Singing drummers, any of you?

[spaceotter]

Hey Five--

I haven't really done vocals while I played--tried a couple times but don't have a great voice and have a good deal of trouble doing different rhythmic figures vocally than what I'm playing. It's not quite like independence with the limbs--more like getting two different, fairly separate parts of my brain to do different things in time. I remember covering "967-5309 Jenny" (or a version) in this band a while ago and trying to sing the off-beat section while I had to do a fill. It was impossible and gave me a headache trying.

Anybody got any technique for how to practice this? My teachers always said that you should learn how to have a normal conversation while playing, but my verbal mind is a hog for processing power and it's hard to run both those functions at once.

By the way, PP, love the singing shark playing the drums!! LOL

[five eight]

When I sing and play I divorce myself from the drums; and sing and play. Explaining it thusly makes it sound like the singing comes first. But it doesn't. I'll bite off a syallble before I drop a beat.

At least the singer always knows what the drummer's going to do. [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Drumdoc69]

I grew up singing but once i got into drumming, I put vocals on the back burner. Around the early 90's, I played with bands that required more & more backing vocals which I was able to do no problem. Over the years, I've found myself singing lead much more and it's actually turned out to be a great selling point as far as picking up extra gigs. Lot's of great players around but a lot of the really good ones don't sing at all (let alone while playing). I would encourage any working drummer to take vocal lessons because it really is like a 5th limb in some ways and vocals will definitely result in more gigs. I currently use an AKG headset which I've gotten great results from and when that one finally folds, I'm mooking at the Shure headset that our keyboard player uses (also a great sounding mic)
I'm so glad this forum is here. You guys inspire me so much. Y'all Rock!!!!

[five eight]

Drumdoc69 wrote:

I would encourage any working drummer to take vocal lessons because it really is like a 5th limb

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I don't know if there are a drummer 10 Commandments, but if there are, that's one of them. I agree wholeheartedly, doc, about the fifth limb.