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"Finding" Harmonies

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deleted member 79588
  • Start date Start date
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Deleted member 79588

Sep 19, 2006
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#1
Agggh I'm getting kind of frustrated. I'm going to start singing backups in our cover band, and most songs I can "find" the harmony because I can hear it pretty distinctly in the song but theres a couple that elude me... My Sharona is one of them. For some reason I just cant seem to find the notes for it. Any suggestions? Maybe play the melody and harmony on a keyboard to get it? :help:
 
#2
Armueller2001 said:
Agggh I'm getting kind of frustrated. I'm going to start singing backups in our cover band, and most songs I can "find" the harmony because I can hear it pretty distinctly in the song but theres a couple that elude me... My Sharona is one of them. For some reason I just cant seem to find the notes for it. Any suggestions? Maybe play the melody and harmony on a keyboard to get it? :help:
Click to expand...

You could use a keyboard, or just use the upper registers on your bass. You can also find the sheet music, and then look at the chords...that will tell you which notes are being played (and sung) usually.
 
#4
I remember having this problem years ago, and I can only advise that you continue to work to develop the ability. It's kind of like you have to split your hearing between the root part being sung by someone else, and your own pitch. It's really very similar to what you have to do to learn a bass part by ear....you identify what you hear, and reproduce it, except that you're working with a chord instead of a single note melody.

What REALLY helped me was to listen to a lot of music with vocal harmonies while driving. Instead of singing along with the melody line, always try to cop the harmony vocals. It's just something you develop a feel for. You can just sit down and try to pick the harmony line out on an instrument, but that's not going to help you to improvise harmonies or instinctively sing them on your own.
 
#5
Do you mean picking it out while learning the song or chasing it during a performance???

Chasing is always bad...just leave the harmony out. For picking it out, if you can't lock into the note on your own have someone that is able to pick it out easier find it for you and sing along while you listen. What works for most folks I know is to accept this harmony note as the new melody and try to block out the other singing.....just like pulling the bass line/guitar out of a song when learning it.
 
#6
mchildree said:
What REALLY helped me was to listen to a lot of music with vocal harmonies while driving. Instead of singing along with the melody line, always try to cop the harmony vocals. It's just something you develop a feel for. You can just sit down and try to pick the harmony line out on an instrument, but that's not going to help you to improvise harmonies or instinctively sing them on your own.
Click to expand...

This is sound advice. Try listening to music with the intent of following the harmony. If you're unfamiliar with your vocal range and singing it might take you a few seconds before you can "tune in" to the note that is being sung as a harmony. Soon though, you should be able to get a feel for it and then take a note and move it up or down an ocatve above the recorded version straight away, without having to approximate first. As soon as you get used to htting notes perfectly you're good to go.
 
#7
For years I just sang the bass note when I was asked to sing any harmony parts. It was easy since I just sang whatever the root of the chord change was. I pretty much convinced myself that I was basically just a lousy singer and bass notes were all that I could manage.

But over the past year I started to really harmonize, and more recently I have been singing lead vocals on several of the songs we do in my classic rock cover band. My wife was amazed that I could sing at all .... :eek:

I agree with the advice above, get some CD's of good vocal groups and sing along. It's definitely a learned skill, and you'll get a bunch more work if you're a singing bass player. I can pretty much harmonize on the fly now .... I never thought I would ever be able to do that ..... :cool:
 
#8
I'm with Pointbass, except that I have a low voice and when I sing backup I sing the bottom of the harmony (which is usually the note I'm playing). I'm generally able to hit the note I'm after very solid, so the rest of the band builds the 4 part on top of that
 

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