A musician who can see things from different perspectives becomes twice as professional.
It’s a well-known fact that early musical development is best initiated at an early age. Children excel at disciplines such as solo singing and choir.
Some children have a blazing passion for learning a musical instrument. It’s very difficult to ask such children to sing or sing along with someone else. They even struggle to sing the part of their own instrument, let alone sing solo.
Other children have strong vocal skills, and if you ask them to play the piano or another instrument, you’ll have to put in a lot of effort to achieve any results.
This has always been the case. Those who have been practicing vocals for a long time are not particularly strong in instrumental music, and vice versa, a great musician sings poorly. Of course, as with everything, there are exceptions, but they are few and far between.
The same applies to bands, whether domestic or international. We can see how the leader plays guitar and sings. Those with more experience immediately spot a weakness. This vocalist either sings poorly or plays only averagely. The only exceptions are the greatest musicians: Paul McCartney/The Beatles (bass guitar and vocals), James Hetfield/Metallica (rhythm guitar and vocals), and others.
There are also those who play/played well, even talentedly, but sing/sing poorly.
Such examples include the legendary Jimi Hendrix/The Jimi Hendrix Experience (he sang very rarely), Ian Fraser Kilmister (Lemmy)/Motorhead, Elton John, and others.
I believe that development is necessary in all areas.
In every band I’ve been in, I’ve asked the musicians, in addition to their regular duties, to also sing, write songs, and play another instrument.
Someone who shared our values happily approached the microphone and truly enjoyed it, even without particularly great vocals.
Some had to be persuaded with various arguments. But overall, almost everyone responded well.
Yes, of course, you might have a very good specialist in your band who will never do anything else under any circumstances. In such a situation, it’s enough to explain that using your brain in multiple ways can strengthen your existing skills.
Example:
A vocalist who occasionally plays drums will become more sensitive to their colleague and develop a keener sense of rhythm than ever before.
A guitarist who has dedicated his entire life to a superb guitar simply must play the keys from time to time. We guitarists often have a tightly held left (or pressure) hand, and a light touch of the keys helps relax the muscles. A backing singer should also try their hand at solo performance, which increases their value and provides opportunities for improvement.
And a lead singer should also experience all kinds of backup vocals firsthand.
A word about multi-instrumentalists. Even if you think you can play several or many instruments, that doesn’t make you a great singer. This skill needs to be developed separately.
Develop not only in your role. Teach others and learn yourself.
