How to Sing And Play an Instrument - Vocal Tutorial

Hey this is Mike Ferfolia. This is Metalworks Institute Vocal Tips. Today we're talking about the importance of playing an instrument. Now we know a lot of singers, a lot of touring singers, and a lot of gigging singers play as well as sing. And it's pretty important for them as far as their income stream that they continue to do this. And it's a well known fact now that a really great guitar player might not actually get the gig over a passable guitar player or a functional guitar player who can actually sing background vocals. And nowhere is that more apparent I think than in touring acts. So I think it's pretty important for my students or for any singers in general, to be able to play a rhythm section instrument functionally in a rhythm section. Playing and singing, obviously the goal here. It's going to make you a lot more money in the long run, and as working musicians, we sort of have to diversify ourselves. So you could find yourself as a singer on a guitar gig, or a drum gig, or a piano gig. As well, I always find that when singers practice, when they're starting out, typically they practice in the open air, which sort of is now practicing singing out of pitch. If you don't have a pitch reference, you could be practicing singing a flat or a sharp. And that's a problem I had I know especially when I was starting to sing, I was singing Boyz II Men songs all the time, and I was singing it in the air, and I was practicing singing flats. So the first time I got in the studio, it was a matter or "okay, now you're this far out, you're this far out here and this and that". And it was because I didn't have a definite pitch. Now as a bass player, I sort of have the roots of things in my head as well as now sort of vibrating through me when I'm singing, so I can feel a really good relative sense of where the pitch is, and not to mention it's a great way for me to sort of diversify my relationship with music whereas now I can play and sing, or just play in the context of maybe like a power trio or something of that sort. And it's really important. If you're practicing at any time you should have a pitch reference. And if that's on your instrument or on an instrument that you're working in, all the better. Once again, this is Mike Ferfolia for Metalworks Institute Vocal Tips. Thanks a lot.