I might be starting up a new band soon, and I've been writing my own lyrics along with the music. So I might as well give the whole guitar/vocals thing a shot. For anyone here who does the same thing, how long did it take you to successfully play one rhythm on guitar while screaming another on vocals? How long did it take you to be able to scream at full force while multitasking (currently, even if I can get the syncing right, my voice has to hold back for it to work, and it sounds really weak). Suggestions?

my problem is that I can't do ANY vocals without simultaneously playing guitar or bass

RHYTHM guitar, mind you

I just need to nail the music to the point where I can put my hands on autopilot and concentrate on singing - but I'm still damn sloppy with my fingers until I nail the vocal patterns as well. I don't know a shortcut, to tell you the truth, you just have to divide your attention a bit. (Substance D helps.)

I do exactly what DestroyYouAlot said, just put your fingers on autopilot by mastering the song the best you can. Again I do bass, but I'm not really doing just rhythm stuff either.

Yea...It's quite simple once you've mastered the song. The only hard part is trying to hear what you're playing when screaming until your eyes explode...you have to be able to rely on your fingers for that. It also helps to know the lyrics by heart....it's tough to read, do vocals, and play at the same time :P

correspond words to parts of the riffs, that way youll know when word/riff changes come.

for some reason when i record the guitar part without singing then add the vocals on another track it is much easier for me to play and sing after hearing it a bunch of times

eric militianary said:

I'll second that.

eric militianary said:

wow. you made sense!

i soon as saw that you left a comment i knew it was gonna be a smart ass remark directed toward me

LEARN TO CHEW GUM WHILE WALKING

IT HELPS

BLACK POWER!

I have the same issue right now, Pat. I do vocals and guitar in one of my bands, and we have our first show in like 6 weeks, so I'm trying to nail it. Luckily most of my vocal patterns move in the same rhythm as my hands, or what I'm doing with my hands is so easy that I can do whatever vocal patterns I can think of. For the other stuff, I may have to just wing it, haha.

Basically you gotta put more effort into both playing and singing than normal. In a way you gotta teach your self how to play the riffs a little more, in the sense that you have to slow way the hell down so your singing can keep up and slowly work it from there till your up to speed. Thats also depending on how much annunciation your going for!
Alot of the Coffin Birth riffs seemed fucking impossible to sing over but with the extra time spent toward making sure i knew every single word/phrase and where it all fell in with each guitar part, it all came pretty naturally from there on.

Certain riffs are easier to play and sing to, I find. For instance, I have tried to play and sing some Morbid Angel songs (guitar and vox ) and that's a hell of alot harder than playing guitar along with the bassline and doing vocals on the same song ( cause you know Vincent would be playing and singing respectively and trying to copy Azagthoth and do vox at the same time is like trying to be like god)

If you write the shit yourself, a guitar part, and then add in a vocal pattern its pretty easy to syncronize, relatively speaking.
And yeah, for me it is weird also to try and do vocals WITHOUT the guitar in hand.

I wish I could sing and play at the same time. However I can't do ALOT of shit simultaneously.

im trying to learn how to sing and play drums at the same time, ick

i remember reading that Dave Mustaine would/will write riffs and lyrics in totally different phrasing on purpose to force himself to become better at singing and playing guitar at the same time

not really an answer, but a cool little tidbit