Hi everybody!

So I've been playing since christmas and been making decent progress with the Fundamental Keys book which I found because of this forum.

Although it's a great course I kind of want to try my hand at singing while playing, so I decided to start with 9 Crimes by Damien Rice (click)

As you can hear the piano part is pretty simple - however I'm having trouble syncing my singing to the rhythm of the melody because the singing seems to start on the second count.
I tried playing really slowly but this makes it even more confusing

I'd be really glad if you guys could give me some advice on what to do to solve this problem

(sorry english is not my first language)

One of my favorite Rice songs. I can't sing a lick, but great choice on the music...

You have a good ear -- the singing starts on the second note in a 4-note "broken chord" (arpeggio).

Two suggestions:

1. Use a metronome that goes "ting tick tick tick" to steady your piano playing. Start singing on the "tick".

2. Record the piano part, and learn to sing along with the recording. That will "teach" your brain when to start singing, within the piano part. When you can do that, try to play and sing at the same time.

Singing and playing, at the same time, is not easy. It is very difficult to sing and play _together_, until you have mastered the playing, and singing, _separately_. When you can play the piano part without thinking, you will have some brain-power to concentrate on the singing.

You must develop a "feel" for the rhythm, and that takes time and experience.

. Charles

You sir, have great taste.
I'm an awful singer as well, but that shouldn't stop you


Thank you! That is great advice. I'll start out with recording the piano part with a metronome and try to sing to that.

Thank you!