I play guitar but I'm trying to develop the ability to sing at the same time. Thing is, I don't know exactly how you're supposed to focus when you're singing something at a different rythm(and melody, if it's plain singing). I mean, I either sing the lyrics like if it was the riff or I end up sounding like crap(either guitar-wise or I start to mumble unconsciencely).

How the hell is it done? Who here can sing and play fast stuff at the same time, and exactly what are you focusing on when you do it?

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Heres what i did, start out playing the song and talking the song instead of singing it. once you get talking down youll be able to scream/sing what ever you want. I just learned how to do it a few days ago for my band, it took about 3 hrs, it seems impossible at first but you quickly start getting better. To be honest i dont really know what i concentrate on, it just seems like my fingers do their own thing and my mouth does another, its hard to describe.

I was able to sing and play Master of Puppets after practicing for 30min, less than a year into my bass playing. Strangely, I can't do it with easier songs, but then again it's not so strange because that's the only song I practiced doing both things at once, which shows that the key to it is practice(much like you've been told for everything else).

I find that if i listen to the song enough and practise the vocals a lot, i can sing the song without really thinking about it, leaving myself to concentrate on the guitar

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What I usually do is play a song until I pretty much know it front and back, that way my hands cand memerize the patterns they need to move in, and i can sing while my hands do their thing. And as aforementioned it helps to be able to talk the song before singing it. Oh, and if you can do a long, continuos scream/growl/singing a syllable while playing a part it helps alot.

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How about reading books out loud while you play?

When I find a song I like I just keep listening to it a lot and than I practice singing it and than I play and sing it with my guitar. When you practice singing a song, you practice singing it with the guitar rhyme and you generally try to intonate your voice the same notes as the guitar. Do that while playing your guitar and you’ll get it. Children of Bodom songs are much more difficult than Cradle of Filth's songs. But it is easier for me to sing and play Children of Bodom songs than Cradle of Filth's because the singer in Children of Bodom only sings on the rhyme guitar parts and doesn't stretch his voice when going to different parts of a song. But for Cradle; it is hard for me when he screams and than switches to different guitar playing parts while still screaming. But with practice I was able to do it. I did it for the song “Funereal in Carpathia” which you can see in the official post your songs thread. The first song I ever tried singing and playing guitar was Every Time I Die but it sounded crap cuz I wasn't able to play the technical parts and sing at the same time. But if I didn't sing I would have been able to play the technical parts. With enough practice I was able to play "Kissing the Shadows" while singing it and playing the technical parts.

play only the easy parts first where you can sing along easily, then... progress into more difficultareas of the songs.

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