I’ve played guitar for 10 years now, and piano and keyboards for 8. I’m also a great singer.
But I cannot play either of these instruments and sing at the same time; I can’t accompany myself like even the most rudimentary coffeeshop bum.
Why? Is this documented? Most people I know are singing and playing either happily within mere months of learning to play.
I’m no good at it either. I put it down to simply never having tried, and so my mind isn’t trained to deal with the separate lines with enough coherence. (Actually, maybe it’s because I quit the piano when I was faced with fugues, and stuck to the violin from then on 
…)
I also suffer from this affliction. I CAN however, sing to songs when the lyrics kind of match up the the strums of my guitar. I can practice a song to the point where the playing is instinctual and then I can sing along too. I write it off as not having much of a talent for doing both at the same time.
I picked up a guitar only a couple months ago, and vowed (out of envy of my very talented roommate) to be able to sing and play at the same time.
So i’ve kinda been learning how to play AS WELL AS how to play and sing along.
perhaps thats why i’m rather mediocre at both
if you do listen to whatever music you’re trying to reproduce though, i find it makes it way easier to set up chords and lyrical “markers” to align while you’re playing. Ohh, and start with something slow.
:smack:
Practice, practice, practice.
Over the years, I can’t say I’ve ever known or heard anyone who could play as well when they were also singing as otherwise. I don’t know whether it’s harder to notice flaws in the person’s singing while self-accompanied, or if they’re simply not as much of a problem (I suspect it’s the latter; we’ve all had practice since birth in using our vocal cords). Even after 45 years (off and on), I still can’t play as well when I’m also singing. I don’t have a problem maintaining tempi, but I have difficulty keeping the same level of … I dunno … chops? in when I’m singing, even on my preferred instrument (organ).
I think perhaps your difficulty is that you’re not as aware of the mistakes of others while singing & playing as you are of your own (unless you’re not quite as good as you think). This is a Good Thing, honest. It helps restrain the ego, which can otherwise get far beyond one’s real abilities. 
I hear you. I can naturally clap along with a song until I actually start singing along, and then, I have to start counting in my head or sway a bit to keep my clapping in sync with the beat. But if it’s a song that I’ve done that to often, then clapping and singing becomes natural.
Like strumming with one hand and chording with another, it takes practice.
Peace.
I had this same problem, back when I played the trumpet. 
You just made me snort.
I have the same problem. I’ve tried to “train” myself by playing along to the song that I’m working on, and just humming along to the singer on the track, but that doesn’t work either. My brain can’t handle it, it seems. Maybe related to my failure in trying to play piano; I could not get my left hand to do something completely unrelated to what my right hand was doing. At least with guitar, my hands are generally moving alternately; strum-chordchange-strum.
I seem to remember somebody on another forum talking about a bass-playing fellow who recorded a song called something like Everybody Knows You Can’t Play The Bass and Sing. Yes, it’s much easier to strum a guitar while you sing than it is to play a bass line while you sing.
As a bass player and singer, I can say a few things on this topic. It’s much like walking and chewing bubblegum at the same time.
What you have to do is split your brain in two. Easier said than done, no?
The key is to learn the parts separately first. Start with the guitar part. Know that guitar part. Practice that guitar part until you can play it it your sleep.
Then learn the vocal part, without the guitar. Memorize the words. Get to know the melody inside and out. Once you’ve done that…
… pick up your guitar. Get your hands in position. Then… forget about the guitar. If you’ve learned the guitar part like I suggested above, then your hands and fingers should be able to go where they’re supposed to all by themselves. So let them do what they’re going to do, and don’t think about them. Automatic pilot.
Start singing, and don’t worry about your hands. There you go.
I’ve oversimplified, of course, but those are the basic principles. Figure out enough songs this way, and eventually you’ll be able to do it easily. One thing you should avoid if at all possible: strumming the same rhythm that you’re singing. That sounds corny, and doesn’t groove.
Hope this helps 
Yeah, I never could play the piano and sing - but then I can’t play to accompany anybody else singing, either, especially more than one person like a Christmas sing-a-long. I suspect that’s because my friends are awful singers and can’t even find an approximate key - I listen to them and screw up.
Could it be that the songs you are trying to play and sing with are too difficult?
I have tried to sing along with the best and hardest songs I can play, but I can’t do it. I think this is because it takes all my brain to just play the song.
I find that the easiest type of guitar part to sing along with is a simple fingerpicking pattern. Even easier than a song with only E shaped barre chords. Your fingers get caught up in the pattern and they just play it by themselves, without you having to think about it.
Try “Bird On The Wire” and “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye” by Leonard Cohen. Great songs, patterns that play themselves, and (for me) the added advantage that Cohen’s vocal range is kind of low and limited like mine is, so the singing is not very complicated either.
Hey, just write songs that you can play and sing at the same time. It’s easier that way. Actually, that’s kind of what I did. I think the difference is, when you try to play someone else’s song, you’re constantly thinking about ok-the-next-chord-is-Aminor-now-sing-la-la-la, while with your own stuff you just know…
After many years of playing guitar, I’ve started teaching myself to sing and play much as Phase42 described. I always assumed that the reason it is so hard is because I waited so long to start trying. Like I trained my brain to focus completely on playing guitar. I have the theory that it would have been much easier if I forced myself to sing and play right from the beginning. Does this strike a chord with anyone else? Freejooky, have you always had the problem of singing and playing - right from the beginning?
I also can’t sing in the round unless I absolutely zone out on everything around me and focus solely on singing - which makes it difficult to sing along to the music. My poor brain can only handle so much, I guess.
I understand that the guy’s exceptionally talented, but what about someone like Elton John? Can he sing even better when not playing keys? Can he play the keys better when not singing? Or is he just so solid at both that a slight decline barely matters?
If you pay attention to artists who sing and play, they generally don’t do very technical playing while they are singing. E.g., Elton John plays the piano a little like a guitar, while singing he plays fairly simple chord rhythms and then in between vocal phrases he’ll put in musical licks to fill the space. A LOT of people sing and play their instruments in this way.
Hendrix?
Hendrix plays riffs while he sings, but riffs are very mechanical and don’t require brain power. He normally only improvises while he’s not singing.
He’ll I find it particularly hard to play and hold a conversation with someone, almost impossible.