Do you play bass AND sing???

[Alien]

I find it pretty easy to sing and play at the same time, athough most of my lines are pretty simple anyhow. I tend to simplify complex lines while I'm actually singing (hardly anyone's listening to the bass then anyway), and leave the tricky fills & stuff for the quiet bits between the lyrics.

[quote name='HMX' post='1050866' date='Dec 7 2010, 06:54 PM']I can barely speak to someone when I'm playing bass.[/quote]

That's normal - playing an instrument uses parts of the language centre of the brain, so it's rare to be able to play and converse simultaneously.
Singing while playing is easier for the brain to do, as it's coordinating voice and hands to work together.
Remember what it was like when you first played a bass, trying to get both hands to work together? Same thing, just with a third dimension added.

A

[Malc62]

I was the co-lead vocalist and bassist in my function band for about twelve years (I'm now the keyboard player - long story) and the one song where I couldn't easily do both lead vocal and bass line was McFadden & Whitehead's "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now". Outside that I was fine.

[Malc62]

[quote name='phil.mcglassup' post='1054029' date='Dec 10 2010, 01:57 PM']I must be unfortunate in that apart from the lead vocalist I am the only one who can do backing vocals. The rest of the band are tone deaf! Why does it take half an hour or so to learn a bassline and three weeks (or more) to learn the harmony? It's like the harmony has to be engraved onto my brain so that I can switch it on at the right time.

Anyway, the good thing is that when we do gigs in cramped venues, I have to stand at the front next to our lead vocalist near the monitor as I wear ER20 earplugs (new HF17's coming next week, yeh!). This does tend to upset the lead and rhythm g*****ists!! Mind you, I'm the only one who plays their parts correctly and it is particularly annoying trying to sing harmonies when bum notes and chords are being played loud in my earholes!!!!

I have total respect for those who play and sing harmony BVs, practice does make perfect and maybe it's a skill that once learned becomes easier.[/quote]
Aye to that. I'm the main harmony vocalist in two different bands, and I'm shocked at how many musicians can't sing - or, in some cases, recognise - a harmony.

[Delberthot]

[quote name='HMX' post='1050866' date='Dec 7 2010, 06:54 PM'

I can barely speak to someone when I'm playing bass.[/quote]


I'm the same, the singer will shout the next song to me and I have to wait until I am at a comfortable bit before I shout it to the drummer. If someone comes up and talks to me I can't talk back or I start making loads of mistakes.

BUT - I can sing most of Sting's stuff, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins and Hotel California is my party piece. Comfortably Numb was the first song I ever learned to play and sing at the same time.

My band plays a hotel every December for the Christmas -party nights. last year they invited us to their staff party. At one point I was going to the toilet when the guy with the karaoke asked me what I wanted to sing "Hotel California" was the reply. It was the first time I had ever sang in public and after that you couldn't get me away from the mic.

Still sh*te myself when I know I am singing. My wife wants me to sing Hotel California at Hogmanay and I will but I'm still sh*teing it.

I cannot cope with harmonies - I can only hear the lead vocal so its that or nothing

Edited December 27, 2010 by Delberthot

[Tet]

See now, normally what I do is focus on something in the distance - A light, a familiar face, the sleepy-looking "sound tech"...

I find that if I try not to get in the way of what my brain wants my hands & vocal chords to do, everything just runs along nice and smooth.

Quite a few songs where I'm playing a bass line in one rhythm, and singing a completely different melody in another rhythm (since I sing harmonies).

It does work, and I'm lucky enough that I can pick them up near enough instantly, once I've heard the song through once or twice. I did have someone from another band come up to me after our set and say something along the lines of "Man, you were playing one thing but singing something else there - How the f**k?!"