Can't sing and Play

Hi, I find that whenever I try to play an instrument and sing at the same time. I start singing at the same tempo as the rhythm and it all goes pear shaped. When I play a good strumming pattern, I have to simplify it when
I sing over it. I can't do them both separately. More importantly, when playing piano, because I have to focus so hard on what I'm playing, I find myself talking as opposed to singing.

How do I overcome this??
Thanks

 

i'm no musician, but my guess would be practice.

 

practice man, youll find your way....

 

Not everybody sings and plays at the same time. Why is it essential that you do?

 

Practice. I'm having the same problem but it comes easier the more you practice.

Don't be embarrassed to practice with songs that are ridiculously easy to play - the less you have to think about playing the more you can focus on singing.

One technique I read that I haven't tried but it sounds helpful enough is to sing the count, 1 2 3 4, or sing the chord, or even just sing a bunch of la las, then once you get that down go back and replace it with the words.

You're training your brain to do two things at once. Just be patient, I'm sure it's just one of those things that just clicks one day

 

Some people got it, and some people don't... give it up kid. :devil:

 

wow, you must not understand music then.

 

It's more impressive, all the greats can do it. Sometimes you mightn't have a band. Plus if you don't play, you have to be able to dance and look cool like robbie williams

 

Frank Zappa didn't do it. He did dance though lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dI0SIg4njx0"]Frank Zappa_Dancing Fool - YouTube

 

Do you have it?

 

No, I wouldn't say that I "have it"...

I can sing and play some stuff, but when it comes to highly syncopated and/or poly-rhythmic stuff, I'm out of my league .

 

I can usually play and sing most anything, but this song is hard to sing while playing along with it....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_VjsqfNGPA"]Umphrey's McGee - Domino Theory - YouTube

 

Keep it up, you'll get there in the end.
Practice makes perfect, but no body is perfect

 

there's nothing to practice.

one day you will start doing it without thinking about it.

 

Try to practice as much as you can, while being honest with yourself about how much effort you're putting in.

Matt Pike (from bands such as Sleep and High On Fire) learnt to play guitar and sing at the same time by using LSD. I was, and still am to some extent, having trouble doing vocals while playing the guitar, and also tried dropping acid to see if it would help. And believe me, it really, really helps.

 

I will explain you something.... music is a feeling nothing else. I take my guitar and i feel everynote has i play and while i feel i can say whatever i want and it will turn to to note sound because im feeling the note and signing at the same time. But if i try to sing without feeling the notes that doesnt work. Its all in your mind, the mind feel the music than the voice is the music. hope its help
Don't think just feel

 

well dropping acid would help to feel the music, but we all have sense and we can feel music without dropping acid. I'm sure you know and acid doesnt help its only an illusion in your head. Acid make you on a sensory trip so your forced to feel but you can slow down your self without drugs in a mood state and feel each notes intensely especially if you play it at the same times. Btw Im just saying my own opinion about your rep no offence..

 

First of all, despite what some people say, you won't suddenly just magically be able to do this one day, and anyone who tells you that they sprung forth from the womb being able to do this is a liar.

What you describe with regard to simplifying a strumming pattern when you sing - I've seen world reknown musicians do essentially the same thing to some extent. Luckily you play piano, apparently, so I'm going to explain this using a piano metaphor.

Think of your strumming as the left hand playing rhythmic chords and bass lines on the piano, and your voice as the right hand playing the treble cleff melody lines. I'm betting that when you first started to play piano, it was pretty damned difficult to play the bass part and the melody part at the same time, right? Well, when you're accompanying your own voice on a strummed, picked, hammered or bowed instrument, it's the same thing. (but in my experience, it's actually much easier than accompanying your own voice on piano, because in the case of the piano, you're actually performing three different parts simultaneously on a keyed instrument: bass clef, treble clef and vocal melody.

You say "strumming" in your post, so I'm going to assume that you are playing an instrument of the guitar family. There's no shame in simplifiying your strumming pattern when you're learning to play and sing at the same time. I'd suggest that you literally boil down the strumming pattern to its most basic form - if that means 4 count strums, measure by measure at first, then so be it. Get that down to the point that you can sing and play, keep time and maintain tempo through the entire progression/song. It may sound really stupid at first - but don't worry, it will get better and in this case, you really have to learn to crawl before you walk - which is a hard thing to force yourself to do, when you've already become really good at playing complicated strumming patterns. In fact it may frustrate you, but don't think of it as playing below your level, you'll actually be doing yourself a huge favor, because this will hone your ability to maintain tempo to a razor sharp edge.

Do you practice with a metronome? if not, start doing it now. I've played with some pretty talented musicians, but one thing I've learned, it doesn't matter how skilled you are with your instrument, if you can't maintain tempo, you'll sound like absolute shit playing with anyone else, and it's very unpleasant to jam with someone who drifts all over the fucking place tempo wise, because you find yourself adjusting constantly to their timing just to keep the damn song from flying off the rails.

So, when you get it down and can make it though the song consistently, singing at the level of quality you are capable of, then add a little more sophistication to your strumming pattern, until you're where you want to be. You may have to do this to some extent, for every new song you learn/write, but over time, you'll become very quick and efficient at it - this is what I think some people mean, when they say, "just keep practicing and one day, you'll just be able to do it" - It's easy to forget how many hours of practice went into achieving that perceived moment of "epiphany".

Bottom line - If you can play a bass clef and treble clef at the same time on a keyboard, you can learn to sing and play at the same time, because it's essentially the same thing.

 

LSD allows your mind to see and learn things that your conscience mind wouldn't be able to learn in a straight frame of mind. I haven't done any for years, but I have learned many things that I couldn't when I was straight. LSD allows your conscience mind to see what your subconscious mind is keeping you from seeing. I can feel the music much better when I smoke pot. I think many musicians are the same way. Pot was popular with musicians long before the hippies. Here's one from 1932...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D44pyeEvhcQ"]Cab Calloway - Reefer Man High Quality - YouTube

 

well I understand what you say, but I can't get lsd