How many of us sing while playing?

[GreggBummer]

Ten years ago I didn't sing at all. Now, I sing lead on a half dozen songs in the set and backing/harmony on all of them.

I have a great band with good friends who let me come out of shell. A really supportive group of guys. I'm confident now... somethings I just can't sing and play at the same time. Certain grooves just don't work for how my brain is wired. That's cool, someone else sings them.

I agree with what was stated many times above- My vocal ability (mediocre at best) and bass playing (average) get me gigs. That and I show up on time, know the material, and try to be as professional as I can. Oh yeah, I have fun. No one wants to listen to a bass player that is not having fun.

 

[LBS-bass]

I actually sing well and could totally fill the roll of lead singer, but unless I have a bass, or at least a guitar in my hands, I'm just not interested. I was in a punk band in the late 1990s and we all sang the songs we wrote: I sang mine, guitar player sang his, and our drummer sang the ones he wrote.

I do not mind having one or two songs that someone else takes the bass on so that I can really concentrate on the singing. But... I have found that, as a musician, people do not take you seriously at all unless you are playing an instrument. Doesn't matter how much you actually know about music, singers who only sing are objects of derision. And I'm a fairly capable instrumentalist, so I don't mind doing both.

I'm starting to get tired of doing two jobs, though and have cut back on the backing vocals in some of the bands I'm in. Too much trouble to learn bass lines and lyrics for the bands that won't also give me a lead now and then.

 

[ThinCrappyTone2]

My lips move like a broken puppet, but nothing good sounding comes out

 

[scott sinner]

I’ve been a singer in groups a lot more than a bass player, but I love bass.

 

[Leigh Semmens]

God gave us all voices. Some, he gave good singing voices to, so sing loud so he gets praise, the others, sing even louder and so we get even!!!
I've never really mastered singing and playing, so I only occasionally sing whilst playing, and NEVER into a mike!

 

[5StringBlues]

I actually like singing harmony better than lead.



I like to pick out the third or fourth harmony part that nobody can usually find.

 

[CenTexThumper]

Harmonies or leads, whatever is called upon. I have trained my brain over the years. Anyone can.

 

[swarfrat]

Guitar - sure. I'm an okay hack who can pull off moments of competence with 14 bajillion hours of drilling. In the small pond I swim in, I've received compliments from other musicians for pulling off tricky guitar parts while singing.

On bass... it's like trying to improvise a Tolkien novel in a foreign language. While fielding questions from a curious 6 year old. I get that this might be familiarity. And I also get that being a noob bassist playing fretless probably isn't helping this particular aspect. But ... even on stuff which I don't lack for confidence (justified or not) I just can't seem to play a different part while singing. And it doesn't need to be particularly tricky. Just a simple bouncy 8th line that runs contrary to the feel of the melody leads to a trainwreck. Sometimes I almost wonder if big simple but not the same feel is worse than tricky syncopated stuff you need to count.

 

[GreyBeard]

When we had a front person, I still sang lead on 1/2 the songs. Since she quit, I'm singing lead on all the songs. I'm no Geddy Lee but, I do OK.

 

[Fight4Bottom]

I do sing and enjoy it very much. I was fortunate to be in a band where everyone took turns. We were a five-piece, we appreciated harmony, and we absolutely killed “Seven Bridges Road”. The feeling you get when your voice weaves smoothly into everyone else’s is utterly sublime.

 

[RudyTardy]

Guitar and singing? No problem. Bass and singing? Very difficult for me.

This right here. I never truly appreciated Sting's bass lines in the Police until I tried to sing and play them at the same time. Guy is a robot I have no idea how he separates rhythm like that!

 

[Bunk McNulty]

 

[Hevy T]

I try backups, albeit rather poorly. My singer/guitarist is always after me to sing a few songs but I keep telling him that I can't sing and I dont want to. We compromised with backup vocals, but he is still after me to sing leads!!!!

 

[Pet Sounds]

I have been the principal singer in bands and still am one of the lead vocalists in my main current band.

 

[JimmyM]

+1. I too was recently asked to join a band partly because I can sing lead, but also because I can play harmonica while playing bass.

That is so hard! I tried it once with the Tom Petty song with an easy harp part, and I couldn’t play bass at all.

 

[5StringBlues]

That is so hard! I tried it once with the Tom Petty song with an easy harp part, and I couldn’t play bass at all.

That's what I really dug about seeing Jon Paris play with Johnny Winter.

 

[fourfinger]

Our band has three lead singers amd I one of them. I do about a third of the lead vocals. But I do vocal harmonies for everything else. We love us some three-part harmonies.

This. Exactly this.

 

[Slax]

My singing voice doesn't exist. Hell, I'm quiet most of the times even speaking. Just bass from me.

 

[JimmyM]

That's what I really dug about seeing Jon Paris play with Johnny Winter.

I saw him with Johnny too! Dude was terrific!

 

[5StringBlues]

I saw him with Johnny too! Dude was terrific!

1984 tour for the Guitar Slinger record. Straight trio with Paris doubling.


Small strip center club, maybe 300 people. I still have one of Jon's pics, somewhere.