Singing and Playing at the same time - AAAAAGGGGH!

Beexter

How hard!!!??? I can get by if I'm strumming a very, very, simple chord accompaniment but if there's a riff involved or strange timings I've got no chance - it's like patting your head and rubbing your stomach at the same time. Seeing as our singer has jacked it in, I'm tempted to give it a go but at the moment, I just can't get it..

Anyone got any practise tips that could help?

robinbowes

Don't over-think it.

R.

Cirrus

I'm brilliant at playing and singing at the same time on guitar - chords, riffs, solos, whatever... and same on drums. But I'm fucking awful at it on bass. I just don't understand it.

It's all about practice. You're not doing two things at once, you're doing one thing. If you think about it, you can strum and fret and the same time. You can probably strum, fret and hit pedals. You can strum, fret, hit pedals, breathe and stand up in all likelyhood. They're all one action. To start with, I'd practice one part - either vocal or guitar - so well that you can't get it wrong, then concentrate on the other part and let the first thing play itself.

RocknRollDave

It is all about practice. I saw a clip of James Hetfield once saying he had to sometimes literally go word-by-word through a song, working out what the guitar part did as each word fell, slowly over-and-over until it started to become second nature.
There are some songs that I just cannot believe are possible to play and sing at the same time, two examples being Lindsey Buckingham's much celebrated solo version of Big Love and John Mayer's solo acoustic version of Neon. In both cases it's all I can do not to smash up my PC when I see those clips. Clever, clever bastards.

Cirrus

RocknRollDave said:

It is all about practice. I saw a clip of James Hetfield once saying he had to sometimes literally go word-by-word through a song, working out what the guitar part did as each word fell, slowly over-and-over until it started to become second nature.

That's what the bassist in my band has to do sometimes. Actually sit down and work out that it's for example, in one song we sing;

"And it's my town"

 as backing vocals. He couldn't get the bassline timing right and he had to work out that a note has to hit in between "it's" and "my" then the next one hits bang on the "t" of "town".

PolarityMan

I'm in awe of our singer sometimes. There's one particular bit wheere i totally dont get how he holds down the guitar part while doing a completely different rhythm on the vocals. 

We have rewritten this song but the bit at 1:30 is the vocal and guitar part im talking about...this vid is from our second ever gig btw (dont we look young)

EricTheWeary

When I saw Yolanda Charles she was talking about this. She said you just have to learn the guitar/ bass part so well it's automatic so you can focus on the vocal. And she was, of course, explaining all this whilst playing a complicated funk bass line underneath. :-O

monquixote

Cirrus;630448" said:

RocknRollDave said:

It is all about practice. I saw a clip of James Hetfield once saying he had to sometimes literally go word-by-word through a song, working out what the guitar part did as each word fell, slowly over-and-over until it started to become second nature.







That's what the bassist in my band has to do sometimes. Actually sit down and work out that it's for example, in one song we sing;

"And it's my town"

 as backing vocals. He couldn't get the bassline timing right and he had to work out that a note has to hit in between "it's" and "my" then the next one hits bang on the "t" of "town".

Exactly this.

I had to learn to sing and play the bass to girls on film which goes all over the place. Literally went through every line matching notes to words.

lloyd

Yeah like most things, constant repetition is how to get better-remember the first time you tried to play a barre chord? It's like that...I'm not the best at singing and playing, but I do backing vocals in my band and do some (very simple) lead playing while singing on a few songs. When we first started playing them I couldn't get it at all.

guitarfishbay

Two things help - one knowing absolutely everything off by heart so you're as relaxed as possible and can pretty much leave the guitar on autopilot.  

And the second is separating your breathing from your playing, which is a more basic skill but worth concentrating on for a while if you feel totally stuck with playing and singing.  Basically, if you can't hold a normal conversation while you're playing a basic song you know off by heart you haven't separated off playing guitar from your breathing, as you'll stall on guitar when you start talking or need to breathe.  My old guitar teacher had me practice basic guitar exercises while reading bits out loud from newspapers etc, to get me to do two things at once and separate out the act of playing stuff I know from breathing and thinking.

The less mental effort you can put in to playing the guitar the easier the singing will be along side it.

lloyd

guitarfishbay said:

Two things help - one knowing absolutely everything off by heart so you're as relaxed as possible and can pretty much leave the guitar on autopilot.  

And the second is separating your breathing from your playing, which is a more basic skill but worth concentrating on for a while if you feel totally stuck with playing and singing.  Basically, if you can't hold a normal conversation while you're playing a basic song you know off by heart you haven't separated off playing guitar from your breathing, as you'll stall on guitar when you start talking or need to breathe.  My old guitar teacher had me practice basic guitar exercises while reading bits out loud from newspapers etc, to get me to do two things at once and separate out the act of playing stuff I know from breathing and thinking.

The less mental effort you can put in to playing the guitar the easier the singing will be along side it.

Wiz, knowing the words inside out helps too, but knowing the guitar part and being able to play it without thinking is the big hurdle. The more you do it the better you get too, once you can nail a few songs the rest will just fall into place unless they're particularly different rythms/melodies.

ESBlonde

As others have said, practice. Can I also say it can be harder to re-learn if you've been just guitaring it and now have to vocalize too. But practice and practice, repetition makes it easy. Knowing the song to sing only if you already played it on guitar, then combine the two (slowly at first).

thecolourbox

Or of course mime/Digitech Trio

Only joking. it is repetition, I can do it much better on piano than guitar and I think that is purely because I can play the piano much more from memory (or at least muscle memory) due to more repetition of practising it. I find with guitar my rhythm and timing goes to pot and tends to follow the vocals a lot more, unless I really consciously take it apart and work on it. I think most people do sing a little bit differently with an instrument than without it though

HAL9000

The one that amazes me is Lord David of Gilmour playing and singing Money at the same time. The guitar part on its own is not at all difficult, but try singing it whilst playing - pretty much impossible.

Beexter

Thanks for all the responses, there's a few really good tips for me to try but it seems that a lot of practice could well see thing's just drop into place.

TheOtherDennis

@Beexter - funnily enough, I can not only pat my head and rub my stomach at the same time, I can even rub my head and pat my stomach at the same time. However, I once tried to have a bit of choccy when I was playing and I was so shit at it, that I stopped trying to chew and just let the choccy melt all over my teeth (which was actually much much nicer than it sounds).

I'd love to be able to do it, cos I could then add backing vocals to my cv to help me land a job in a band. Until then...

@Cirrus - you're not the only one. Someone I know (not me) has exactly the same problem, in exactly the same way. He can sing whilst playing guitar or drums, but definitely not the bass.

DannyP

+1 on practice, practice, practice. It's not the most exciting answer, I'm afraid.

I usually do the guitar part to death until it's second nature, then add vocals.

DayTripper did my head in for ages until I learnt to forget my fingers and just let them do their thing.

That James Hatfield one note at a time thing, I found most helpful with Travis picking guitar parts actually.