What's the hardest thing...

[nickeroo]

You can sing and play?

 

Or have seen someone live, sing and play?

 

Not necessarily lead vocals, but backing too?

 

I'm limited to basic power chords and slow open chords.

 

 

 

I'm asking cause a song my band is doing has a harmony line right where there's a fairly simple single note pattern.

 

If anyone cares it is this song @ 2:17 ('cries of every nation')

 

[YOUTUBE]xsKpazeA5L8[/YOUTUBE]

 

Part of me really wants to nail it, but hitting those notes and doing the harmony too is an ass-kicker. The other guys can't do it either when they play what they have to.

 

(I reckon practice could do it though...)

 

 

 

 

So what's the hardest harmony/song you can do and sing? Insipire me!

[mkfs9]

Police , message in a bottle springs to mind. The guitarist in the band i do sound for plays and sings it makes it look rediculously easy.

[Lee Knight]

I got a great tip years ago...

 

Map it out rhythmically. Figure what played note lands on what sung note. Practice each separately then start doing them together slowly and trying to think about what lands together. It sounds like you have straight 8ths on the guitar single note runs. So really, just figure where each word lands on what note. Take it slow. Keep doing it and you'll be amazed at what you can do...

[BATCAT]

My band covered this one for a while. Besides the solo, which I had to simplify a bit, the chord progression is just nuts. Not fun to try to sing and play, at least for someone at my level.

 

[YOUTUBE]V5zioPOIFb4[/YOUTUBE]

[MusicalSchizo]

Two things where I was pretty impressed with myself...

1. Singing lead and playing bass on Maroon 5's "This Love" (never thought I could do it)

2. Singing lead and playing bass on Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" (I did sort of a composite of the actual bass part and the synth bass - I play a 5)

 

Watching Ty Tabor from King's X sing and play always impresses me, because he plays intricate riffs sometimes while he's singing lead.

 

On bass, same with Geddy Lee and Les Claypool - the stuff those guys pull off while singing just makes me sick.

Brian V.

[TIMKEYS]

musically this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnWTroq0Mao

 

vocally this one http://vodpod.com/watch/3029788-the-association-along-comes-mary

 

did all this stuff in high school ,,, 7 piece rock band with horns and really good singers.

 

Now maybe hotel california or somthing. its only a 5 piece so its limited on what we can bite off and cover.

[ba2rymusic]

The toughest thing I've learned to do is sing and play "Cant Stop" by the Chili Peppers on bass. Im relatively new to playing music in general, playing bass for only 2 or so years so. I learned this song probably 9 months into learning the instrument. It took several months to learn the slap and pop technique and an additional month or so to add the vocals to it. Was a 4 month process overall.

[DevilRaysFan]

"Give It Away" by RHCP is the hardest one for me to sing and play on bass

 

On keys/vox, I dont really have a difficult one.......yet................

[tlbonehead]

golly, no idea. I'd have to get my guitar out and play a bunch, I guess.

[SeniorBlues]

Lee has the right idea. Buy The Amazing Slowdowner (or something similar) and break it down.

 

Another solution is to simplify. For my part, I need to learn to trust the band more to carry the song instrumentally.

 

I worked with a bass player who could play the bass line and sing lead to this:

 

 

 

Try it.

 

Sometimes I wonder if footwork helps. Here's his "choreography . . . all night long: Right foot forward, right back, left forward, left back. Short steps.

[tim_7string]

I have a few during a show. Playing the main riff in "Oh Pretty Woman" while I'm singing slowly "she's walking back.....to meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEYEAHHHHhhh....she's walking back to me..." is a challenge, but I've gotten used to it. I play most of the guitar solo for "867-5309/Jenny" and then have to immediately go "Hey!" and back to the chorus chord structure without messing up. Sometimes, I miss the mark. I sometimes play the guitar fills/solos at the end of "Feel Like Making Love" while I'm singing, flicking the delay on and off as I go between the fills and the "dut-DUT....DAHH!" chords, so it's almost like I'm splitting my mind in two to give the illusion that there are two different people doing those parts.

 

I never bitch about doing this stuff. I set it as a goal for myself to be able to play complicated parts on guitar while singing lead, so that it sounds like two people rather than just one person half-assing it and simplfying things. I was always impressed with bands like Rush and Metallica where it sounded like a four- or five-piece because the singer was also doing a lot on his instrument too.

[WynnD]

I used to have that problem when I had first started playing bass. Ended up having to learn one of the parts totally automatic then I could concentrate on the remaining part. Sometimes it was the vocal, sometimes the bass. Been doing it for so many years now, that it's no longer a problem.

[ChordGirl]

I'd say for me, with lead vocals, the hardest thing to get right is the rhythm to Tracy Chapman's 'Gimme one reason.'

[cooterbrown]

Try singing "Jump" with DLR's phrasing while playing that keyboard part.

I can't do it.