Singing Harmony

[AnneC]

Good advice, Steve. I've found myself doing that quite a bit lately, and I believe it helps with writing harmonies.

[DavidThornton]

It seems to have been a long time since anyone has added/replied to this forum, so I'm not even sure if this will be read. But I love singing harmony - so much so that given the choice as a leader, I'd teach someone else the lead line, then lay down harmonies on top -- because the opportunities for creativity - once the melody is established - are vast! I loved an earlier posting exalting Art Garfunkel as a harmonist, because of his freedom to depart from moving thirds/fourths above the melody.

I'll just add one BGV trick, and that is to underexecute 's's and 'p's, most especially in recording, sometimes even to the point of simply ending a word without those consonants. A group of people (more than 2) all laying down hard on sibillants and plosives (to use the tech term) can be a really harsh thing - better to avoid it!

[john]

Hey

Of course it will be read!

Handy tip too

Cheers

John

[AnneC]

I agree, David... I love singing harmony, especially if it is an intelligent line (something other than the 3rd or 5th up or down). Backup can be fun as well.

Also, dropping the ending consonant can help with intonation when singing a line that's extremely low or high for your particular range. Let the one singing lead carry the enunciation on those sections. Just don't let it get sloppy.

An interesting thing about Art Garfunkel. I once read an interview with him in which he recalled his school days with Paul Simon. They would rehearse for hours every afternoon watching each other's mouths carefully so that their jaw and tongue placement would match exactly. It might seem a bit strange in this day and age but I think it contributed greatly to their ability to harmonize and synchronize so well.

[Donna]

Exactly. That is why one ought to listen to and watch the lead singer.

(PS Anne, do you in your choral arrangements avoid thee dreaded parallel fifths?)

[Roflcopter]

It seems to have been a long time since anyone has added/replied to this forum, so I'm not even sure if this will be read. But I love singing harmony - so much so that given the choice as a leader, I'd teach someone else the lead line, then lay down harmonies on top -- because the opportunities for creativity - once the melody is established - are vast! I loved an earlier posting exalting Art Garfunkel as a harmonist, because of his freedom to depart from moving thirds/fourths above the melody.

I'll just add one BGV trick, and that is to underexecute 's's and 'p's, most especially in recording, sometimes even to the point of simply ending a word without those consonants. A group of people (more than 2) all laying down hard on sibillants and plosives (to use the tech term) can be a really harsh thing - better to avoid it!

Also helps if you can hit every note as pure as a bell - this is to my ears almost indistinguishable from the LP version - live - means he could do it every time, recording after recording, or *just * that tiny little bit differently - and then keep doing that consistently - such precision and control sure helps

[AnneC]

Donna, oh yes. It's useful now and then but I use a lot of counterpoint where I can.

[Roflcopter]

I guess that's why people are drawn to like Bulgarian chants, they use major seconds a lot, plus some underlying drone, too. That's a form of harmony all by itself, against a hum or drone.

[SingingHeart]

Hi. I'm new on the whole forum.My name is Veronika and it's nice to meet you all.

I just wanted to know as much about singing harmonies as possible. It may seem a bit impossible, but I want to teach myself how to sing harmonies.

If anyone would be kind enough as to offer up some advice on how-to, I would appreciate it dearly.

Thank You.

[JamminJeanette]

Experiment

IMHO Garfunkle was the driving force in Simon and Garfunkle. He is the best harmony vocalist to date. He is a master, why? cause he doesn't ride a straight 3rd. He meanders around the main vocal, dipping and diving. Experiment with going up when the main is going down and vice verse. This really adds diversity to the sound of the harmony vocals!!

Peace,

The other John

Most interesting harmony I heard once was someone was was sitting at what sounds like major/minor 7th. I can't for the life of me think of the song right now but I thought it was pretty nifty :-). Worse then 3rds though is parrallel 5ths.... :-)

-Jeanette

[JamminJeanette]

Hi. I'm new on the whole forum.My name is Veronika and it's nice to meet you all.

I just wanted to know as much about singing harmonies as possible. It may seem a bit impossible, but I want to teach myself how to sing harmonies.

If anyone would be kind enough as to offer up some advice on how-to, I would appreciate it dearly.

Thank You.

I don't know much about teaching harmonies, but I hear it whether it is placed in the song or not. But I heard entire orchestra's as a whole and by individual instruments at the same time. my ears work funny LMAO.

Advice I'd give is take a song you like and start experimenting with singing with the lead vocals and see what kind of harmony you can come up with to enhance what the lead vocals is already doing.

-Jeanette

[StarCalledSun]

Use dissonance to resolve from. I try to take cues from the melody and the lyrics where an interesting or unexpected note would be helpful. Sometimes I'll even go through the lead sheet and mark potential places to use dissonant notes. (One of my heroes with this is David Rawlings, who sings harmony with Gillian Welch, and has very distinctive note choices.) A harmony vocal isn't there to be "pretty", it's there to further the mood and story of the song, and using dissonance gives you more colors to add.

