It can take some time and practice if you want to learn how to sing and play guitar together. This is mostly because you are dealing with playing one song but at two different rhythms.
This can be a challenging task, particularly if the guitar part involves a riff or syncopated line to play under the singing. Some common issues that musicians find include:
* Singing at a pitch while splitting your concentration
* Making a song syllable match to a certain guitar note
* Keeping up a strumming rhythm while singing
* Coordinating the two tasks
* Maintaining song rhythms and timing throughout the whole song
While it might seem too tricky to deal with two different rhythms at once, many artists and musicians have mastered this skill and learned how to sing and play guitar together. I have put some brief guidelines together to help you get started…..
Start Easy
Don’t fall into the common trap of starting out doing too much at once. Often people choose songs that are either too hard to sing, too hard to play, or both. This usually means that one of your performances will suffer. You may sing the song ok, but the guitar pattern is repetitive and lacks variation. Alternatively, you spend a lot of time focusing on playing and can’t concentrate on the pitch and tone of your voice.
For this reason, it’s best to start with choosing a song that is fairly easy on both tasks. Pick a tune that sits within your comfortable singing range and does not have a complex rhythm. It also helps if you really like the tune. This way you will have a good chance of succeeding and you will be motivated to continue practicing.
To help with the process, try humming the song while you get familiar with the guitar parts. You need to get the guitar playing so familiar that you really don’t have to think about the chords or your finger placement. Once you can do this it will free you up to concentrate on your lyrics and your singing voice.
Timing
Possibly the most difficult issue facing beginners is their timing. Timing is crucial in any musical performance! What this means is that particular words and/or syllables must occur in time with particular guitar parts or notes. If your time is out then the whole performance gets out of sync. One great music teacher of mine told me that timing is the “Holy Cow” of music and he was right!
To master this, keep it easy and simple. Begin by breaking the song down into parts like verse and chorus. Play the guitar verse part only until you are familiar with it, then add your vocal. Practice this section to a good level before you go to the next. Again, by choosing a more simple song you will be less likely to encounter big problems early on. Once you feel comfortable, you can start to tackle more complex playing or rhythms.
Using Your Imagination
One of humanities greatest gifts is the ability to imagine or envision things before we do them! An important skill to learn as a singer is to imagine pitch. To do this, you use your imagination to envision yourself singing and producing the right note at a performance. When you learn how to sing and play guitar you can also apply the same strategy.
Try singing the song in your head while you play the guitar or the other way round. Imagine your hands holding the chords down while you sing. Another great help is to practice singing along with a recording of the song before you try to play it. This will help to develop your timing and allow you to more easily match the singing and playing rhythms together.
If there is any one rule for how to sing and play guitar it would probably just be to have some patience and do a whole lot of practice. Your ability to split your concentration and match different rhythms will develop with time.