LIVE2PLAY University

Providing the knowledge you need to

reach your goal of musical success…

Some singers would give a king's ransom. . .

The other day I was listening to a bluegrass show on the radio and thought,"What separates great harmony singing from mediocre harmony singing?" While one group had a sound that was quite forgettable the next was stunningly memorable. I have determined that there are three elements that make up a good harmony part.

Pitch

If one voice is slightly flat or sharp to the chord being sung, the chord will not ring as it would if everyone was really in tune. You can each check yourself and see how you.re doing by singing just one note, like the 1st, the 3rd, and the 5th of a major chord, in an empty room. When the pitch is just right, you will hear overtones of the notes you are singing and the overall chord will sound like one note instead of three notes. There is a delightful symmetry to the sound of two or three notes sung in perfect harmony; the more you practice listening for that symmetry, the better you will get at recognizing it when it happens.

Phrasing

My mother was a singer in a big band and she used to drill all of us kids in the church choir, as well as my family at home, in how to phrase every line of a song together. Staying with the beat really helps. Let.s say your lyric is "Lets go down to the valley, the valley where the river flows" in 4/4 time. You want all the voices to be saying those words, not a countermelody or an "ooh pad." Whoever is leading can count off: 1...2...3...4..."Let's go down to the valley" keeping the rhythm going while you sing.

Stop and identify where each word hits the beat. For instance, if "Let's" is on the downbeat of 1, "go" is on the 2, "down" is on the 3 and "to the" is on the 4-and. "Valley" would start the next measure on 1. With "Val-" on the 1 and "ley-" held over the 2, 3, and 4 beats. If everyone can count and sing on the downbeat, this helps get the phrasing together. The next step is to watch each other's mouths and begin and end each word together. A good exercise for phrasing is to say the words of a song together, while keeping the beat, before you sing them.

Blend

There are at least two different ways to listen for a good blend. One is to listen to the sound of the individual voices in your group and figure out what qualities each voice has. The other is to examine the qualities of a lead singer's voice to mimic his or her sound in the background harmonies. A baritone singer may have a gravelly sound on the lower notes of his range, which may not blend as well with the breathy thin voice of a soprano. An alto may sing with a lot more tone in her voice than anyone else in the group and may not blend well with the other singers.

The thing to do is to analyze each voice, not in terms of good or bad, but in terms of how much breath is in the voice, how much tone, how words are formed, what the vowels and what consonants sound like at different pitches. A good exercise to do together to improve your blend is to pick vowel sounds and practice singing the melody of a song you are working on using only one vowel sound. For example, sing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" using only the sound of "o." Listen for where the placement of the letter "o" changes in your body depending on whether you are singing the high notes in the song or the low notes. See if you can get the letter "o" to sound the same, no matter where the notes are. If you are backing up another singer, practice mimicking their sound and watch his or her lips.