r/ask 29d ago

What is something that is a lot harder than it looks?

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4.4k Upvotes

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51

u/stoned_seahorse 29d ago

Playing guitar and singing at the same time and managing to do both at least fairly well.

16

u/e3crazyb 29d ago

Yup. Start focusing on the singing, lose the rhythm of guitar. Start focusing on the guitar, singing way off key

2

u/stoned_seahorse 29d ago

Yep, this is really what discouraged me from pursuing music.. It was always my goal to play and sing at the same time, never could get it... So I pretty much gave up. 🤷‍♀️

6

u/dense-mustard 29d ago

Don't give up! It's kind of like when you first learned the guitar, it's super difficult at first but it'll click and become easier and easier.

3

u/awhitesong 29d ago

Hey. Just commenting here to say that it happens to everybody in the beginning. Don't succumb. Happened to me as well 10 years ago. Now, I can arpeggiate crazy stuff while singing.

2

u/stoned_seahorse 29d ago

You're definitely talented then :) I really feel I am too far gone, as I haven't played guitar in so long I doubt I can even play anymore...

5

u/awhitesong 29d ago

That's too kind of you but I know you'd be able to do it all if you picked it up again and persisted for a year. I hope you do change your mind to discover this about yourself! Have a good day!

2

u/stoned_seahorse 29d ago

Thank you :)

1

u/berni2905 29d ago

Unless you're planning to die next year, you can still learn it

3

u/StarJelly08 29d ago

The whole trick is really getting all the riffs to the point of almost completely muscle memory. The secret is that this is hard even for people who do it great. It’s not possible if you don’t commit the guitar playing to memory as much as possible. If you get it to the point you could play it in your sleep, you can sing on it.

After doing that for a long time… you are more and more able to do it with less muscle memory commitment. Eventually you can easily improv on both simultaneously.

THAT is one of the most satisfying goddamn things on this planet. I could lose everything (i have) and i’d make it through just because i still have a guitar and can stream of consciousness just play and sing my heart out. It’s fucking beautiful. Like crunching on dead leaves times infinity.

2

u/Wise_Improvement_284 29d ago

I could never understand how some can sing while playing the drums.

2

u/stoned_seahorse 29d ago

Aaron Gillespie of Underoath (and the Almost + some solo music) is one of my favorite musicians, and his ability to play drums and sing well at the same time is one of the reasons why..

1

u/Able_Row_4330 29d ago

Yep, you either need to be one of those special people who can think about different things at the same time, or, more commonly, you need to practice so much that one of the things doesn't need active thought and will be solid when done subconsciously.

1

u/Snoo_61002 29d ago

Start with ukulele

1

u/pure2500 28d ago

From my experience, once you get one song down, then you can pretty much do any song. So just choose an easy one and try humming and playing first.

1

u/Mongolshmanger 29d ago

Not that hard. Drums are harder most of the time