General Music Chat

I am a guitarist with a kickass band but with no bass player (to view my band it is called Idiokracy, but the drummer messed it up and put Idyokracy on the picture). I am learning how to sing but I was just wondering if someone can give me hints on easier ways to play the guitar and sing at the same time.

Obviously, you must write parts that coincide with the syllables. There is a natural connection betwen your jaw and your strumming arm. You won't be able to do detailed lead work while singing, at least not until you are a very good guitarist. The ability to play and sing more complicated parts simultaneously develops with time. Start out easy.
-Tom

very good advice tom62

[quote="punk rock guitarist"]I am a guitarist with a kickass band but with no bass player (to view my band it is called Idiokracy, but the drummer messed it up and put Idyokracy on the picture). I am learning how to sing but I was just wondering if someone can give me hints on easier ways to play the guitar and sing at the same time. :shock:[/quote]


If you have a kick ass band right now, it is a little too late for you to start learning to sing and play. You have to remember that you will also have to put on a stage show as well as play and sing. Do you really have that much time to learn it all? Not to put you down or anything, but Iknow from experience that it is extremely hard to play and sing AND put on a show at the same time. The ones who can easily do this were born with it. I am a very good lead guitarist, and I can sing, but I can't do BOTH and put on a decent show........and I have tried for over 20 years. The stage show part is so important, and cannot be overlooked, and is the base for your band. I have seen a lot of great bands with no stage show, and although I was impressed....the audience was bored to tears. I say you should keep trying, but for now go and get yourself a great front man.

RICCO POLLAN

thats what i do , play and sing at the same time. start simple, look for a song called the house of the rising sun, chords. aminor,c,d,f, aminor,c,e and repeat, the animals are the artist, use this as yur stepping stone and when you have mastered singing and playing the song, try another classic by the troggs(wild thing), and crimson and clovers, when you finish these yung jedi, your trainning towards the good side will start.

Hey.

I see that, among your influences, you have blink-182. In that band, you'll basically see exactly how guitar should be written for a guitarist who also sings (at least, in a band with one guitarist).

Keep it SIMPLE. I play guitar and sing. Do showy stuff in the bridge/ where you don't have to sing. Go to youtube and watch some live blink-182 videos of songs where Tom DeLonge is singing lead (Dumpweed, Dick Lips, etc). Practice a song without singing first, then add the singing in after. I'm a blink-182 fanatic and a guitarist/bassist, and I'd recommend Dammit as a song to learn to sing and play to. It's not very hard to play but it'll get you moving, it has a basic riff in it and a strumming pattern different than the syllabic rhythm.

Also, I recommend NOT writing songs with the strumming/rhythm based around the vocals. It gets you in a very bad habit of beating out rhythms which depend on the vocals. This is alright sometimes but it is the exception, rather than the rule. Keeping a steady rhythm is way more common than strumming out the syllables.