Tips for singing while playing bass

[roccobass]

My two cents….

Don’t be hesitant about taking artistic license with a bassline to accommodate your vocals.

I was always a back up and occasional lead in my classic rock band and it was very helpful to make a few well planned out alterations ( to de-complicate) to the bass line to free up some brain RAM to help my vocals. You need to make sure you’re not affecting the integrity of the tune, also.

I would either subtract from or play keep my fingers moving almost in a pedal pattern over the strings but making no contact just to give myself some sort of security blanket during the song. These are just mental tricks that got me through.

 

[franklindayala]

How many of you sing while playing bass, and are you the main voice or a background singer?

Do you actually dedicate study and practice to develop your singing, or just count on what you can sing untrained?

If you do practice singing, do you have a skill area you focus on more than others, such as intonation, range, volume, endurance, expression...

Besides the obvious "practice a million hours", what helped you learn to sing and play at the same time, without the two messing up the other, particularly when they follow different rhythms?

Have you noticed if songs written by bass players who are also singers are somewhat easier?

I always admire Les Claypool for this.

 

[CryingBass]

I saw/read a recent interview with Tony Levin about him prepping for the current Beats tour. Singing in one time signature while playing in, what, 3 different others on the Bass kicked his butt. If it's hard for Tony....

 

[trseal]

As far as singer-song writer- bass player- songs being easier, well listen to, and watch Sir Paul play and sing "I Saw Her Standing There" on Ed Sullivan (which was aired and played live). That is a VERY fast-moving, intricate bass line. It's even difficult to hear every note because it moves so fast. Makes me feel even more inadequate...

Tim

 

[mambo4]

the primary challenge is rhythmic independence between voice and hands
put the bass down, clap the bass rhythm, singing over it
When you can solidly clap the right beats while singing, pick up the bass.

 

[bigjames]

My 2 cents....

I think there are some people who can do this easily. Not sure if it is how their brains are wired or what, but I think some can just do this.

As for learning it and honing the skill, I think you need to get both skills down independently, then combine them. I have been singing since I was a kid; at home, church, school choirs, then voice major at university. I have been playing bass since I was about 16 (so a little over 30 years). Singing while playing simple lines is not an issue. I can do lead or back ground and any vocal part. When the bass line is more complex, I struggle...so the thought of playing and singing a Sting tune feels overwhelming to me...no idea how he does it.

 

[Thunderthumbs73]

How many of you sing while playing bass, and are you the main voice or a background singer?

Do you actually dedicate study and practice to develop your singing, or just count on what you can sing untrained?

If you do practice singing, do you have a skill area you focus on more than others, such as intonation, range, volume, endurance, expression...

Besides the obvious "practice a million hours", what helped you learn to sing and play at the same time, without the two messing up the other, particularly when they follow different rhythms?

Have you noticed if songs written by bass players who are also singers are somewhat easier?

Sometimes I sing lead vocals. I sing along to things to continue to use my voice and give it durability. I tend to pick things in a fairly wide range of style and it includes both men and women songs. What works for me is to know a bass part COLD so that it takes as few brain cells as possible, and THEN I work on the duality of singing and spend my brain cells on that and remembering the lyric. Regarding that last question, that is absolutely not unequivocally true. I'd like to introduce you to perhaps my greatest musical hero, Mr. Mark King, lead singer and bassist of Level 42. It is fairly tough at times to play and sing these. And these (and other tunes in the Level 42 catalog) are always touchstones to help gauge how on top of my singing/bass playing game I am.

 

[Pep]

I've been singing and playing since I first started in 1964 and still do it today (yeah I know I'm an old fart). Sometimes the bass parts will be a different timing than the cadence of your vocals. Practice until it becomes second nature. When we were learning Stevie Wonder's "I Wish". I played bass and did the lead vocals. It took about a week of rehearsing it every day before I was able to do it without thinking.
That's the best advice I can give you. Practice, practice, practice!!

 

[dustinymichaels]

Study the masters.

