Learn How to Sing and Play Guitar At the Same Time
If you are a beginner then it can take some time to master the skill of both singing and playing guitar at the same time.
When playing the guitar and singing at the same time, the guitar provides the rhythm while your voice sings the lyrics.
This process of playing a rhythm on the guitar as opposed to playing the same notes that are being sung, is where the challenge resides. It can take a little bit of practice to master getting these two distinct actions working in combination, however these issues have been faced by countless musicians and singers, and fortunately for you we know exactly what those issues are:
- Keep Singing on pitch
- Matching a particular song syllable to a particular guitar note
- Don’t forget to keep a strumming pattern while singing
- Maintaining coordination of strumming or picking on the guitar
- Sustain your timing though out the entire song
- Managing to keep the song and rhythms in sync
The very first time you attempt to play guitar and sing at the same time, especially if you are new to both skills, it will seem like it’s impossible to manage two different rhythms at simultaneously. Just be patient and be confident that what you are feeling has been felt by thousands of others who started on this same journey. They mastered the skill of singing and playing the guitar at the same time and you will too! Here are a few guidelines you can follow that will get you started:
Keep it Simple to Begin With
The most common mistake that most people will make is that they try to do everything at once, right at the start. They pick songs that are way too complicated or difficult for their skill level in both singing and guitar playing. If both guitar playing and singing are new skills that you are learning, or even if just one of them is a new skill, you will want to start with easy songs and then build from there. In some cases you might find that a song is sung well but the rhythm on the guitar is very repetitive.
So the best idea is to find a song that is simple to play on the guitar and quite easy to sing. Select a song that is well within your vocal range and that has a simple beat – using this as a starting point will provide you with a much better chance of mastering playing guitar and singing, together.
CLICK HERE to Fast-Track Your Singing and Guitar Playing
I find it best when starting a new song to focus on the guitar element first - master a simple rhythm initially and play it repetitively until you have the timing right. Repetitive practice with the guitar is very important as the muscles in your hand and arms build up what is called muscle-memory! It is an amazing thing where the muscles learn and remember what they have to do without you consciously thinking about it. That is important because once you have developed muscle memory for a particular song then you don’t have to think about the rhythm part of the song, your muscles and your subconscious will take care of that.
The next step once you have the rhythm pattern working well, is first to hum the tune of the song while learning to play it on the guitar. By now you will be so familiar with playing the guitar chords and strumming a pattern that you will free up your brain to concentrate on singing the words.
The next big problem most people face is to do with timing. If the words are not sung at the right time, the guitar playing may get ahead of the song. If this happens briefly it is not such an issue but you want to get back on the beat as quickly as possible. DON’T change the timing of your guitar playing to match the timing of your singing….your guitar is providing rhythm and timing as an accompaniment to your singing. Not the other way around. If you focus on having your guitar playing provide constant timing for the song then with practice your singing will keep to the beat of the accompaniment.
One more time, keep it simple. Sing the first verse and get it working really well before moving onto the second verse. It pays to break songs down into sections of a few bars even and just perfect each section one by one. Then, join the sections up and play and sing them together. If you have selected a simple song to begin with, you should be able to master the first verse fairly quickly.
There is another way for you to keep it simple…and that is to choose a song where both the song rhythm and the guitar rhythm are pretty much exactly the same. That way, you don’t have to be so concerned about what your guitar hand is doing while you are singing and the whole thing getting out of sync. However if you follow the steps above and practice each skill initially by itself, and progress to performing the skills together only when you are ready….you will be fine!
Use Your Imagination
For all beginner singers and guitar players it is important to be able to visualize your actions in your head even when you are not holding a guitar or actually singing. Imagine yourself achieving the correct pitch, holding yourself with the right posture and body alignment, strumming the correct rhythm pattern….and here is a VERY BIG secret!
“When you repetitively replay these thoughts of singing and playing guitar in your mind – your brain does not recognize the difference between actually doing it and just imagining it!”
Now you can believe it or not, but scientific experiments have found this to be true. You don’t have to physically do a task for your brain to learn that task. Replaying the actions of the task repetitively over and over in your mind WILL implant memory into your subconscious that will enable you to physically do that task in the future. Try the following, you will be amazed:
CLICK HERE to Fast-Track Your Singing and Guitar Playing
First play the song in your mind while also imaging yourself playing the song on a guitar. If you are well versed in the song, you will be able to “see” your fingers creating the chords and strumming out the desired rhythm pattern. A lot of people I know and have worked with first begin with a recording of the song before they even attempt trying to play and sing the song.
If you decide to first start with a recording, practice singing with actual music – you can find backing tracks that are designed for this purpose. That will help give you a sense of timing so it will be much easier to blend the rhythm of the singing to the rhythm of the guitar playing.
There is really only one fixed set of rules when it comes to singing and playing the guitar together and that is: “Practice, practice, and practice!”