Sep 10, 2014

Playing guitar and singing at the same time

by Rockwell Rice

This week the Madison Music Foundry blog is focusing on both guitar and voice and so today I will be talking about playing and singing. Specifically I am going to focus on posture.

When accompanying yourself with a guitar while singing it is very important to focus on having good posture.  A lot of people practice playing guitar by watching their hands. However looking down at your hands can really affect the quality of your vocal performance. Imagine if you went into your lesson and you spent the whole time singing looking down at the floor. Your teacher would probably remind you to bring your chin up and get you posture in line so that you can produce your best singing tone.

Here are a few tips to consider when singing and playing. 

• Do not practice while looking down at your hands. I know it is hard, but remember, if you practice that way you will play that way. Not only will it affect your vocal tone and intonation--also remember that if you are looking down at your hands, you cannot engage your millions of adoring fans that came to see you--so keep your chin up and looking forward.
• Remember posture when getting ready to perform. Placing the microphone in such a way that you can sing into it correctly while playing is really important.  A vocalist who does not play can hold the mic and move it around. A person who has their hands full with a guitar however cannot do that, you have to be sure that the mic is placed where you can easily sing into it with good tone. I like to place it off a little to my left so that if I need to look at my hands for a difficult guitar part I am already facing that way which allows me to look without moving much.
• I also recommend playing sitting down at first. Until you develop  a really good sense of posture and control standing up and moving around makes it very difficult to sing, and play, at your best.

One of the keys to becoming a good performer is becoming a confident performer. In order to do that you must be able to play and sing at your best all the time. Practing with proper posture and positioning every time is one key to that.  Focusing on that posture and positioning when it comes time to perform is the next step to achieving that. By doing those two things you will put yourself in position to give the kind of performance you know you are capable of.

Education Director's Note: I've always considered Sting to be one of the best examples of someone excelling at both playing (bass in this case) and singing. He's amazing at both, and does them at the same time. So I hope you enjoy the video included of The Police performing one of their hits: Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic. -KF

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Rockwell teaches lessons on Guitar, Music Theory, Songwriting, Electronic Dance Music Design (EDM) and the classes Classical Guitar Appreciation and Finger-Tapping.

ROCKWELL RICE
Rockwell Windsor Rice is an active performer and teacher based out of Madison WI. He holds a Masters Degree from UW Madison where he studied under Javier Calderon. He also holds a B.A. in music from UW Whitewater where he studied with George Lindquist. His teaching philosophy was created through the combination of starting out as a self-taught guitar player, and ending up as a trained musician. As a teacher he is eager to open students up to the world of music by teaching them to play and understand the music that they love. Beginning as a self-taught player has given him a unique insight into the roadblocks that beginning students encounter, training as a classical guitarist has given him the education to help student avoid those very same roadblocks on their own journey with music. It is his primary goal that students leave their lessons possessing the kind of musical knowledge that will allow them to explore any avenue of music that they want with confidence, and the technique as a guitarist to explore that avenue fully.

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