[taylor82]

Hello all,

So I'm getting frustrated, I hope i can describe this accurately. I enjoy writing and covering tunes, and have no trouble writing musical guitar pieces or doing covers. Also when i write i have no problem improvising a nice melody and lead line (or copying one for that matter) However, when i try to sing a melody over a piece (written or cover) i fail miserably. People assure me i can hit all the notes, BUT my timing and overall fluidity of singing a melody over a piece is serious lacking. I just can't seem to separate the guitar piece and the voice melody in my head. I can play (or sing) a melody separately with no problem but i just cant seem to do both at the same time. Any tips! Thanks

This post has been edited by taylor82: 03 April 2009 - 10:02 PM

[slash3000]

Maybe you're trying to jump into singing and playing together with pieces that are too difficult? go for something simple like twinkle twinkle little star (no joke) then work your way up to more complex things that you've written or are covering. Another thing to remember is starting slow and using a metronome to slowly increase your speed might be helpful in getting your timing and rhythm down.

Hope that helps at all

[dadfad]

Awhile back someone PM'ed me with the same problem. Here's a copy of what I answered then. It might help a bit.

Singing As You Play

....from xxxx's PM


First of all, don't worry about bothering me. And believe me, I know all about your problem. When I first started playing and for years afterwards I never bothered to learn to sing along. I never figured I'd be a singer, only a guitarist. But things change.... back-up vocals you need to help with, then a few tunes you actually want to sing lead on, and then if you want to start doing solo gigs it's a must-have. I struggled for a long time to be able to sing and play at the same time. It's dead simple to learn to BOTH play and sing at the same time but MUCH harder to add singing later on. I always tell guys just starting out if they ever have ANY future intentions or possibilities of singing to learn both now as they start out.

This was a real bear for me (and other guys I know who did it the same way have said the same thing). So you aren't alone. I feel your pain!! haha!! Anyway, here are a few things that seemed to help me. Pick a few dead-simple songs. Tunes with simple progressions and simple chords-only that you could play with your eyes closed, and totally know the words to. It doesn't have to be tunes you want to learn to do at a gig or anything. This is purely training exercise, like playing scales or something. So it doesn't matter if it's "Row Row Row Your Boat" or "On Top Of Old Smokey" or whatever. Choose tunes where the rhythm of the singing matches the rythm of the playing very closely. I picked dead-simple 12-bar blues that I knew the simple words to.... like "Rock Me Baby" in the key of E or A. Simple plain chords strummed in time (no shuffle even) 1-2-3-4... 1-2-3-4, singing just the first verse. Over and over (and over and over and over.....) Slowly at first (very slowly! haha!). I found tapping my foot in time seemed to help. I kept at the simplest stuff, slowly and a little faster, until I could do it at a reasonably moderate speed. Then I added the shuffle-rhythm to the plain chords, again slow at first until I got to speed. Then slightly more complex chord changes. Then tunes where the vocal-rhythms were different than the playing-rhythm (this was a little tough to say the least). Eventually I got to where I could do it reasonably well on the vast majority of tunes. I noticed (and still notice) a lot of guys sort of "simplify" their guitar-work when they come to the vocals. Not necessarily a bad-thing, but the best solo performers I know don't miss a beat as they sing, continuing with the same kind of complex chordal-runs or lead work or melody-lines as when it's the instrumental break. That's what I'm going for, and for the most part, have gotten there. Not completely. Some of the really tough things that take a lot of concentration just for the guitar-work are still a bit iffy and so I might simplify a bit, but I'm getting there. I'm to the point where generally speaking that simplification would not be noticeable to anyone but myself.

So I'm STILL working on it. Really, I understand how frustrating and depressing it can be. (Especially if you also have a crap voice like me!haha!!) I'm not familiar with the tune you mentioned. Possibly it can fall within those relatively-simple guidelines as one of your starter-tunes, or maybe not. If not, just back off and work on singing along from the beginning, with less complex tunes until you get to the point to do that tune (and other tunes). Anyway, I hope some of this helps you out. Don't let it fukk with you that you're having a rough time. Like I said, that's how it is for all of us who added vocals to playing later on. If you practice pretty regularly and faithfully, you can probably be doing simple vocals on simple tunes within a couple of weeks, maybe less, and then go on from there. I probably spent a year just getting to the point where I could do most tunes with no problem. Anyway, good luck. Later.

John

[ninjato]

What Dadfad went thru, I can pretty much say the same story.

All I can say that helped me was to understand how the "sentences" are broken up into syllables and how those syllables work w/ your rhythm.

The hard part is keeping your strumming/playin hand from interfering w/. your mouth and vice versa.

You have to have your timing together first though. Without that, your brain will go into overload

[noodle69]

me too !

[dorio]

I never had that kind of problem so I don't know any tricks but I agree... you should indeed try to do simple tunes like 3 or 4 chords songs to begin and proceed from there. Practice should do the rest.


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