Members ChordGirl Posted July 26, 2007 Members Share Posted July 26, 2007 Harmonies are where it's at for me. Definitely. I've been the sole singer in two bands, which was O.K., until I was in my first band with three part harmonies. There's just something beautiful about voices blending. I love doing harmonies just as much as singing lead. I prefer to have multiple lead vocalists and multiple harmonies. Song doesn't have harmony parts? It probably will if I'm not singing lead, with some exceptions. And it's true that you can hide a lot of {censored}ty musicianship with good vocals. To this date, my highest average pay in a band was with two other girls dressed in T-shirts and jeans strumming guitars(sometimes one guitar at a time, if the other two couldn't play the song) and doing songs like Blackwater, helplessly hoping, seven bridges, a lot of Beatles, california dreamin, etc. About 1/3 of our setlist was original songs with three part harmonies, too. Anyway, now playing in a band without harmonies might just be disappointing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tim_7string Posted July 26, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 26, 2007 Jeff Irok: I hear you on people being self-conscious about their voice. Even though I love to sing, I still find it a little intimidating to sing lead in a room full of people with just an acoustic guitar to accompany me. It feels much safer on stage with three or four other people banging away on instruments and singing along with me. RupertB: I like that idea. I have considered making special mixtapes for each member, highlighting their specific vocal harmony part louder than anything else on tape. I plan on doing that especially for my original songs, but it makes sense to do it for covers too. A lot of work for me, but I think the end result would be worth it. pickinatit: If you can hear the harmonies in your head, it will just take some practice for you to play your instrument and implement the harmonies at the same time. You really have to have your part down pat, especially if it's a complicated one, then you can just relax and sing over it. It took me years of experience to be comfortable to play busy riffs while singing harmony (or lead) parts. ChordGirl: Glad you get to have fun with vocal harmonies in your band. Your post reminded me of some women I saw at an open mic night a few weeks ago. There were three of them and they all harmonized with each other. Two of them switched off on acoustic guitar and lead vocals, while the third was strictly the harmony vocalist. While their acoustic playing was rudimentary at best, the harmonies were awesome! They won over the crowd in a big way which I doubt they would have done if they just had one person singing and one person fumbling away on the acoustic geetar. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToneGrail Posted July 26, 2007 Members Share Posted July 26, 2007 While it can probably be argued that it's a bad assumption on my part - I sorta figure that if an individual is already playing a musical instrument - there's at least a rudimentary perception of musical intervals and pitch. Well I suppose in the cover/wedding band scene that may be true. The standards of musicianship may be a bit higher there. However, I have run into plenty of hacks in the original music scene that have no idea what I'm talking about when I say "sing the third above me". More than likely I'll get a confused look as if I'm speaking a different language. It's quite frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members solitarycheese Posted July 26, 2007 Members Share Posted July 26, 2007 How can I learn to sing harmony? I can harmonize guitar lines with my rudimentary understanding of intervals and scales, and I can match pitch with my voice. What's the next step? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ToneGrail Posted July 26, 2007 Members Share Posted July 26, 2007 How can I learn to sing harmony? I can harmonize guitar lines with my rudimentary understanding of intervals and scales, and I can match pitch with my voice. What's the next step? A good place to start is to sing the notes of the major scale consecutively at the same time saying what the interval is relative to the root. For example, instead of singing doe-ray-me-fa-so-la-tee, sing 1-2-3-4-5-6-maj7. That will give you an understanding of relative pitch intervals. Once you do that, practice singing a root, then sing the third relative to that root, then the fifth, and so on...Then try a 5th relative to the root, etc... Once you've mastered this, you will be able to harmonize quite easily. I actually made up this interval drill that I do with my bandmates. First, we sit around a table. I start it by singing a root and then specifying the interval to the person on my right. That person must sing the interval relative to the root I provided for example "here is the root, sing the 4th". We keep going around until all the intervals are exhausted (including half steps) relative to the root. Then we kick it up a notch by providing the interval and making the next person sing the root for example "Here is the minor 6th, give me the root". After all those intervals are exhausted, then we make the interval relative to another interval for example "Here is the 3rd, sing the 6th". We also change the key each time to make it more challenging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Prog Posted July 26, 2007 Members Share Posted July 26, 2007 I read somewhere that what makes a band is 75% vocals/25% music. My very first booking agent (back when bands made a living ) thought so, too. We were so ignorant and green, we almost felt like we'd get in trouble if we didn't have the harmonies when doing a Doobie Brothers tune, or whatever. It turned out to be a great blessing. Even a mediocre band that has good vocals, will do much better with an audience. By default, every musician should assume they will be singing on every song (lead/backup/whatever), until it's determined to be unnecessary. Keeping that mindset will influence their capability. Hired-gun musicians that can sing do much better than the instrument-only types. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Scafeets Posted July 26, 2007 Members Share Posted July 26, 2007 Being fourth on the vocal depth chart in my band, all I get to sing are harmonies. I'm livin' proof that even a guy with 1/8 of an octave range (OK - maybe a half-octave) can harmonize.And you're right: Harmonies often separate the mediocre from the good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members rhat Posted July 27, 2007 Members Share Posted July 27, 2007 This may come off as a bit of a rant, but I'll try to keep it civil. I have been in bands since I was 16 years old (I'm 37 now). My favorite style of popular music has a lot of vocal harmonies in it. I enjoy listening to bands like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, The Eagles, Electric Light Orchestra, etc. I tend to prefer bands that rock a bit harder like The Who, Van Halen and Alice In Chains but still include harmony vocals in their sound. However, most of the time when I play in a band, the other musicians either can't sing at all or they can sing lead, but either choose not to sing harmony for other members in the band or never tried to learn. This kind of irritates me. It almost seems like harmony vocals in a band is a dying if not lost art, which is a real shame. I read somewhere that what makes a band is 75% vocals/25% music. I enjoy singing harmony vocals a lot, but I also enjoy singing lead. I don't think it's a lot to ask for other members in the group to sing harmony for me when it's my turn to shine, especially right after I just sang harmony for them. But this has happened to me more times than I care to admit. Thankfully, people do sing harmony for me in my current band. Does anyone else run into this problem a lot? If so, what did you do to correct the problem? Any other thoughts on harmony vocals in a modern band are welcome as well. This is a spot on post. Good harmony singers are hard to find. I do think two lead singer types can woodshed it out ,, but it typically LSD takes over and one decides that he is going to sing all the leads ,, and expect the other guy to learn the harmony and will sit back and slag the mistakes. When the LSD type is asked ,, sing the part you want to sing ,, he cant do it. I think its a matter of you just have to slug it it out ,, and both lead type singer have to learn to sing harmony ,,, its just differernt. Its a skill i am going to learn to master... bands without harmony are marginal at best IMO/ rat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted July 27, 2007 Members Share Posted July 27, 2007 ....typically LSD takes over and one decides that he is going to sing all the leads.... I'm guessing that you're not talking about lysergic acid diethylamide - the "LSD" that made Timothy Leary famous right? That being the case I'm sorry to have to interrupt the thread to ask for a acronym definition....however, I hate not understanding what got said. So....what is "LSD" in this context? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members tim_7string Posted July 28, 2007 Author Members Share Posted July 28, 2007 I'm guessing that you're not talking about lysergic acid diethylamide - the "LSD" that made Timothy Leary famous right? That being the case I'm sorry to have to interrupt the thread to ask for a acronym definition....however, I hate not understanding what got said. So....what is "LSD" in this context? LSD = Lead Singer's Disease: A disease where a lead singer treats the band as his backup group and he's the star. May include symptoms of egotism, arrogance, unrealistic expectations and pure out assholishness. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bassred Posted July 28, 2007 Members Share Posted July 28, 2007 I would think that anyone can learn to sing backups.... I sang in the church choir, so I 've had a headstart .... but I had to get a completely new outlook when I started playing in a rock band... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted July 28, 2007 Members Share Posted July 28, 2007 I think its a matter of you just have to slug it it out ,, and both lead type singer have to learn to sing harmony ,,, its just differernt. Its a skill i am going to learn to master... bands without harmony are marginal at best IMO/ rat I hear ya - too often the harmonies are after thoughts, or worse, just adlibed. I'm encouraging the guys in my band to spend time together and assign specific harmony parts to specific people - as in write it down on the whiteboard. This way we are treating the back vocals the same way as learning new material - call it a chart of sorts. This way it's not an option for people to not cover their parts - and better you won't have to deal with memory lapses or other band members singing over the top of you. In fact I'm so hard core on this concept that I basically refuse to sing any background vocals until we can do it this way. We have setlists, I have my list of new tunes or brushups to do - vocal assignments should be treated the same way. Basically I use the Ronald Reagan defense and just say I forgot (that someone wanted me to sing that part) - it's gotta be formalized who sings what... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members SpaceNorman Posted July 28, 2007 Members Share Posted July 28, 2007 LSD = Lead Singer's Disease: A disease where a lead singer treats the band as his backup group and he's the star. May include symptoms of egotism, arrogance, unrealistic expectations and pure out assholishness. Thanks for the explanation. I've been fortunate in that I haven't seen a case of that in any of my bands for quite some time. I have heard a few friends who play lament the ailment a time or two though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Lord Ibanez Posted July 28, 2007 Members Share Posted July 28, 2007 I have in the past, but now my brother and I are in a band together and we have the same musical genes. It really works out nicely, because he's a better singer, and I'm a better guitarist. Also, since we're brothers, we share alot of te same ideas, and we have more time to write stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Prog Posted July 28, 2007 Members Share Posted July 28, 2007 ...the other musicians either can't sing at all or they can sing lead, but either choose not to sing harmony ... They choose not to sing? I guess the bass player can choose not to play. Why any musician would think harmonies are an option is beyond me. I have encountered this odd attitude, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members wades_keys Posted July 29, 2007 Members Share Posted July 29, 2007 It seems that many bands tack the harmonies on as an afterthought, with no real discussion. THen it's kind of an every man for himself type of situation. IMO, ya gotta spend a couple of minutes discussing who's going to sing what parts, and when - and get it written down. When that doesn't happen, it's inevitable that people will forget which parts they are supposed to sing - then you just get a big ole cluster{censored} situation. IMO, vocal parts should be treated the same as the musical parts - discussed beforehand, and practiced beforehand. Like I said before, I basically refuse to do background vocals under those conditions, because inevitably someone else is going to step up to the mike and sing over you, or someone will forget that they are supposed to sing that part... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Zurich17 Posted August 3, 2007 Members Share Posted August 3, 2007 Oh god, just listened to Waterloo Sunset for the first time in maybe a year. I say that - it was the first song on the radio when I woke up, and I've listened to it maybe 15 times today. It was one of the songs I studied for music A Level up till last June - just realised the reason why its such a great song is the harmony vocals. I think I threw away all my scores at the end of the course, damn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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