playing while singing

[Dead Winter]

Any guitarists play and sing simultaneously? I've discovered that with starting slow and then building speed it gets much easier with lots of practice.

My question is do any of you have any hints or tips on how to improve splitting your mind to play and sing at the same time?

 

[genocide roach]

find vocal rhythms that work well with your riffs and practice
~gR~

 

[cannibal corpse]

I can't do it.

 

[wandering_taco]

I've been practicing growling while playing Mass Strangulation by Bloodbath. I'm doing ok at it.

 

[Acey Jendell]

Try not sucking, that usually helps.
Singing while doing sweeps is piss easy, you just do it.
If you think about it you'll fuck up.

 

[BlackMetalWhiteGuy]

Just practice until you can do at least one thing automatically, and then you can concentrate on the other.

 

[viewerfromnihil]

find vocal rhythms that work well with your riffs and practice
~gR~

well put, that's exactly what i do with atropos

 

[Dead Winter]

Try not sucking, that usually helps.
Singing while doing sweeps is piss easy, you just do it.
If you think about it you'll fuck up.

Our album has zero solos on it...it's closer to Meshuggah meets Samael meets Fear Factory.

I probably wouldn't even do sweeps anyway...they bore me to tears.

 

[tagradh]

I probably wouldn't even do sweeps anyway...they bore me to tears.

Same.. kinda. Well, I find the majority of solos to be completely tasteless, some sweeping is cool like The Psalm Of Lydia.

 

[Deicidal]

I try, but I'm not enough of a douchebag to do it and impress girls under a tree at school playing a 100 dollar acoustic guitar while singing about love and peace and shit.

 

[tagradh]

I try, but I'm not enough of a douchebag to do it and impress girls under a tree at school playing a 100 dollar acoustic guitar while singing about love and peace and shit.

Elliott Smith owns most the bands in your sig.

 

[Iron Bug]

Just practice until you can do at least one thing automatically, and then you can concentrate on the other.

Totally agree. Practice and practice. I personally think that playing must be automatic process of some kind when trying to play and sing. I can play bass and sing (which is even more difficult sometimes, since bass line and melodic line are very different as a rule). Lately I learnt to play and sing while improvising (which also includes listening to others, along with playing and singing some lyrics thought up on the way) - that's even more complicated, but possible.

 

[waif]

I can sing improvised shit while playing open chords. If I could sing well I'd get tons of girls I guess.

But as far as good music goes, if the vocal line is very close to the guitar line (or on some random ones completely different) I might be able to sing along, often though I just can't. I'm getting better, though. Practice is key, as in everything.

 

[divine_torture]

I've been able to sing n play since I started playing guitar. Sometimes it's a little hard, cuz I write some guitar riffs that don't go with my vocal lines at all. A big trick for me is singing slow, long, words at first. Drag the word out. Then you start getting a feel for doing both simultaneously. And practice with some songs you haven't written. If you play death metal, practice some old Hypocrisy. That's a really good starting point.

 

[waif]

I've found that it's easier to play and make random lyrics up (works great with power metal - "THE MIGHTY SWORD OF THE DRAGON TONNIIIIGHT!") than to play and sing actual lyrics, probably because making lyrics up actually requires less concentration than remembering lyrics previously written.
Or something.

 

[mutantllama]

Try what the dude on a Gorguts video said. First try singing it, until you get it in your head and it becomes second nature, then try playing the riff that goes with it. Or vice versa.

 

[ParsonsMatt]

I've found that it's easier to play and make random lyrics up (works great with power metal - "THE MIGHTY SWORD OF THE DRAGON TONNIIIIGHT!") than to play and sing actual lyrics, probably because making lyrics up actually requires less concentration than remembering lyrics previously written.
Or something.

Even better, do "Da-da-da-daaa-da-daaa" to the rhythm you want to sing.

 

[The Ozzman]

Singing while playing six string isn't hard. Singing while playing bass is a challenge.

 

[divine_torture]

Singing while playing six string isn't hard. Singing while playing bass is a challenge.

I can't tell if that's sarcasm sir. But if not how so? Or just fast stuff? I have no trouble.

 

[The Ozzman]

It's harder in general. At least with a guitar you can kinda slow down and no one will notice. If the bass drops out when you're trying to sing, people go what the fuck?