Can You Harmonize?

[MartinC]

Flem, you have my respect. Even on the guitar, I have to work it out. A guy I play with can do it on the fly on the violin. He hears it once, he's harmonizing the next time it's played. But he's a monster.

[flemtone]

 

Flem, you have my respect. Even on the guitar, I have to work it out. A guy I play with can do it on the fly on the violin. He hears it once, he's harmonizing the next time it's played. But he's a monster.

 

 

Suggestion - don't do it while you're playing. Concentrate only on finding a part. Once you get used to it, then gradually start trying it while playing. Once you train yourself to find the harmony even if it's just a third or fifth, the confidence of being able to do it on the fly is a real confidence-builder. You can find a pattern that's totally unknown in a song but is just constructed out of your head which makes the song totally your own. When others cover your harmony, there's no feeling like it.

 

Confidence and practice is all it takes. You know how to play, you know chord construction. These are the tools that make for finding harmonic structure. Analyze the chords you play on guitar, consider how a change to the chord would accentuate a certain word, a certain line, a certain 'feel' of the lyric - then try to find the same change in a harmony.

 

It's all about the 'feel'. Sometimes it's a fifth, sometimes a 4th, sometimes it's a 6th or a path below the melody. Sometimes it's all of the above. The best way is just to experiment and see where your mind and natural musical ability takes you.

[Steadfastly]

On the spot, without having to "work out" your harmonization before hand? Personally, I can, but Ive come across a lot of people who are not able to. Are you?

Well, of course, I can. All people in Canada can harmonize. Haven't you heard of the HST; the "harmonized" sales tax. We are the most harmonized people on earth.:)

[tim_7string]

 

I 'hear' harmonies. It seems to me that I've always been able to, from the time I was a sprat.

 

 

I think you're right that listening to music that has a lot of vocal harmonies in it as a child can help shape that talent. I was raised on The Beatles, The Hollies, Peter, Paul & Mary, The Doobie Brothers and other groups that featured a lot of harmonies.

 

I always tell people that I can "hear" them too. I'll hear a song that I'm performing in a band and I'll add a harmony to it. An example: I found a similarity between the way SRV & Double Trouble was singing "The House Is A Rockin'" and "Betty Lou's Got A New Pair Of Shoes" (Eddie And The Cruisers), so I suddenly added the harmony part from "Betty Lou" to what the singer in my band was doing with "House." It fit in perfectly, even though that isn't how it goes on the original recording.

 

It's cool to be able to just hear things like that pop into my head. Just wish there were more people that could do it in the bands that I happen to fall into.

[HarpNinjaMike]

I am not so bold as to say I am a great singer, but yes. And often times I can do so to a totally new song. I am good at anticipating melodies. I know a girl, though, who can only sing exactly what she has heard. If you change keys or ask her to alter the melody she can't...I thought that was way strange. You'd think you'd hear the rest of the band and adjust, but no.

I think it comes from listening to singers and not just the instrument I play. I mean, I listen to a ton of music and I think a lot of background singers usually focus on an instrument....so when they listen to music they just try and hear the guitar or something. I am just the opposite. I naturally focus on the vocal melody and have to intentionally listen for other parts. Musical ideas are repeated so widely you eventually pick up on the language.

And honestly, I don't listen to a lot of music with good harmonies.

[pickinatit]

I am not so bold as to say I am a great singer, but yes. And often times I can do so to a totally new song. I am good at anticipating melodies. I know a girl, though, who can only sing exactly what she has heard. If you change keys or ask her to alter the melody she can't...I thought that was way strange. You'd think you'd hear the rest of the band and adjust, but no. .

 

 

We had a young girl singer in my last band that was the same way. We went to transpose a song that was too high for her to a lower key and when she came in after the intro she was in the original key. The way she heard it was the only way she could sing it. I mean if the recording had a melody that started with a G she sang a G. Funniest part of this though, as perfect as her "hearing pitch" was, she couldn't stay on pitch with her singing. LOL

[mstreck]

Harmonize? I can barely play guitar. Man... you guys want EVERYTHING!!!!!

