How many of you guys sing and play????

Once again, we are looking for a singer.
Just when I thought I could go back to only playing my guitar.

How many of you guys sing and play?

I play in a 3 piece.
We have drums, keyboard/bass, and me on guitar/vocals.

I can't seem to get the whole playing and singing thing down very well.

Anybody have any tips?
I keep missing footswitch cues, the mic just bothers me sometimes because I can't get to my pedals, and I just don't seem to be able to play as well when I'm concentrating on other things.

Seems like the stand is always in the way.
I've been using an Atlas tripod style boom stand. Maybe I should go to the heavy base plate style of stand?

Lots of practice. It's hard work but if you put the time in you can learn how to do both well at the same time.
I'm living proof.

What kind of mic stand are you using?

Monsta-Tone said:

What kind of mic stand are you using?

Click to expand...

Standard tripod with a 3' boom.

ryjan said:

Monsta-Tone said:

What kind of mic stand are you using?

Click to expand...

Standard tripod with a 3' boom.

Click to expand...

+1

An inexpensive tripod works fine, but if you use a heavy mic, you may need more counter-balance on the backend of the boom. An SM57/58 works fine for me but the old EV457 is on the ragged edge of tipping over. I sometimes face-plant the mic leaning into the pedal board for a little wah action. :shock: Stuff happens. :wink:

I use a round bottom stand..with a 18" gooseneck...nice..put the base in front of board and adjust the gooseneck in a nice arch. The great thing about this setup is that you can adjust it by just grabbing it and tweeking it. I always have one of my feet touching the board, So i know where I am in relation to the FX. hope that helps.

Present

ryjan said:

Lots of practice. It's hard work but if you put the time in you can learn how to do both well at the same time.
I'm living proof.

Click to expand...

What he said. As far as vocal/playing goes, just learn the pieces by themselves, then slam them together. Slowly and painfully. You'll begin to see where the vocals and riff goes together when counting and create a few "reference points", at least that's what works for me.

As for the switching... I use a normal tripod boom stand like this and I place any footswitch I have between two legs, like this

[FS]>-

this makes the footswitch and mic accessible. Same thing as with vocals/playing goes for switching - time your switches on the beat, which is especially easy if you're "foot counter" like me.

Watch me and how I do it...give yourself cues and move around.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYzJ7sdfFKs



Just see yourself doing it and you will do it. The more you think about it the more you'll f**k up.

Right on, thanks guys!
I think with me, the problem is we are a 3 piece semi-Progressive band with lots of changes and tonal changes in each song.
So...if I drop the ball, or miss a cue, it makes a huge difference.

I'll keep trying. I've been thinking of using a heavy base stand with a boom or maybe the flex one like boogieman60.

It was difficult for me for me for the first couple months playing guitar but I learned by working on foo fighters covers. Playing covers gave me the sense of how/where to play what parts along with vocals. We just lost our lead guitarist and are back to a three-piece so now I play both rhythm and lead while working vocals. I use a tripod stand with two feet against my pedal board. It works for me because then I can have the stand oriented more vertically and worry less about mic balancing.

Thanks for all of the advice guys!
Last week, I focused on the ergonomics of the whole thing.
I moved stuff around until it made sense and was easy to reach every thing. This made things a lot easier.

I still have to get the timing down though. We play stuff with a lot of changes, both in sounds & styles, so it's a bit difficult.
Guess that's why Frank Zappa did so much talking and Ray White did most of the singing....... :lol: