How to Sing While Playing Guitar

Singing while playing guitar can be difficult, even for experienced guitar players. However, once you learn simple techniques to incorporate singing into playing guitar, it will become more natural.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Make sure you've heard the song you're trying to play. When you have this idea of what the song should sound like, it will be easier to match the singing and guitar together.

2. Practice the song on guitar several times until you're used to the chord progressions and strumming. It helps to use a simple strumming patterns until you learn the song entirely.

3. Try playing while listening to the song. This way you'll not only have a good idea of the tempo you should be playing at, but you'll be able to place which lyrics fit to which chords.

4. Dissect the song by its chords and figure out which lyrics you'll sing while playing those chords. Play the song slowly as you fit the lyrics with the corresponding chords.

5. Gradually pick up tempo until you can sing and play the song at it's original tempo.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't pick a difficult or complex song to learn how to sing and play at first. Once you get used to strumming and chord progressions while singing, you can move on to more difficult songs.
• In the same way, don't pick a song that is too complex or difficult to sing to at first.
• If you find it hard to strum to the song and sing at the same time, try only strumming downward until you can play the song fully. Once you're used to playing and singing the song at the same time, it should be easier to use its original strumming pattern.
• It may take some time to perfect, but don't give up on it. If you're having trouble learning how to sing and play a particular song, try learning a simpler song.