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Reading music and playing along to your singing

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Here are some tips on two major common causes for concern amongst beginner guitarists from Guitar Made Easy

Why Most Guitar Players Don’t Need to Read Music, Ever!

“Standard notation has a very complex and thorough structure for conveying the duration of notes. Unfortunately with guitar tablature it is typically harder to convey time.

One common method to help display time is to space the notation fingerings farther or closer apart depending on how long they are to ring out. And, often standard notation will be displayed above tablature, and this is just about the only time I look at the standard notation is to read the duration value of the notes.

I have also seen tablature that uses a hybrid method of displaying time by putting standard notation note stems on the tablature fret numbers. This is similar to drum notation.

So here are some options to tackle this issue:

Get used to and learn to read just the timing aspect of standard notation
Just listen to the song to hear the timing and then play along using the tablature
Pay attention to the space between the tablature fret number notation AND listen to the song to hear the timing”
Read the complete post here

Tips for Singing While Playing Guitar

“What gets tricky is when your strumming hand is playing something much more rhythmic, and add to that some complicated fingerings and you’ll have the formula for “how the hell do I sing over that”. Don’t worry, you’re not the only one. The majority of radio friendly songs aren’t going too be too difficult, but certainly some will be, and if you’re into a demanding genre like thrash metal it’s time to think about a strategy for approaching the vocals. Simply playing guitar riffs up to speed and trying to force yourself to sing along with a recorded song can lead to frustration quickly.

Tips for Singing While Playing Guitar
Practice the riff, then practice it again.
Know the riff so well, and have it ingrained in your brain to the nth degree. You need to be able to play the riff and have a conversation with someone else in the room without skipping a beat. The riff should become almost involuntary like a heartbeat. This is especially important for complicated music.
Listen carefully.
Okay, you might think this is obvious, but I’ve found it’s easy NOT to listen carefully, and it’s easy to want to rush into playing and singing. If you don’t take your time and listen to the music you’re trying to sing–and I’m assuming here for many of you you’re working on singing something that you didn’t write yourself–then you may be practicing mistakes. Unfortunately when you practice mistakes you train yourself to sing it the wrong way. Slow down and take time to listen carefully to each bar of the music. If you have an MP3 player or CD player put on some headphones so you can tune the world out and get intimate with the music. You might find after careful listing that some singers come in just before or after the beat, or during mid measure. It’s hard to pick up on details like this without a careful listen.
Slow it down, and break it down.
Break the riff into parts and practice rhythmically vocalizing the lyrics over the riff slowly. Take it a measure at a time. Don’t worry about sounding good at this point, singing is rhythmic and the challenge here is to make sure you’re saying the right words at the right time.
Put down the guitar and come back.
If you find a part of the song that is very tricky and you’re getting frustrated–stop! Take a break and come back. Often with a refreshed ear your vocals will click in to place and you’ll here the music more clearly.”
Read the complete post here

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