This is sort of a supplement to my rah-rah blog about guitar players, singing, confidence, etc. I came across a forum post the other day, another guy seeking advice about singing, along with lots of self-criticism about how awful his abilities were. It wasn’t that he was such a bad singer, he was just a guitar player who kept putting off the vocal end of his practice and now that he wanted to get into it he wasn’t happy with the result…much like we were when starting guitar. I used to do the same thing, though I’ve learned to squeeze a bit more positive thinking in the mix.
Why are so many people such know-it-alls-about singing? You don’t hear people criticize, say, a folk or acoustic singer for their guitar playing. “Joan Baez is a great singer, but she’s not really a guitar player…has no business strumming.” or whatever. Dumb!
Then you get industry types acting like that American Idol judge, shooting their mouths off as to who’s a legit singer for “the business” and such. I was watching this history of rock special on VH1 yesterday, the history of punk. FANTASTIC quote by Iggy Pop about hearing Velvet Underground the first time. I’m changing the quote, but it was something like, “These guys were great, but they couldn’t sing. *I* couldn’t sing! Let’s sing!”
Doesn’t get much cooler and organic than that.
Alright, a few things I’ve done to develop my voice and singing and playing guitar.*
1. Warmup on this phrase: “Mary had a little lamb her fleece was white as snow.” There are 13 syllables in this phrase, which covers an octave. Pick an octave and start pushing air over those vocal chords.
2. Pick a key and sing as many of your major or pentatonic sequence warmups as you can, all those diatonic sequences in thirds, fourths and the like. What, you can SING those exercises too? Sure, why not!
3. I mentioned this in the other blog…sing with your favorite songs. DON’T worry about whether you’re as good as they are because you probably don’t have their range (yet?) and if they’re busting out the soprano range when you’re bass or tenor there’s simply nothing you can do to change genetics. But this will–IMO–start teaching you about what range is comfortable for you to sing in.
4. Ear training! Strum a major chord, sing the bass note, by yourself and when the chord is playing. Then do the same thing with every note in the chord. Can be trickier than you think.
5. Either strum a chord or loop a simple synth chord or note. Open that mouth and sing over it. Your ear will tell you if it fits or not.
6. Being able to sing AND play is a skill you have to practice just like anything else. Being good at both separately doesn’t mean you can do both together, though it’s a good start. Having a good foundation of rhythm is essential, so you can understand the rhythm of your chords versus the rhythm of your vocal line. Start analyzing the rhythms of vocal lines in your favorite tunes and see how they blend with the chords–particularly in music where it’s just the guitar and the singer, Jack Johnson, etc.
7. This might just be me, but I like to work on the guitar parts and vocal parts separately FIRST. I’ll work out the tune in Logic Studio (my recording software) then I’ll treat the singing and playing as its’ own exercise.
8. Play a simple riff and sing the exact same thing. Try out all those emotional blues riffs you’ve worked so hard to nail down. I’m sure there’s some savant on Youtube who can sing Yngwie passages, but how long can you listen to that???
9. Learn covers! Same advice I should have taken in my band days when I was struggling to be so genius in my songwriting. How much faster I would have progressed if I’d studied more of what’s been accomplished before trying to reinvent the wheel. Anyone want to offer up some good classics to start? I could offer the ones I started with when I was eight: This Land is Your Land, She’ll Be Coming Around the Mountain and other hardcore stuff like that. But I’m thinking you want something more modern. A tune where the guitar and vocal parts are the same might be the best start. On that subject…
10. I came up with this idea while practicing a technique to blend chords and scales. Strum, say, an E minor chord and let it ring out a whole note, four beats. In that time sing a quarter note melody…meaning you have to sing four notes for every one chord strum. If the melody is cool, sing it more than once–you don’t have to keep changing the groove. If you’re comfortable with that you can start increasing the complexity of the rhythms in either part. Start simple!
Would love to hear some pointers from others smarter than I am in this area. I’m still learning too.
