What is the best source of knowledge on this subject? I know there are Youtube vids and books, but many of you are already skilled at this, and I don't want to through a lot of fluff getting to it. Back in my church days, I would sing and play the organ for choir practice, but it was not comping, but duplicating the melody. That is no problem for me, but I don't think it is the accepted way, is it?

Now I can't be as good at it as many of you, but it never is too late to start. BTW, the only thing I do now is to sing while chording left hand, take an instrument lead, and come back in.

Vocal comping in a DAW?

I use Presonus Studio One 3.5 as my DAW. Vocal comping, using many takes to get the best vocal from many takes. You set a loop point... give yourself enough of an intro... sing the phrase as many times as you need... stop recording.

In this program, it is really easy to comp. You highlight the material in each take that you want. Very simple if that is what you are talking about.

Thanks Jonathan, but I am speaking live vocal performance over a style accomp.. I want more involvement than a Karaoke rendition. I envision singing melody with left hand piano and right hand stabs, arps, or something. I would then play second verse as instrumental as usual, then come back in with my vocal at the bridge. This is only one example, depending on the song.

I am only trying to get used to playing and singing at the same time, and since I would start with very familiar songs, I guess the right hand use while singing is the first question.

Thanks for your response, Jonathon, as you are well versed in this, to be sure.

Hi Bernie, that's what I thought you meant. I know lots of trained pianists (keyboardist) who have that problem. I think the reason is that, unless you're studying jazz or are essentially self-taught, it's just a part of formal music instruction that's NOT TAUGHT. For a lot of musicians, it just comes naturally; they sing a phrase and just 'hear' a 'comp' phrase that would compliment or accent it. Hard, but not impossible, to learn at a late stage in your musical career. I could only suggest two things:

1. Get a musician that is skilled at this to show you a few 'tricks'.

2. Find some commercial arrangements that incorporate what you envision, and listen, study, and practice what they're doing.

It'll take some time but once you discover the technique, practice, practice, practice until is feels 'natural' and almost unconscious.

chas

That helps, Chas, thanks. Be it good or bad, I am self taught, so not regimated and can use my own intuition, as you suggested. My timing is spot on, so I can concentrate on riffs or fill ins. By what you say, this is not an exact science anyway.

Thanks
Bernie

It absolutely is not an exact science, Bernie ... It's all what you feel ... As chas suggested, play recordings of vocalists and listen to what it going on BEHIND them ... the right hand can take the place of a back up vocals group, horn fills, or just add some chord extensions ...
Just experiment and play ...

I occasionally perform with another vocalist or sax player, so I often practice just what I might play 'behind them' with my right hand ...

Watch Don Mason in action, he does it all the time with his guitar licks performed with his right hand.

Gary

Tony: Now you're talkin.

Gary: I am both enthralled and horrified while listening to Don. It almost stopped my ambitions cold, at the thought of trying to play like that(just kidding-not).

Bernie, you've opened up a great topic, one that's probably not discussed enough. Gary's right....sort of. Don is a good example of ACCENTING (ie. playing riffs AROUND the vocals) as opposed to pure COMPING which is more playing BEHIND the vocals. BB King is a great example of ACCENTING. Pianist in Big Bands tend to do BOTH. Best statement so far...."It's not an exact science". Critical listening and analysis of what the 'masters' are doing is probably the best (maybe only) approach to learning this 'inexact science'. BTW, playing with other musicians using only 'fake sheets' will force you to learn what to do .

chas

I'm trying to remember how I learned to do what I do in this instance.
I know I always have my right hand "over" the same chords that my left hand is playing.
Generally I sing a line and then play some sort of "answer" fill. Only in the past few years have a learned to actually play more than a chord while I'm actually singing.
Start by just playing the notes in the chord one at a time, in time of course. Experiment to see what other notes out of the chord sound good when you play them. You will often find that the flatted third of the chord sounds good, perhaps sliding from it to the third. Then experiment with the sixth note of the chord. It gets easier the more you do it.
Also, listen to a recording of the song you are playing, hear what the "signature" riffs are and learn to play them. The intros are especially important. I almost never use a factory intro; instead I play a line from the melody of the song, or actually try to play something close to the original intro.
Now if I had to actually play much with the left hand, I would turn into a blubbering idiot. Hope this helps a little.
P.S. I just saw Chas post and he is exactly right, although as I mentioned, I'm working on actual comping more. I don't have a problem coming behind someone else, but it's a lot harder to do it while you are singing.