Singing/Back-ups while playing.

[salFPS]

Hiya TB, I'm popping in again after a while being away and as the title suggests, I'd like some help developing my motor skills.

I'm a weird bassist, I'm still learning as much as ever and I feel myself getting better every day but for some reason, I tend to skip certain steps in the learning process if I feel I wont need them at the time. For example, slapping, I've never really taken the time to do it (which is changing shortly) but that's because up until recently I haven't felt the need to incorporate it into my bass lines.

Anyways, my band recently broke up and I've got another couple of projects lined up, for some reason now is the time I want to be able to do some back-ups... while playing. The problem is, I find it hard to speak while playing, let alone sing.

I tend to mess up the bass rhythm or speak to the beat and be forced to phrase my words to each riff within a bass line whenever I do try singing/talking. All-in-all, I end up sounding like someone who's possessed by some sort of Speak & Spell demon.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes when I'm not paying attention to what I'm doing, I can carry on entire conversations while playing my bass lines without a hitch, that is until I realize I'm doing it, so yea I need some tips n' tricks fellas!

My ex-drummer told me that he couldn't sing and play until he picked up drums, a pal of mine said he practiced playing/singing while talking to his GF on the phone. Currently I lack access to drums and a GF , plus I hate being on the phone so that's out. I'm been slowly trying to just sing the notes as I play them but that's the best I can do, I also hope that can help me become better at playing what's on my mind (for solos and stuff) without needing to fish for notes... Anyways, I'm rambling on, so yea, please do as you do so well and teach me your ways masters of the bass!

[Joel S.]

lol, practice practice practice.

It's SO hard to sing and play bass because the rhythms and melodies are often completely different. I can talk and play now, but that took years before I could, and I'm only just getting singing and playing down. Oddly enough it's easier to slap and pop and talk/sing than play fingerstyle. Probably because slap and pop is so much more patterned.

You just need to be able to do one or the other without thinking about it, once that happens you'll be able to do both. If you think about it, I'm sure when you try to talk you start thinking about what you're playing and what you're going to say, then it trainwrecks. When you can shift your focus to only what you're saying, you should be able to talk without missing a beat.

Trust me, and I'm sure anyone here who plays and sings can back me up, it's difficult, and takes lots of practice. One thing a friend suggested is to play a simple line (he plays guitar), and sing the closed captioning of whatever you're watching. It may not make any sense, but he said it helped him dramatically.

[mambo4]

Some things I have done:

-slowing down, as mentioned, helps tremendously

-Notating the rhythms you are playing and singing to help find the places where the phrases match.

-Tapping or Clapping the bassline's rhythm while singing the vocals. Very useful while the bass is out of reach. For me, it really does the trick for the dual rhythm challenge.

-Figure out how to play the vocal melody on your bass. This is just to help you internalize the vocal melody. Hit that pitch, nothing sounds worse than bad backups. Or better than good ones

[Rune Bivrin]

Bassist's Guide to Singing

Tons of useful information there.

[salFPS]

alright thanks fellas, I guess I'll try my best and take it from here. I'm so stupid for not searching this topic, but thanks for all the help, hope I can get the hang of this sometime!

You guys rock, thanks again.

[Spinal Tapper]

Singing & playing simultaneously, is one of the hardest things ever a bass player has to do! I love when my band is like, "dude, just sing/harmonize the same part over the chorus as the singer, he's singing a real easy part" - they always manage to leave out "... while you're playing this seriously complicated, rhythmically thought out bassline that you wrote two years ago and have perfected in everyway."

IMO, It's like learning the bass parts over from scratch, not to mention staying in key while you project your voice! It's super difficult, but no one will do it for you but yourself, so just keep practicing over and over and over...and over and over and over...and right when you think you have it, keep practicing some more! Good luck!

[Diddii]

I had this problem too when i started backing vocals ... i know a good practice i found on the internet and helpd me alot.

When you play scales... sing the notes. Sing the bass line!
after doing that... you can spin around singing around the bassline Give it a try