Guitar & Vocal training

Lots of playing while singing. Start with songs with simple chording. practice, practice, practice. you can sing the scale notes while playing scales on guitar should help you get in range, if you can hear if you are in pitch or not.
 
Learn the vocal part down pat, no reading lyrics. Then learn the guitar part down pat. Then slowly bring in the vocals. Personally if I have to think about either I mess up.
 
a friend that was really good at playing drums and singing told me to practice talking while playing, then when you master that start adding singing to the playing - of course nothing replaces practice, practice, practice
 
Lots of playing while singing. Start with songs with simple chording. practice, practice, practice. you can sing the scale notes while playing scales on guitar should help you get in range, if you can hear if you are in pitch or not.
I like that scale idea, luckily I have the ear for this exercise too.

a friend that was really good at playing drums and singing told me to practice talking while playing, then when you master that start adding singing to the playing - of course nothing replaces practice, practice, practice
Hmm, never thought of that, and yes I agree.
 
I know it comes naturally to some people. I think I'm somewhere in between. If its a busy guitar line I literally take it one bar at a time. This can take hours, days or even weeks but after I get thur a few bars I get into the flow. Obviously you have to know the guitar part and the vocal line but then I just listen to the song. I don't pay attention to the guitar or the vocals, I just try to hear the song and sooner or later it comes together.
 
If you’ve ever played drums before, the same independence you use to play those is the same that goes into playing and singing at the same time. Back in the early 00’s I was in a prog-metal band and the singer quit before we had some gigs so I had to school myself on how to play that stuff while singing, it was a learning experience for sure.

Whenever I got stuck, I would slow the section down in my head, figure out what part you’re doing first, hitting a chord/note on the guitar and then singing or vice versa, I’d have to play it in my head before I could physically do it, then slowly go through the motions and build up to actually performing it. After a while autopilot will kick in and you can focus on one part or the other a little better. A lot of times I’ll mute the strings with my right hand and just practice singing over muted strums, it takes one variable out if you’re concerning yourself with chord changes. Your fingering hand can generally do the autopilot thing on it’s own once you’re strumming/picking hand and voice are doing it’s thing.

The initial phrase is generally the hardest part, once you can get it started the rest tends to come out a little easier.
 
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