Get a LOT more familiar with the song. Know it. Watch Justin’s Lesson,…
Once you’ve done it on a song or two, it then makes it easier on subsequent songs with remembering chord changes and such. On your first singing song you have to really KNOW the song.
Also, when starting singing, choose a song where the chord changes line up with the lyrics. Some songs the lyrics are quite offset (syncopated), those are a lot harder to learn to sing.
There’s one song I learned that was a challenge that way, I was using the old faithful D D u u D strum and the lyrics started on the 2nd up of the 3rd measure. I found it really really difficult to learn to sing that. You don’t want that kind of song to be the first you try to sing.
I’ve heard the idea of having the song on autopilot on the guitar. That has NEVER happened for me, no matter how many times I’ve played the song. I can have it completely memorized, but if my mind goes to anything but my playing, it falls apart. I’ve just accepted that I’m not a multi-tasker. Hell, B.B. couldn’t play and sing at the same time, and he had been playing some of those songs every night for decades.
Indeed, that’s true (for folk, bluegrass guitar is played with a pick, generally). Except that I didn’t say most fingerstyle songs are instrumental, but rather most (solo) instrumental pieces are played fingerstyle.
I only weighed in on this topic because for a long time I was in the OP’s shoes. I do not sing and play alone, generally, and after a while playing along with recordings did not seem very satisfying for me. I came to the conclusion that the best solution was to learn instrumental pieces, so recently I’ve been learning instrumental acoustic blues pieces.
I realize a beginner cannot just decide to become a fingerstyle acoustic blues player, at least not before getting some basics down first.
I know, right? It is a weird feeling, kind of like when you feel like you should be able to remember that dream, but can’t quite.
I seem to do ok with cord changes, but strumming patterns I have done a million billion times and suddenly I can’t tell if I am strumming them right. I need to record myself and see what I am actually doing, maybe I am better than I think.
Anyway, not only does the playing need to be pretty ingrained, so do the words. I am by no means good at this, but I am working on my playing without singing and singing, not without playing, but much simplified playing (like one down strum to a bar). Eventually I hope this helps me pull them together. I am also not looking to gain performance grade skills here, just fun grade.
@DxnFx is only just Grade 1 and will hopefully be spending time in consolidaiton.
Singing & playing together, or approaching complex fingerstyle arrangements may be in the future but is not for the now.
Dawn - for consolidation and working to improve your rhythm, definitely work on your strumming and making it as good, as groovy, as smooth as you can.
A good step for you at this stage could be grade 1 of Justin’s SOS course.
Otherwise, keep going nice and steady as you enter Grade 2.