[Cheryl]

I've ALWAYS loved singing harmonies. A great way to start, if you've never done it, is to practice singing along

(a third or a fourth, above or below), to your favourite artist. I used to harmonize over and over with Joni Mitchell's

early stuff (Clouds, Blue, Ladies of the Canyon). Now I can harmonize with anything, instantly. I didn't even know

much about what I was doing, back then. It was the greatest musical training ever, and I didn't even need a teacher!

[Guest Loob]

Don't be afraid to pick your part out on the keyboard or guitar, and sing the notes you play. Melody is one note parts so you don't have to be a keyboardist. Find the notes to your scale and sing them with the key as you play them (or just after). What this does is it calibrates your ear and voice together for pitch. A lot of people poo poo this idea as very basic, and then they go and sing off key or pitch. If a person does this regularly, after awhile they won't need to do this anymore. They will have trained their ear for pitch and scales.

You can also record your playing and listen to it back against your other vocal parts, and see if the notes touch, or actually work in the scale you are using. When singing harmony you should try to avoid scales where the notes touch the other parts. This is not always true. Somtimes short bursts sound good doubled, and in unison, but for the most part you want to find scales that augment and avoid the other parts. Working this out on the keyboard can actually make this easier to find the right notes.

This has more to do with your ear than actually being a keyboardist, since we are talking about single note parts, and can be slowed down.

[Guest Loob]

It seems to have been a long time since anyone has added/replied to this forum, so I'm not even sure if this will be read. But I love singing harmony - so much so that given the choice as a leader, I'd teach someone else the lead line, then lay down harmonies on top -- because the opportunities for creativity - once the melody is established - are vast! I loved an earlier posting exalting Art Garfunkel as a harmonist, because of his freedom to depart from moving thirds/fourths above the melody.

I'll just add one BGV trick, and that is to underexecute 's's and 'p's, most especially in recording, sometimes even to the point of simply ending a word without those consonants. A group of people (more than 2) all laying down hard on sibillants and plosives (to use the tech term) can be a really harsh thing - better to avoid it!

If a person is paying attention to the ssss and ppppp sounds as they sing, then they are probably not singing with feeling. They are focusing on the wrong thing. What I always tell Laurie is to not worry about the production as she sings. Taming those things should be the burden of the engineer. Once a person has rehearsed they should only be worried about singing with feeling, and not worried about ssss or ppppp in their tracks. If they have a pop screen and the engineer is on the ball this will be a non issue. The vocalist should be worried about performance. About the only real technical thing I ask vocalists to remember is to stay back off the mic a bit and project. Other than that they should not be trying to curb their natural pronunciations, including sss and pppp. They will have their hands full just trying to get into character and sing with feeling.

Laurie also used to worry a lot about actual dynamics. She was worried because she would feel it needed to be sung softer and would. I told her not to worry about these things. Just go by feeling and I will be able to make adjustments as needed as the engineer in mix/edit mode. Other than not getting to close too the mic, they should be in performance mode and not technician mode. What you describe about not singing the sss and ppp sounds like a huge distraction and would be difficult to do. You can really do that?

Edited June 29, 2012 by Loob

[melodybeals]

To practice, sing the harmony lines to established songs. (The Eagles Spring to mind) It will give you a feel for your own, or others harmony lines.

This is actually how I learned how to sing harmonies. Literally, I would play boys II Men, and listen to it over and over, and was DETERMINED not to sing the melody. Then when i mastered one song I would move on to the next. I would suggest singing to easy stuff first like Jason Mraz "I'm Yours" or start with duet songs because those have one defined harmony instead of having 2 or 3. You wont get too confused with jumping to a different harmony line.

Hope this helps! I was able to get good enough to be able to write harmonies, and be a back up singer for multiple bands. It's a VERY good skill to have to be a good harmonizer.

[Seokhun]

As a general rule of thumb, having an instrument is ideal for finding harmony. Harmony just means a note that sounds good when paired with another note. In music theory, we call this the overtones and chords. Find an instrument, play a chord with the melody note on the bottom, and sing the third or fifth of that chord, and you've got harmony. It takes practice to identify harmony by ear, but within months, anyone can learn to hear harmony, no medical conditions implied.

Regards,

Kendrick

[GalaSecrets]

To practice, sing the harmony lines to established songs. (The Eagles Spring to mind) It will give you a feel for your own, or others harmony lines.

Also, play with different ranges. Some people do better with a higher octave while others do better in a lower octave. Once you find the one you're comfortable with, just have fun.

[maxmilian9]

The more people you have the more of the notes you can sing. Once you have a sense of the basics of harmony in some key, you can experiment with other keys.. Here's a good example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyHkoxG7cTc

[JosieRose]

If you're struggling, learn the harmony and the melody as two separate things. Practice them both and then record yourself singing the melody in your own time and practice the harmony on top of your own recording to get ready to fit in with other people.