 

[LowendG]

I've done tons of singing while playing bass since I started some 40+ years ago, mostly in pop/rock contexts, lots of lead vocals, 99% original stuff. Even after all that time doing it, I simply still do not play bass the way I really want to if I'm also tasked with singing. I'm all about really getting into that "session guy" kind of zone even live--really finessing every little detail--note length, phrasing, etc. At some point something's gotta give--either the vocal or the bass. So, not really a tip I guess, but maybe don't beat yourself up if you can't play with the same level of finesse while you're also singing, especially lead. And in that instance, the vocals gotta come first--don't short change that even if it means simplifying your bass parts.

 

[Slade N]

Vocal rhythm
Vocal pitch
The lyrics
The delivery of the above/stylist choices

…you are incorporating all of these factors/layers….as previously stated, practice them separately till you gain confidence in each, then blend them together, adding an additional factor as you become competent/gain confidence

Then add your bass line in, which also was practiced separately to then blend in.

One (bass or vocals) must be on almost autopilot so that you can focus your attention on the other

 

[skycruiser]

I found it pretty easy to sing and play bass at the same time, but my singing is really bad so I don't do it much. I really like doing it and wish I could develop a better singing voice. I think it's just an anatomy problem. You can only go so far with what DNA gave you.

 

[Wasnex]

How many of you sing while playing bass, and are you the main voice or a background singer?

Do you actually dedicate study and practice to develop your singing, or just count on what you can sing untrained?

If you do practice singing, do you have a skill area you focus on more than others, such as intonation, range, volume, endurance, expression...

Besides the obvious "practice a million hours", what helped you learn to sing and play at the same time, without the two messing up the other, particularly when they follow different rhythms?

Have you noticed if songs written by bass players who are also singers are somewhat easier?

Untrained vocalist with a weak voice. I sang backgrounds in a country band, so the bass parts were not particularly syncopated. Often the bass line was either a two beat such as Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochee" or country swing such as Dwight Yoakum's "These Arms." I do remember asking the lead vocalist to modify phrasing on one tune. It was a matter of moving one note over the value of an eighth note.

When I struggle with syncopation and alignment issues, it helps to see how the bass part and vocal part relate. I view singing and playing as a complex task rather than two separate tasks. Basically you break down both parts and then put them together. Same as coordinating your left and right hand when playing piano, or coordinating both feet and both hands when playing drums.

The biggest problem for me was my limited range and how it varies. Normally I can't even sing falsetto. I usually top out around G or possibly A. On rare occasion I can sing almost an octave higher and easily switch into falsetto. It may last for a few hours or a week or more. I learned the hard way not rely on the extra range. We prepared a new show where I was singing Es and Fs on a new Vince Gill song, but I lost the extra range few days before the show.

Level 42 is one of my favorite bands. World Machine pretty much plays non-stop in my truck. I also really like Running in the Family. I could cover some of the lead vocals, but not do them well. I could also work up most of the main bass lines, pretty much note for note. I wouldn't attempt to do both, although perhaps I could if I had a gun to head.

IMHO it's impressive that Mark King can sing and play the songs live, but in all honesty I think his live vocals sound pretty rough....and I don't care to listen. Also the albums have many layered bass lines that were laid down on multiple tracks. A lot of the nuance and detail is lost during live performances.

 

[Killing Floor]

Well, I can play bass with my eyes closed, even improvise freely on bass with my eyes closed, and I have no issue with padding my head and rubbing my stomach simultaneously, whichever arms doing what or what direction, I can repeat complicated tongue twisters lightning fast, and improvise harmony vocals for a song immediately and perfectly, but I still can't sing while playing bass at the same time, unless the bass line's rhythm match that of the vocal line.

As I said for me singing and playing bass at the same time is more akin to that of having to write two different improvised pieces of text with respectively your left and right hand simultaneously.

Simply impossible to me.

Not to discourage OP, or anyone else hoping to do this, but I do believe it requires some level of innate predisposition to be able to do so.

She sells seashells at the sea shore...

I think singing and playing bass comes down to repetition. What worked for me is one or 2 bars at a time combined and add them together until it's a full song. And once you get comfortable it becomes more natural.

