Singing – What You May Learn as a Guitarist!

Learning to Sing – How it’s Helped Me & Can Help You, too!

Hey everyone! Hope all is well and best wishes!

I’m in the progress of re-editing some older blog posts and articles and lessons here on Guitar Kitchen, and I came across some of blog posts from over 10 years ago where I was writing about how I was learning to sing (mostly in hopes of becoming a better musician.

My Learning Experiences with Singing

First Blog Post about Singing

I came across this blog post from 2009 about wanting to learn to sing:

For folks that already play an instrument and want to sing:

Sometimes I really wish I could sing! I know I don’t have the greatest voice but there’s something really nice about playing a song and singing along to the chords. Or being able to sing the song you wrote. I’m not saying to have the most amazing voice but to be able to sing in decent pitch and convey the feeling of the song. I suppose that’s easier said than done.

Original Singing Goals from 2010

I also came across another article from 2010 about a singing course. (I need to figure out how to show the date of the original article, not the latest update which says 2018)

Here were some of my goals/dreams:

1. To sing and play guitar in a variety of styles including rock, blues, jazz, reggae, samba, flamenco (!?), salsa, folk and r&b.

2. Make my own album where I play all instruments and sing.

3. If I learn to sing, I may be able to help others learn to sing (I revised this goal, but not as a vocal coach, but just general encouragement)

4. I believe singing improves one’s overall musicality, and singing and drums make up the foundation of almost all music.

I still agree with what I wrote in 2010, especially this:

And, as a side note, I’ve been practicing drumming (a little more seriously than I used) since around 2010, too. Basically all my goals for singing apply to drumming as well.

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Find a Teacher!

Here’s my journey up to now.

I am very glad that I have kept going (I definitely really felt sad and bad about my singing and wanted quit a lot times) and pursued learning to sing.

I feel like I learned to play guitar pretty quickly (at least I felt I was learning fast, though I am still learning a lot). But with voice, my progress has seemed very slow.

The main things that helped me become a better singer (still very much a beginner):

Find a very great (and supportive) teacher and consistent practice have helped me greatly!

12 Ways/Reasons To Learn to Sing (for Guitarists)

1. Finding a very great (and supportive) teacher (I haven’t asked if they would like to be mentioned, but thank you very, very much)
2. Practicing a little bit every day
3. Not quitting
4. Being patient and looking at the long term
5. Seeing a friend really progress from complete beginner to an accomplishment singer
6. Seeing all the videos of people who started from scratch and made progress.
7. Realizing that even great and/or famous singers have vocal coaches, so if I was a beginner, then I surely must need one
8. Meeting a guy who learned to sing from an online course, and was already playing gigs – I thought if he could do it as a hobby, then I (as a “serious”, “gigging” musician should be able to)
9. Realizing that so many great guitarist and musicians could also sing. Were they great because they could sing, or could they sing because they were great? In the end, I figured it didn’t matter, and I wouldn’t know unless I tried (and I would at least learn something in the process)
10. A great guitar friend who showed me how practiced singing different intervals from the major scale on his guitar. I tried doing this off and on and I saw that could actually do this with varying degrees of success.
11. George Benson 🙂 Besides Wes and John McLaughlin and Django and Joe Pass, he’s probably one of my favorite jazz guitarists, and he could sing while he played guitar. Kind of like Jimi Hendrix. Awesome!
12. Realizing that I couldn’t practice guitar in the car, but I could practice singing. Since I was driving to gigs (very grateful for the gigs), I could practice while driving. It meant I was technically “practicing” maybe almost an hour extra most days.

Yes, there are great singers like Ella Fitgerald and Justin Bieber who learned to sing at an international level probably mostly on their own by the time they were 20, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t learn to best of my ability!

Seeing/hearing some great musician friend sing, plus hearing some great instrumentalists also be able sing decently were great motivators to learn to sing.

And, it seemed like to become a better musician, I would need at some point to become a better singer.

A lot of the greatest musicians also could sing, so it seemed only logical to become a better musician I would need to learn.

Learning to Sing Helps you Learn Songs and Transcribe Better

Another big reason I have always wanted to learn – to be able to learn solos and songs quicker and better.

Some great jazz musicians say the best way to learn solos (transcribing solos) requires being able to sing the solo before playing it on your instrument.

I’ve learned some cool jazz solos but super slowly – my ear has always been underdeveloped compare to my technique – and it had become a serious blocking point to learning music better, especially bebop.

I figured that I could learn transcribing better by learning to sing better. (This is still a work in progress)

I’ve been trying to transcribe (off and on) the head to Confirmation by Charlie Parker for a while. I have transcribed it, but at a super slow speed, and then I’ll forget a few weeks later.

For me, learning John Coltrane’s solo on Giant Steps and the head and solo to Confirmation (hopefully one day somewhat soon 🙂 will be my own personal “proof” that learning singing and solfeggio have actually been improving my musical ear.

But truthfully even if I never learn Coltrane’s Giant Steps solo by ear, I am very happy that I have learned to sing!

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Can You Learn to Sing – Yes, Anyone Learn to Sing!

I believe so! It may take some time – but if you love music and are willing to have some patience it’s worth it!

I think learning to sing is a great skill for all musicians, and I am very grateful for the progress I’ve made. I wish I had taken some videos of my progress, but maybe I can find some audio clips from over the years.

Singing Transformations

Like I said before, I wish I had made some videos about learning to sing, but here’s some people with amazing results:

YouTube Singing Tips

Obviously, there’s tons of things to learn. One of my favorite vocal videos from YouTube (from around 2010) is this clip from Aussie Vocal Coach where he shows you how to a warmup. I must have done this warmup 100s of times.

There’s tons of clips out there.

I haven’t checked out all of the videos in this playlist, but it probably is worth checking out.

Practice Make Progress!

Where I am At

After many years of learning to sing – I can say that I am sounding pretty decent – and on a fairly consistent basis am singing in decent tune.

I also just am learning to support my voice. I am a baritone. I would say my range is “kind of” ~ Db 2 octaves below middle C up to about middle C.

I am also studying violin and viola (and maybe dreaming of playing cello, too), which I think has recently helped with intonation, too.

• Learning Multiple Instruments for Enjoyment and Musicality

Best Wishes!

If you’re interested in improving your musicality, I think learning melody, harmony and rhythm are some of the main things to focus on.

I’ve working on these musical building blocks on guitar. But I’ve also focused on the specifically (it’s sort of an experiment) by:

1. Melody – learning to sing
2. Harmony – learning piano
3. Rhythm – learning drums

Best wishes everyone! Take care and peace and love!

If you have an questions, ideas and/or comments, please comment below or feel free to contact me!

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