Chords for Let's Talk About Singing With Your Banjo!

_ Hello everybody, we've got another _
_ [N] question here.
This is about singing.
This
comes from Andrew John Boothman.
_ He says, I have a question about singing.
You have
a great voice for this type of music.
Thank you, Andrew.
Did you always sing
this way or is it something you've developed over the years?
If it's
something you've developed, who are your singing influences?
Thanks.
Well, Andrew, good
question, of course.
_ _ Singing is important. _
I probably always, always sang as a kid
and stuff.
_ _ _ _ We sang, I guess probably like folk song-y type
stuff and then maybe I would sing along to the radio and stuff like that,
whatever.
_ _ _ But yes, certainly I've developed the way I sing over
the years.
When I was a kid, when I first was singing, when I first
was playing the banjo, of course, I couldn't sing along with it.
That took me,
it takes a long time to develop the skill to where you can sing along with it.
Maybe it took me a year or something to where I was comfortable
doing that, even just singing in front of my family.
The process of
getting into singing can be really hard.
I mean, you have to find people,
everyone probably assumes they have a bad voice at first.
I know I did.
A lot of
people I've spoken to over the years, they think that they can't sing and
stuff.
_ I think a lot of that is attributed to, like _ banjo players
and guitar players who think they can't sing.
Well, of course, there's lots of
people that can't sing along with the banjo when it's tuned up to standard G
tuning or they can't sing along with their guitar when it's tuned up to that
standard pitch. _ _
I _ always encourage people, if you're one of
these people who plays banjo or guitar and you think you can't sing, you probably
can sing.
You just can't sing in that key.
Maybe you've never thought of that.
_ Play around with your capo. _
_ At the risk of sounding
sexist, a lot of women, they have a high-pitched voice and you may need to
put the capo way up on your instrument.
I don't know, seventh fret or something.
I don't
even know.
_ _ You may need to capo up.
Experiment with your capo and see
what you can sing along with.
A lot of men, they can't sing high up.
They
can't even sing the standard pitch like me.
I can't sing up in G, barely.
If
somebody tunes, put capos their banjo, if I have to capo my banjo up to A to play
with a violin player like I used to always have to do, well, I'm just mute at
that point.
I can't sing that at all.
_ I like to sing with my music. _ _ _
So if you've got a deeper voice, maybe experiment with tuning your banjo down.
We've discussed that in other videos.
Don't tune up to standard G tuning.
_ _ Get that _ same tuning, but tune down to F, lower.
We've
discussed that, so I won't go into that anymore.
_ _ So since it's something I've
developed, who are my singing influences?
I gotta say, I mean, honestly, I grew up
listening to a lot of Mississippi John Hurt records and stuff, and he has a real
chill, calm way of singing.
It comes out of him effortless, so maybe I've
listened to him.
I've spent many hours listening to him, even in very formative
years, so I probably admire that.
I try to sing in a calm, _ effortless manner,
_ low effort.
I try not to growl too much and bark or get too high-pitched and
shrill.
People don't necessarily like to be growled or barked at or
screamed or squealed at, _ so I keep it _ as toned down as I can.
When I first
started singing, I must admit, probably my biggest influence in my own mind was
Lead Belly.
The first time I ever heard that Lead Belly sang Huddie Leadbetter
on a record, his voice to me sounded like a trumpet.
That was what
came_it
seemed like a trumpet on a human body, blaring those words out.
He would
burr and bop bop.
I can't even_I
can't_I
don't want to do it here.
My dogs are
sleeping right now.
But he could belt out those words like a trumpet, and I wanted
to do that too.
So that's when I probably first transitioned from sort of
quietly, softly singing in my room to nobody, to where I wanted to sing like
Lead Belly, like I was chained up on a prison farm or something.
Sing out!
_ So
_ that's great, but I think since then I've toned it down.
I think I've noticed I've
annoyed enough people.
I've drunkenly driven off crowds, you know, so I try to
keep it toned down now a lot more.
_ Yeah, _ but singing is something we can go into
at length.
I want to encourage every one of you to sing.
I think that we, each of
us humans, not only has the ability to sing, but you should sing.
It's your
right as a human being.
If you want to sing, you should sing, even if that means
you only do it alone in the woods or in the shower like a lot of people.
Sing!
_ _ And I _ encourage you to sing with your banjo and try to find a way to do it.
If you have questions, if you run into problems, you know, bring it up here and
ask me or ask somebody here.
Somebody here, if I can't help you, somebody who's
hanging out in our group here might be able to help you with singing, but I'll
bet you I can help you too.
So if you've got, if I haven't answered all your
questions in this little five-minute clip, then throw some more at me [G] and _ [Fm] I'll
see y'all later.
Keep singing and keep playing! _