Two at a Time: Play Hard! Sing Hard!

Two at a Time: Play Hard! Sing Hard!

Indeed, it’s really HARD to play and sing at the same time. If you find difficulty coordinating your hands and vocals, let’s have a look at the below tricks!

1. Imprint notes in your brain

To sing on pitch, you have to first develop your aural awareness. One of the ways to train your ears will be listening to various scales. Scales help you to get familiar with the interval between different notes. Make good use of your guitar. Play a major scale on your guitar and listen to each pitch carefully. Visualize the note in your brain. Then sing along as you play. See if you can maintain each pitch and check whether the pitches match with each other.

2. Start with humming

You may find it difficult to go straight off to the lyrics. Therefore, you are suggested to hum different parts of the melody first. Once you get familiar with the melodies, you will gradually become comfortable singing them out.

3. Changing key where necessary

You may find it helpful to change key if you are struggling with notes that are too high or low. If this is the case, put the music in your range by transposition. Transpose a piece up or down one whole step or two. Move the chords up or down one to two frets. You may also use a capo, which allows you to keep your fingering as usual. Just make sure that the guitar’s tones adapt to your voice.

4. Practice with a metronome

It’s a pity that many guitarists play the guitar with inconsistent tempo. To develop a strong sense of timing and rhythm, practice with a metronome is a must. Moreover, the use of a metronome will help us slow down difficult passages while keeping the pace consistent, allowing us to work through challenging passages without making any mistakes. This approach will further enable us to gradually increase the speed as we become more familiar with the piece.

5. Get familiar with the chords

Ask yourself: how well do you know your guitar? Can you switch between the chords throughout the song effortlessly (or even without looking at the fretboard)? In order to free you up to concentrate singing, you need to be completely comfortable with your strumming and playing chords (cleanly) without even thinking about it.

6. Memorize sheet music

Ask yourself again: how well is your memory for the musical composition? How does the overall structure of the piece of music look like? Are there any repeat signs on the score? If yes, what are the sounds or sequences to be repeated? And how many repetitions are there? You should be very familiar with the layout of the composition so that you can sing and play without the sheet music on stage. Try to maintain eye contact with the audience or even interact with them during your performance.

7. Enjoy yourself!

The music that you play and sing never means to please others primarily. Whether a song sounds touching or not varies directly with different people. So, just sing hard and play hard with confidence and strength. You can only please one person each day. Choose yourself—your inner self!


Reference:
www.yidianzixun.com
www.guitarworld.com