How do I connect musical instruments with my voice when making a song
 

Don't know if I posted this in the right forum, but I hope someone can answer :)



How do I connect musical instruments with my voice when making a song

That is my main question.

But let me tell you guys a bit about myself. I am a newly graduated engineer with a b.sc in civ.eng who has a lot of passion for music and singing! But i don't have any music education whatsoever, I have never even used any instruments except for my voice and my frame drum.

I am quite a beginner when it comes to frame drums, but I bought one just to begin somewhere.
I have been singing and recording my voice on kareokes and without music for about 8 years,

I have a trained voice( not a fully trained, if thats even possible?), I have been doing singing success(those audio cds by brett) for a couple of years. I have increased tone quality, vocal range , and I know how to do vibrato, and a few styles.

but I don't know any thing about music!

strange huh? might have been the small city i live in, which have caused that, or that I don't know anyone who is a musician who I can ask.


I know how to sing without music (except for kareoke songs that I have memorized in my head). I feel that my voice is ready, but im kinda stuck, I don't know where to go now.

Now to my questions, (I hope someone finally can answer them for me)

Back to the main question, How do I connect my singing voice with music?, well you guys might have different answers to that like...

- learn music theory
- learn how to play an instrument (Well i am , and I consider my voice as one too)

well I am willing to do all of that, but i need the right study material for that, the right books, dvds about music theory.And I hope you guys can recommend me titiles for that.

but I am specifically looking for a source of information(book,dvd) which will explain the following things:

- How I better can understand how to make a song by connecting my voice and instruments
- Learning how to "hear" when it's the right time to sing in a song (Or the right time to put a vocal into a background of music or vice versa)

lets say, I compose music and drums in a software that its accurate according to the softwares metronome, the music is there, but how do i know how to put my voice in there?


Sorry for my bad english its not my native tongue, I hope some of you guys understood what i am looking for, and can guide me in the right direction.

Best regards // Riazy

Singing = a musical instrument.
If you cant sing with music, you dont really know how to sing. end of story.

Ok, that was helpful.

So what do you call that which I am doing?
I am obviously singing,if I memorized a song into my head and I sing that along with music.


Melodious recitation by intuition and feelings?.


The reason why i posted here was because I want to learn music theory

I hope you can reread my post. I am seeking advice, and I don't claim that I am a perfect singer whatsoever. But I do have a trained voice,because I have been doing vocal exercises for quite a while.

I suggest training bykaraoke. There are plenty of karaoke games and stuff you could get if you have a gaming console.

The game "Lips" for the XBOX 360 is one of several examples.



edit :

The game tells you when to sing and how you're hitting the notes.

Thanks for the tip, any more suggestion, on DVDs, or books perhaps?

Hi Riazy,

You asked two questions:

(1) What would be a good way for you to learn some music theory to help you mesh voice and instrumentals?
(2) How do you know when is the "best" time to sing in a song when you are creating music that includes instruments and your voice?

I have an answer for the first question, but I think I might need to know more specifics about your second question to figure out exactly what knowledge you seek.

(1) Music Theory

I think I know the perfect person for you to contact to have all your questions about music theory answered...Steven Jacks...and it just so happens that he is part of our forum! :)

Steven's username is venjacques ( Music Banter - View Profile: venjacques ). You can ask him questions in his thread or contact him by private message. He has also written an introduction to music theory book (Music Theory Level 1) that might suit your needs. He could probably tell you if his book would be helpful for you if you contact him and explain what you want.

Steven is an expert in music theory, very friendly, and very patient. I can tell he loves music and sharing his knowledge about it. So, I highly recommend that you contact him for advice on the sort of music theory that would be useful for you.

Here is the MusicBanter thread where you can ask music theory questions of venjacques:

http://www.musicbanter.com/talk-inst...ml#post1166473

He also has an online music theory school where you can ask anything about music theory and he will try to help:

StevenJacks.com | Artist, Dreamer, Adventurer

(2) Learning to mesh vocals and instrumentals

Riazy, do you know how to read music?

If not, then I feel learning to read music should be your first goal at this stage in your singing, because reading music will allow you more readily to sing with other people in a group. If a person always sings with the same band members and always practices in person together with them, then she might never need to know how to read music, but it really comes in handy when you can't be with other people but want to practice singing a song.

As you know, when you read music you don't have to remember the pattern of notes to sing, because they will be on the sheets of paper. Just by looking at the paper you can use your mind's "ear" to hear the music and visually know when to start singing and what notes to sing.

You wrote that you play the drums (which I love). I also recommend that in addition to your drums you get an acoustic guitar and begin learning chords to help you experience the meshing of your singing with an instrument that makes distinct notes. Since you are envisioning creating music with your drums and voice, I think you would *really* enjoy creating music with a guitar and your voice.

I read recently on Wikipedia about the singer Lana Del Rey: "After her uncle taught her how to play guitar, she 'realized [she] could probably write a million songs with those six chords,' and began performing in clubs around the city under various names such as Sparkle Jump Rope Queen and Lizzy Grant and the Phenomena." I feel she is right: guitar is a great and simple instrument to learn to accompany yourself and broaden your musical horizons.

I hope this helps!

VERY helpful, thank you VEGANGELICA

Actually I don't know yet how to read music notes

So this means I can't get very far learning music with the help of onlyn drums
Maybe I should get an instrument which I can connect digitally to my m-audio

But another question hmm maybe it will make what I am trying to say more clear



When you guys produce a song do you make music first or do you sing first and put the music on afterwards?

Here is the tricky part, let say I record on a metronome in my software
How Will I know later where I should put the instruments on my voice?

To make it "connected" . I mean if I recorded my voice with let's say a rhythm of 4/4 on the metronome.

As a newbie recording instruments on this how should make it connected with my voice, because if I would place random instruments with different tones in fruity loops for example and "I " think it sounds correct and good.


how will I know that it's " musically correct"? According to music theory

1. I have lyrics, and I sing them, on metronome 4/4, I make a nice recording in whatever software I have
2. Now, I want to put music on that?, Drums i guess are probably the same rhythm as the metronome?, but what about other instrument, How do I know "when" piano is suitable, guitar violin, etc.

You get my point, How should certain musical instruments act when I am singing, and when I am not singing, in the song.

Hope it made it clearer

Music first then vocals.