*And those of you checking out my demo, wondering WHY anyone would get singing advice from me, well…hey, you get what you pay for. 
Guitar & Bass T-shirts now available!
Keith,
Great tips. Thanks for writing them. I’m a long time player who’s always been a latent singer, and you’ve given me much food for thought.
Thank you,
Herb
Portsmouth, VA
hi,
This might be obvious, but I think practicing with a drum machine is absolutely essential. Alo, singing thru a mic while practicing is the best way to get you ready for the real performance.
I set my drum machine to an appropriate tempo for a song and sing and play it over and over, until i’m hot stuff.
Drum machine…never thought of that. I mean, I recommend a drum machine/metronome for everything else!
Just realized practicing with a mic was a good idea last week, as I was trying to hear my voice over my acoustic.
Try Practicing your vocals with different reverbs and effects and find out what suits your voice the best!\
Just remember,make your voice sound good with out and effects, then when you have them you’ll be even better!
Our brains have 2 hemispheres. Playing guitar uses one and…of course singing uses the other. Many people have problems (not just with music) using both at the same time. There are execises for this. A brain workout if you will that can help. I don’t have any particular recommendations for this other than I’m sure there are plenty of options on the internet. Public schools are teaching these types of exercises to young students. Singing and playing notes sort of George Benson style will help tremendously I’m sure. It helped me…especially with pitch.
cool article.
Great post!
Singing with the radio is great practice and if you can hit the lead part awesome! If you can’t, try to find a harmony part in your range and sing that. A good harmony can make a song and will be much appreciated. As a singing drummer I find that songs outside of a straight 4/4 are the most difficult to sing along with singing through fills. In these cases you may have to do some real work and not just rely on you natural talent (That’s a whole nuther blog). I find that it helps to key certain words to a particular strokes and take it from there. You tube is an excellent source. Don’t be surprised if you learn as much from another brginner as from an expert. Keep on jammin’ people
Locking into a keyword…good idea. I tend to approach it from a guitarist angle, feeling the word or phrase wherever part of the beat it falls with the guitar. Obviously easier if the guitar and vocals have the same rhythm!
Thanks for stopping by.
I’m having a similar issue, though I play keyboards. Great post.
I always had luck with recording the main guitar rhythm and then coming up with vocal melodies separately. This way I can find the right sound without worrying about how to play and sing at the same time. Once the melody and lyrics are established, it’s just a matter of practice to join the 2.
Great tips.
Warming up is vital to vocal staying power and consistency . I think the drum machine is an excellent idea as well. My favorite practice tip: slow it down. The guitar and vocals will come together much easier, then bring it up to tempo gradually.
It really depends on where your strengths are and that song itself. If the song is technical guitar, I learn the vocals to a point whre they require little thought allowing focus on the guitar part. If the song has easy guitar and complex lyrics or you are doing complex harmonies, get that guitar rythem down to where it requires little thought allowoing focus on the vocals. Finaly, just keep practicing it, I have seen songs that were a complete train wreck start to take shape after many attempts.
That’s quite true. I’ve learned that studying cover songs. Recently I was trying to sing and play The Police’s “King of Pain”, doing the piano part on guitar. The vocals often start ahead of the guitar, creating rhythm issues.
I’m hoping I remember that on my next song attempt.
Start with the chords first no scales or riffs. Get your strumming down so that you don’t have to think about it. Start singing and playin a new tune at the same time, the timing for the changes to the verse, chorus, refrain will que off the lyrics or vice versa. Piano chord transcribed and played off guitar are good and easy try Coldplay The Scientist, four chords and a great song. I did Breakfast in America and it doesn’t sound anything like the original but is totally recognizable. This one is great for learning those changes I was describing earlier and learning some cool chord variations, use your pinky on the B string third fret for the E7. I play a lot and I learnt this one and made it my own after 6 months of practice and it only took me 2 weeks.