Piano Man - trying to maintain my breathing & legato while playing piano & harmonica...

schmalex

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znGx3F6r8xU
It feels really hard to sing while seated and playing piano and still maintain my breathing & legato. The harmonica makes it a little bit harder, but honestly not too much as the singing and harmonica are always separate.

Is there a recommended way to sit to sing better while playing piano? Any tips?

Klaus_T

nice combo with the piano and harmonica!

i don't know about the sitting on the the piano, i play guitar and sing but i can tell you that it helps to practice the parts by themselves, i.e. the piano alone, the vocals alone (probably with the piano backing track playing for pitch reference). also it looks like you are looking at a sheet and don't know piano and/or lyrics by heart. you can focus much better on expression and breathing and everything when you don't have to focus on the lyrics and chords. if they are kind of automatic. and for that, separating the parts helps
hope this helps

nice work!!!

schmalex

Klaus_T said:

nice combo with the piano and harmonica!

i don't know about the sitting on the the piano, i play guitar and sing but i can tell you that it helps to practice the parts by themselves, i.e. the piano alone, the vocals alone (probably with the piano backing track playing for pitch reference). also it looks like you are looking at a sheet and don't know piano and/or lyrics by heart. you can focus much better on expression and breathing and everything when you don't have to focus on the lyrics and chords. if they are kind of automatic. and for that, separating the parts helps
hope this helps

nice work!!!

Hi Klaus, thanks for your comments. You are correct that I still don't have the piano part fully memorized, so I am still reliant on the sheet music.

charlie_v

Hi @schmalex

Can I share an analogy from tennis, which is another of my passions?

When you practise, you can focus in on a single element of technique, and practise this repeatedly, with the aim of becoming unconsciously competent. (You'll have heard Ken talking about the same concept). But for every tennis stroke, there are many many things for you to think about, and if you focus on one, you can't focus on any others.

Once you're in a match, you need to keep your focus on the ball, and the opponent. Nothing else. If you start thinking about other things such as technique, you'll get distracted and your performance drops off. You have to play with the skills you have, which may be very different from the skills you're trying to develop when practising.

The singing exercises are to help you build the skills you need to sing well. Once you're actually singing the song, you don't have time to think about breath support, vowel mods, etc etc. These will either be ingrained, or they won't. You can listen back afterwards and analyse, but you shouldn't try during the performance.

When you add in playing an instrument as well, you add another level of complexity, because there's something else to distract you. You need to be singing without thought, but the more distractions, the harder that will be. That's why I'm only using backing tracks currently.

Darkiehol

I found that keeping my core engaged made a bigger difference than trying to force bigger breaths. I also practiced the piano part on loop while speaking the vocal line, which took some pressure off before adding real singing. I picked up a few breathing drills on artmaster.com that helped me smooth out the legato without feeling winded. Mixing short standing sessions into practice also kept my airflow steadier while seated.