Tips for singing while playing bass

#41
practice singing while playing VERY VERY SLOWLY. It's tedious, it takes time. do not play through your mistakes...go back and pinpoint where the error occurred and again, take it extremely slowly. You also have to make sure you're singing the correct notes. again...very slowly.
 
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#42
I sing a lot. Lead and backing. Most of the time it's pretty easy. Sometimes I have to parse things so I can sing the notes that are not in sync with the bass. "Thank You (Fa lettin me be mice elf) is tricky for me, as is "Best Of My Love" by The Emotions. "Bad Case Of Lovin' You" is a challenge. Some genres are more demanding than others. It's worth it to me, very satisfying. I love to sing and do vocal exercises daily. I try not to dumb down bass or vocals but occasionally compromises are required. I'm also more marketable.

BBB
 
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#44
I sing backing vocals in my band.

Up until a couple of years ago I just wasn't able to play and sing at the same time.
What made the difference was:

- In rehearsals and on gigs, I would sing along (not into a mic) whenever I could.
- I found it way easier to sing on songs where I was using a pick (not sure why).

Eventually I found that I was naturally able to sing and play, and was able to hold harmonies on most songs.
At that point, I started singing into a mic.

Over the past year or so it has become completely natural and I don't have to think about either.
I can just play and sing, whether I am using a pick or fingers.
I now sing backups on probably 85% of our songs.
 
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#45
I used to play guitar and and sing backup. I discovered that when the time came to sing, I could solo if I kept it simple. I never improvised when singing, sticking to well practiced phrases. If I was having difficulty, I'd dumb down the riffs to a point where I was comfortable doing it. Also, some chops are easy and some aren't, so I'd usually choose the ones I could play in my sleep when building a solo. Never did this on bass on stage but the principle applies for me.

And yes, I practiced doing this quite a lot.

Tom
 
#46
I stink on ice at doing this except with songs that I know very well.
If you get to the point that you not only know the song so well you can play it on auto-pilot, you also get to the point that you can sing and interact with the scene you are in. It's harder to do on some songs than others, but If you can do it, I highly recommend it. - Sometimes I go for an easier version of what I'm playing so I can fell less like I'm trying hard as I can to not fall off a tightrope.
 
#48
Shenron said:
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?
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There are no secrets, tricks or shortcuts. It DOES take hours of practice. Know both parts before you try them together. If it was easy, everybody would do it.
 
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#49
I have one piece of advice to add to this topic which may be of use. Your mileage may vary.

I started talking while playing a chord structure.

Let's take an F jazz blues.
  • First thing was to slow down so much that it was absolutely painful to listen to and play.
  • Second thing was to play something uncomfortable for me, like inversions of 5, 3, b7 of every chord all over the neck. (this took ages by itself)
  • Third thing was to talk out loud in a different set of rhythms to whatever I was playing, in my case saying the names of the chords, and if possible, the function of the chords, while playing this. (I say something like "F7 as the dominant 1 chord. Bb 7 as the dominant 4 chord. F7 again as the dom 1, because repitition legitimizes. C minor 7 to F7 as kind of a 2 - 5 to get back the Bb7 as the dominant 4. B diminished 7 for added spice.")
I did this for about 6 weeks. It was sheer misery. I sounded like I had never had a bass in my hands before, and forget the vocals, as they were garbage. But something happened at some point, and I found out that I suddenly had much more independent control of my voice while playing. The next jam session I attended as house bassist was a revelation, as I found myself easily singing on 8th and 16th notes where the bass was doing something completely different. It blew my mind. I giggled like a child. I got goosebumps.

Now I really really really have to work on my intonation, volume and mouth shape to get a better timbre, but for the first time in my life, I feel like there is a way forward.
 
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#50
Thunderthumbs73 said:
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.


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That’s some insane singing and playing there!
 
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