Learning to sing/play

[Holy Katana]

I'm still not a pro at singing and playing at the same time, but I've gotten immensely better through practice. What I do is I figure out the exact part to play while singing a certain word. The tabs in Guitar World are already synced like that, so it's really easy to practice it. You have to start off slow, sometimes ridiculously slow, to sing a line while playing a certain riff. Eventually, it starts to feel really natural for you to sing and play at the same time. It gets really easy really quickly, but you have to remember to take it slowly at first.

[supermau]

My suggestion is to try and play/sing songs you like regardless of how tough they are to pull off. Break them down into bits just like you would do learning a difficult guitar piece then put it all together. Practice, as usual, is the only way.

[Andy43]

First thing I'd do is figure out whether you're a bass, baritone, or tenor. When I first started singing, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't sing these certain artists songs without going falsetto, only to figure out later that I'm a baritone and my favorite artists were tenors. But with practice I eventually got to those high notes.

[Holy Katana]

Originally Posted by Andy43

First thing I'd do is figure out whether you're a bass, baritone, or tenor. When I first started singing, I couldn't figure out why I couldn't sing these certain artists songs without going falsetto, only to figure out later that I'm a baritone and my favorite artists were tenors. But with practice I eventually got to those high notes.

Well, a lot of rock artists use falsetto anyway, tenor or not. In fact, I find that tenors tend to use it a lot more than anyone else, to get those super-high screeches that are oh so commonplace in classic and power metal.

[MilkshakeFiend]

Something with simple changes so that you can get used to singing in tune and playing at the same time. My first song that I tried to sing and play was Imagine by Lennon, and once I'd got a taste for it, lots of Gilbert - if you like his music, it's fun to play and sing it. Down to Mexico, Space Ship One, Mr Spock for instance. Basically, anything you don't mind playing a helluva lot.

Another good practise technique is to aurally familiarize yourself with intervals, if you aren't already. I did this by playing the root note of a chord, then the interval I wanted to sing, playing the root again, and then singing the interval. After you get proficient at that, try to sing in harmony with a melody - maybe just an ascending or descending scale to start with. After that, try singing a more complex harmony - contrary motion to the melody, different rhythm, etc.

Hope this will help somewhat.

[Andy43]

Originally Posted by Holy Katana

Well, a lot of rock artists use falsetto anyway, tenor or not. In fact, I find that tenors tend to use it a lot more than anyone else, to get those super-high screeches that are oh so commonplace in classic and power metal.

I know, I was talking about my favorite artists. And also note that he says he likes Dave Matthews, and he only uses falsetto when he intends to soften up the voice a bit, he usually just uses chest voice.

[michblanch]

What helped me were bands like:
Foo Fighters
Eagles
Willie Nelson
Waylon Jennings

Play along with country also because the chord changes are not extreme so you can easily transition to the next chord without making an effort so you can concentrate on singing.