Some questions.

IroniaSudby · Post by **IroniaSudby** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:32 pm

The hardest part about singing and playing guitar is singing and playing guitar at the same time. When im singing without playing, im holding the tune and holding
melody in my voice. When i start playing, i can hold the Guitar part by hard and i know the lyrics but my voice becomes absolutely shite (Not that its good in the first
place).

Also, if im not playing my electric acoustically to sing, i wanna play it electrically. The obvious wall i hit is that i just cant sing over my guitar normally. If i try to sing hard,
my voice goes to shit or i cant hold the melody, its just too loud. Since some of your Shortscalers are pro musicians(if not most). I was wondering if you can throw something out there to
help my problem.

As always, Thanks for your help in advance.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:38 pm

i'm a bit confused by what you're asking.

IroniaSudby wrote:Also, if im not playing my electric acoustically to sing, i wanna play it electrically. The obvious wall i hit is that i just cant sing over my guitar normally. If i try to sing hard,
my voice goes to shit or i cant hold the melody, its just too loud.

you mean your guitar isn't loud enough to sing over?

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:39 pm

Playing and singing is weird, I couldn't do it at all then one day it just clicked and I could separate the two tasks in my head,

Stick with very simple songs in terms of guitar so you don't have to think about the guitar part at all, I think the first song I could sing and play was the Nirvana cover of Jesus Don't Want Me For A Sunbeam, which is three chords and a very simple strumming pattern.

My problem with singing and playing was the guitar though, I could sing but my guitar playing would be thrown off completely so that may not help too much.

As for singing over an electric, how's about turning it down yeah? If not then you could either set yourself up for recording so can monitor everything through headphones to hear yourself or get a PA or something.
Those both seem overkill for just wanting to hear yourself while practising singing, turn down the amp.

IroniaSudby · Post by **IroniaSudby** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:39 pm

No no, its obviously too loud to sing over. It just kills anyway for me to sing to it or over it.

IroniaSudby · Post by **IroniaSudby** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:42 pm

Reece wrote: My problem with singing and playing was the guitar though, I could sing but my guitar playing would be thrown off completely so that may not help too much.
.

Yep, this is a big problem. If i sing the way i should. My guitar gets completely thrown off. If i balance the 2, it kinda sounds meh and bad.

Im currently focusing on 2 songs, Lithium and Wonderwall.

I know Lithium by hard and Wonderwall pretty well(Not much to know) But i run into the problem of my guitar being totally nagged when i sing.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:44 pm

try humming the melody over it quietly until you can get them both sitting together, then move on to phrasing words, not worrying about melody until you can get the rhythm right, then worry about hitting the notes.

and don't shout.

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:44 pm

Heh, I think I played nothing but Oasis and Nirvana when I was first learning to play and sing at the same time.

Half The World Away was my goto song for like a year.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:50 pm

if you're playing wonderwall, break it down rhythmically. it's 4/4, and the emphasis of the melody is on the second beat of the bar. try doing

1234/5678

with the words day, way, back as they fall in the song (if that makes sense- match the bolds) and fill in the blanks as you get better.

also, if you're just starting out singing, your vocal range will likely be much lower than it'll eventually be, so if you're straining to hit notes, tune down or sing an octave lower until your voice is exercised.

IroniaSudby · Post by **IroniaSudby** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:53 pm

I got the melody and the beat down. What part gets hard is that for some reason
my voice gets a bit of the corner treatment. It just sucks.

Now i took your advice on humming the melody, and i tried playing the song very softly
and have my voice lowered, and it sounds kind of how it should, tho not perfect.

I guess its all really don't to practicing getting the 2 paired and sounding good.

Thanks for the advice so far, any other tips are always appreciated.

Gavin · Post by **Gavin** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:55 pm

I actually find a lot of Noel Oasis stuff is easy to sing and play guitar to, because the words fit with the chord changes and the strumming patterns, if you know what I mean. But Nirvana songs often don't fit words and chords/ strumming patterns together and so I find them way harder to sing and play at the same time.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Fri Sep 18, 2009 11:59 pm

IroniaSudby wrote:I got the melody and the beat down. What part gets hard is that for some reason
my voice gets a bit of the corner treatment. It just sucks.

Now i took your advice on humming the melody, and i tried playing the song very softly
and have my voice lowered, and it sounds kind of how it should, tho not perfect.

I guess its all really don't to practicing getting the 2 paired and sounding good.

Thanks for the advice so far, any other tips are always appreciated.

if you think your voice sucks (i know mine does), once you get going maybe think about getting singing lessons. it'll teach you how to warm up, how to hit notes better and how to find that 'sweet spot' for certain types of singing.

i can't believe i'm giving someone advice on this, but i was in exactly your position a couple of years back. my voice was dreadful.

it'll get better with practice.

IroniaSudby · Post by **IroniaSudby** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:06 am

I actually talked about this with some people. I just gotta find a place
that has the teachers.

Do you think i should take classes or a someone that comes to the house? Maybe
it dosent matter.

Gavin · Post by **Gavin** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:09 am

Just put on any Michael Bolton album and sing along as loud as you can. If your neighbours don't take out an ASBO you will be an amazing singer in a few short years.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:11 am

you'd be better off in a one to one situation, look for teachers in your area. different teachers have different methods. have a look at this book-

i found it quite useful (well, i read a couple of chapters) but the teacher i found used the same technique, so i knew where she was coming from. i think i took about 8 lessons and that was enough, i got better really quickly. i can nail all those whitney houston parts now, gavin'll tell you.

Gavin · Post by **Gavin** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:14 am

Stewart's How Will I Know is eye watering.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:17 am

did you have to look up the title of a whitney houston song on google or did you just flick through your CD collection?

IroniaSudby · Post by **IroniaSudby** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:23 am

I have one of them Whitney albums somewhere.

I think the best step would be is to take a lesson. Getting someone
who knows what there doing telling you how to do it right should get
me in a somewhat right direction.

Again, thanks for the major help.

Gavin · Post by **Gavin** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 12:34 am

Everyone knows that song. It's a classic. She looks really hot in the video as well. Before she got with Bobby Brown and became a crackhead.

Some questions.

Some questions.

Re: Some questions.