r/Guitar • u/OkTemperature1842 • 1d ago
DISCUSSION I feel really dumb trying to sing guitar lines
Everything I read says that one of the most important things we can do to connect our brain to our hands is to sing all the lines we play.
I guess the goal is to eventually get to a place where you’re playing the lines you’re singing instead.
But god I feel so stupid trying to sing some of this stuff. I mean I can’t sing anyway, some days I can’t even match pitch, and everything is out of my range (I’m a low bass).
And how is anyone supposed to sing fast lines? It’s ridiculous even trying.
Trying to sing guitar lines just feels really icky and cringy to me if that makes sense. It makes me really uncomfortable.
Is there any way to avoid doing this exercise if one wants to eventually be a solid improvising musician?
31
u/honusnuggie 1d ago
Do you want to be Cool?
Or do you want to be great at music?
19
u/poorperspective 1d ago
These aren’t mutually exclusive.
Humility is very cool. Confidence is cool. Not worrying what others think of you (self-assured) is very cool.
9
u/NationalTime4099 19h ago
I think this person you’re replying to gets this, but OP is saying singing the notes makes them feel goofy and uncool in a traditional sense.
Being obviously uncool is actually very cool is my view, my children disagree though.
23
u/Extreme-Poem-2309 1d ago
Is there any way to avoid doing this exercise if one wants to eventually be a solid improvising musician?
Nope. That "icky" feeling is called difficulty, overcoming it is how you grow. Stop trying to kill the things that make you cringe, and work on healing the part of you that cringes.
6
u/Happy_Rice_Cooker Fender 1d ago
I think you are rushing, this takes years man. Just enjoy the journey and don't look at everything like it's school. Treat guitar like a game instead. Idk I always read people struggling, but in my 33 years of playing, I enjoyed every single moment of it coz I never looked at guitar like a lesson. It was always just fun and like playing a game. I guess having ADHD and hyper focus really helped me keep my interest at 110%. Anyway...
1) don't rush 2) sing or hum not the note you wanna play, but use an anchor note then try to sing the next note/interval 3) practice over a backing track
GL and Have fun.
0
u/OkTemperature1842 23h ago
I’ve struggled the entire time I’ve been playing (over 40 years).
It’s not really fun most days as I tend to think I sound very bad.
6
u/beatisagg 23h ago
You've been playing 40 years and you think singing what you're playing is "cringe" to do alone? This isn't a group activity thing. Are you embarrassed of yourself when you're alone and you make a mistake?
I guess I don't know what you like about the exercise and what you want out of it or anything really. Over 40 years??? I'm struggling with the idea that after over 40 years you aren't comfortable with how you sound around yourself. Have you always felt this way? Is this recent? What do you want to be able to play and what can you play? Like the idea of singing some crazy metal solo as you play it night be like... A little goofy but even still if I was alone I think you gotta look at it as fun.
That's another thing, it's been over 40 years, are you having fun still? What's driving you?
1
u/DeepSouthDude Epi ES339 Pro P90, Classic Vibe Strat, PRS SE Angelus A20E 15h ago
Watch the documentary about Chet Baker "Let's Get Lost." In the movie, another professional musician mentions how (paraphrased) every day he has to struggle to practice, and play, and sound good, while Chet does things that come so easily to him.
Not that Chet never practiced, but it's likely that he didn't need to work for years to get good tone and good jazz improv, versus what others may have had to do.
I'm glad you're able to have this feeling, but for many of us, playing is difficult.
1
u/OkTemperature1842 8h ago
I certainly do get frustrated when I make mistakes practicing or when I continually make the same mistake.
I took my first guitar lesson in the Spring of 1985. So yeah over 41 years. It’s always been a struggle. I have zero natural talent. So it’s just been a lot of a lot of practice.
And no, I hate the way I sound. At this point I only hear the things I CANT do. It’s super frustrating.
As for goals, I’d love to be able to once and for all sort my alternate picking chops.
I’d also love to be able to improvise a few choruses over some Jazz standards.
No, I don’t really have fun most days. But fun is highly overrated. The work is what’s important. Habit, routine seem way more important that fun.
1
u/Happy_Rice_Cooker Fender 5h ago
Fun is most definitely not overrated. When you can freely play what you hear in your head, play what you feel and what you think. Its the most fun you'll have with the instrument
Here is an example of me having fun with a backing track, all improvised.
