I need advice for a student who wants to sing. He's a minister who wants to be able to play guitar and sing for his youth group. He can play guitar well enough for that, that's not the problem. He wants to sing, but he doesn't hear that he's off, and when he's on, he'll drift way off on a longer note.
Do y'all have any advice on what I can do to help him?
I don't want to throw my hands up, and tell him he's tone-deaf...at least not yet.
can he sing without playing the guitar? if so he is just having a problem doing both. if not, he might just need to take some singing lesson. a lot of people laugh at them, but they totally help. i for one take choir at the college i go to cause it is free, we work alot on being in tune and how to sing properly. plus, when it makes singing in rock bands that much easier. other than that i don't really know what to tell you.
"don't worry, i'm a professional!"
No. It doesn't matter if he plays while he sings or not. He can't carry a tune in a bucket, and can't tell when he's off pitch.
What would Annie D. say????
If the guy can play a major scale (do-re-mi) on his guitar, then tell him to play it over & over again & sing along with it. This will train the ear.
Originally posted by 71818
If the guy can play a major scale (do-re-mi) on his guitar, then tell him to play it over & over again & sing along with it. This will train the ear.
I started him on that stuff today.
So how's the ear training going?
Well I posted after his lesson, and he doesn't have another until after the turkey day.
Sven, When he is singing its likely that his hearing is focused on the voice not the tune so he likely can't hear that he is off key. In fact to him his voice is OK.
There was a time when I thought I could sing, so what my friends did was record me and let me hear myself. While it was really embarassing to admit how bad I was at it, it at least allowed me to hear how far off key I was and how flat I was when I did fall on key. I had no idea because I could only feel the cadence of the bass line and hear my voice, eveything else in the tune disappeared to me. It was a real eye opener. I now only submit others to my background vocals.
Last edited by lyles; 11-24-2003 at 07:36 AM.
DAMMIT !!!! I left the house........
Originally posted by lyles
Sven, When he is singing its likely that his hearing is focused on the voice not the tune so he likely can't hear that he is off key. In fact to him his voice is OK.
Yeah, he can't tell he's off.
Does he have a monitor so he can hear himself?
If, at first you don't succeed, don't try skydiving.
Two leaps per chasm is fatal!
Well, he hasn't gotten that far. We've been here in the music room.....BUT, I guess Icould let him sing through the PA in here, so he can hear himself...
Annie D. would say: You either "got it" or you don't.
He don't.
I would suggest having him learn to "copy" others, ala recordings.
This might work. I doubt it. Have him use his "chest-voice" which is more like speaking than singing.
The fact that he can play guitar leads me to believe it isn't his "ear".
Shine your light.
It can still be his ear if he's a good chord/tab/notation reader.
Some good advice,
Teaching the scale is the first thing you do
and tape the lesson.
If he hears how he sounds on tape then maybe he can learn to ajust what he is singing.
Ear Training......It's your only hope
Ear-training is definitely the obvious answer.
I would suggest starting even simpler than melodies or scales.
I can still remember my audition for 4th grade choir. The music teacher/choir director sat at a piano and played single notes - one at a time - and asked me to sing them back to her. She was obviously trying to see if I could match pitch.
I'd start there. Play one note - ask him to match it. Don;t leave that note until he can consistently hit it on command. Then add more notes, one at a time, coming back to the original note often. PErhaps you can covertly work in a 'key' or major scale that incorporates that starting note as the root. Might subconciously get him to start hearing keys.
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