Tricky fingerstyle and singing...

[G-tarist]

I've always had trouble playing and singing at the same time when the vocal part doesn't sit squarely in the beat as it would in, say, a simple, 4/4 strumming song.

 

For example, yesterday I was trying to play and sing Superstition by Stevie Wonder, and it felt like I wasn't doing rhythm and melody, I was doing two melodies, and I couldn't quite do them both at the same time - I couldn't concentrate on both.

 

I'm going to be getting into proper old finerstyle blues soon, so it's something I'll ned to work on.

 

Will it go away with practice? Will it get easier to seperate my playing and my singing?

[Grant Harding]

It goes away with practice to some degree, but for each song there will be tricky syncopated bits that need to be ironed out before they feel anything like natural. I struggled my way through Message in a Bottle when I was a teenager, learning to play the guitar and do the vocal.

[Michael Martin]

I find that it just takes lots of reps--eventually the two parts merge as one. For me the guitar part has to be pretty automatic (as in very little conscious brain involvement) before I can get there. But once you get there, you're there for good.