Rehearsing tonight going over White Wedding (Billy Idol). Its a new song for us although I know it well from hearing it since I was 0. Singing guitarist and I looking at progression sheet. I've read the singing bassist sticky and was singing aloud to myself within earshot of singing guitarist. Sounded OK. He overhears me, stops playing and asked if I knew the words. "Yeah a few, and the rest are there" He snaps back "Good! You sing it then I can't sing and play this one at the same time very well. It's just for vocal queues, thanks". He then spun the mike my way and just told the drummer to count in. Longest 4 count I've ever heard! I was crapping myself. I gave it a red hot go but made mistakes galore both singing and playing and I sounded absolutely positively terrible! I laughed sheepishly afterwards and kept apologising to the singing guitarist for the mistakes everywhere and while doing that the non-singing guitarist (and band owner) says "Oi" to me! I turn to see him staring me dead in the eyes and angry! Uh Oh. "What for? Shows ya got guts. Thanks. Let's do it again!" Stupid as I still felt it's good to learn how supportive your band mates can be. Now I'm off to re-read that sticky
Hi, Depth_Charge Welcome to the club. More than one "lead" singer makes any group IMHO a better, more versatile one. Plus that gives You a chance to show off. Go for it, You'll like it. And Your band mates support You, because that's what they're there for. You do the same for them. And they probably liked Your singing better than You did anyway When I started singing, it was more of an accident really, our singer came to two rehearsals and then crawled into a bottle, so to speak. Probably doesn't sound like a big deal, but we were 15 at the time. I think he's dead now, what a shame. But I bought his gear and didn't think much of it at the time, but A 19" Marshall 2003 "Master" PA head from -68 + cabs with cast frame 15" vintage Celestions are "quite" rare. Still have 'em . I still sing and now that our unreliable singer got the boot, I'm the only singer, for a while anyway. Again, just my 0.02 Sam
Agreed w/ T-bird. Multiple singers in a band adds flexibility and diversity. All of the guys in my band take turns on lead vocals. The rhythm player takes about 50% of the songs, I get 40% and the lead guitarist covers the other 10%. The drummer sings backups, as do the other guys when they are not covering the lead vocals. In my opinion, quality backing vocals and some variety in the overall sound keeps things "interesting" for the folks who are listening to you. I've seen WAY too many bands with one lead vocalist and no backing vocals, and after about 5-6 songs things start to sound the same.
Congrats man!!! I'm teaching myself to sing right now so that I can diversify our vocals a bit. Plus it makes practicing the songs a ton more fun. Enjoy it man, its not so bad once you get over the nervous part of it (took me a few months, lol, but I did). What i'm doing now to get over the nervousness is that I go out to a local pub every few weeks for kereoke night and just have a blast doing that infront of a ton of people, my first time I choked completely and couldn't sing a pitch if my life depended on it but i've been keeping at it and am finally over that nervous part of it.
Man - it took me the longest time to get used to singing into a mic! I mean it freaked me out hearing my voice come back through the monitor like that; made me sing off-key. I've always been a relatively-good, on-pitch singer - including playing acoustic guitar and singing for years and years! ..But when I first started-back with a band six-or-whatever years ago (now that I think about it: it didn't seem to bother me back in the highschool band... but we never used monitors.. I think it was hearing the vocal come back through the monitor that threw me off!), I suddenly became a terrible singer! Ah! - but after eight or ten practices, I was all over those vocals! Joe
Singing into a mike is weird at first, but gets easier quickly... Playing bass and singing is hard at first, but gets easier slowly... Congrats for going for it. It's a positive step to get to through your first song, singing with a band, and discover that they're going let you do it again! Im gradully uping my BV's each time we learn a new song. There's currently one song in the set that's "my" singing song where I have a LOT of backing vocals, verging on lead. Fortunatly the bass line is easy (I still screw it up more than any other song!). Ian
You thinkn singing into a mike is tough, try singing into a john, or a stan, or an edward.... Badadump, crash!
Wow! Thanks for the support guys, much appreciated hey!! And I've done cookie monster vocals into John plenty of times LOL. I found out today the session was recorded too. Great I can review how bad it was Our band is awesome. 5 piece, female led vocals, 2 lead sharing guitars, drummer, me, awesome set list with some yuks. Top40 mainstream covers gigging once a week tops which is all I can do. Drummer and wife have eyesight issues similar and worse to my missus so I've come into the band willing and best positioned to help them. They have no website updates or promotion and I've done IT and gleaned or come up with promo and show ideas and yeah when I showed the band owner/guitarist all the stuff I had for him (draft logos, site prep, newsletter, mailing list, some raffle ideas and show ideas etc) to excuse my lack of bass playing prep on the new songs... He was stoked! He just said "Mate you're the full package", previously the other guitarist told me based on my playing and band fit I will be a make break chain in this band (I thought we all were?) and now they got me singing too! I am completely out of my depth and ready to explode! I made a quip on my handle without even meaning to LOL. I should ninja edit that username thread.
Record yourself at home playing and singing, ALL THE TIME, never stop, do it over and over and over on any song you can. It'll make you better. Nothing makes you realize your mistakes like a recording.
I feel more uncomfortable not singing into a mic. It has always been like that. To me, it's a (little) bit like playing an EB without amplifying it...
Singing has made me a MUCH better bass player. I sing about 40% of lead vocals in my band, and background vocals on most songs, and I know my bass playing has improved since I started singing more. I've had many bass players tell me that they enjoy my playing because I play for the song, rather than trying to show my chops. Before I started singing, I had less insight into the song, and was more concentrated on the bass parts themselves. Now, I realize that simpler bass parts can really add to the song as a whole, and even though I'm playing much less "impressive" parts, I have gotten much more positive feedback on my playing. I feel much more like a well-rounded musician now that I sing more, and really miss it when I sit in with other bands and just play bass.
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