The Gretsch Pages: Discussions: Miscellaneous Rumbles:

Now, I know we are are Guitarist.

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- Rated: 5 ↑
May 9, 2008 4:58 p.m. HillbillyWolf:

I Like to do the whole Clarence Frogman Henry thing on Ain't got no Home.

actually, i like to sing the weirdest shit i can find in my range.
- Rated: 20 ↑
May 9, 2008 6:31 p.m. Parabar:

I've been good at vocal arranging and harmony parts since I started playing in bands in junior high school. In later bands I enjoyed singing my own tunes (a few per night) but never considered myself a "lead singer" per se --- the instrumental parts were always more interesting to me. In the last few years though, something happened --- I've gotten a LOT better and more comfortable with "fronting," and have gotten a lot of compliments from both audiences and fellow musicians. My voice seems to do more of what I want it to more consistently also. In one recent band I sang about half the lead vocals, and found it very enjoyable.

I'm still very picky, though --- I can't sing lyrics I don't feel or relate to personally (no matter how much I like them), so aside from my own compositions, I tend to pick more topical, philosophical, or spiritually themed songs --- or down-and-dirty blues. Can't sing love songs much, nor inane dumb lyrics of any sort. Scat --- you betcha! And I won't sing songs intended to be sung by 22 year olds, either. As Cedric the Entertainer says, I'm a "grown-ass man" of some years now, and if I'm gonna sing anything, it's gotta be something I can sing like I MEAN it. Mose Allison --- yes! John Mayer --- not so much.
- Rated: 25 ↑
May 9, 2008 8:31 p.m. crowbone:

I sing, not because I'm a terribly good singer, but because there are so many more terribly good guitar players out there.

So why am I here?

I Loves them Gretsches!
- Rated: 26 ↑
May 10, 2008 1:16 a.m. jetbunny:

I boiught the Gretsch so people have a better time looking at it than listen to me singing.
- Rated: 52 ↑
May 10, 2008 12:18 p.m. Walter Broes:

I'm the singer in my band, and have been for the last fourteen years. I enjoy it more than I used to, and have been getting a little better at it.
- Rated: 10 ↑
May 10, 2008 12:55 p.m. MarkW:

There were so many bands in the 60's and 70's that sounded great on a (thanks to some good studio work) record, but when you heard them live, they weren't that good at singing.

Harmonies cover up so many mistakes. The sum of many is greater than the whole. I sang lead on quasi baritone kind of stuff but traded off with other band members when ever I could. If you know your limitations, you can make it work. I would tend to wander off key when I tried to project, so I learned to turn up the mics or PA and keep it low and in tune. But hey I wouldn't last 2 minutes on American Idol.

Plus one of my big motivations for playing in the band centered around the aggregation of lovely young ladies that seemed to be attracted to young men picking on strings attached to sticks of wood. The last thing I wanted to do was to scare them off with an unwordly worble. I guess we all had/have our motivation.

Heck now I can sing all I want and my wife just goes in the other room. He He.
- Rated: 24 ↑
May 10, 2008 2:01 p.m. cyclopssam:

i would have been perfectly happy just playing guitar,but finding a front man/womanjust wasn't happening,so...85% of vocal training is learning how to breath everything else is covered by repetition,except writing. you own as you can tell by past post ii'm a lousy lyricst,"red said bed ted",HA,HA!-
- Rated: 16 ↑
May 10, 2008 2:48 p.m. CnW:

I have pretty much of a straight baritone voice but got drafted to sing bass in our group and haven't gotten out of it yet. My singing is nothing special. I get stuck singing lead sometimes on stuff that's pitched too high for me (because that's the key the others can get their part in). That's when I'm painfully aware of how limited my vocal abilites are. The best thing to do is stay within yourself, no matter how small a package that may be. When I was younger, I sang rock and roll songs in the keys they were written in---and sounded like a dog with his tail caught in the garden gate. I do much better singing Johnny Cash songs. (We do "Daddy Sang Bass" and "He'll Be There.")

I had to drasticly simplify my playing when I started singing. Leaping around on the fretboard is not safe if you constantly need to look down to see where you're going. I learned that the first night. At least I didn't crack a tooth.....I'm better at it now, just because I keep taking chances. I'm definitely a guitar player first and pay more attention to my playing than I probably should.

Also, like Proteus said, breath control is tougher when you're pounding out a song on a guitar that's sitting on your diaphragm. This has become more of an issue now that my diaphragm sticks out more than it did when I wore w29 pants! It's exaggerated by having to get right up on the mic to "squeeze out" notes at the bottom of my range.

I flatly refuse to record my stuff live. Putting on the vocal later is the only way I'll have an acceptable take.
- Rated: 23 ↑
May 10, 2008 3:16 p.m. Danman:

I always wanted to be the singer and guitar player in my bands. I write my own songs so I should be but I really really suck at it. I have done some singing in the past but it just is better not..... One of the frustrations of my life. I actually wrote a verse in one of my songs (the song is about a song) saying:
He never would sing it but that he already new,
all the other songs he had written were sung by others too.

I actually recently decided to not sing background vocals either anymore (which I always still did) and I really enjoy the freedom and the fact that I just have to concentrate on one thing, the guitarplaying, which is hard enough.
- Rated: 20 ↑
May 10, 2008 6:54 p.m. senojnad:

All of us seem to agree -- it is so hard to sing and play guitar at the same time, to say nothing of composing the music and writing the lyrics.... It makes me think of how INCREDIBLY talented Buddy Holly was...