It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Subscribe to our Patreon, and get image uploads with no ads on the site!
Base theme by DesignModo & ported to Powered by Vanilla by Chris Ireland, modified by the "theFB" team.
Comments
Just try it. If it's a cover, then play and sing along to the orginal.
If it's your own song, just record a rough demo with an acoustic guitar and play/sing along to it.
This is assuming that you can do both separately. If you haven't had much experience singing, then try to get the right breathing technique there first. Ideally get a few lessons, but if not, there are singing tutorials on Youtube. The only problem is that they won't pick up on your bad technique like a good teacher.
But when the beginning of a word does not match with a note start then you have to learn how to identify points that do match. Perhaps it is the 2nd syllable in a word that matches and preserves the rhythmic pulse of a particular tune.
I find humming the vocal melody while playing to be a good stepping stone before trying to introduce the actual words. It's slightly less to try and remember and it gets your brain used to playing one thing and humming a different melody, rather than adding the 3rd thing being remembering the actual word.
If you have a suitable app to slow the track down but maintain pitch then that is a great tool for spotting the rhythmic matches that have to be just right.
I am not a fan of learning just 1 part perfectly and then trying to add the other. Doesn't seem to work because you work so hard to get a part perfect, and then trying to learn the other bit automatically damages that perfection. Treat them as 2 parts of a whole instead.
Many guitarists will simplify a guitar part if necessary to get the vocal right - that approach is usually wrong for bass. The bass is the keeper of the pulse of the song, if you have a noticeable change in the rhythmic structure to solve a vocal issue then it can ruin the pulse of the song. Far better to adjust the vocal delivery.
As always - if the melody instruments (inc vocal) have the odd slip or even a dodgy gig most of the punters won't notice. If the rhythm section has a bad day, then everybody has a bad day.
I’m so bored I might as well be listening to Pink Floyd
I've always found a combo approach works best, in terms of learning the instrument part and vocal part separately and together. Get a rough idea of each, then try together, then brush up the sticky bits individually, then bring together etc.
Don't practice it wrong. If there's a bit you keep messing up, isolate it and work out why, and don't do the whole thing again until you've got it right, otherwise you're reinforcing the error each time.
Also, if you're not a confident singer, get some lessons. I've just started and they're having a huge impact, just learning a bit of technique.
I think the above is true for singing with bass and guitar, it's just that bass can be harder to marry the two up.
If singing along with recordings that aren't in your natural range, don't be afraid to drop an octave rather than damage your voice, too. Particularly if playing bass
after a really hard couple of weeks, playing and singing has been developing quite nicely.
I came out feeling quite pleased as I am booked for a few more lessons and am encouraged to work on the Ahhh etc sounds every day. Practicing is not my strong point but I am going to give this a fair shot....
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum