3 Steps To Playing Guitar While Singing
OK…I been at this thing for like 18 months.
One thing I am very happy I did from the beginning…
was to play and sing…
Someone asked me…
“What can I do to learn to play and sing at the same time?”
It’s the same answer as I give for how to play while standing up…
Or how to play with or without a pick…
The answer is simply…
Just do it…
Yep…
You gotta do it…
There are some things you can do to ease into it…
This is what I like about JustinGuitar’s methodology…
You are learning chords to allow you to sing along with your accompaniment.
1) Add Singing and Playing To Practice Routine
So in your practice routine…
I would encourage you to add in some time that you sing and play…
this is the majority of my time…
Because right now…I ain’t trying to be a lead guitarist (maybe its coming)
I ain’t trying to learn a ton of riffs and stuff…
I’m trying to learn campfire-type rhythm guitar.
There will be other steps in the future…
OK step one….you must practice it.
2) Dumb It Down
Step two…
Dumb it down at first…
When you playing and singing…something has got to be on autopilot….
Looks look at some elements of playing and singing…
You got singing...
Right Hand Strumming for rhytmn…
And Left Hand Chording…
Now….at least 2 of those 3 things have to be on autopilot if you gonna sing and play…
So what do you do?
So what can you do? let’s say you wanted to dumb down the Strumming and Chording so you can work on the Singing?
You play songs you already know how to chord….the first 3 chords I learned was A, E, and D. So I normally play in A when I am trying to learn a new song..
Next…your strumming needs to be simple…how about slow it down to just playing the down strums on the beat…
OK…so now you can practice singing over the chords you know and the simple strum…
do that for a bit…and then now work on the strumming to get the rhythm up to speed. What do you do? Sing it simply…and then play it with the chords you know..and then start playing with the rhythm of your strum.
do that for a while…and then work on chords. You know changing the key…or adding in some 7th chords are some sus chords.
But like I said…keep this in mind…2 of the 3 at least have to be on autopilot…so dumb down two of the 3 while you are learning the other element…
3) Record Yourself
The third and final thing I want to talk about is recording yourself.
Recording yourself is a two edged sword.
The best way to feel bad about your playing is to listen to your practice from yesterday…
The best way to feel good about your playing and singing is to listen to your practice session from two months ago…
You are improving.
So record your practice sessions…listen to them….
you will learn…
and you will realize…you are getting better…
And finally an important thing to note when you are singing…
You will think your voice doesn’t sound good…
Just try to stay on the notes…and practice it…
Yep….nobody likes the way their voice sounds….
You won’t either…
So get used to the sound of your voice…
Learn to love the sound of your voice…
And if you cant….
then just ignore it…and sing on anyhow…
These few things will get your playing and singing up to speed.
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