Singers

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Comment by Antonio Cotichini on March 18, 2012 at 1:49am

Mhmm... at this point I think I'll open a sub-group... "Forgetful singers"..

I can't advance the excuse of age (I'm 58) because a pale of mine, that is almost 60 yo, plays guitar and piano, sings with basso voice but has also falsetto... well, he remembers all the lyrics and chords of the Beatles' songs... and not just theirs... he's a sort of juke-box... name a song and he'll plays and sings it!.. Better to open a sub-sub-group... "Envious singers/guitarists"!..

Comment by Ken Brodie on March 18, 2012 at 12:28am

For years I've used cheat sheets. Sometimes there are so many songs and so little brain space. Hey fantastic professional orchestral players use scripts, why can't we li'l ole singer songwriters have a bandaid or two. 

Comment by Michael S. Jackson on March 17, 2012 at 2:17pm

I guess it's true for a lot of tools - it's better to have one and not need it than the other way around.

Comment by Jud Hair on March 17, 2012 at 10:15am

Antonio ... me too.  Nothing messes me up faster than going blank on a lyric.  Happened right out of the gate last Tuesday in front of 50 people.  A song I'd done dozens of times in public and the opening line just would not come to me.  I HATE when that happens!!  :-)  This week, when I played it, I made myself a little "cheat sheet" and liad it on the floor in front of me.  Found I didn't even need it once I had it in front of me.

Comment by Antonio Cotichini on March 17, 2012 at 8:36am

I can add that a lot of folks (me the first!) have problems to remember the lyrics of the songs. I must have my notebooks with lyrics and chords in front of me. This is not professional, I know, but... I'm not a professional, just a lover.

Comment by Jud Hair on March 15, 2012 at 12:12pm

Okay, all you aspiring open mic performers!  Here's a nice little simple video lesson by one of the better online teachers ... Justin Sandecoe ... with a 10 Step Method for learning how to sing and play at the same time.  You pros don't snicker.  A lot of folks have great deal of trouble with this!!

Comment by Michael S. Jackson on February 5, 2012 at 11:01am

All -

I thought I'd pass along an article on singing to pitch that I ran across this morning. Of all places, this comes from a banjo teacher's web site (the banjo community far exceeds the guitar folks in articles, instruction, helpfulness, etc.). Pete Wernick (aka, Dr. Banjo, a reference to his PhD) is a very successful player (Hot Rize, etc.) and teacher. He holds banjo camps and has written instruction books. His was the first banjo book I ever purchased (33 years ago). His teaching credentials are unparlelled.

Shoould you want to check this out, at his site: DrBanjo.com  you can see on the right hand side a box entitled, "Favorite Pages." Choose, "Learning to sing in tune."

This is written from a teacher's stand point (how to teach someone to sing) but it is as if he is teaching you. It might help. He also discusses "key" in his article and how a lot of us have always used the "last note" method to determine the key of a tune or song. Basically, you listen to the last note of a song and match that pitch on your instrument. That note is almost always the root note of the key of the tune (e.g., a song ending with a G note = key of G). Singers are not the only ones who need to know the key as an instrumentalist must determine that before he can reconstruct the chord progession of a tune.

There is also a book for sale, "Bluegrass Songbook," but I have not heard of it before. Maybe I'll buy it and review it for us...

Thanks, again, to all for passing along helpful information!

m

Comment by Michael S. Jackson on February 4, 2012 at 9:39am

Thanks, Andy.

Comment by Andy Getch on February 3, 2012 at 9:12pm

Hi Michael,

The books I bought on an online auction used, fairly cheap and unseen. They appear to be university texts and are:

"Adventures In Singing: A Process for Exploring, Discovering and Developing Vocal Potential" 2nd edition, by Clifton Ware of the University of Minnesota, 1995, 1998 McGraw-Hill.

This one is written for beginning voice students. I started on this one and it has some lessons that were very helpful to me.

"Practical Ear Training", 2nd edition, by Janet McCloud McCaughey, University of Texas, Allyn and Bacon 1961, 1966

  I have not started this one yet. 

Comment by Michael S. Jackson on February 3, 2012 at 9:46am

Thanks, Andy. I'm curious about the courses and books you mentioned. What are they and where can we find them?

I have the course Perfect Pitch and have been stuck on one of the lessons for almost two years (can't seem to do it).

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