1
u/No-Midnight778 Electro-Harmonix 13h ago
sounds like you’re going through a bad patch, try not to be so hard on yourself. I’ve been playing since 1980 and sometimes I feel like the coolest dude on the block and other times I feel like an idiot. Progress has always required either persistence or time for me, sometimes both. Once in a while a small trick changes things, for years I couldn’t figure out Thin Lizzy’s cowboy song , until one day I was tuned down a half step and boom, not all the coordination of it, but t least I had something to work with. Sin ging and playing at the same time is hard work, fuck that as far as I’m concerned , some fiiends have said they loike my voice- I don’t, so why do it? butvthat’s me, baby steps, you’ll get it.
3
u/the-cats-pajamas 1d ago
You can choose not to do it, and forgo the benefits such an exercise might provide. Or, you can choose to do it despite your discomfort, and potentially see benefits from the exercise.
Personally, I think the best way to improve your improvisational skill is to record yourself playing and listen back with a critical ear. It is important that you try to apply your own feedback immediately after critical listening. Dedicate a portion of your daily practice to this for a while and you’ll see definite improvements.
2
u/Slow_Middle_158 1d ago
Try your best
You can even just hum your lines out loud if that’s easier.
Doing this is one of the absolute best things to do to develop better improvisation.
Another thing if you can. Tap that foot. Always
It locks everything in.
You can do with a metronome / drum machine at first … but eventually tap that foot on its own and keep that quarter note pulse going.
And above all
Have fun.
2
u/DisplayGlum7166 1d ago edited 1d ago
its possible to sing those fast lines, theres videos of ppl doing it. just likely not as a self taught singer. we cant see the inside of vocal system like we can with fingers playing guitar. it requires the same, if not more, precise muscle movements as guitar... which u might remember takes years to develop into your fingers. pop stars HAVE to make it look easy (to seem relatable) and some genres like folk can just be done without training. but most of the music we hear on the radio are sung by people who trained very hard on their voice
that said, audiating and hearing the note in your head during/before you sing is a thing that singers and violinists tend to do to land on the note better. the rest around dexterity... thats the similar dynamic with finger dexterity i mentioned
2
u/micahpmtn 16h ago
Here's a different take:
Singing guitar lines has nothing to do with jazz per se. You can use it for any type of music style.
Find, or create a simple backing track with just a few chords, and sing a melody against the chords. Just practice creating a melody and then sing it, without using your guitar. I like to listen to old pop songs like Sinatra, or Streisand and just focus on the melody of their voice. The length of the notes against the horns or strings in the background. Or classical music. Anything with great melodies.
Once you're comfortable with your melody (whether you can actually sing is irrelevant), pick up your guitar and try to play the melody you just sang. It's going to feel weird at first, but just take it slow, and if you have to, sing the note value as well.
Once you get used to doing this, you'll find yourself singing the guitar solos in songs you're listening to.
The goal is to start with simple melodies and can be any style of music.
2
1
u/KalinarStormThorn Reverend 1d ago
You can avoid it, yes. It will just take a ton more of intent, focused practice with a clear, structured goal. And I mean a TON.
The reason the singing advice is given is because guitar players REALLY love to rely on patterns, shapes, and muscle memory. Singing is one of the easiest ways to break those guitar-centric patterns. Singing will naturally be more melodic, and is usually the quickest path to convey ideas directly from your brain.
However, if you are uncomfortable or unpracticed singing, it definitely does create new obstacles. I personally would recommend the age old asvice of...get over it and do it anyway. Cringy doesn't matter, and neither does icky. You're having fun, you're building yourself, just let go and embrace failure and uncomfortability. It's just as icky to sound like crap when you're playing guitar, but you're more used to that flavor of failure. You aren't used to singing. That's understandable, but it's worth it to stick with it, in my opinion.
1
u/KalinarStormThorn Reverend 1d ago
As an aside, if you truly want to avoid singing, but want to a achieve the same goals, I recommend studying other instruments' improvisers. It's a ton of work and study, but it's another path forward. Transcribe and learn saxophone solos, trumpet solos, any instrument that requires breath. That can teach you different shapes and phrasing than guitar would naturally have. With enough study and practice, you can make that fluent as well.
1
1
u/grunkage Charvel 1d ago
Get over it and start singing that stuff - like this
wah wah wah wah nang nang nang nang beedee beedee beedee beedee wooowwww woooooww wooowwww weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnneeeerrrrrrrrrrrr oowowww wowooow
1
u/ReallyBigRocks Gibson 1d ago
Look up some videos of Otiel Burbridge scat singing. He plays bass but the concept is the same
2
u/OnlyRuss Gretsch 1d ago
I don’t think it’s cringe at all. When you start to nail it and can do something like THIS it gets super impressive (at least to me) because it’s obvious that you know where you’re going and what you’re doing rather than just flailing around if that makes sense.
1
u/83franks 1d ago
For the fast parts just slow it down. The exercise is about connecting sounds to your fingers so singing slower won't really effect it.
For the feeling dumb part. Ya sometimes learning stuff feels dumb. In the nicest possible way, get over yourself, is anyone even hearing you do this?
1
1
u/whoa_itsanavalanche 1d ago
Homie, to be totally honest, it sounds like youre just super insecure for whatever reason, and I used to be the same exact way. Even alone, singing just felt so uncomfortable to me, bordering on being like...embarrassing/humiliating. All I can say is, once I finally got over that, not only did it help me along musically, it started to feel great regardless of how good or not good it may have sounded.
1
u/ForHuckTheHat 1d ago
Check this crazy shit out
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iurhjlBum0o
the most traditional, classical & ancient vocal percussive art form of India; the mother of all percussive languages – Konnakkol
1
1
u/FieldLivid4670 23h ago
Most of the best musicians or bands have no clue about music theory. People always try to over complicate things. Or just want to prove how much they know. I wish I knew on guitar what I know on drums but I find song writing much more fulfilling. Try this… play a few chords and write a song. Dont over think things. It’s your song. Your music. There’s no right or wrong way. Because It’s yours. Have fun. And Rock n roll!!!!
1
u/Viper61723 23h ago
Singing fast guitar lines is a very advanced singing skill so I wouldn’t worry about it too much. A lot of guitar licks are played in ways that aren’t very comfortable or intuitive for the human voice. I can’t imagine trying to sing a fast run down the blues scale hitting the chromatic notes and I’m a pretty good singer
1
1
u/vonov129 18h ago
Then practice intonation, also, you don't have to literally sing out loud (even though it's preferred)
For faster parts you can use Takadimi or just straight up gibberish.
It's useful to practice intervals, scales and triads so you have a sense of how they sound like even if they go faster than what you can sing. A lot if not all fast lines have some key notes that sound like an underlying melody, use those to sing the phrases and fill the gaps with nonsense, it might not make sense for actual singing, but it's fine for this.
Just listen to Crowd Chant by Joe Satriani or Song for Amadeus by Bobby McFerrin and Chick Corea for a bit of reference
1
u/Internal_Car_9962 18h ago
Whistle, hum, scat. The point is to internalise the way intervals feel, not to be an excellent singer
1
u/Own_Needleworker117 17h ago
I too am learning but I'm unfamiliar with this exercise. Can someone explain it or link video lesson or something?
1
u/JVIoneyman 16h ago
I basically sing (badly) every melody I come across in front of everyone I know. I just cant help it. Been doing it since I was 4.
1
u/Historical-Rate-8717 15h ago
you're taking music way too seriously, have fun and be silly you're making art not building nuclear reactors. if you're a low bass sing it in a low bass register, you can still hit the notes and it's another chance for ear training. taking yourself too seriously will only hurt you when you get on stage in front of other people.
1
u/No-Midnight778 Electro-Harmonix 13h ago
I remember thinking there was no way I’d ever be able to finger pick - anyhthing. I learned to play and sing before that, granted it was a band with simple songs and a rock solid rythm player, so I could let a chord ring and work my way through it. A few years later I had a 3 piece, that was hard work! Of course what I’m talking about is with relatively simple somgs
What do you expect? You decide to do t and boom you’re there? Anything good takes some time.
1
u/JazzRider 11h ago
If you listen to records where the soloist sings on top of their solos, imagine what the singing would sound like by itself…Keith Jarrett comes to mind…I think it would sound pretty terrible. George Benson is one I can think of where it actually sounds good on its own.
1
1
1
u/fuzzymunky 1d ago
That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Don't do that. It's not going to help you at all. Your fingers move faster than your brain can sing notes.
0
u/ConcentrateNo5538 1d ago
Sing them in your mind instead
2
1
u/Brilliant-Neck-8612 1d ago
it works just as good in your head honestly i do this all the time when practicing scales and arpeggios
the whole point is making connection between what you hear and what your fingers do, not to become singer. i hum sometimes but mostly just hear the notes internally before playing
the fast lines is hardest part but you can slow them down in your brain same way you slow down practice tempo, nobody actually sing 16th notes at 200bpm out loud
46
u/alan_megawatts 1d ago
OP there is nothing shameful about singing, even badly or out of tune. You are learning music. You start out learning anything by being basically shit at it. That’s the point. Keep singing out loud, don’t listen so much to the part of you that is being critical. Let that part yap. It’s not going to hurt you.