How to Sing and Play Guitar at the Same Time

If you're new to playing guitar it can seem intimidating to sing and play at the same time. But if you're comfortable playing some simple chord changes you can work on adding singing to it.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

1. Start by continuously strumming a C chord in quarter notes.

2. Begin to sing the notes in a C scale, in quarter notes along with your strumming. You can use just an open "ah" sound for singing. It doesn't matter if your pitch is perfect - you can work on that later.

3. After a few runs through the scale, double your strumming speed to eighth notes. Keep singing in quarter notes.

4. After a few runs through this, reverse the pattern - use quarter notes for strumming but eighth notes for singing.

5. Next, add chord changes. Sing the first four notes in a C scale, then switch to strumming a G and sing the first four notes in a G scale. Then move on to some common chord progressions, such as C - Am - F - G.

6. Finally, switch from singing "ah" to the solfege syllables: "do re mi fa so la ti do". This will help in getting used to mouthing different sounds when strumming and singing.

7. Once you get comfortable with the exercises above, you can try singing and playing some songs with simple syncopations. For example, "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash is a good song for beginners.