[boomboomdrums]

Not no, but HELL NO !!

[Jmarcus2]

On the spot, without having to "work out" your harmonization before hand? Personally, I can, but Ive come across a lot of people who are not able to. Are you?

It's not an easy thing to do. I can pick out middle harmonies. I'm fortunate. That's one of my strengths.

[Vito Corleone]

Yes, I can easily pick out the harmony part of pretty much any song, or make one up on the spot if it isn't already there.

I wasn't always able to do this though. In my case, it has been a learned skill that I've developed from years of playing and singing. I've known others that can just naturally do it though.

[Vito Corleone]

you all are a bunch of talented mofo's. I'll admit I can't do it very well at all. But then again, my vocal chops are pretty bad. Heck, I'd hire some of you all if my band wasn't all instrumental :-) Seriously, all you guys can nail harmony on the spot? How about if you don't get to pick the starting note but it's assigned. Like, you start on the 5th, major 6th , or 7th, and nail the part. You still good?

 

 

If I HEAR the starting note, I'm going to be able the go up to the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th pretty easily. VERY easily if I hear the chord.

 

Part of being to do that might come from being a keyboard player. When I'm thinking of vocal harmonies, I'm picturing how the chord is layed out on a piano and it makes it much easier for me to 'hear' the individual notes in the chord.

[ToneGrail]

Yes. I have relative pitch, meaning I can sing any note if given a reference note. So if you played me a "C", I can sing an A flat on command.

[J.Paul]

Yeah but it's usually the Michael Anthony interval that I hear and sing the best....
lately (the past few years) I've been taking the baritone parts just for the practice.
.....it's good to shake things up and try things that are un-natural~& get out of your box sometimes.

However; in answer to your question
NO I cannot do it "on the spot" if
~I have never heard the song before and
~am also following (while learning it) on guitar while
~"sitting in" on someone else's rig
~without monitors
~after 11 beers

....... or something like that

ya gotta draw the line somewhere

[tim_7string]

 

Yes. I have relative pitch, meaning I can sing any note if given a reference note. So if you played me a "C", I can sing an A flat on command.

 

 

An augmented fifth? Hmmm, interesting harmony choice...or do you mean the C would be the 3rd and what you are singing would be the Ab below the C, resulting in the key being G#/Ab?

[kmart]

I can, and have found over the years that I can get comfortable with most harmony part ranges, be they higher or lower than the main vocal line; last band I was in, I ended up singing a good amount of low harmony, since our lead had a semi-high range and we had 2 female backup singers with upper register voices as well.

However, it is something I have to work on to get down while simultaneously playing, and my instinct harmonies are often not the best choice when I'm singing along with a couple other backing parts...so there's often a bit of figuring out parts required when doing more than your typical rock & roll gang vox.

[flemtone]

 

Part of being to do that might come from being a keyboard player. When I'm thinking of vocal harmonies, I'm picturing how the chord is layed out on a piano and it makes it much easier for me to 'hear' the individual notes in the chord.

 

 

That's definitely one of the things that helped me when I was young. Sitting at the piano and trying different chords (even not knowing what the 'name' of the chords was but just experimenting) really brings home the different intervals that can work with a variety of harmonies. When you have the history of a 'visual' chord via finger-placement or just chord sounding, it really makes it a lot easier to 'hear' the possibilities.

[vanlatte]

 

That's definitely one of the things that helped me when I was young. Sitting at the piano and trying different chords (even not knowing what the 'name' of the chords was but just experimenting) really brings home the different intervals that can work with a variety of harmonies. When you have the history of a 'visual' chord via finger-placement or just chord sounding, it really makes it a lot easier to 'hear' the possibilities.

