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Singing and playing guitar at the same time.

gobrowns19gobrowns19 Posts: 1,447
edited September 2006 in Musicians and Gearheads
How do you do this? I can't for the life of me do both at the same time. Hell, I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. Honestly, I have a hard time driving and talking to someone, so how do I improve being able to sing and play guitar at the same time? Granted, I can't sing at all, but I would like to play Dylan's Master's of War in my class, but I can't even do that. Any advice..?
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  • seanw1010seanw1010 Posts: 1,205
    gobrowns19 wrote:
    How do you do this? I can't for the life of me do both at the same time. Hell, I can barely walk and chew gum at the same time. Honestly, I have a hard time driving and talking to someone, so how do I improve being able to sing and play guitar at the same time? Granted, I can't sing at all, but I would like to play Dylan's Master's of War in my class, but I can't even do that. Any advice..?
    hah, this is exactly what i was about to post lol
    they call them fingers, but i never see them fing. oh, there they go
  • justamjustam Posts: 21,410
    practice doing it :p
    &&&&&&&&&&&&&&
  • keeponrockinkeeponrockin Posts: 7,446
    Practice, Practice, Practice. Masters Of War is a good start. Try the PJ version, its easy to play/sing.
    Believe me, when I was growin up, I thought the worst thing you could turn out to be was normal, So I say freaks in the most complementary way. Here's a song by a fellow freak - E.V
  • Dirty_FrankDirty_Frank Posts: 957
    Practice, and you've got to pretty much know the guitar part on autopilot.
  • ianvomsaalianvomsaal Posts: 1,224
    1st off, congrats on taking up the instrument.
    It is a bit of a challenging instrument, but it's really worth the practice in the end. I give my students this exercise to help work on finger independence, and hand/head separation . . .

    1). Set a Metronome at a slow speed (like 73bpm).
    2). Now play a chromatic scale to this beat using all 4 fretting fingers (index, middle, annular, pinky). You start this scale on the 1st fret of the Low-E-String (Index finger on the 1st fret, Middle finger on 2nd fret, Ring finger (a.k.a. annular) on 3rd fret, Pinky on 4th fret).
    3). Now move this progression to you're A-String,
    4). Now your D-String,
    5). G-String,
    6). B-String,
    7). and finish with your High-E-string -- At the end of this progression (ending with your Pinky Finger on the High-E string, Note-G), you reverse this progression (pinky, annular, middle, index), ending the progression on your Index Finger, 1st Fret of the Low-E-String (Note-F). When this feels comfortable you can move the entire progression up 1-fret at a time (starting on your 2nd fret, then 3rd fret, etc, etc).
    I know this just sounds like your playing consecutive chromatic notes, but you're also building finger independence. Increase the speed of this progression as it gets easier and more comfortable to play (73bpm, 93bpm, 120bpm, etc, etc).

    Okay, here comes the hand and head separation.
    While doing this chromatic exercise (remember NOT to stop playing), read a small sentence (whatever you like, it could even be a short verse from that Dylan song). Don't sing it yet, just read it out-loud.
    Now continue with more and more verses (while still playing this un-wavering chromatic scale). You'll get to the point where you can read the entire song while playing this exercise. There's the hand and head separation.
    This chromatic exercise is something that many players do as a warm up before a show. I know this is not any easy task, and I know that this can be a somewhat tiresome and exhausting exercise, but "you WILL get it". Just keep practicing and you'll do fine - no one said it would be easy.

    I had to do this when I was at the University (I have a Music Degree), except I had to read Shakespeare while playing this exercise at 192bpm (each sequence of 4-notes per-string, per beat, meaning that I ended the High-E string phrase before the 7th beat sounded). This is a difficult exercise, but it really develops head and hand separation. You'll get so you can have a conversation with someone while playing this progression.

    If you can even manage this a little, playing chords while singing will be no problem. Good luck . . . and remember to have fun.

    - Ian C.T. vom Saal
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  • mca47mca47 Posts: 13,291
    I had a hard time with this too.
    I think the first PJ song I could play and sing at the same time was Last Kiss. Once you can play the 4 chords, just slowly put in the simple lyrics.
    Corduroy is another pretty easy one...especially the "acoustic" cord.
    Hide Your Love Away was the 2nd one I could play and sing. More chords, but simple song nonetheless.
  • All Those YesterdaysAll Those Yesterdays Posts: 2,723
    This was a big step for me too back in the day. Kept on saying to myself this is just impossible. Then out of no where you get it down like its nothing.

    I actually thought it was a bigger struggle to learn how to play bass and sing at the same time, but that came out of no where too.
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  • ACFACF Posts: 6
    ianvomsaal wrote:

    If you can even manage this a little, playing chords while singing will be no problem. Good luck . . . and remember to have fun.

    - Ian C.T. vom Saal


    These excersises are without any doubt very useful, but just no fun at all! It's painful both physically and psychologically (more like a head-neck separation..). Yet, I will give it a go...
  • PJ-SinPJ-Sin Posts: 348
    All I can say is practice. Its one of THE hardest things to do...
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  • StuffnJunkStuffnJunk Posts: 896
    certain songs are easier cuz the chords change right on the beat of certain words......like elderly woman......the chords change on the words i capitalize:

    I SEEM to RECOGNIZE your FACE
    HAUNT-ING FAMILIAR yet i can't SEEM to PLACE it

    etc
    "I'll tell you what: If all I had was Pearl Jam, and I didn't have another band in the world, I would not be worried. Because in there is the essence of making great music. You don't have to use it all at once, but it's there." - Neil Young
  • senninsennin Posts: 2,146
    I started practicing this a little. A song like Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd), is a good place to start.

    Someday I'll actually be able to do it. :p
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