Playing guitar and singing

Chads

Chads

Chads

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Hey guys,

Quick one; Do any of you have any tips regarding playing the (acoustic) guitar and singing at the same time? I'm a decent guitar player, but trying to sing at ther same time sends my brain into shutdown. I end up either playing the guitar perfectly and singing like a strangled cat, or singing well and totally forgetting what I should be strumming.

Is it just practice? Or are there some specific techniques that could help me on my way. I've assumed that I just have to learn the guitar strumming until I can do it in my sleep, then concentrate on putting words to it.

Cheers,
 
I can't do it to save my life, many people find it tricky.

I think its a case of using your guitar as a percusion rather than thinking about it as a guitar. One strum a bar chords is proberly the best thing to do when starting out. A bit like singing tapping you feet.

If that makes sense?
 
Try and concentrate on the rhythm of the music and not what you're actually playing in terms of just the guitar, then you might find that your strumming action becomes an extension of your bodily movement (like dancing!) so you don't have to consciously concentrate on it too much.

This works for me anyway XD
 
Mmm, I like that idea. I've just tried tapping my guitar instead of strumming, and it's surprisingly effective. Now I just need to sneakily start strumming without my brain finding out.
 
The strumming has to be second nature before you can get really good at the singing simultaneously part. I don't recall ever having a problem with it, but half the time I'm not even thinking about the chords when I'm singing along. Learning a song that you like that has few chords and getting those chords perfect should see you on your way. :)
 
there are songs that are easy to sing whilst playing, and there are songs that are hard to sing whilst playing... thats my views on it.

knockin' on heavens door is possibly the easiest going!
paranoid by sabbath is easy too, but not really for acoustic stuff :p
 
Incidentally, I recently had a big problem when I first learnt Golden Touch by Razorlight. the lyric that goes 'You could have it all if you want it...' is sung over the chords F#m and G#m and I couldn't for the life of me sing it right. In the end I just had to repeatedly sing it right without the chords and teach myself how to force it over them. Worked in the end and now sounds spot on. Just takes perseverence sometimes.
 
I learned to concentrate both on the words and the music pretty quickly, though I've never really tried singing aloud. Wonderwall is a good one to learn singing and playing on, the chords synch up with the vocals pretty well.
 
Chads said:
Hey guys,

Quick one; Do any of you have any tips regarding playing the (acoustic) guitar and singing at the same time? I'm a decent guitar player, but trying to sing at ther same time sends my brain into shutdown. I end up either playing the guitar perfectly and singing like a strangled cat, or singing well and totally forgetting what I should be strumming.

Is it just practice? Or are there some specific techniques that could help me on my way. I've assumed that I just have to learn the guitar strumming until I can do it in my sleep, then concentrate on putting words to it.

Cheers,
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Practice, practice, practice. :D

I'm not quite in the position you're in, right from the get go I was singing and strumming at the same time, but then singing is something I've been trained and doing for 16+ years and it comes instinctively.
What I've found hard is doing anything more than just strumming the chords whilst singing, and its only recently I've started adding the fancier stuff.

Personally the method I preferred was to know the song off by heart first, then try and play along with it, so I was in a position to concentrate on what I found hardest at the time: my guitar work.

One song I still struggle with:

Jimi Thing - Dave Matthews Band.

I can do the verse section no probs, but trying to sing and play the chorus/bridge type thing "Well sometimes that jimi thing slides my way..", with the whole fast movement down the fret board confounds me. One of these days I'll get it locked down.
 
Dave said:
Just be glad you aren't a singing drummer ;) :D
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I did it for years but it means you can't give everything.
I've sung and played guitar for 36 years now so I can't comment on any magic formula.
You can either do it or you can't.
 
I'm thinking it must be harder to play lead or bass and sing rather than rhythm and sing? I can sing and strum okay, but certainly not the other!
 
I don't think the 'you can either do it or you can't' syndrome doesn't mean that it can't be learnt.

I think anyone can play an instrument or master a particular technique like this it just requires work to learn how to do it, then it becomes second nature and you forget how you ever struggled with it :)
 
Andelusion said:
I think anyone can play an instrument or master a particular technique like this it just requires work to learn how to do it, then it becomes second nature and you forget how you ever struggled with it :)
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Exactly. In the Razorlight example I gave, I can't now see why I couldn't sing it, it seems easy. What is odd though is that I can still sing it in the old, wrong way as well. :)
 
dmpoole said:
I did it for years but it means you can't give everything.
I've sung and played guitar for 36 years now so I can't comment on any magic formula.
You can either do it or you can't.
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Actually I disagree with this.

Generally, there are talents and there are skills. I class the good synchronisation of singing/playing as a skill, not a talent. Some people will pick it up at a faster pace, of course.
Singing itself is a talent, but getting different body parts to move together is just something that takes practice.

Well, I guess i've just anwsered my own question :)
 
Chads said:
Actually I disagree with this.
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To be honest I haven't had any experience of this in nearly 36 years of semi pro gigging. You've got singers and non singers. Every singer I've ever worked with has been able to play an instrument while singing. I can't ever remember a time when somebody said that they would need more practise to sing and play a certain song because they either did it or couldn't do it. If you think the skill can be learnt then I can't really argue with it.
 
Don't get sulky, we are allowed to disagree. I'd wager all of those singers needed to practice a lot when they first started putting lyrics and playing together. I'm sure if someone is working with a band, they have had time to develop a skill to a degree that they are confident with.

I'd also suggest that if you approached any of those singers in the first few weeks of them trying to do both, they'd have difficulty on some songs.
 
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Chads said:
Don't get sulky, we are allowed to disagree.
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:confused:
Who's getting sulky.
I already said that I haven't had any experience of singers having problems with playing their instruments in 36 years.
Therefore I'm not qualified to discuss it.
 
i'm not too bad at singing and playing, however being a 'bedroom guitarist' i'm not sure if im making mistakes because there is no-one to comment

one thing i can't do it tap my foot for rythm and play/sing. i've seen people do it, super ambidextrous they are
 
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