Two things at once? Sing & Play

[Slowgypsy]

Love to sing, love to play bass... just can't quite seem to get the two happening at the same time. I am playing those songs over and over trying to get them imprinted in my head so I can play them without thinking about them, but somehow the playing-and-singing-at-the-same- time thing is moving slowly. Anyone care to suggest some good tips as to how I might practice this and maybe experience a bit more success? All pearls of wisdom gratefully accepted. Thanks......

[Slowgypsy]

Just did a search.... should have done that first.... and found the great sticky in the band management section, although why it's there is a little beyond me.

[Lesfunk]

Practice, Practice , practice
The only thing I've found is to isolate the bass part and practice it until it until it gets into yer muscle memory then add in the vocals. Its tricky but very doable

[fettbass]

I kinda treat singing and playing like playing the piano. When i'm having trouble playing a piano part, I figure out what the left hand is doing and how it syncs up with what the right hand is doing. Basically , I'll have little "triggers", so that i know i sing a certain note when i'm playing a certain note in a line, and it seems to help me sing and play with some degree of interdependence.

[bottomend!]

Great solution here;

If you have any sort of multi=track capability to record try this;

Lay down the bass part of the song you're trying to learn on one track. Then record the vocals on another track. This happens one at a time.

Then, while playing back the track with the volume of both tracks up to a good balanced level, sing and play with yourself ( close the door unless you get off on people seeing you play with yourself, which is just creepy in my book but whatever... to each his own).

Whats happening is this; You're giving yourself a little bit of a "rolling start" so to speak. While playing along, at first do worry at all about flubbing notes, singing the wrong words or messing the rhythm up. Just keep listening to the track and playing/singing along and you will eventually fall in line with the amazing version you recorded on the multi-track. This is a great exercise and works wonderfully...Trust me, I invented it because I had the exact same frustrations as you!

[canshaker]

I practice playing bass at home, and singing in the car. Soon enough, each becomes second nature, and doing both will be a breeze.

[jsingles]

Originally Posted by canshaker

I practice playing bass at home, and singing in the car. Soon enough, each becomes second nature, and doing both will be a breeze.

rofl +1 on singing in the car dude.

[canshaker]

Originally Posted by jsingles

rofl +1 on singing in the car dude.

Hey, it's not as bad as when I was 16 and played drums. I carried a pair of sticks in my car, and would play on my steering wheel. I got TONS of stares.

Not to mention, no padding left on the top of my steering wheel.