesizer. You need songs where the melody is strong enough to carry everything on its own.
The stuff that works tends to have a few things in common. A melody you could hum without the backing track. Not too fast (rapid passages turn into mush). Recognisable from the first few notes. Iconic riffs are gold.
The ones everyone plays
Thunderstruck, AC/DC
I mean... lightning playing "Thunderstruck." The opening riff is rapid single-note picking, which is exactly what a coil does well. This is usually the first thing people try and it always delivers.
Imperial March, Star Wars
Slow, deliberate, three notes in and everyone knows what it is. The coil adds this menacing buzz that honestly suits Darth Vader's entrance music better than an orchestra does.
Fur Elise, Beethoven
Classical stuff with clear melodic lines works better than you'd expect. Fur Elise is the standard because everyone recognises it and that arpeggiated opening sounds genuinely eerie through an arc.
Take On Me, a-ha
The synth riff in the original is already basically a square wave. Playing it on a Tesla coil isn't really a cover, it's more like bringing it home.
Tetris Theme (Korobeiniki)
Perfect tempo, endlessly loopable, instantly recognisable. This one just works.
Video game soundtracks
8-bit and 16-bit game music is where it gets really good. Those soundtracks were written for hardware with the same limitations as a Tesla coil. One channel, square waves, limited range. The composers had to make melodies that stood on their own.
- Super Mario Bros. overworld theme - you know the one
- Legend of Zelda main theme - sounds massive through an arc
- Megaman 2, Dr. Wily Stage 1 - probably the best chiptune track ever written. Fight me.
- Doom E1M1 - heavy metal on a Tesla coil. Yes.
- Undertale, Megalovania - modern but it's got the same energy
The meme tier
People love these because they recognise them instantly:
- Coffin Dance (Astronomia) - still funny
- Never Gonna Give You Up - rickrolling with lightning
- Rush E - if your coil can handle it
- Sandstorm, Darude - electronic music played by actual electricity
150+ tracks ready to go
The sound library on teslacoil.app has over 150 tracks converted from MIDI by the team at teslacoil.shop (Wardenclyffe), specifically for coil playback. Monophonic, right frequency range, ready to play.
You can also build your own with the sequencer, or check out what other people have made on the community page.
Finding your own songs
If you want to go beyond the library:
- Search for MIDI versions of the song. If a decent MIDI exists, it'll probably work on a coil
- Try humming just the melody with no backing. If it still sounds like the song, you're good
- Tempo around 100-160 BPM is the sweet spot. Too slow and it drags, too fast and it's mush
- Coils sound best between about C3 and C6
- Simple and well-played always beats complex and messy