Quote:
Originally Posted by ljguitar
Hi Doug
Did we just learn something I've never dreamed of…YOU SINGING??? (just ribbing you a little)
Singing is certainly a way of feeling phrasing if-one-sings-the-phrasing-correctly.
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I doubt you'll catch me singing (tho I used to..). But you don't have to sing well, or even recognizably :-). Listen to some of the solo jazz guitarists (or pianists) and you'll often hear them "singing" along with their improvisations. George Benson turned it into a feature by actually singing well, and making it part of the performance. But most of them sound like they're grunting in pain or gasping for breath. But in their head, they're hearing the melody and making it come out both on the guitar and vocally. I once took a workshop with Herb Ellis and he talked about this and demonstrated it, and it was quite hysterical how bad the vocalization was. But the guitar sounded great, and his lines had a vocal phrasing quality. In his head, he was singing the same thing he was playing. The trick is to be able to internalize the line. It's the advice you often hear - "if you can't hear it, you can't play it". The "proof" that you can hear it is to sing it, no matter how badly. I imagine being able to sing it well might be better, but as long as in your head you are really hearing the line, that should help. It can't be "first I put my finger here, then I put my finger there" if you want it to sound musical.
And of course, if you're not playing a single lead line, but instead a polyphonic fingerstyle piece, then really singing it isn't possible. But you can "sing" the melody and mentally hear all the parts.