Oddly, I have no problem singing and playing guitar even if I am new to the song, it seems easier. Perhaps because the rhythms are looser?

 

[Mr Kringle]

How many of you sing while playing bass, and are you the main voice or a background singer?

Do you actually dedicate study and practice to develop your singing, or just count on what you can sing untrained?

If you do practice singing, do you have a skill area you focus on more than others, such as intonation, range, volume, endurance, expression...

Besides the obvious "practice a million hours", what helped you learn to sing and play at the same time, without the two messing up the other, particularly when they follow different rhythms?

Have you noticed if songs written by bass players who are also singers are somewhat easier?

I sing both backing and main vocals in my band depending on the song, honestly what helped me was when practicing my bass parts i would talk to my self aloud while playing. It can be tricky if you are playing crazy riffs you just have to separate fingers from your voice. I think of it like how drummers play I just split myself between fingers and voice. it really helps if you commit your bass parts to muscle memory. for me the tricky part was learning to sing in a different cadence/rhythm than what my fingers are doing. in short for me what helped was talking while playing then worrying about volume and range ect... later on

 

[Altitude]

This is exactly what Geddy Lee said when asked from time to time about how he could sing over the complex Rush bass lines.

Geddy cheated a little in the sense that his bass parts and the vocal melody often worked as one. Listen in your head:

“You can choose a ready guide in some celestial voice…”

“Big money goes around the world…”

“Living in the limelight, the universal dream for those who wish to see…”

Made it easier and he still became a legend and none of his descendants will have to work. He won.

 

[Altitude]

I had to learn supporting vocals on a few songs where the vocals and bass were completely contrapuntal. One that kicked my ass was “Material Girl” by Madonna.

If you can bear to, listen here to the men singing “Li-ving in a material world” on top of the bass part. The way I beat it was to ,as out every 16th note space in each measure. Then I could map the vocal part and the bass part independently across the 16th note spaces and determine, in every space, whether I needed to be singing, playing a note, or both. It turned out to be an effective approach, if a little mathematical.

 

[ryco]

Pretty much concentrate on learning the bass part/chord progression as the priority and start adding vocals bit by bit as I can. It doesn't take too long.
I don't sing lead hardly at all, but do a ton of backup harmonies. Was fortunate to be in the rhythm section in high school Jazz Choir, so 5 days a week I could watch and learn how to do parts and some mechanics of singing. Was involved early on in bands with competent vocalists who were patient enough to help me learn, which was something I very much wanted to do. Got easier and easier as time went on - like with anything - just practice.
When learning material, which is mostly original, practice learning vocals and bass stuff at the same time.

 

[SirMjac28]

Start playing songs where the bass player is also a lead singer The Police, Beatles etc. Walking on the Moon is a great song to get your feet wet it's a beautifully simplistic bass line without complex lyrics. Also watch live videos of the songs you want to practice they will give you great insight because the songs are seldom note for note so you can play around with them.

 

[ArteK]

I’ve been singing lead and backups while playing bass (and sometime rhythm guitar acoustically) for quite a while now.

Typically, I start with figuring out how the “one” fits relative to the singing. (Are you starting the vocal on the one, just behind it, lead in line to the one, anticipating the beat, etc.?) Then knowing where certain words fall in the 1-2-3-4 or 1-2-3, etc. is key for me. Usually the bass line is easier (more intuitive) to envision in these “slots” because I’ve been doing that a lot longer.

At that point, fitting them together becomes a bit like what I’d imagine coming up with a drum pattern would be like.

That said, I’ve been trying to work up a couple of semi-difficult bass/lead vocal songs (for me, anyway): My City Is Gone by the Pretenders and Blood and Roses by the Smithereens. I find the long slide up the neck in the chorus of My City… is tough and the back half of the Smithereens riff both are tough to keep together with the vocals. My approach so far has been mostly just repetition. The “band” for these are some guys who jam every week where I just fill in with from time to time (with me maybe once a month) so I don’t always get reps on a regular basis. I’m almost at the point where I have the lyrics memorized. That’ll help A LOT in my experience with other songs.