I’m an accidental singer, I didn’t expect to sing, but after my wife sang along to the first song I learned, I joined in on the chorus without thinking. This was after she would have sung it at least 50 times. Singing made it SO much easier to memorize the songs because you much more know where you are in the song, not important if it’s the same 4 chords all the way through, but helps a lot in the more complicated chord sequences.
So even if you just mumble the words under your breath, that may help.
Interesting to me. I feel the same way myself. Never felt I could sing. Still feel I don’t have a good voice.
I never really tried, thanks to some petty minor embarrassment in 5 th grade or so.
But the more I am playing guitar, the more I realize a few things.
Why should I care what others think?
Singing is fun.
The song is an integral part of many guitar songs. Without singing, there is nowhere for the melody to go, unless you or someone develops a melody into the guitar playing.
Singing is fun.
Why should I care what others think.
I am going to try and sing some. It is part of making music, will round out my guitar playing, and is something I can do for myself if I want. I can share it or not and there is no need to be embarrassed, my id is stronger than that.
Now I have to apply that thinking to not only singing, but video and playing for others…
I enjoyed reading this feed. Lots of great advice here. I needed this also. I think the best thing I’ve picked up here is to keep practicing the song(s) periodically even after you have them memorized. I know that already, but haven’t done it often enough. So now I want to set a monthly or bimonthly schedule to play my Set list all the way through. It currently needs some re-memorizing.
I think learning songs all the way through is essential. I think memorising them is good if you can but I see lots of people play - live - from chordsheets and song books they’ve put together. This is particularly the case at Open Mics but even in gig situations most will have discreetly attached tablets to their mic stands. In most instance these are just crutches in case their mind goes blank.
I probably have 25-30 songs fully memorised and can play and sing them at any point…however that’s only because I practice a lot of them weekly. If I have a couple of weeks off I’ll need a couple of sessions to get back into them.
For other songs I just have them in my virtual song book so that I can pull them up quickly and play them. I don’t need to “learn” the song just be reminded of the chord progression and lyrics.
When I joined the community I said the same as you, there is no way I am going to sing.
However after some gentle!!! encouragement from some community members, I had my sixth singing lesson this week. If I can give it try coming from somebody who has never sung in life you can give it a go.
Playing and singing at the same time is a real challenge, one I have not mastered yet.
I want to make myself a son book. I’m looking for a website that I can download lyrics and cords from so I can edit/print them out to place in my book.
Lyrics
This is where I got my papers from ,before Justin came out with his Tabs… unfortunately the chords are often in the wrong place in my link(this one happens to be a good example …but) ,and quite often they are simply wrong (so buy a bottle of typex, liquid corrector)… but print out that lyrics with the tabs from Justin ( And write them over) would work perfectly…or just always look on your lap-top or tablet on Justinguitar tabs…that saves paper …
Long story short … hopefully we can print some of the tabs here soon, but legally that’s difficult for a while,…
Greetings Rogier
Just Google “(song name) chords” or “(song name) lyrics” and you’ll get a bunch of hits.
UltimateGuitar will almost always be at the top of the list. There are some good lead sheets there, but I get tired of them constantly pushing their app at me. I think they are mainly at the top because they are good at search engine optimization.
I always check at least 3 different sites, and copy the one that seems well formatted, and uses mostly chords I can already play. Paste them into my word processor so I can format them as I wish.
Note that quality is highly variable…some of them are just plain wrong. Don’t waste a lot of time blaming yourself if it doesn’t seem to be coming together for you. Find a better one, or make your own.
My pet peeves are chords not lined up properly with the lyrics, chords that change within a measure, and repeated chords that span measures not being shown.
Outside of Justin’s books/tabs etc. this is pretty common across chord sheets on the internet. It’s pretty easy to spot if you are playing the song because it’ll just sound damn wrong if you move to the next chord too early/late
Ian Gillan also relates a humorous story when serving as vocalist for Black Sabbath. Lyrics on a sheet on the stage floor. I forget the details as to exactly how it all went wrong …
The more i read and research this topic. The more i relize that there is tons of artists/musicians that cheats quite heavily. With monitors on stage and what not…
So i dont think we should feel bad if we struggle or cannot remember lyrics etc. on different songs we play from time to time
Trond, when I first started playing at Open Mics, I felt some pressure to memorise the songs. It was encouraged, with varying degrees of emphasis, by more than a few members in the Community. No argument as to impact of singing from lyric sheets on being able to perform for and entertain an audience. But at that stage, the additional stress and worry about remembering lyrics had a far more severe impact on the quality of my playing than any gain in being able to connect with the audience. So I reverted to song sheets and my performances improved. As is the way, we continue to improve and when I returned to playing Open Mics, I’d developed in my playing and (don’t ask me how) ability to memorise songs and feel comfortable to play from memory.
Moral of the story … do what you need to do to play, perform, grow, and have fun. Consider all the tips and suggestions, but don’t get hung up about anything. What is important is to keep learning, practicing, and playing, having fun and enjoying yourself. And that is how we grow and slowly become musicians (irrespective of play-grade).
