Guitar Playing & Singing

Celtic67

Hi,
Over the last 8 weeks I have been trying to teach myself the guitar. At the moment I have most of the basic chords off and have been messing around with a few songs from song chord websites. I have been able to play some songs but when I try to sing along while playing I lose the rhtym & strumming pattern completely. Does anyone have any tips on how to improve this?

Also I am finding it s struggle to get the strumming 100% accurate in songs, any tips in this regard?

Thanks

slipss

Try not to concentrate so hard....maybe have a couple of cans of beer, if you drive try to remember whatever you did at the time to sync up changing the gears with steering and working the pedals. Basically its all about letting your brain switch off and trusting your instincts to take over, at least thats what it was like in my case. Hope that makes sense.

SxE Punk

You know when you first learn to sing a song by singing along to it? And from a song that goes like this:

I feel like I am flying so free up in the sky,
Like i'm diving in the air,
I fly high, the way you want it.

(oooooooh) Just gotta, the way you want it.
(oooooooh) Just gotta, the way you want it.

Dont trip on the people that walk around you now,
Just keep looking ahead cruisin',
And glide on, until you find it.


You might be able to get out like three words per line at first, and they're probably wrong. But the more you hear it and try to learn it, the more words you get til you have it down tight? Learning to sing and play is like that, just keep trying it til you can do it seemlessly. The more song you can learn to do it to, the more natural it will become to ya.

Thats what I heard anyway, I can't be arsed learning to do both, unless its death metal style, I can't sing well enough to bother learnin' to do both.



As with everything with music, practise makes perfect. I doubt getting pissed will help you any to be honest. Maybe relieve the annoyance of ****ing up a bit though.

NoQuarter

to be honest i think its just a disease! i can play some songs without even thinkin but if i try sing with them it all goes out the window!!! ive tried and tried and tried and it will just never work! i also couldnt play the piano cause the bass and treble hands are doing two completely different things and my brain just woint co-operate with me!!!

stevejazzx

So here's the really boring answer, practice. You need to bulid up independence with both left and right hand respectively before you'll be able to sing over it. Familiarity is the key. At the momnet, if you're honest with yourself you'll find it takes quite a deal of conccentration to play the chordal part perfectly by which I mean, in tune and in time. It takes time just stick with it. Also you may be trying to sing in keys which aren't right for you. Use a capo to move the key around to see where it suits your voice.

Good Luck

Steve

qwertplaywert

Same problem man,its a bitch!

Holmer

I used to listen to the song and pinpoint the word in the lyrics where the chord would change. Maybe you've tried it already, just thought I'd mention it.

Kaiser_Sma

Try a differnt song. The best ones to try are those where the singing matches the music well. If your singing at the same note as the chord your playing, at the same rhythum and duration then it will be much easier to sing.

It's usually a bad idea to start with some band whos lead singer plays nothing or only plays intermitantly.

The first song i learned to sing and play was 'street spirit' by radiohead, but since then i've seen easier ones. At least your right hand is always doing the same thing, the singing matches the chords and each line matches the duration of the arpeggio/bar.

Caveat

I'm not particularly into them, but almost any Oasis song is easy enough to sing/play.

Kaiser_Sma

Caveat wrote: »

I'm not particularly into them, but almost any Oasis song is easy enough to sing/play.

Well whatever floats your boat. Just an example. House of the rising sun is easy too.