Sing and Play Guitar Effortlessly
Almost 80% of aspiring guitarists and singers have had this moment of extreme influence watching someone playing guitar and singing a Pop or Rock tune effortlessly.
In fact, most of the times it’s the basic goal that every beginner to intermediate Guitarist wants to accomplish.
When attempted, it turns out to be one of the most challenging aspects of learning Guitar. It also becomes a very hard to solve issue even after trying out many different methods and long hours of practice.
There are many people who have struggled in this area because they have never worked dedicatedly towards improving this skill.
This hurts the confidence of a beginner to intermediate Guitarist to perform songs at small gigs or in front of their loved ones.
What many people fail to understand is that, like everything else you learn on the Guitar, this skill can also be learnt easily through a step by step process, and utilized highly effectively by taking your Guitar out of the practice room and performing with it.
As effective as this approach is, always remember that the best way to train yourself to do this is by having some fun with the Guitar and actually playing as many songs as possible while putting these concepts to practice.
1. Learn the Guitar part well
This is the most important step of the process, and exactly where many guitarists go wrong. They keep trying to play and sing together when neither the Guitar Part nor the Vocals have been learnt well enough to be brought together.
Even trained singers have a hard time to play Guitar well and sing at the same time. They make up for it with their singing skills, but with a little effort, you can better your performances by playing the Guitar part to perfection.
Before we go any further, check out this awesome performance by John Mayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Ov0cDPZy8
Now ask yourself these questions :
So the first thing you need to do is to learn the Guitar part well.
Be it a Chord Progression, melodic Phrase or lick or anything. Get that down well enough to even attempt to sing along.
2. Play along with slow strums
Before you attempt to sing the song, it’s crucial to know where exactly the chord changes occur in a song.
So after you have learnt the chord progression, keep it in front of you, play the song, and just strum each chord once or play Quarter note strums along with the song.
Observe whether the progression sounds similar to the song, it doesn’t have to be perfect, just good enough.
3. Hum or Sing along with slow strums
This is where you are starting to build the coordination between your vocals and playing.
All you do at this stage is to play the Guitar Part real slow, while trying to hum the song in any manner you want. You may also try to sing the vocals at this stage, without increasing the intensity of your Guitar playing.
Once you have done this a few times, you can not aim at getting the song up to speed. This type of practice will internalize the song in you and the music and the vocals will finally start connecting gradually.
As a Bonus tip, it really helps to stress or accent the syllables where the chord changes appear.
E.g. If you are trying to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Chord change happens at the 2nd part of the Sentence, You will deliberately stress on the start of the second part, like how it’s highlighted in the song.
4. Add the Rhythm
You need to take it slow when you are just beginning to enter this stage. By now you must have already practice the Chord Progression a bunch of times, and also connected it partially with the vocals by either Singing or Humming along with Slow Strums.
Add a strumming pattern or anything that sounds close to the song while performing the chord progression, and you are still just attempting to do this very slowly.
You are not yet singing the song exactly like it’s supposed to be sung.
5. Start Singing
By now you must have practiced the song a lot of times and your vocals must be getting used to the playing and your guitar must be getting used to your singing.
Now is the time to just play the song without caring or judging yourself.
DO NOT STOP IF YOU GET A CHORD WRONG.
One of the most important aspects of performing is to make it look as effortless and carefree as possible. In Short, just immerse yourself into the song and forget whether you are playing the right chords or not.
Repeat the singing as many times as you want or till you get bored with the song, and at that stage it’s time for the next song.
6. Bonus Step - Record the performance
This is one of the most effective ways to train yourself for real-time performance situations.
This will also satisfy the musician inside you as you’ll be proud of your efforts and are finally seeing the fruits of your labor through objective feedback.
So turn on the recorder, and play and sing the song again without judging yourself and not stopping if you make a mistake.
Share the recording with your friends for feedback and enjoy listening to it and work on the areas where you feel you need to improve.
What should you do with this information ?
About The Author:
Dhanesh Sarangadharan is a certified guitar teacher from Pune,Maharashtra India, who is passionate about coaching students to progress faster on Guitar.
If you are looking for expert Guitar coaching in Pune, that will transform your Guitar playing and help you reach higher levels faster, then click on https://www.guitarteacherpune.com/freeintro and book a Free Trial Lesson Now.
In fact, most of the times it’s the basic goal that every beginner to intermediate Guitarist wants to accomplish.
When attempted, it turns out to be one of the most challenging aspects of learning Guitar. It also becomes a very hard to solve issue even after trying out many different methods and long hours of practice.
There are many people who have struggled in this area because they have never worked dedicatedly towards improving this skill.
This hurts the confidence of a beginner to intermediate Guitarist to perform songs at small gigs or in front of their loved ones.
