Singing *what* you play

[phil_the_bassist]

Ok, I've only recently discovered that I can sing. It was kinda suprising cos i'm a notoriously bad singer, so much so that it's a standing joke within all the bands I play in but over the past 2 weeks I've found I can now hit the correct notes, as long as the note is played first (aka I can quickly slur to the right note, as long as I can hear it!)

The one thing that I want to be able to do is to be able to hit any note, at any time. EG, you say "gimme a G" and I hit a G. This'll also mean I'll be able to quickly work out vocal melodies, cos if I can sing 'em I'll be able to play 'em!

I'm usually singing along to tunes as I play 'em so the dexterity to sing and play is fine (as long as it's not too hard a line!) but I wanna (pardon the pun) fine tune my singing as this'll improve both my musicallity and value as a musician immeasurably! Another added bonus is that Mrs PTB won't complain about me singing whilst hoovering if I'm actually in key!


*edit*

I forgot to ask the bloody question! Does anyone know any books/excersises to help me hit the note I want, or is it a matter of singin as I play scales and hoping it slowly seeps into my brain?

Edited September 1, 2008 by phil_the_bassist

[mcgraham]

Do you mean hit a G with your bass or your voice? If you mean your bass then simply drawing out a chart of where the notes are is a good start. If you mean your voice then you're talking either perfect pitch (i.e. singing a G without any prompting or starting note) or good relative pitch (i.e. sing a G based on the key you're currently in).

Relative pitch comes with efficient practice of a wide variety of scales (modes were good enough for me!) as it is a result of ear training. Perfect pitch [i]can[/i] be achieved (so I'm told) if you practice a lot (particularly singing), but good relative pitch requires less work and will be less painful for you in the long run.

Feel free to PM if you want a breakdown of what I did to develop my ear in this way. I'm at work so can't really spend the time typing it all out on the forum right now.

Mark

[ped]

Heheh couldn't resist

[phil_the_bassist]

[quote name='ped' post='274575' date='Sep 1 2008, 02:52 PM']

Heheh couldn't resist[/quote]


aww! c'mon Ped! just cos I verbally whupped your butt in a previous thred doesn't mean you have to sit there and (s)cowell at me!

I just wanna fine tune my vocal range, please help a poor, misguided SR5er into the ways of warbling!

[phil_the_bassist]

[quote name='mcgraham' post='274569' date='Sep 1 2008, 02:42 PM']Do you mean hit a G with your bass or your voice? If you mean your bass then simply drawing out a chart of where the notes are is a good start. If you mean your voice then you're talking either perfect pitch (i.e. singing a G without any prompting or starting note) or good relative pitch (i.e. sing a G based on the key you're currently in).

Relative pitch comes with efficient practice of a wide variety of scales (modes were good enough for me!) as it is a result of ear training. Perfect pitch [i]can[/i] be achieved (so I'm told) if you practice a lot (particularly singing), but good relative pitch requires less work and will be less painful for you in the long run.

Feel free to PM if you want a breakdown of what I did to develop my ear in this way. I'm at work so can't really spend the time typing it all out on the forum right now.

Mark[/quote]


Hit the G with my voice with no guide note would be ideal, but having a good relative pitch would make me a very happy little lowender!

thanks for the offer, PM is about to be sent!

[MuseMatt]

a note on perfect pitch: mostly perfect pitch is something you have or don't have.. so you can't achieve it by practise... however if you have it there's ways of being able to work it.

[mcgraham]

I know one person who has perfect pitch, and he uses it to great effect. But he suffers as a result in various ways (e.g. love/hate relationship with harmonies that use correct intervallic ratios like African gospel choirs). He has done research into it, and has said that it [i]can[/i] be developed by singing a [i]lot[/i]. When you consider that singing teachers teach their students (at an intermediate level) to sight sing in actual pitch, that is essentially the development of perfect pitch.

There was an interesting thread on this over on TB. In fact the general concensus (even from a number who have perfect pitch) was that it's much better to have excellent relative pitch as it serves the same purpose, is more flexible and ultimately less painful for the 'user'

Mark

[MuseMatt]

agreed on that, a reason not to develop it is because playing with a choir or badly tuned instruments just hurt your ear...
also choirs or orchestra's singing on 445hz = a instead of 440hz = a are kinda crap.
A big plus to it is when you're doing a jamsession u just get a pitch by hearing it, and you can look up things by ear.

I myself use it just to determine the first note or chord and then I start working with relative pitch. I would recommend anyone to practise on relative pitch and hearing chords (first major minor, then augmented chords etc...)

[lukeward2004]

Something that helped my ear develop so that I could sing was to not only sing what you play on the fretboard, such scales, arpeggios and the like, but also listening to shedloads of good singers and trying to imitate what they did on those tracks in the car, shower etc.

Start of with the main lines, then sing it again on the 3rd, then the 5th, then an octave if you are able to.

It works well for bass playing too - If im writing a bass part, I sing it first, record it with a crappy sound recorder to get the rough jist, listen for what like an dont like, then I play it on my bass working out what I sang by ear. Im not good enough to translate exactly what i hear in my head onto the fretboard!!

[Duarte]

I do know someone with perfect pitch, and it is literally incredible. If you played him a guitar chord (any, obscure chord) he will tell it to you immediatley. Tell him a note to sing and he'll do it (we checked with a tuner) and if I get him to tune my bass, it's more accurate than anything I've ever known.

And if you want to see a FANTASTIC video example of someone singing what they are playing go here: [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF0C36OvoT4"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF0C36OvoT4[/url]

the bass solo, where he sings it starts at 3:13.

Edited September 6, 2008 by Duarte

[alexclaber]

Most people have surprisingly good absolute pitch and tempo - when singing a popular song they'll usually be very close to the correct key and tempo, thus using songs you know as a reference point for pitches can be very effective.

Alex

[MuseMatt]

another nice sing what you play vid

[Guest BassKS]

SInging the notes you play is down to practise. a lot of it is muscle memory and visual (to start off with). I was pretty crap when I started but Im getting better. It helps moving away from richard bona, oteil, and other bass players as well. Listen to guitarists, keyboardists and nick the licks that you like and of course you have to remember it, learn to play it, then learn to sing it....finally both at the same time. Its good to learn scales and stuff but lets face it, youre never gonna sound cool if you play first five notes of a major scale if the chord is ii7. you could but wouldnt.... So my advice is remember the key/chord that youre in and try to play stuff that you enjoy (licks and something that you might have come across by accident)....