singing while playing?

[chu2]

Hi!

 

Does anyone else have trouble besides me with singing and playing at the same time? I have a decent voice on my own, fairly good guitar skills, but when I try to put the two together at teh same time...it just doesn't work. I end up being off key a lot more vocally, and I screw up guitar-wise. It's not just my own opinion, I've recorded all this (no, I'm not sharing those clips...kinda embarrassing.)

 

Any secret tips to combine the two? Anyone else have problems like this?

[benzem]

Ya just gotta have the guitar part down cold. Still tough though. It's a matter of repetition. I couldn't do it at all at 1st but now can play some fairly intricate rythm while singing.
What style rythm?

[BoredGuitarist7]

Playing while singing is like using both hands on piano. Think of it less as two things going at once, but as if each note happens at the same time as the other. You strum D, and you say Hey. That kind of thing. Practice each word and each note as if they were connected. Don't think of the music as one thing, and the lyrics as another. Do you understand? Its something my sister taught me awhile back, really helped me out.

Edit: It really isn't about repetition if you can do what I said above.


... Here is a better example.


Music - Strum D, Strum C, Strum G, Strum D... Etc Lyrics - This is how you

Think of them less as two things going at once... but more like this.
This........Is..........How.......You....
Strum D Strum C Strum G Strum D

[rock-lobster]

you gotta practice it. i am singer and lead guitarist for my band and it took a very long time to be independent between the two parts. but you can if you really do it over and over.


..and over. it took me years.

[SloanStewart]

Practice singing and playing basslines. Once you can do that, singing and playing guitar should be like breathing.

[DaveAronow]

I can sing and play, no problem.

 

I wasnt born with a natural ability for it. Back in my earlier days, I knew I could sing well, but as a bass player, I needed to sing backups for a band I was in, and I had always gotten by in opther bands not having to ever sing and play. I hid the fact that I couldnt do it for a while. Then, I was put on the spot,m challenged, and practically forced myself to work on it.

 

I took familier songs that I already knew how to play well, and I would break them down to individual notes and sylables, sometimes painfully slowly till I got comfortable and then could speed the song up. This metheod really broke the back of my inability, and it took like what seems almost no time after that to be able to do it at will. I am talkin weeks at most.

 

Now I can pretty much sing and play at the same time on alot of different instruments, like guitar, bass, piano, etc, with very little effort, unless the parts are really rythmically different from each other, in which cases, I have to get old school and break the song down again, note by note and sylable by sylabe.

 

I guess the main point with this post is, dont stress if it is not natural for you. It isnt natural for alot of people, but i know alot of people like myself that have overcome the complete inability to do it just by working on it.

 

My method seemed to work really well for me, it might be worth a shot trying something similar yourself.

[tlbonehead]

Hi! Does anyone else have trouble besides me with singing and playing at the same time? I have a decent voice on my own, fairly good guitar skills, but when I try to put the two together at teh same time...it just doesn't work. I end up being off key a lot more vocally, and I screw up guitar-wise. It's not just my own opinion, I've recorded all this (no, I'm not sharing those clips...kinda embarrassing. ) Any secret tips to combine the two? Anyone else have problems like this?

practice.

[zenbu]

just came naturally to me, lucky I guess. I always sang along to the radio, so when I finally picked up the guitar I already new lots of song lyrics and melodies, it was a matter of learning the chords. Not sure I could play lead and sing...can`t play lead worth a rats ass anyway so I reckon I`ll never know...at my age I have no illusions about ever being a great player though I ain`t done learning yet, I know my limitations.

[Mr Songwriter]

Think of them less as two things going at once... but more like this. This........Is..........How.......You.... Strum D Strum C Strum G Strum D

 

 

Yes, I do something like that too, you have to be aware of where the chord changes are in the songs (they usually happen on the strong beats) then when you know which syllable the chord change coincides with, practice lining those two things up.

 

Re: singing in key, if you are any good at picking out vocal melodies on your guitar, you will start to notice that most of them start on either the root, the 3rd or the 5th note (of whatever chord you are playing) you can learn to listen for this or even learn to accentuate that note in the chord.

 

e.g. 'Songbird' by Oasis starts on a G chord, and the first note he sings is a B (the third) so you can just use the B you're playing on the A string as a reference.