 

 

I do the same with guitar, after a while you find that you barely have to think about it when the patterns become second nature.

[Vito Corleone]

That's definitely one of the things that helped me when I was young. Sitting at the piano and trying different chords (even not knowing what the 'name' of the chords was but just experimenting) really brings home the different intervals that can work with a variety of harmonies. When you have the history of a 'visual' chord via finger-placement or just chord sounding, it really makes it a lot easier to 'hear' the possibilities.

 

 

Yes. Having been a piano player first, I picture music in a linear fashion. Which is one reason (I think) why I was never able to become as good a guitarist as I am a keyboard player. I have a hard time picturing notes and chords that have so many possibilities. There's only one place to play Middle C on a piano. On a guitar there's several.

[Thy God]

I can harmonize to an extent. I'd probably be significantly better at it if I were in a band where I actually used the skill vocally. (That's death metal for 'ya. At least I get to get away with harmonizing guitar lines.)

[ToneGrail]

An augmented fifth? Hmmm, interesting harmony choice...or do you mean the C would be the 3rd and what you are singing would be the Ab below the C, resulting in the key being G#/Ab?

 

 

Yes, I was referring to an augmented 5th, but it really doesn't matter. If you gave me the third (E) and told me to sing an augmented 5th (Ab) I can do that too. The reference note you give me doesn't have to be the root. I just need to know what interval relative to the root the reference note is when you give it to me.

[Vito Corleone]

Yes, I was referring to an augmented 5th, but it really doesn't matter. If you gave me the third (E) and told me to sing an augmented 5th (Ab) I can do that too. The reference note you give me doesn't have to be the root. I just need to know what interval relative to the root the reference note is when you give it to me.

 

 

That's a pretty high level of natural ability AND practiced skill! Congrats! Wish I could do that.

[ToneGrail]

That's a pretty high level of natural ability AND practiced skill! Congrats! Wish I could do that.

Thanks Guido61,

I was able to harmonize long before I played piano as a young child. However, playing the piano actually gave me a way of mapping out what I was already able to do and also provided me with a standardized system of communicating musical notes to other singers in terms of relative pitch.

Both my sisters have comparable ability, which leads me to believe that while some of it can be learned with practice, harmonizing ability is largely genetic in nature.

My music nerd friends of mine and I often play a drinking game that revolves around intervals where we all sit around a table with a little keyboard in the center. The person to the right of you has to sing the note relative to the note you play on the keyboard. If he or she misses, then they have to drink. It's quite a fun game and gets harder the more drunk you get.

[Vito Corleone]

My music nerd friends of mine and I often play a drinking game that revolves around intervals where we all sit around a table with a little keyboard in the center. The person to the right of you has to sing the note relative to the note you play on the keyboard. If he or she misses, then they have to drink. It's quite a fun game and gets harder the more drunk you get.

I should get my band to play that game! They've already got the drinking part down....

Yes, I believe a lot of it IS genetic in nature. I've known people like you who just naturally harmonize and have always been able to. For me it was a long process that took me years to be able to train my ear to hear and sing the harmony parts. I 'know' which parts I'm singing and how to get there based on my keyboard playing. (If I want to sing a major 6th, I've usually got to picture the chord on the piano in my head and sing "up" the intervals. I can't just GO to the 6th. I've usually got to go major 3rd-5th-major 6th.) But it's taken years of repetitive practice and gigging to be able to do even THAT much.

[SeniorBlues]

When I was in the eighth grade, my mother agreed to get rid of my battle-axe piano teacher, and we replaced her with a sweet young thing who taught me elementary theory and sight singing. Pretty radical in those days.

[cooterbrown]

If Jesus Christ Himself came down to earth specifically to sing harmony on one song with the singer of His choice, He'd be sitting in the lobby while I cut the tune. Then I'd give Him an inspiring pep-talk just so He wouldn't feel bad.

 

...and after you left, the producer would call me in to recut your vocal track.