What many people fail to understand is that, like everything else you learn on the Guitar, this skill can also be learnt easily through a step by step process, and utilized highly effectively by taking your Guitar out of the practice room and performing with it.
As effective as this approach is, always remember that the best way to train yourself to do this is by having some fun with the Guitar and actually playing as many songs as possible while putting these concepts to practice.
1. Learn the Guitar part well
This is the most important step of the process, and exactly where many guitarists go wrong. They keep trying to play and sing together when neither the Guitar Part nor the Vocals have been learnt well enough to be brought together.
Even trained singers have a hard time to play Guitar well and sing at the same time. They make up for it with their singing skills, but with a little effort, you can better your performances by playing the Guitar part to perfection.
Before we go any further, check out this awesome performance by John Mayer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20Ov0cDPZy8
Now ask yourself these questions :
- Would you have enjoyed the performance as much as you did, if he wasn’t playing the Guitar so well
- Would it have had the same impact on you if he was just singing and the music was being played by some other band, like how it happens in singing reality shows ?
So the first thing you need to do is to learn the Guitar part well.
Be it a Chord Progression, melodic Phrase or lick or anything. Get that down well enough to even attempt to sing along.
2. Play along with slow strums
Before you attempt to sing the song, it’s crucial to know where exactly the chord changes occur in a song.
So after you have learnt the chord progression, keep it in front of you, play the song, and just strum each chord once or play Quarter note strums along with the song.
Observe whether the progression sounds similar to the song, it doesn’t have to be perfect, just good enough.
3. Hum or Sing along with slow strums
This is where you are starting to build the coordination between your vocals and playing.
All you do at this stage is to play the Guitar Part real slow, while trying to hum the song in any manner you want. You may also try to sing the vocals at this stage, without increasing the intensity of your Guitar playing.
Once you have done this a few times, you can not aim at getting the song up to speed. This type of practice will internalize the song in you and the music and the vocals will finally start connecting gradually.
As a Bonus tip, it really helps to stress or accent the syllables where the chord changes appear.
E.g. If you are trying to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and Chord change happens at the 2nd part of the Sentence, You will deliberately stress on the start of the second part, like how it’s highlighted in the song.
4. Add the Rhythm
You need to take it slow when you are just beginning to enter this stage. By now you must have already practice the Chord Progression a bunch of times, and also connected it partially with the vocals by either Singing or Humming along with Slow Strums.
Add a strumming pattern or anything that sounds close to the song while performing the chord progression, and you are still just attempting to do this very slowly.
You are not yet singing the song exactly like it’s supposed to be sung.
5. Start Singing
By now you must have practiced the song a lot of times and your vocals must be getting used to the playing and your guitar must be getting used to your singing.
Now is the time to just play the song without caring or judging yourself.
DO NOT STOP IF YOU GET A CHORD WRONG.
One of the most important aspects of performing is to make it look as effortless and carefree as possible. In Short, just immerse yourself into the song and forget whether you are playing the right chords or not.
Repeat the singing as many times as you want or till you get bored with the song, and at that stage it’s time for the next song.
6. Bonus Step - Record the performance
This is one of the most effective ways to train yourself for real-time performance situations.
This will also satisfy the musician inside you as you’ll be proud of your efforts and are finally seeing the fruits of your labor through objective feedback.
So turn on the recorder, and play and sing the song again without judging yourself and not stopping if you make a mistake.
Share the recording with your friends for feedback and enjoy listening to it and work on the areas where you feel you need to improve.
What should you do with this information ?
- Don’t just read the steps.Implement them one by one. You can begin with any song that you feel is easy to play and work along each of these phases.Even if you try these steps with only with 10 -15 songs, you’ll be well on your way to mastering this art of singing with Guitar.
- This is what you actually learn Guitar for, so don’t ignore working on this.
- Don’t just stop at this, once you feel you have practiced this over 10-15 of your favourite songs, pull up chord charts for any song and start playing on the fly without stopping or judging how well you are playing or singing. Here you should only worry about the performance and nor about how well you could switch between chords or licks.
- Enjoy the process as this is the most fun aspect of learning Guitar.
- Create opportunities for yourself for short Gigs with Friends and Family where you can test yourself without being judged too much. You’ll be surprised at how much joy you can bring to people through your voice and guitar.
About The Author:
Dhanesh Sarangadharan is a certified guitar teacher from Pune,Maharashtra India, who is passionate about coaching students to progress faster on Guitar.
If you are looking for expert Guitar coaching in Pune, that will transform your Guitar playing and help you reach higher levels faster, then click on https://www.guitarteacherpune.com/freeintro and book a Free Trial Lesson Now.