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Help with harmonizing

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YoyoZ

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  • 2 weeks later...

(Because of possible malware, I only check streamed content like SoundCloud, Youtube, etc., so I haven't listened to your clip. But I'd like to hear it if you can stream it.)

I was just messing around today, (dee-dah dee-dahing about) shifting pitch and singing over my own vocals. Something clicked into place, and I felt that I was using the same notes, even though I was a few pitches lower (don't ask me how many!). But I guess that the harmonics of the notes were coinciding. So, finding that clicking point is probably important.

Couple of very short clips...

(The melody itself may or may not be using a Western scale, I don't know, so the melody itself may sound odd -- not to my ears, though, as I was bought up with the genre.)

Then there is this old clip of me practising singing over my own vocals on a popular song. This time it involves a little harmony, and not just unison. It's a really good exercise for placement and getting differentiation in your registers.

 

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@MDEW since you sing live in a band, do you do anything special to practise harmonizing?

I've been told that one of the problems is that everybody has subtle differences in phrasing, even when learning from one source, and that has to be ironed out. You will often see singers eyeballing each other's mouth when doing a duet, for example, just for the cues.

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59 minutes ago, kickingtone said:

@MDEW since you sing live in a band, do you do anything special to practise harmonizing?

I've been told that one of the problems is that everybody has subtle differences in phrasing, even when learning from one source, and that has to be ironed out. You will often see singers eyeballing each other's mouth when doing a duet, for example, just for the cues.

Most of harmony singing is creating chords with the different voices. A chord is 2 or more notes (the basic is three notes)from the same scale. The chord of Gmajor consists of the notes. G, B and D. A root note, a note a 3rd above and a note a 5th above the root.  If someone is singing the note of G a harmony note would be B or D. It does get more complicated than that but this is a general description of Harmony.

Using Do, re, Mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do ...1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(octave,same note as the root)  as our scale. as an example of a melody is ....Do, Re, Mi, Do(1,2,3,1)....a harmony would be Mi, Fa, Sol, Mi(3,4,5,3).

1(do) 2(re) 3(mi) 4(Fa) 5(Sol) 6(La) 7(Ti) 8(do)   1(do) 3(mi) 5(sol) is a Maj Chord.

Great examples of harmony singing are "Everly Brothers" and "Simon and Garfunkle". Look them up on Youtube if you have not heard of them.

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I didn't hear the example for the reasons given, so I don't know if the OP is asking about harmonizing or only about harmony.

If you already know what the harmony is, there is still skill needed in singing it -- matching pitch centres (which become more critical in a duet, for example), blending timbres, matching the rhythm exactly (slightly out of sync can sound like a mess), etc. And that's just for 2 people. Maybe join a barbershop quartet for the full monty!

The majority of my favourites songs involve harmonized vocals, including S&G, Everly Brothers, Peter Paul and Mary, ABBA,... it's the blended voices that is the main feature for me. Recently I discovered The Seekers, lol! Judith Durham's voice is amazing on its own, but it goes so well in the mix, too. She is without a doubt one of the best female singers in pop, imo, and still going strong.at 76!

My musical taste is pretty scattered. I mainly only have favourite bands when it comes to good vocal harmonizing.

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21 hours ago, MDEW said:

The chord of Gmajor consists of the notes. G, B and D. A root note, a note a 3rd above and a note a 5th above the root.  If someone is singing the note of G a harmony note would be B or D. It does get more complicated than that but this is a general description of Harmony.

 

the cord of G may consists of G, A, B, C, D, E, F♯. there are always 7 notes (plus 1) to any chord

Come on now MD you should no that won, your be fooling like SLM next
 

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22 hours ago, kickingtone said:

(Because of possible malware, I only check streamed content like SoundCloud, Youtube, etc., so I haven't listened to your clip. But I'd like to hear it if you can stream it.)

I was just messing around today, (dee-dah dee-dahing about) shifting pitch and singing over my own vocals. Something clicked into place, and I felt that I was using the same notes, even though I was a few pitches lower (don't ask me how many!). But I guess that the harmonics of the notes were coinciding. So, finding that clicking point is probably important.

Couple of very short clips...

(The melody itself may or may not be using a Western scale, I don't know, so the melody itself may sound odd -- not to my ears, though, as I was bought up with the genre.)

 

Har har har! the words silly little melody springs to mind

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55 minutes ago, singing squirrel said:

the cord of G may consists of G, A, B, C, D, E, F♯. there are always 7 notes (plus 1) to any chord

Come on now MD you should no that won, your be fooling like SLM next
 

You are confused. Come on squirrel, you know that.  There is a difference between a SCALE and a Chord. A Basic chord is built using notes from the Scale and has 3 or more notes sounded at the same time. Basic Chords includes 3 or 4 different notes. 1st(root) 3rd and 5th sometimes the 7th is included. Yes it can get more complicated but THAT is the basic idea.

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7 hours ago, MDEW said:

You are confused. Come on squirrel, you know that.  There is a difference between a SCALE and a Chord. A Basic chord is built using notes from the Scale and has 3 or more notes sounded at the same time. Basic Chords includes 3 or 4 different notes. 1st(root) 3rd and 5th sometimes the 7th is included. Yes it can get more complicated but THAT is the basic idea.

Hear my latest song I am working on. Night Fever in the key of F may.

First chord on the melody. Lis-ten to the ground, all in C

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