[keNz]

Record yourself screwing up. Then see where you screw up the most and practice those parts over and over again.

[dixie789456]

can't sing and play the guitar at all!!!! it sux because i love doing both. however i have been playing and teaching myself to play piano and found out that i can sing and play it at the same time!

[FarToMany]

I played for a good 10 years, and couldnt do it nomatter how hard i would try. I went into a hiatus playing only very occasionally (once or twice a year). When i came back to music more actively about 2 years ago, i tried it again--i was amazed. Not only was my playing better, but i could actually sing while playing--not sing well mind you, but i could do it. I practice doing it now and it gets a little better every time. I think i was in such a rut originally, the ten years away from this stuff started me out on a blank sheet when i started again and cleared my mind.

I say you just got to practice it and keep trying.

[westonjay]

I've been playing for 22 years and i've only just been able to sing backing vocals whilst playing for about 6 months i really struggled with it what helped me was adjusting my strap so the guitar was higher and i wasn't straining myself trying to fret some of the chords now everything is much more relaxed and natural feeling

[satannica]

Start low - aim high.

Back in the day when I first started learning to perform, I watched a lot of live videos. Still I prefer live albums and videos to studio albums. Look how the performers hold themselves.

I started playing and singing along to stuff like early green day, dead kennedys, DRI, Misfits - stuff that's easy to play and sing basically. Then moved up to getting most of sepultura stuff together and had a seps cover band for years!

After that, I can pretty much do it easily, unless its a VERY intricate guitar part that I need to sit down and study.

[chu2]

Thanks for all the advice, guys!

I'll give the "break-down" method a try, but beisdes that, it looks like my only solution is the one I knew about...practice...

[Stricken]

Hi! Does anyone else have trouble besides me with singing and playing at the same time? I have a decent voice on my own, fairly good guitar skills, but when I try to put the two together at teh same time...it just doesn't work. I end up being off key a lot more vocally, and I screw up guitar-wise. It's not just my own opinion, I've recorded all this (no, I'm not sharing those clips...kinda embarrassing. ) Any secret tips to combine the two? Anyone else have problems like this?

I have the same problem. haha.

I just keep strumming the same chord on accident.

[wagdog]

Like all things, practice, practice and more practice and it will come. There are no shortcuts.

[BydoEmpire]

I'm kind of the opposite. Because I'm not really a trained (or good) singer, I have to rely on the guitar a little bit to keep my voice on pitch. Now that I think about it, I guess I almost never sing without my guitar (or piano, or something)...

 

I agree with the notion of just playing a small section over and over and over until you have it. That works for any other aspect of music, so it ought to work for leaning to sing while playing.

[golias]

Practice singing and playing basslines. Once you can do that, singing and playing guitar should be like breathing.

Agreed.

[whiteyanderson]

you have to learn to seperate the two in your head. or rather, not think about what you're playing while you're singing if that makes sense. that along with knowing the songs very well on the guitar is the key.

[elsupermanny14]

The part that sucks is that it doesn't come natural to most people. At all! It is seriously one of those things where practice makes perfect. It took me the first two years of college to be able to sing and play well. I'm still not great at it and by any means would i want to be a singer/guitar player in a band, but i can do it now. I can definitely go outside with my acoustic and have fun while people walk by.

The best thing to do is practice a lot. No on is kidding when they say it's repetition. Start of with easy songs to build a foundation off. For example, I started with Wonderwall, Save Tonight, Collide, etc. Seriously songs you'll get made fun of for knowing on here haha. But once you build a decent ability to song and play chord progressions you'll be on the right track.

While it is a good idea to do the strum and sing exercise keep in mind that's not how you wan to program yourself because a great deal of songs have a separate vocal melody then the instruments do.

Don't give up though. Just keep in mind, you will get frustrated, it will be hard, and it will take a lot of practice. Just don't give up.

[BeanoBoy]

I always found playing steady rhythms and singing was no problem. Playing counter rhythms or licks was always difficult. Had to really work on it. It didn't come natural. Sometimes I would simplify the part , master it and then add to it until i mastered the entire part. Still not easy for me. Always envied bass players who could play counter bass lines while singing lead vocals. 'Nothing you can know that can't be known.' Keep at it ,eventually if you work hard enough, you'll make progress.