I was recently asked about singing, strumming and fingerpicking all at the same time by someone who attended the festival I organize each year. She wrote, “I am having a terrible time with this issue of singing and playing and wondered if you can give me any direction…?”

As far as singing and playing together goes, I do have some practice advice that I often share with my students. Chords, Strumming/Fingerpicking, and Vocals are 3 different streams of information. Just like a pianist practices the left hand and the right hand separately before putting them together, for best results we should plan to practice these 3 streams separately before trying to bring them together.

1. Learn the song … not the chords, or how to play it … just listen to it. Or, if you read music, pluck out the melody. Once you feel you really know the song and can sing it confidently, you’re ready to start practicing your accompaniment.
2. Scan through the song you are practicing and look for any chord combinations that you’ve never seen before. Any two chords that you’ve never seen side by side before ought to be practiced as a chord pair; go gently back and forth between these chords until you feel absolutely comfortable with the transition. Repeat this process for all new chord combinations. This is practice that is best done watching a documentary you enjoy (something that keeps your conscious mind engaged, but doesn’t prove too distracting to keep you from going back and forth, back and forth).
3. Play through all the chords in order. This is not the time for any fancy strumming, just strum across each chord with a simple thumb strum. If there are any spots where you feel uncomfortable, go back to step 2 and practice those chord pairs.
4. Once you’re sure you’re comfortable with all the chord changes you can start singing and strumming the chords. Once again, this is not the time for any fancy strumming or fingerpicking, just get those chords in the right places with your voice. This is a good time to break out a metronome to keep you accurate and honest. Practice slowly at first, a tempo where you can get everything right. Then, slowly increase your speed until you get it to the tempo you want.
5. Fancy strums and fingerpicking techniques are icing on the cake. The cake will still be tasty without them. If you’re wanting frosting, it must be mixed separately and not baked with the cake. Strumming and fingerpicking should be practiced separately, without worrying about chords, melody or words. Again, this practice is best done with some kind of low-key television program running, because it is repetitive and dull and none of us really want to do it. We want to put it all together, now. Be patient. Practice the technique until you can do it and carry on a conversation at the same time. Go slow. Slow practice = fast progress.
6. Once you’re absolutely sure your strumming and fingerpicking techniques are committed to your muscle memory and occupy not one wit your conscious effort, it is now time to try and put all 3 streams together. Once again, go super slow and work for accuracy, not speed. 10-20 slow passes through a song will be worth HUNDREDS of fast passes filled with errors. Time is on your side … don’t be in a rush … let it seep in deep.
7. If you care to at this point, you can add decorations to your cake. These include things known as ‘intros’ ‘interludes’ ‘instrumentals’ and ‘fills’ where you can show off and add a professional touch. Honestly, I do not do this with the majority of my songs, because singing is my first love and I learned to play the uke to support my voice, not the other way around. But, some people, like James Hill, pull this off magnificently and are worth listening to for ideas.

If you’re interested in learning more about strumming, fingerpicking and soloing techniques, I put together a free website that covers a lot of material at http://powerup.ukuleleplay.com/ and if you’re looking to learn a bunch of cool songs with these principles applied, you can rehearse along with my group, The Happy Valley Ukes, from anywhere in the world by visiting our Patreon project at https://www.patreon.com/uke and pledging at the $4 a month level for full access to rehearsal videos and links to music.

Post filed under All UkulelePlay! Blog Posts, Ukulele Education, Ukulele Technique, Ukulele Tips.