Which came first, your musical instrument, or your singing

[DianeA]

For me it was the instrument...beginning piano lessons in high school, then my wonderful guitar in college. Forty years later it was the weekly sing along at my Mother's retirement home, and a great bluegrass jam that lead me to study singing & to take warm-up drills more seriously.
I love singing with others, always harmony. To me the harmony line is how the song is supposed to go. Don't ask me to lead a song in which I usually harmonize, because that's probably what will come out!! That can be really embarrassing.

[rockabilly69]

I learned to sing while learning guitar, as it helped me keep place in the songs that I was learning, but it wasn't until many years later that I stepped up to be a lead singer, and started working more seriously on my voice. Now I get hired more for my voice than I do for guitar so the work paid off!

[Silly Moustache]

As the time that I was pretty happy as a heavy blues band drummer, a dark eyed beauty promised me lascivious delights if I would drive her to a the Cambridge Folk Festival (from south west London) to see a singer-songwriter called Tom Rush. It was about a month after I'd passed my driving test - 1966.

When I saw this guy on a dais in the open with an Epiphone Texan and a single mic, captivating a large audience of young hippies, I though - "I want to do that".

I wanted to sing, and to sing I had to learn to play guitar.

I kept playing drums into the early '70s but I was also (kind of) playing guitar in a trio from about '68.

[Bob Womack]

I was in all-city choir before I touched a guitar. Then my voice changed and I became a baritone. Do you have any idea how little market there was for baris in 70s rock? I mean, I can do Ronnie Van Zant.

Bob

[rmp]

instrument

it took a long time for me to figure out I had some kind of a voice once I learned how to use it.

[JonPR]

Instrument first, for me. That was 58 years ago. Still waitng for singing to arrive.

Seriously, over the last few decades, I have developed a rather basic level of vocalising - I hesitate to dignify it as "singing". But before I ever picked up a guitar it was made very clear to me at school (aged 11 or 12) that I was a "non-singer". They were quite right, I simply had no idea what "singing" involved. It was only after starting to teach myself guitar that I found I could hum a note and - after some trial and error - match it on the guitar; and vice versa.
Even now I can sing (nearly) in tune, I don't like the sound of my voice on recordings. Even after getting it in tune with software, I don't like it.

[mawmow]

I never sing, so…

[raysachs]

Instrument for sure. I started playing in 1977 and was the absolute worst singer on the planet until the last few years when I started singing a lot and started getting better. I’ll never be much of a singer, but at least now I can do it without gagging on the sound of my own voice. I now do it well enough that I enjoy it, which is a massive improvement, but that’s a relatively recent phenomena…

-Ray

[zuzu]

I started on guitar for a couple of months, joined my first band, went immediately to bass. Played bass for a few months and my musical mentor (yes, that guy again) insisted I could play bass and sing, and stayed on me until I started doing it. I found I enjoyed it a lot but to this day I have to pick my tunes...I still struggle to play bass lines that are off beat of the vocal lines...well, struggle to play them precisely anyway. The in-and-out is the only banjo roll I can play with precision and sing at the same time.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by DianeA

For me it was the instrument...beginning piano lessons in high school, then my wonderful guitar in college. Forty years later it was the weekly sing along at my Mother's retirement home, and a great bluegrass jam that lead me to study singing & to take warm-up drills more seriously.
I love singing with others, always harmony. To me the harmony line is how the song is supposed to go. Don't ask me to lead a song in which I usually harmonize, because that's probably what will come out!! That can be really embarrassing.

Hi Diane…
I was a singer, but nobody wanted (or knew how) to accompany me in Jr High/High school, so I learned Guitar to have permanent accompanying power.

I've been playing and singing now for 65 years, and my guitar is still my main accompaniment.

On our Worship Team at church (my weekly gig for about 45 weeks a year), I play and sing harmony unless leading worship for a Sunday, then I sing lead when it's appropriate or harmony when the song fits another singer's range better (for the sake of the congregation being able to sing).

[RRuskin]

Singing came 1st for me.

[KevWind]

Started singing about age 5-6 started playing guitar in 1964 @ age 14 ----

[FrankHudson]

I took up guitar to compose music. I didn't perform what I wrote or played for a few years. Of course, I had sung before (everyone has) but the TL : DNR summary for me is that learning to play the instrument enough so I could compose on the instrument was my initial goal.

If I had known someone who could really sing around then, and who wouldn't mind hearing the songs played by a beginning guitar player during that time, I would likely have stayed out the self-embarrassing singing role in public. And when I did start performing, I played with a keyboard player who was a better singer and for a while later with a bass player who was a very good singer. I took a few turns at the mic, but I still was pretty bad.

As things developed over time, I spent around a decade at the turn of the century concentrating on music without words. Problem solved?

No, I've always been fascinated by words, as much as I am about music. In 2016 I launched my Parlando Project where I perform (mostly other people's, mostly literary poetry) words with original music. As the name implied, I started mostly talk-singing, or chanting, or just speaking the words, but over the years I've risked singing the words a bit more. Kind of like Ray upthread, I'm worked my way up to being a mediocre singer on a good day.

[DianeA]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi Diane…
I was a singer, but nobody wanted (or knew how) to accompany me in Jr High/High school, so I learned Guitar to have permanent accompanying power.

I've been playing and singing now for 65 years, and my guitar is still my main accompaniment.

On our Worship Team at church (my weekly gig for about 45 weeks a year), I play and sing harmony unless leading worship for a Sunday, then I sing lead when it's appropriate or harmony when the song fits another singer's range better (for the sake of the congregation being able to sing).

Yes, most of the people I jam with sing in a key that I can't reach, so the harmony is very easy.

[tbirdman]

I picked up the guitar in April 2020. Shortly that when I was playing with a guy with a keyboard when he said he couldn't sing, but I could sing in tune. So I started to sing.

Then I took guitar and singing lessons. I stopped the singing after 5 lessons as I was frustrated as I couldn't understand simple things like what is a key, octave, interval etc. I started singing lessons a again a year later as I had learned some music theory.

My teacher last week said I have made great progress in the 3 years with her, although she said I still have a ways to go. I was having a pity party as I was having trouble singing intervals. She told me as a freshman in college, she was like me with no ability to sing the intervals. However she worked hard to become a accomplished singer.

I've been on my music journey for 3 years at the age of 67. It now includes the piano which I don't sing with yet. As a footnote I was told by a few girlfriends/wife I couldn't sing. That held me back from pursuing music for 64 years.