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Posted by: unclemeat Jan 12 2013, 05:37 AM

I cannot sing. It's an atrocity when I try. But, as long as the wife is out of the house and the dog is asleep, I will try to work at it and hope one day I improve.

Having a tough time playing and singing some random stuff. Nothing complicated, but mainly cover songs where the singer doesn't play guitar. So the vocals don't follow the strumming pattern & changes all that much.

Any tips?

Doesn't seem like just learning to play something where slowing it down helps much. That seems to make it a ton more difficult actually. I can play the guitar parts after a half bottle of gin, but as soon as I try to sing, it all falls apart. Practice practice practice, I know, but there has to be an efficient way to go about it...

Posted by: PosterBoy Jan 12 2013, 07:46 AM

I've been singing all my life. Those type of songs are tricky, you have to be able to do one of those parts in your sleep, so your brain can concentrate on the other.

Work out where the start of vocal lines fall in the guitar rhythm part, or how the awkward phrases fit with the rhythm part and try and focus on that. In a normal song your vocal line would start on a down beat so your brain is used to that.

Try singing the melody without the words, so you can get the timing, without your brain having to think about lyrics, you can add the lyrics once you're comfortable with the melody and accompaniment.

Hope that helps

Posted by: mroberts70 Jan 12 2013, 08:43 AM

I sing when I want to get in the front of a line somewhere, or need to clear out the movie theater to get a good seat. That's when and how well I sing...

Posted by: Matt Warnock Guitar Jan 12 2013, 09:38 AM

That's a typical problem i think with many guitarists when they want to learn how to sing.

Try singing along to the song until you can nail it with the recording. Then, sing it on your own, no guitar, until you're comfortable doing that. And then bring the guitar in and sing while you are strumming/picking the guitar.

That might help ease things in on the guitar rather than just jumping right to it.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jan 12 2013, 10:49 AM

This is what I have been working on for the last year or so Singing while playing the guitar, is a must for me as I am also the front man in my band and I want to play the guitar on stage and sing like there's no tomorrow.

I am facing some nasty rhythmic formulas while having to sing against a heavy layer of vocal melodies and also follow sometimes complex song structures, so here's my approach:

- learn the vocal line and be able to sing and interpret it as the song requires
- same with the guitar lines - I always choose the easiest guitar parts when also having to sing, but some of you guys might not afford this luxury, as you may very well be the only guitar player in the band. We are three guitarists, so that makes things a bit easier for me.
- listen to the vocal line and the guitar line together and observe the accents and where the chord changes occur, so that you may be able to set some landmarks while learning. Some chords will change when a certain syllable is sung and so on. These little things help enormously.
- sing against the recorded guitar part and listen to those changes I was talking about in the lines above - observe them and internalize them. Know when they occur.
- play the guitar against the vocal recording and observe the chord changes against the vocal line
- play and sing - use a clean tone - at a slow tempo - it's going to suck and it will be difficult at first, but eventually you'll manage, IF you internalized the things I was speaking about above.
- raise speed until you can sing and play at the desired tempo

This is pretty much how I do it

Posted by: mroberts70 Jan 12 2013, 07:19 PM

QUOTE (Cosmin Lupu @ Jan 12 2013, 09:49 AM)

This is what I have been working on for the last year or so Singing while playing the guitar, is a must for me as I am also the front man in my band and I want to play the guitar on stage and sing like there's no tomorrow.

I am facing some nasty rhythmic formulas while having to sing against a heavy layer of vocal melodies and also follow sometimes complex song structures, so here's my approach:

- learn the vocal line and be able to sing and interpret it as the song requires
- same with the guitar lines - I always choose the easiest guitar parts when also having to sing, but some of you guys might not afford this luxury, as you may very well be the only guitar player in the band. We are three guitarists, so that makes things a bit easier for me.
- listen to the vocal line and the guitar line together and observe the accents and where the chord changes occur, so that you may be able to set some landmarks while learning. Some chords will change when a certain syllable is sung and so on. These little things help enormously.
- sing against the recorded guitar part and listen to those changes I was talking about in the lines above - observe them and internalize them. Know when they occur.
- play the guitar against the vocal recording and observe the chord changes against the vocal line
- play and sing - use a clean tone - at a slow tempo - it's going to suck and it will be difficult at first, but eventually you'll manage, IF you internalized the things I was speaking about above.
- raise speed until you can sing and play at the desired tempo



This is pretty much how I do it

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jan 13 2013, 08:53 AM

QUOTE (mroberts70 @ Jan 12 2013, 06:19 PM)

Posted by: unclemeat Jan 24 2013, 03:43 PM

I'm slow to respond - but thanks for the great tips folks! I'll definitely be trying some of these things out. As someone who is primarily a guitarist, it's natural to just learn the guitar and try to add vocals. I really should learn the vocals as it's own thing and put the guitar down.

Posted by: Cosmin Lupu Jan 25 2013, 09:37 AM

QUOTE (unclemeat @ Jan 24 2013, 02:43 PM)