Don't Slow Down when You Sing

Steve Burnside first pointed out to me that folks slow down when they sing.

I suspect the root cause is thinking. Part of your brain is trying to make your arms move and keep time, while another part of your brain is trying to remember some words.  Like getting your thumb to keep a beat while your fingers pick out a melody, when you play ragtime guitar, having your brain do two things at once is a learned skill.

If you're convinced this can't be hard, wait until you're playing a tune in a jam and try to hold a conversation with someone who isn't playing.  (In a jam is important, because you'll have to keep up.)  If it presents no problem, then you're right -- it's not hard for you.

I've danced to Sandy Bradley, who was backing up Laurie Andres, and playing guitar while calling.

If it's a learned skill, you should be able to learn it.  I can now, for example, walk while I chew gum.

How?

Alcoholics say the first step is admitting you have a problem.  True here, too.  When you're belting out lyrics to Charlie Poole tunes, keep up the rhythm.

If you're playing a melody instrument, don't bother to try to play the melody at the same time. You're not John Hartford yet.

Some fiddlers will drop their fiddles to their chests and shuffle along.  I'll often use my mando as a percussion instrument, and play the universal chord.  You can go back and play notes between verses.

Once you're used to singing tunes you know, graduate to ones you don't.  Make up verses.  Some tunes are built for this.  Goin' Upstairs has an A part that sounds like This Old Man.  After you sing, the first verse,

This old man, he played one,
He played knick-knack on my thumb.

you can spend the chorus thinking about what you want him to have played knick-knack on that rhymes with "two."  And it doesn't, let's face it, have to rhyme all that well.  Think "one ... thumb."

The important part, here, is the "thinking about."  When your cerebral cortex is furiously thinking about what in the world you can rhyme with "thirteen," your right hand has to keep going, unchecked.  At first, it ain't easy.  When you think you can do it in a jam, try doing it in a duet.  Ask one friend over to drink beer and play, and take on the job of rhythm instrument and singer.  Don't slow down.

Another fine tune for this is I Had a Dog

I had a dog and his name was Rover,
When he died, he died all over.
I had a dog, his name was Bowser,
When he died it was a wowser.

and so on.