Playing bass and singing

Just for the hell of it and because of my compulsion to humiliate myself in public I thought I might have a go at singing (which I can’t do) and playing the bass (which I can barely do)

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That’s very good, Paul @studio . . . :+1:

(I can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, myself {lol})

Cheers, Joe

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That was great @studio, Singing, whistling and playing! I can’t play and chew gum without screwing up.

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Well you sing better than me when I’m just singing. Never mind playing at the same time.

Very good.

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That was really good, I can’t sing or whistle while playing.
I do think you rushed a few notes in there, but I am sure you will work that out with practice. You are way ahead of me, I can’t say that I will ever try to sing more then a back up word or two, if I ever play with a singer. I am impressed, only offering a lil constructive criticism for something to work on.

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Thanks @T_dub. This is what I need. It is great to get honest feedback and videoing yourself and uploading to sites like this and Facebook are a great way to not only get decent feedback but also be able to track your progress.
I have just completed a 30 day classic rock challenge with a group online where we had to upload weekly videos and the teachers and fellow students would add their comments and advice. It has not only helped my playing but has also helped my confidence.
I will use this thread to track my progress over the coming months.
I have signed up for a 90 day walking bass challenge so hope to start playing and singing so jazz standards soon

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Wow, that is really super!

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That’s pretty good. I can’t sing AND play to save my life. By the way, I sing like a bird… a buzzard to be precise.

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I would be unceremoniously evicted from this forum – and the planet – if I’d try that.

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Glad to hear that is helpful@studio.
When you watch it, can you see what I am talking about. You play some note correctly, but when you are whistling, or sing, you at times, kinda of rush thru a little progression of the same notes, or progression you played fine when not whistling or singing, as though you sort of fell begins and RUSH to catch up.
It is very slight, almost unnoticeable, and to someone who does not play, therefore listen to music the way we are training ourselves to, probably wouldn’t notice.

And I could be wrong, I am the only one who said anything about it. Maybe, me, training myself to pay attention to things like this, am getting it wrong, and hearing something that’s not there. So if others and you think it’s right, it may be, but if you also see / hear it, and some others do as well, then we know it’s there, and something to work on.

That challenge is really cool. Is that an SBL thing?
I thought I saw some challenges offered there. If so, I think I confused the Players Pass with the challenges offered.

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My singing is so bad that even karaoke is embarrassing.

And it doesn’t help that my wife is a talented R&B singer who just slays at karaoke. She was also so good at piano that her high school/college piano teacher urged her to go pro. And she played drums for years. But she now has zero interest (actually negative interest) in music at all as she was more or less forced into music lessons as kid and quit as soon as she was able to. Just no joy there for her, despite talent.

As they say, FML :slight_smile:

It made for some humbling conversations while dating though.

Me: “Oh hey, you played piano? I was a keyboardist in my college band.”
Her: “Cool! what classics can you play? I could play most Bach, Mozart, Beethoven…”
Me: “Um - I think I remember how to play Für Elise?”*
Her: “That’s, um… cute.”

*it turns out even this pathetic attempt was incorrect :slight_smile:

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No not SBL but another UK based bass school. I don’t want to plug another program on this forum out of respect for Josh and the great work he is doing.

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Dude! That was great! I love that song, also. :+1:

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Shucks

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Does anyone know of any good online singing lessons? Just like playing bass, I’d be starting from a complete beginner’s standpoint, so, would need something like a B2B, but for learning how to sing / manipulate your voice.

I find I sing sometimes when playing bass, or, just trying to hum or sing the notes at the same time I play them. I feel like it’s helped in learning notes, and improving on knowing what pitch something is, or, just to figure out a bassline.

That said, I’m pretty bad at it. That’s why, I feel like, with some practice, maybe things could improve, and also, some bass playing skills improve too at the same time? Has anyone tried this? What was your experience like?

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@Vik Please report back on whatever you find. I’m interested too.

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Hi @studio,
Great effort👍
Cheers Brian

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Hey @Vik… Might try checking out your local music store. Many offer singing lessons much like lessons for instruments. I would think that Have a one on one live session for voice would be a much better option than anything online since there will be someone there in the room giving you live face to face feedback.

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I recently started singing and have been looking for lessons.

The one I liked most were “Dans Voice Essentials” - not nearly as good as B2B, but I feel like that is a high standard.
They have an introduction course to tease you for it - once you register you get a one week course and after that you still can decide if you should buy the course or not. He also has a great deal of youtube videos.
I personally didn’t buy the course so I can’t review it. It’s not because I don’t think it’s worth the money, because it might well be. It wasn’t even that expensive. I ethink 60$? €? something. It’s because I’m at such a level that I personally think I have enough value out of the 7 day course and do those basic exercises until I feel a need to progress.
Currently I am doing singing exercises with my phone (sing sharp on android, but there are lots of those apps. I tried some and like this one the best so far) and playing UltraStar Deluxe (= Singstar)

The “SuperiorSinging” channel on youtube has also a singing course, but I very much dislike the presenter there so it’s a nono for me. Also his advertising is way more annoying on his free stuff compared to others. Basically you can stop watching when he adds “and I have one extra tip for you that will improve your sing…” because that’s just advertising his course.
That being said - I also took some technical advice from that channel.

Overall I gotta say the singing courses feel less structured. I think it’s also harder to structure a singing course compared to an instrument. The voice is an instrument everyone of us uses and it’s hard to say at which level the “start” or “entry point” is. Also the vocal range differs. To an extend you can train your vocal range, but it’s not like a bass voice does the exercises in the same pitch as a countertenor.

If you find a good course which seems structured for a “complete beginner” singer please let me know. The closest I have found is Dans Voice Essentials as said.

My experience with it is not that I get better at bass playing, but my overall musical knowledge and my ear for music gets trained when actively training sining. You can’t just press a string down at a certain fret. You have to hear the pitch and recreate it with your voice. So overall I would say it does not improve bass playing in particular. I would say it improves something I would call “musical awareness”, which assists in playing any music.

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I did end up signing up with 30 Day Singer, which, has a 30 day set of beginner geared lessons with each of 3 different instructors. The videos are good, and are a short lesson each day, although, it is really self paced. I’ve been into it for a week, but am still only on day 4. Then, there are further lessons on specific topics, advanced lessons, a forum where the instructors are around for questions, and some weekly live webinars too. 14 day trial, but I signed up for the 1 year at $99 yesterday.

I think you’re right! But, I’m so new right now, my goal is to just learn the very basics with online instruction, get my voice acclimated a bit to this, and feel the whole topic out a bit, prior to delving into time with an instructor - also, I wouldn’t even know what to ask or focus on right now, I’m too new, just like when I started Josh’s course. Just stared at the forum topics here for awhile, didn’t really “get” what most of them were even talking about :slight_smile:

I love hearing your experience with this so far, and, will look at Dan’s Voice Essentials here. From what I’ve done so far, totally agree with what you say there about musical awareness, which, indirectly, is useful to bass playing, or playing any type of music. It probably helps that my vocal register is in the bass-baritone range, the lowest of them all, so, for me, it helps me connect to the low notes my bass already plays :+1:

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