How do I sing and play guitar at the same time?

Everyone's given you good advice, but I'd like to add one thing that most don't consider...

When you're away from your guitar, it helps to visualize your hands on the guitar neck..playing the chords, etc...and singing the song to yourself in your head.

Or...use your right forearm as the guitar neck, with your left hand forming the chords as you sing.

This is valuable practice which gets your mind used to thinking about two different actions...one involving the mental side of remembering words and lyrics and timing, and the other, remembering the physical aspect of changing chords.

This extra practice time during the day when you can't be with your guitar helped me immensly when I first started playing.

Be careful...if some observe this "strange behavior," they may try to have you 'committed!' LOL

I'm afraid there ain't any other way to do it than practice! However, usually, your guitar sings the same rythm your voice does. Otherwise, it sounds weird. It's like two people would be singing the same song but in a different rythm. But in general, playing your guitar and singing at the same time isn't really that difficult. As I said, it's just practice!

You simply need to get used to your guitar. It is the same thing as playing on keyboard with the letter notes written on or without them. Would you be able to play without knowing what note you press? I don't think so if you're a beginner. You need to be familiar with it and have some experience before you sing along. Doing both things at the same time is confusing for a beginner because when you concentrate on singing you don't pay many attention to how you strum or when you strum, you lose your control of singing. Just practice strumming and when you will feel that you should be okay singing along... Then do so.

Good luck!

I have the same problem. That's why I was only singer in one of the bands I was in. There are 2 solutions.

1) PRACTICE. You will never get good at anything unless you practice.

2) Find a song ( Pretty Fly (for a white guy), Enter Sandman, Wake me up when September Ends, you get the point) that either has an extreemely easy guitar part so you can just focus on singing, or a guitar part that just goes with the words (Iron Man, It's Not My Time, It goes on and on and on).

Good luck.

All you have to do is practice playing the song and learn that as well as you can. Then, when you are singing the song, forget the lyrics and hum it first. that can help you continue to play a song correctly when you decide to try singing the words. Try easy songs like Good Riddance by Green Day or something like that.

Take the song really really slow. Go slow enough so you can sing and play at the same time. If it takes you 20 minutes to sing the song, take that time. Keep practicing at that speed until you feel comfortable. Then slowly increase the pace until you get to the speed you want.

Good luck and happy singing!

You might try using a metronome to help you stay on beat. However, you might just need a lot of practice with your guitar until it becomes second nature to play, then add the vocal.

Learn to play the parts separately, then just start measure by measure even if you have a lot of trouble at first. People have the same problem trying to learn drums and piano.

The easiest way of getting into both is to pick an easy song with 3-4 chords. When that song becomes easy, try songs that require a little more difficulty.

try just playing the guitar first so you know exactly where the fingerings are and can play it in your sleep. then listen to the music you're playing on an ipod or something and sing along with the music while playing.