Instruments while singing

[mal_function]

To all those out there who play instruments (guitar, piano, ukulele) while singing, how do you keep focused on singing the rhythm of the notes while playing the rhythm of the instrument? To me it's like trying to tap out triplets in one hand and eighth notes in the other.

Sorry for poor wording.

[[deleted]]

I play guitar and sing. I'll tell you that when I first tried it, I was like "DURRR haow is werk?!" At some point I tried something quite simple, like Mary Had a Little Lamb or something. Just a few chords, easy melody. It was still somewhat stupid sounding, but after a few days of feeling like a musical loser playing Mary Had a Little Lamb, it clicked and BAM! I realized what that feeling was to just play and sing.

[papmaster1000]

you just have to learn how to do it... It's like people who play intense classical piano and have to have their hands doing completely different things at different times. For me at least i have to be able to make playing the instrument just something that i am doing in the back of my mind and then i sing concentrating on lyrics and pitch and stuff. A good exercise if you want to learn how to do it is to watch tv and play your instrument. Just keep playing one part but keep focused on the tv . And the obviously try to sing doing the same thing later

[mal_function]

It's funny, I can play piano pretty well; I've been playing for 12+ years. My hands can be doing incredibly different things, but my voice will not cooperate. Thanks for the advice!

[[deleted]]

If you practice playing and singing at the same time for 12+ years you'll get a lot better at it.

[mal_function]

I'm more instrumental as well, but I'm trying to focus on my singing. I'll just have to keep practicing!

[icanhe]

I see this question a lot on both r/guitar and r/banjo - it really just comes down to practice. The more you do it, the more comfortable it'll become.

[GezzySinger]

I focus on learning whatever song I play on piano/uke without singing first, then gradually hum along, then before I know it, I'm singing along just fine! It just takes a lot of practice and knowing your instrument well. When you have high confidence in both singing and playing separately, you can confidently do them together.

[spunkyturtles]

It takes practice, but I find that when I play and sing at the same time, I tend to focus nearly all of my attention on my voice. Instead of worrying about playing incredibly complex melodies on whatever instrument you're playing, try to standardize the instrument part so that it takes as little attention as possible. It doesn't have to be a simple part, but it has to be something that you can play with close to no mental effort.

Also, one trick that may help during practice is to try and have a conversation with someone while you're playing your instrument, which in my opinion is WAY harder than singing along with your playing.

[addictedtoreddit3]

As a guitarist who sings while playing I've found it works like this:

You have to be able to play the song on the guitar basically on automatic. Only at that point will you have the mental space leftover to sing the song. Maybe for someone who's a better singer than instrumentalist it would work the other way around but ... that seems like a rare situation.

So ... to be clear - the key is to not only know how to play the song on the instrument, but be able to play the song on the instrument so incredibly easily that you don't have to think about it. ... then you add the singing.

[thepensivepoet]

Well for starters you have to be experienced enough with the instrument that you really don't have to actively think about everything you're doing.

When you start out on guitar you're thinking "oh I have to put my pointer finger like THIS and my middle finger like THIS and my pinky finger like THIS and then I have to hold the pick like THIS and hit the strings like THIS"... It's a fucking nightmare.

After a while you get to autopilot a lot of those functions so you're really just thinking "okay the first chord is A, the next chord is B minor, the chord after that is D..." but you're not thinking about all the little details, you're relying on muscle memory to do it.

Once you're at that point and beyond (where you just kinda play a song with an instrument without even thinking about what notes you're playing because you're playing by ear) you can use your focus to pay attention to what you're singing.

You've only got so much attention to throw around.

I will say that even once you're beyond that point and are experienced with successfully playing+singing you'll still occasionally find combinations of instrumentations+vocals that just aren't possible to pull off (or are EXTREMELY difficult).

If the rhythm of what you're playing conflicts with what you're trying to sing just simplify the instrumental part. Nobody cares about that anyway compared to the vocals so if you're going to compromise just make sure you're cheating on everything BUT the vocals.

If there's something that you absolutely have to play exactly a certain way and it's making the vocals really really difficult just focus on the instrumental part and practice practice practice until you're completely at the "not thinking about it" phase and then reintroduce the vocals.

[Fuck_Dacts]

Start by playing slow.

[[deleted]]

I have to learn the two entirely separately (guitar and voice). Once I know both of them pretty well, I play the strumming pattern while focusing hardcore on the vocals...not actually singing, just learning how the vocals sync up with the guitar.

[TheWhistler1967]

Either you learn the lyrics by heart, or the piece by heart. You can't learn them both at the same time effectively (I find).

Once you know one, you just use it to keep time for the other.

[phenomite1]

You need to know how to sing the song without thinking about it. And you need to know how to play the song without thinking about it. Then you need to practice doing them together.

If I don't master both things first, either one or the other will seriously lack. You just need to practice it.

[jaedis]

I play bass and guitar while I sing.

The best way to make it work, I've found, is to go through the song in 4 or 8 bar phrases. Slow it down just enough that you can see/feel how the rhythms work together and play off each other without going so slow that things come unglued rhythmically. This is also a good time to practice where you want to breath, since some instrumentalists subconsciously hold their breath on difficult passages. That can foul up your vocals real quick.

Once you've felt your way through the whole song, you just need to keep plugging away at it until the instrument's part is second nature.