Singing Advice.... (Page 1 of 3)

My son is in the same boat.  He knows if he could learn to sing, he'd have more options available to him.  His former guitar teacher told him anyone can learn to sing to some degree, it just takes practice and conditioning of the vocal chords.  I imagine just like any other new exercise regimen, you'd start small and build upon that.  Without spending money on voice lessons, I wonder what would be the best way to go about this?

--Vik

Side Note:  I pretty much NEVER look at my post count, as it's not something I really care about, but for some dumb reason I happened to look just now and noticed this is my 500th post (in just slightly over 2 years here), so I thought I'd mention it.

The group I'm in is losing its original singer.  Our new singer is a female and she is awesome.  She more or less told me that sing really is like any other musical instrument you got to learn how to use it and practice it.  I'm not tuting our groups own horn or nothing but this girl has a world class voice and is way better the the group she is singing in.  I'd suggest finding someone who can give you lessons.  I once got on a kick where I wanted to sing and be the "front Man" but the problem with me being that guy is it took a lot away from the guitar playing side and I could give 100% to both.  I was too proud to give up guitar playing though so I made my choice to more or less stick to backup vocals.  I will say this though.  If your in a band where you are the primary song writer you'll still be in the drivers seat.  Thats again where I'm at.  Anything we do that is original is something I wrote and tends to be our better stuff (its original so if you screw it up nobody knows)

Also on the practice time I would highly recommend that how ever much time you would put on playing guitar you spend equal amounts of time practicing scales with your voice.  I got singing for dumbies and they had a cd you can sing along with.  It does scales where you sing with other singers, lip trills, tounge trills and all sorts of stuff.  I used to stick that in my cd player in my car while I would drive to work and let me tell you the attention you got while stopped at a red light was incredible!  Hope I helped or made you feel better a little bit about singing.  BTW Robert Plant/ Paul Rogders is aiming pretty high just focus on being Ben first.

"Singing for Dummies" sounds right up my alley!

I am in the same boat as you guys, guitar player who wants to do more, I don't know if I want to front a band but being able to sing would open up doors where I could play open mics myself or even do some coffee house gigs and keep playing while the guys in the band twiddle there thumbs like they like to do.

Going to look into that singing for dummies book.

You gotta sing to get on. There are a trillion and one guitarists out there, if you have a good voice (or one that can be worked on) it will help you lots. Get singing lessons, there are right and wrong ways to sing and it easy to cause damage.

i have a problem with singing, and that problem is that i cant play guitar and sing at the same time, i have tried to practice a bit but im still terrible at it, its like my mind wants to either focus on the guitar or the singing, and depending which one it goes to the other goes off.

i tryed to find simple songs to practice with, i've been working with pink floyd wish you where here, its 4 simple cords and the singing part is close to my vocal range i guess, no high pitch sounds of low bassy sounds that i cant reach, but even with such simple songs i sometimes mess up.

other songs i tried: pink floyd pigs on the wing, stairway to heaven, but same result

how can i get over this?? any tips?

I have that exact same issue... i will admit that i am not the most coordinated of people, which is why i cant play the piano, drums, or fingerstyle guitar. Im sure that has quite a bit to do with it.

Logan

Just typed an idea for you and lost reply hitting a wrong key:(.

1. Learn how to play a favorite song you would like to sing that's not hard to play on guitar and not over the top vocally...be honest with your self...don't start with Plant, etc. very important.

2. Learn every individual vocal note (mimmick vocals on guitar) on guitar until you can play song as an instrumental, not a jam please. Was not easy for me, so if you can read music, you'll be better off grabbing a music book that has vocal lines printed - if not, this will be a ear and guitar lesson within itself.  I also recommend a slow song.

3. Now sing along with individual notes you play on guitar until you hit every note spot on for the entire song.

4. Then record yourself and have a listen...pretty cool (hmmm. new guitar solo idea's too).

5. Then record WITHOUT playing individual guitar notes, just chords (like playing accoustic guitar at the beach) and how do you sound...probably not as good as when you played guitar notes, so go back and keep at it until you're spot on without guitar notes guiding you.

6.  Everytime you noodle around on guitar playing Blues pentonic scales, voice out every note...do a George Benson like groove...will help you.

7. Sing whenever possible, even without music, even if you're not in key.  You'll start to find YOUR key and this will be pivotal for future songwriting.  Remember, not even your favorote singers sing great in any key, they have a favorite key as you will, but need to find it ASAP.

8. Learning how to breathe is important, but you'll get the hang of it, just like when when you first started playing guitar and couldn't hold down a "F" barre chord on first fret or bend a note to pitch.

9. Once you start getting a few songs down, go to your local pub or freiends house party and play accoustic or electric (clean) and sing...put down your fretboard plank work for a night and you'll get more lady attentoin then any Vai riff proved valuable.

10. Now go get some vocal lessons from a teacher for a 3-6 months to polish you off with technigues; breathing, etc.