Using Two Instruments

Vocally making music is wonderful; we all have a built in instrument! When you put that together with another instrument though, it can be tough. I play guitar and piano along with singing, and I find that it is much different playing by myself than singing in a chorus. In chorus, we sing with a very classical tone. The pitches we sing are very straight forward, because we sing exactly what the music tells us to. Also, because we arn't accompanying ourselves, all we need to focus on is what we are doing vocally. When I am home alone singing, I can put my own twist on songs and change them up a bit with different styles. Thats not hard at all, but when I mix that with an instrument, thats when it gets somewhat difficult. Not only am I multi-tasking, but the rhythms I am playing and the rythms I am singing are different most of the time. For me, rhythm is one of the hardest factors in music. On some occasions, playing an instrument while singing is actually quite helpful. One reason is because the notes I am playing could harmonize with the notes I am singing, and put me on the right track. Also, sometimes the rhythems flow together and it makes the song less challenging for me. Overall, I believe accompanying myself makes me a better musician. Singing in a chorus has also improved my skills 100%, because I have learned to sing against other parts, and read music. Music is a whole other language, and being able to read it is crucial.

Over the many years that I've played the piano and sang, I've always wished that I had a natural knack for doing both at the same time. The fact is, I don't. I think that the reason is because I really need to focus on one or the other. When I play the piano, I find it impossible to memorize even the simplest songs. I'm a reader by nature, so I always have to be actively reading the music that's in front of me. Similarly, when I'm singing, I have a tendency to sing out of key if I'm not really, really concentrating on keeping my voice a bit higher than it wants to go naturally. This takes a lot of concentration, but it really helps me to not go flat. I've found that I can't play and sing well at the same time. However, this year, I've gotten a little bit better at it. I was able to find two songs that I could accompany myself on to send as a musical assessment to colleges. I think the reason that I've gotten better at this is because I've been taking Theory. It really helps me understand the timeline of chords in a song, making it less important for me to concentrate on reading the music because I just understand it more on my own.