Old dogs, new tricks--singing while playing

[Shanebo]

I am posting to report what a great time I've been having lately, singing and playing at the same time.

I'm 44 years old, and grew up studying brass instruments, so singing while playing was never something to think about seriously. I also studied voice over the years, and did a lot of work with choirs and other vocal groups, which was always fulfilling.

Bass is my second instrument, and largely self-taught at that. But, with plenty of musical background and the real-world usefulness of wind instruments vs. electric bass, I have become a total bass convert, and have been really in love with it for many years now.

So, what's the big deal, right? As a casual bassist in my younger years, singing was not something I had the capacity to think about, and the need just wasn't there either. So, I pretty much stopped singing for about 15-20 years now, or more...

My band recently went through some changes related to one member relocating out of state, and we were down one male singer. In discussing it with the band, I thought maybe I'd take a crack at learning some vocal parts, but indicated that I had never successfully merged singing and playing, and that previous attempts had resulted in losing my place, dropping beats, and generally sucking.

Well, after several weeks of practice, I am proud to say that we are about to have our first gig with me on a microphone, and at the front of the stage too! Crazy, a little scary, and exciting all at the same time. My bandmates are really supportive, full of talent, and this is like a dream come true for me.

The comparison I would make to how it feels to learn this is like when you move to a new city, and the roads don't make any sense to you at first. As you press on and get lost a few times, suddenly the brain shifts, and understanding follows. It's something I actually feel growing as I learn to divorce the vocal rhythms and breathing from the hands and defining the bass rhythms.

So, if you are like me, saying that you simply cannot do both at the same time, it's great to say that I was wrong about it all along.

All the best,

Shane

 

[cronker]

I certainly don't sing lead, no one needs that.
My way of getting into singing backups whilst playing was to learn the lines together. I found if I approach both the bass line and vocal line as one piece of music, my brain is able to put them together far more easily than if I try to learn the bass line and vocal line seperately.

 

[Shanebo]

@ cronker,

Great point. For sure, much of the backup vocal material can be covered well simply by approximating the bass line up an octave, at least for me. That's a huge help just to get your initial pitches correct.

All the best,

Shane

 

[AltGrendel]

There's also this thread that gives advice on how to.

 

[cronker]

I remember Geddy Lee once discussing how the earlier Rush music had him worrying about how he could sing, play bass and keyboard all at once, and it oftentimes restricted what he would write musically.
Then, around about Hold Your Fire, they just scrapped that way of thinking and went for it. They would worry about reproducing the music live at a later date.

 

[10cc]

Sing lead and bass. I learned for myself a long time ago a cool little trick to sing lead over the more challenging lines. I'll find what word or words I need to be singing on certain beats or notes of the song.

 

[MrDOS]

I learned this late in life, too. It's very rewarding! After while, you play little games like trying to improvise a walking line at certain points.
I recommend picking up singing and playing, even if you don't need it in your current gig.

 

[SVTkid]

I find it easy on some songs and IMPOSSIBLE on other songs. And I am just talking about backup. It does get better the more I practice but it really messes with me.

 

[ShredderMaximus]

A bit different, but I used to play bass and do lead vocals in my old death/thrash metal band, and man, it took awhile to learn, but it was very rewarding. Maybe its just me, but just the act of doing vocals and playing bass at the same time and kinda focusing on both but neither at the same time really felt like it deepened my connection with the song. It's hard to really describe, but it was almost like a high, and I loved it.

So yeah, good for you man, and have fun!