Harmony singers who sing unison

[Chordptrn]

...when unison is not part of the song. I find that annoying - especially when their voice is distinctively different than yours. There's a variety of reasons they do it (limited range/not sure the notes to sing/trying stuff/lead is too high range). When I sing harmony I stay away from the main melody.... What do you think?

[SevenString]

It's one of my pet peeves. I'll be in a performing situation, and some friend of a friend will say, "Hey, let me sing some backups, dude!"

 

This almost never ends well, because the so called "backups" is almost never singing a harmony part where appropriate. It usually turns out to be an unpleasant droning on the melody, only not quite right. This not only sounds awful, but messes ME up in my performance.

 

I had a situation where I was doing a gig as the lead singer, and the drummer decided to "help" me by singing in unison. This was immediately intolerable, so I stopped singing a couple of times while he was doing this. He apparently didn't have the balls to maintain this on his own, so he would immediately stop, leaving a gaping hole in the vocal part.

 

So during the break, he said, "Why were you stopping?"

 

I said, "Well, you seem so anxious to sing the lead that I figured I would just let you."

 

He got all huffy about it, but I told him, "Backup vocals is NOT singing the lead line in competition with the lead singer. It's singing the harmonies or other relevant BACKUP parts in SUPPORT of the song. So, either I'm singing lead, or you are, but not both at the same time. Either way, I already got paid."

 

Interestingly enough, the manager of that band who had hired me to fill in for that gig was hiding in the audience that night, and by the end of the night was SEVERELY pissed about the drummer's unprofessional behavior. Apparently the drummer thought that since I wasn't the usual singer, and that the manager wasn't there (or so he thought) that he could just do whatever the heck he wanted.

 

Not so. He was "busted" when the manager came to talk to us after the gig. That whole "singing lead over me" thing ended up getting the drummer fired, and I never had to say a THING to the manager about it.

[Chordptrn]

Good to know I'm not the only one who finds it annoying/distracting/frustrating....

 

[Barry_Blink_a_lot]

I always liked the sound of Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins singing in unison with Genesis, but that may be because they have such similar voices.

[Consume]

It's one of my pet peeves. I'll be in a performing situation, and some friend of a friend will say, "Hey, let me sing some backups, dude!" This almost never ends well, because the so called "backups" is almost never singing a harmony part where appropriate. It usually turns out to be an unpleasant droning on the melody, only not quite right. This not only sounds awful, but messes ME up in my performance. I had a situation where I was doing a gig as the lead singer, and the drummer decided to "help" me by singing in unison. This was immediately intolerable, so I stopped singing a couple of times while he was doing this. He apparently didn't have the balls to maintain this on his own, so he would immediately stop, leaving a gaping hole in the vocal part. So during the break, he said, "Why were you stopping?" I said, "Well, you seem so anxious to sing the lead that I figured I would just let you." He got all huffy about it, but I told him, "Backup vocals is NOT singing the lead line in competition with the lead singer. It's singing the harmonies or other relevant BACKUP parts in SUPPORT of the song. So, either I'm singing lead, or you are, but not both at the same time. Either way, I already got paid." Interestingly enough, the manager of that band who had hired me to fill in for that gig was hiding in the audience that night, and by the end of the night was SEVERELY pissed about the drummer's unprofessional behavior. Apparently the drummer thought that since it wasn't the usual singer, and that the manager wasn't there (or so he thought) that he could just do whatever he wanted. Not so. That whole "singing lead over me" thing ended up getting the drummer fired, and I never had to say a THING to the manager about it.

 

 

You know, I just had to tell my guitarist to stop singing over me. He often steps up to the mic and sings one word or two (which really bugs me) and I stopped playing and singing mid-song at band practice and told him,"Don't do that - it throws me off." Because all of a sudden - out of nowhere - I hear this "off" sound - and it's not my voice....and it makes me immediately think,"okay, did I just flip out of key or something?" Because he sings from his lungs/throat rather than the diaphragm because he is after this really breathy tone, so it is completely unlike my voice. I figure- hey, if he wants to blow his voice out - be my guest! LOL

I enjoy playing with these guys, but vocals are definitely not the bands strong part.... I'm working on it, but it's taking time.

They've asked me to take on more and more songs, but I'm not going to do it.

The problem is - my training has been for a completely different type of style

 

Think Eric Adams from Manowar. That is what I have been training for for quite a few years.

Now think Eric Adams from Manowar singing GOOGOO DOLLS!

 

Well, when I sing these cover songs - that's what you get. I'm not going to attempt to sing like the guy from the Googoo Dolls. I sing the way that I sing - so if they want me to do it - they are going to get a Powermetal singer, singing pop and radio hits.

 

I was hoping it would cure them of asking me to take over more songs, but once I started with the Googoo dolls song (Long Way Down), they were like,"Dude - that's the best sounding song we have! You need to sing more songs!"

 

I think neither one of them really wants to sing, and I'm not thrilled about singing these songs, although my rendition of Three Dog Night's "One" is pretty good. (We do the Dokken version, since it's just bass, guitar, and drums.)

 

I'm in the middle of switching over to triggering - just spent last night installing a new set of triggers inside the drumkit...mmmm Ya gotta love the ddrum2 unit - that thing RULES! But I figured that by doing this, I'll be able to help control the stage volume and nobody will have to scream on stage because we do tend to be fairly loud....which totally destroys any chance at harmony vocals - and you get me singing a harmony up higher than the other two singing in unison.