Harmony Help

[natethegreatest]

Okay, I've been experimenting with vocal harmonies for a while now, but there is one thing I need some rules for. How do you create smooth three or four part harmonies that follow a melody?

Sometimes I can do it with just trial and error, but usually it's a pain with no "guidelines" to follow. Some bands like Jellyfish and Queen seemed to be able to do this effortlessly.

I know that when harmonizing in three or four in pop music it is best to stick to the background chord tones as much as possible, but what about passing tones? If you have three or four parts following a stepwise melody, you're going to have all the voice hit passing tones. What do you do to keep all the voices from sounding bad when clashing against the background chords during a passing tone?

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

 

[Brahmb]

Theory or practice

If you're looking to write out your harmonies to share with others, then I'd suggest picking up a theory book, or looking at a hymnal. I know this sounds strange in today's world, but many, many hymns are filled with what you're looking for (passing tones, voice leading, etc). Queen used harmonies on certain words of phrases, not all of them. That's one of things that gave them a unique sound. Placing the harmonies along the text is as important as which chords...

Many singers, however, will just want to harmonize and do it naturally. This is a skill that is usually inborn (not always... it can be taught).

Either way, the harmonies will depend on the style of music. Rock is generally in thirds and suspensions. Jazz and blues bass their harmonies more on the scales involved in the song. It's difficult to give you exact help without knowing what you're trying to create...

 

[Emusic]

A passing tone? Explain please.
3 or 4 harmonies might be a overkill. Some of the vocalists I'm working with can add second and third voices easy as that. But they have been singing for a long time, often second voices in choirs and such.
Just use the 1,2,3 and 5 from the chords that the tune currently is into. Allways go down from the lead vocal i.e. if the tune is in a C chord and the main vocal sings a G note then step down to a C, D or E not up.
This is an easy way to add second vocals.
Try to play it or hum it first, then memorize it and finally record it.

 

[Garry Sharp]

Emusic - a passing tone is one that doesn't sit inside the appropriate scale but that you might pay a brief visit to on the way to one that does.

Nate there was quite a good thread on this topic in this forum a few months ago - worth searching for. For working out harmonies there is nothing like playing the chord on a keyboard and experimenting.

 

[Layla Nahar]

If your ears aren't solving all the problems for you, I'd suggest writing your harmonies out and getting a good book. (try to find one with excercises and answers) the combination of writing your own stuff and doing the excercises will make the rules (principles) much clearer to you. Also, when you write out your stuff, 'describe' it to yourself - ie - "Ok, in the lead voice I have the 3rd chord tone of II-7, in the second voice I have the b7..." Absorb that stuff and try to make as many connections as you can.

 

[dgatwood]

Caveat: IANAMT. (I am not a music theoretician. My parents... probably qualify, but....) Others will likely disagree with a lot of what follows.... You have been warned.

I would argue that a passing tone usually -does- sit in the scale (though not always). It just doesn't sit in the current chord. A passing tone, IIRC, is defined as a semi-dissonant note between two consonant notes. Most of the time, this ends up being a scale step between two notes of the current chord. In such cases, it is often used as a transition between chords. The reverse of this is a suspension, which basically is just a special term for a passing tone that lags behind a chord change, but that's me being really imprecise again....

Classic example of both: play a C major chord. Put the melody voice on a high C. Put a harmony voice on the E. Put another harmony voice on a D. Move to the C. Move both the C and E up to D and F. Resolve this to E and G. That first D was likely a suspension from a prior G major chord. The next chord is likely F major, though it also might very well be E-flat major followed by F major and G in short succession.

You will note that at the point where the vocalists were singing DFC, this was dissonant against the CEG chord. However, because it quickly passed on to another set of notes, your ear doesn't perceive it as dissonant.

Passing tones can be very effective if used judiciously. That means don't do too much. You probably don't want more than one part of a harmony to be in a passing tone at the same time unless they are moving in parallel thirds or some fairly carefully contstructed counterpoint. It is extremely rare for two passing tones to resolve at different times and not end up sounding wrong, IMHO....

You also probably don't want more than one -long- passing tone every two or three measures, IMHO, as it can get very distracting. Shorter passing tones are a different matter, and unless they start colliding on the same notes or getting too close to the melody, the number of passing tones per measure is probably not a useful metric of quality....

Note that the above advice -only- applies to the harmony. The melody should be free to do passing tones constantly, and probably will. A melody that sits almost entirely in-chord will usually be rather boring, though it's common in folk songs....

IMHO, it's also particularly effective to add some counterpoint here and there, which tends to result in passing tones as well. As with anything, don't overdo it or it will end up sounding like a freshman theory project, but....

 

[Supercreep]

Okay, I've been experimenting with vocal harmonies for a while now, but there is one thing I need some rules for. How do you create smooth three or four part harmonies that follow a melody?

Sometimes I can do it with just trial and error, but usually it's a pain with no "guidelines" to follow. Some bands like Jellyfish and Queen seemed to be able to do this effortlessly.

I know that when harmonizing in three or four in pop music it is best to stick to the background chord tones as much as possible, but what about passing tones? If you have three or four parts following a stepwise melody, you're going to have all the voice hit passing tones. What do you do to keep all the voices from sounding bad when clashing against the background chords during a passing tone?

Any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!!

Hey Nate -


Try learning a polyphonic instrument so that you appreciate chord structure and (subsequently) inversions and movement within chords. There's no magic bullet - it's just building chords with individual tracks.