Members vanlatte Posted February 1, 2010 Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 My duo is looking into this one, I usually sing backup but the harmonies are just out of reach for me. It's my cross, I can hear harmonies and sing them in my head but my voice won't always cooperate in the higher registers. Anyhoo, those high harmonies are sort of signature with this song, is anybody doing something different there? I suppose I could drop an octave but meh, sometimes that just gets lost in the mix anyway if it's too low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chicken Monkey Posted February 1, 2010 Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 There's two parts, right? Just sing the lower one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vanlatte Posted February 1, 2010 Author Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 There's two parts, right? Just sing the lower one. Neither of us can hit the harmony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members LiveMusic Posted February 1, 2010 Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 I love the song but we can't pull it off for some reason. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ChordGirl Posted February 1, 2010 Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 My old bluegrassy band used to do it in 3 part, I would do a high harmony on it (5th), another would do the 3rd, and we'd all 'roll it up' (me to an octave higher than the melody) and hold it on each chorus, if that makes sense. 'In constant sorrow^^^^ooooooooooo', kind of in slow motion, then 'all through my days' was back to normal tempo. We always got a great response. Ahh, but I guess that doesn't help you with the high parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fjs1229 Posted February 1, 2010 Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 I do Man of Constant sorrow in a three piece, where I play guitar, my buddy plays guitar, manolin and banjo, and a girl sings/plays some percussion instruments. The other two members are really strong singers, the female being classically trained for musical theatre, choir and jazz, plus growing up in northern vt and singing folk songs all her life. The other guy grew up playing and singing lead in bands and used to sing harmony with his older sister. I grew up singing along to the radio however I pleased This works for us: I have a lower voice while the other two are fairly high. They trade off the high parts on most songs, and I hold down the bass side of things. The hardest part for me was keeping my line seperate from theirs. From singing to the radio so much I just got used to matching pitch, not harmonizing. This has been a struggle for me. If we can't all sing our harmony parts, we'll change the key to make it work. Sometimes the line is too low for the girl to sing, but the octave would be too high, so we move it up a half or whole step and try it. It works pretty well for us. Also, with man of constant sorrow, i'd look at arranging it slightly different to better accomodate two singers instead of three. What instruments are you using? Keep in mind you aren't in a five piece bluegrass band. Try moving away from the 'high n' lonesome' and shift it a little towards the bluesier end of the spectrum, the two voices working together to create a lower, smoother sound. If I had to do it with just two people, i'd consider playing it that way, one regular guitar and the other a dobro or slide guitar, and work it that way. The alternative, of course, is to keep it the same and practice until you can hit the harmony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chicken Monkey Posted February 1, 2010 Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 I love the song but we can't pull it off for some reason. I could never remember all the verses--we had a lot of solo breaks in that one while I plumbed the depths of my brain for what came next. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vanlatte Posted February 1, 2010 Author Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 That's not what I meant--There's a lead vocal and TWO harmony vocals. If you can't do the high part, do the lower part. Ah, I need to revisit it I guess...the high harmony always stands out to me the most but will check out the other one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RupertB Posted February 1, 2010 Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 I have no shame when I comes to transposing tunes to suit my voice. My range isn't great, so I do what I have to. I'd say about half of the material I play isn't done in the original key. MoCS is pretty simple chord-wise. With a little work and maybe a capo, you should be able to get it in a key that suits your voices yet still retains the "top of my voice" feel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Flogger59 Posted February 1, 2010 Members Share Posted February 1, 2010 How close do you get to the high part? The tune is in Drop D with a capo on the 2nd fret. Would shifting it down a whole tone make it doable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JilaX^ Posted February 2, 2010 Members Share Posted February 2, 2010 The other guys in the band wanted to do this. We're pretty much a straight up blues band I put my foot down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ido1957 Posted February 2, 2010 Members Share Posted February 2, 2010 Falsetto? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators daddymack Posted February 2, 2010 Moderators Share Posted February 2, 2010 How close do you get to the high part? The tune is in Drop D with a capo on the 2nd fret. Would shifting it down a whole tone make it doable?that's what I was thinking, drop the key to one where you can get the harmonies... the song itself is simple enough to play in any key. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members vanlatte Posted February 2, 2010 Author Members Share Posted February 2, 2010 that's what I was thinking, drop the key to one where you can get the harmonies... the song itself is simple enough to play in any key. Yea that is the plan, have not had a chance to get together on this yet but we have some experimenting to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pine Apple Slim Posted February 2, 2010 Members Share Posted February 2, 2010 Just drop the key to where everyone can hit it.Heck its a bluegrass song, you can play it in any key.Put it where the singers can sing it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members fjs1229 Posted February 2, 2010 Members Share Posted February 2, 2010 The other guys in the band wanted to do this. We're pretty much a straight up blues band I put my foot down. it could easily fit into a blues set. It ain't a 12-bar but its still a I IV V and would be easy enough to convert. vanlatte, im the same way. My vocals have a loooooooong way to go. We're working on a new song and there's a part I just can not dial in the harmony for. The rest of the song sounds fine, I sing with the girl through the whole verse and part of the chorus, but theres one loooooooong phrase with a pretty big arc in it, and just can not find the right note for the jump she does. At this point I dont even know if I just can't hit the note, or if I'm trying to hit the wrong note! Either way, I feel your pain haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members RupertB Posted February 2, 2010 Members Share Posted February 2, 2010 There's two parts, right? Just sing the lower one. Not to say it couldn't be done with just two, but I went back & listened to it again. The Soggy Bottom Boys/Dan Tyminski version has three parts on the chorus. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members dk123123dk Posted February 2, 2010 Members Share Posted February 2, 2010 How close do you get to the high part? The tune is in Drop D with a capo on the 2nd fret. Would shifting it down a whole tone make it doable? I play it in DADGAD tuning with a capo on the third fret. I was thinking perhaps the OP could try the tune without the capo, or maybe on the first fret? dk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chicken Monkey Posted February 2, 2010 Members Share Posted February 2, 2010 Not to say it couldn't be done with just two, but I went back & listened to it again. The Soggy Bottom Boys/Dan Tyminski version has three parts on the chorus. I haven't listened forever, I'm just hearing it in my head and picturing the two sidekicks in Oh Brother singing it. My point, though, was that he's got more than one part to choose from when singing the harmony bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted February 2, 2010 Members Share Posted February 2, 2010 Its a fun song to do. We did it in my old classic rock band when it was still popular. Went over great at times. People had a blast with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Roosterhead S. Posted February 3, 2010 Members Share Posted February 3, 2010 We used to do this, as more of a Johnny Cash-esque electric country stomp than the original version. It helped that my bass player was great with harmonies. Though, like Chicken Monkey said, the verses were really hard for me to remember for some reason. It was fun, and usually went over great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members JilaX^ Posted February 4, 2010 Members Share Posted February 4, 2010 it could easily fit into a blues set. It ain't a 12-bar but its still a I IV V and would be easy enough to convert. Country is just a road I really don't want to go down. I'd rather work on some blues that isn't "I-IV-V" or write some more originals, than work out a country cover, that doesn't fit with our set. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members boxorox Posted February 4, 2010 Members Share Posted February 4, 2010 It's just a song. Change the key. What's the problem? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members goosefartfan Posted February 4, 2010 Members Share Posted February 4, 2010 i read in Don Felder's book on the Eagles how he made up some song on the beach. He brought the song back to the Eagles, and everybody liked it, but Henley needed/wanted a lower key. Felder felt that the song really had it's soul and essence in the key he composed it in. Of course, in the end, the Eagles recorded the song in the key that Henley wanted. They ended up with the huge hit you might have heard of, Hotel California.Moral of the story: Change the key so you can sing it:cop: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tlbonehead Posted February 4, 2010 Members Share Posted February 4, 2010 i read in Don Felder's book on the Eagles how he made up some song on the beach. He brought the song back to the Eagles, and everybody liked it, but Henley needed/wanted a lower key. Felder felt that the song really had it's soul and essence in the key he composed it in. Of course, in the end, the Eagles recorded the song in the key that Henley wanted. They ended up with the huge hit you might have heard of, Hotel California.Moral of the story: Change the key so you can sing it:cop:Geez, how high was it to begin with? I bring that song down from Bb to Am when I do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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