Strumming to singing timing (weird question)

Okay so I've been practicing my ukulele alot and I've realized that ive hit kindof a wall here.

You see I was practicing the song "Happy" By never shout never

I got the strumming pattern down and all but it seems to where i get to the part

"your lookin so cool your lookin so fly"

the tempo of the SINGING picks up but the strum pattern stays the same speed and for some reason if i speed up the singing of the song the hand motion that is strumming the ukulele also speeds up automatically and the rhythm goes off beat and everything and i cant seem to get past it, its happened for other songs also, also for reference heres a link to the song?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuD8PgPbKaY

Anyone else have this problem also?

classic problem...

Playing two rhythms at once is hard. Playing chords and singing a melody isn't easy. Here are some tips:

Practice strumming without singing.

Practice singing without strumming.

Practice strumming while you THINK the singing.

Practice singing while you AIR STRUM.

Then do it all at once.

The main thing is, keep on practicing. And have fun!

More practice?

I'm still working on knowing enough chords to do songs and changing from chord to chord easily, using Uncle Rod's ukulele boot camp. I'm just beginning to mess around with strumming and singing, a little. I'm sure I'll have to vanquish this problem through practice myself.

I recommend going away from that song for at least a week and practicing some other uke things.

I swear. When I walk away from songs, they seem to work out better once I come back to them after a period.

I don't know how it works. Abstinence makes the heart grow fonder I think

practice practice practice

I can play. I can sing (sorta). But I really struggle with playing and singing. I've heard that playing and humming is a good bridge to playing and singing and I'm working on that now.

As a long time singer who has never played and has picked up a uke I can tell you how difficult it is to both strum and sing. I have found it's easier to master the music and then add the voice in later. Need anyone else say practice <g>. But you're not alone bro. cheers, g2

Im a beginner too and struggle with this when playing uke or guitar . Recently i made a lot of progress by trying Johnny Cash's Ring of Fire (only 3 chords ) I started by just doing down strums and singling and it seemed to click at last and has now got to the point that i can happily strum any pattern of my own for this song and still sing it . Here is a link to the song http://www.scorpex.net/Uke/songs/Ring_of_Fire.pdf try it with just downstrums so that your brain hasnt got to much to comprehend and it still works .
Its really given me the confidence this last week to try other songs and im making some progress at long last .

it's hard to simultaneously strum, change chords, keep the melody, think about the lyrics...

what i'd do in your case, is practice chords progression until it becomes comfortable, and try to whistle/or sing the melody without words until it goes well on the chords change... then eventually add the lyrics.

Some folks may need a metronome for a while

TheOnlyUkeThatMatters said:

The main thing is, keep on practicing.

Click to expand...

This is what it comes down to. There are a couple of songs I play where the singing and playing rhythms are very different. I just kept plugging away at them and now I can play them well enough to do them in front of an audience. The important thing is not to let yourself believe it's impossible to do. You can do it, and you will, it's just a matter of getting from Point A to Point B.

If it was me, I'd try practicing it while playing it slower than normal. You may in your head be linking certain beats of the singing, or certain syllables, to a strum. For this part of the song, you need your mind to tie that beat in the singing to a different place in the strum pattern. Going slower can help you figure that out, find where to sync the two parts together. Once you've done that, you can practice doing it at full speed.