I was going to suggest most sing while playing chords or chord arpeggios, rather than sing and play the melody at the same time. But you've nearly succeeded as is. Just a few more takes or practice runs, you sound like you'll have it. It takes enough run-throughs to where you're near sick of it. Your 10th tune will sound better than your 1st or 2nd tune. Keep them simple, and start listening for tunes you want to do. (If you haven't already) Do you have a preferred key?

Singing the melody and playing the identical melody on your instrument is definitely a cool sound, so I understand if that's what you're wanting to be able to do. But it will help to start with something more simple, like just strumming the chords and singing the melody over the top of that.

Once you feel good about singing over the chords, you might try working out a hybrid arrangement with little pieces of the melody in certain places. Generally, when you sing you want the vocals to take the center stage and for your banjo playing to play a supporting role anyway. This also makes it easier to really focus on your vocals rather than having to think about if you're pulling off the melody on the banjo.

When I sing and play, I usually work out a hot banjo break that can shine on its own, and also a backup arrangement for when I'm singing or for when others are taking a break. It doesn't have to be complex. It's about laying a solid foundation.

Playing melody as you sing just comes with time like most things clawhammer or two finger, you'll get it. banjered

Frank Evans:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cblXCov7Yls&list=RDcblXCov7Yls&start_radio=1&pp=ygUMRmZyYW5rIGV2YW5zoAcB&ra=m

I've found that if you know a vocal so well you don't have to think about the words or the melody, then it's easy to play and sing. Most folks do try to stay away from the melody when singing and just do a good backup. Usually, playing chords, vamping, rolling, sliding into a melody note, but not playing the melody as you sing.

I sometimes find myself singing and playing melody, but that's not what I want to do when on stage or in a jam. I play bluegrass, so maybe it's different for old time or clawhammer players.

I'm not a singer, and probably with good reason, but it hard to resist singing a few songs. When I do sing, I depend on the melody. I play clawhammer and use very few full brush-strokes in my playing except when I'm actually singing. Doing that makes my playing fuller and helps keep the melody I need more in the back ground. It's almost like playing chords while I singing.

Don't know what the equivalent in two-finger would be though.

I have lesson series on YouTube (no paywall) on playing backup in the 2F style. It might give you some ideas. The lessons are progressive, starting with a simple "note-pinch" pattern", then advancing lesson by lesson to more involved picking patterns. I use "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" to demonstrate.
 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL00z9mDkwwfcg80hfENImWHO6PducoOiH

Something tells me Frank Evans has a few thousand hours playing that banjer.

Jww,
What's your tuning? Do you have a method to just play a G chord? A, C chord? A, D chord? Those three chords, one can play hundreds of songs, from easy to nose-bleed tuff. Not to forget the hudred of two chord songs. 

From what I have read even Pete Seeger had a hard time playing the banjo and singing when he started, but with practice and hard work he became quite successful. I find it far easier to sing while playing guitar or the mandolin, but I have learned to sing with the banjo because others don't know the songs I want to play. You have to be able to play confidently without thinking about it. Keep at it.

I like to play the melody while I'm singing the melody. I feel that it helps support my mediocre voice.

I’ve never understood why people shun combining singing and playing the melody line. It’s quite common in folk and country blues songs, but not in bluegrass, pop and rock, etc. if you get hold of the printed sheet music for popular songs, it is typically a piano arrangement, with the melody played by the right hand and the accompaniment (chord and bass lines) played by the left hand. For those of us without good voices or perfect pitch, it is a really useful skill to keep your vocals in tune, and not wandering off key. However, if you have a good and accurate chord progression to play, where the melody notes are present and audible in each chord, then I accept that playing the actual tune is not actually needed.

Every hymnal I've ever picked up, are arranged where the vocalist sings the melody, as the accompaniment plays the melody.
Those piano and guitar song books in the bookstore are the same as above. What it boils down to, as I see it, the common folk wouldn't know how to flesh out the chords from the melody. It's an added step. Some hymnals, on some songs, have the chords above the treble cleff.
Chord/harmony theory is a separate, what should be college. Same could be said for timing and rhythm. Same could be said for melody.

Yes, and I think at some stage music publishers thought they could expand their sales by selling piano arrangements to guitarists and other string players, by simply adding chord symbols above the treble clef. In many cases, these were either inaccurate or over simplified and until tablature came along, you had to laboriously work out the chord voicings and nuances by listening to recordings. However, the melody line was there, if you could read notation, so you could work up your own arrangements based on the general chord sequence, but whether you sing and play the melody together was up to you. I guess some think that smacks of school music lessons or singing in church.

I'm bad at singing, so I am looking for the banjo to carry the melody and keep me on pitch.

I did take the advice and did some simple chord+pinch patterns and sing along and I think it is helping me not keep the picking and singing quite so married that I can handle a missing melody note or two from the banjo without it falling to pieces.

Im kinda trying to take after dock boggs. He didn't have a great singing voice but when carried by the instrument it could still be quite pleasant.

quote:

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Originally posted by carlb

I like to play the melody while I'm singing the melody. I feel that it helps support my mediocre voice.

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Very nice!