JPF Home Page Forums Musician Gear and Techniques Music Theory and Education Singing harmony with yourself

So, how many folks here sing harmony with themselves when recording? Do you follow the melody? Sing block chord? Sing three different parts or sing some unisons and octaves? What do you do to blend? Any thoughts, funny stories, rules?

By example, please accept these, (in place of even more words trying to describe the details of building the harmonies in various ways as the songs go, and/or for backing examples along with double tracking the lead, with or without harmony in spots):

"One Moving Mind"
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=2488315

"All Over Again"
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=2294114

"Lennon, More Than A Memory"
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=2256449

"Love All There Is"
http://soundclick.com/share?songid=2296846




My rule is to try to make it all interesting, with some twists and turns. After the lead, I'll follow up with any double tracking. Then, I'll experiment up and down with the lead and any backing parts with any notes at first, until the final sounds excites me. (always open for 6th's, 7th's and 9ths). Usually, I'll save something for the later part of the songs. My falsetto gives me a wide range, which I'll try counter melodies with it while in a steady two or three part backing vocals.

John

Excellent work, John.

Your rule is the rule that trumps all others. If I ever wrote a book on music theory, I'd start by saying, "First, make it sound good." Ronnie McDowell was at a session one time, doing harmony overdubs. Someone there told him, "Ronnie, you're not getting three parts all the way through, some of the parts are doubling." Ronnie answered, "Yeah, and it sounds great, doesn't it."

Hi Mike,

Great question!

I try to record two harmony parts as a rule, and let the song tell me where and when. Usually from the second chorus on, and sometimes verses after the first chorus will get at least "line ending" harmonies.

I loop each phrase in my sequencer and start mumbling along, by the third or fourth repeat usually have something, by the tenth or fifteenth, something good. I hate doing things by rote, formulaically...Usually the songs themselves "tell you" what to do with the harmonies...in one from about three months ago there were some Brian Wilson "counterpoint" type vocals that took the same words the main vocal had, but stretched them to a different melody, that fit of course. The same song had C S & N style added 9th block chords in there as well. Harmonies can really help give ones sound a distinction that other instruments can only dream about.

Mike

You guys are great. I'm still working on learning to sing the melody.

Joe

haha Joe me too

Harmonize with myself? To me, that's what multitracking is for! When I was a kid, not long after "Hey Jude" came out, I was obsessed with The Beatles (still am), and I wanted to do what they did. So I got an idea! I recorded myself singing a verse of "Hey Jude" on my Radio Shack cassette player. Then I put another cassette in the family stereo, and recorded myself singing harmony along with that Radio Shack recording. Wow! Multitracks! It amazed my family, and sparked a lifelong jones for recording.

Many years later...well, last year...I finally got into digital recording, and unlimited tracks. And my favorite part of track-by-track recording is that I can sing as many parts as I want. This is one of my first attempts to be a one man choir:

Hold On Strong To Your Love

Yup, I sang the high part too...but when soloed out, it sounds a lot like Mickey Mouse. An angry Mickey Mouse. Not very pretty all alone. (You know, the BeeGees kinda sang like Mickey too. But that's hot.)

A little later I wanted to try a Beach Boys kind of thing. Please pardon my lyrics.

My Little STD

And here's one last example where I let a two-voice harmony play "lead" all through the song. That's against the rules, by the way. Please don't report me.

Serena

You can do a lot of things now with harmonies. Sometimes I like to make a set of harmonies function like another instrumental part. You can run them through a filter and some effects, and they can do fun things. Remember the Beatles harmonies like that in "Octopus's Garden", or "Lady Madonna"? Always fun to do, and there's something about the imperfection of voices...when they sing in harmony, the little dissonant bits just sound better than instruments to me.

Okay enough already.

Mark, cool stuff, Minnie would love it

One thing I do in the studio is bring in some singers, maybe three, then we sing three or four parts, each one in unison. Another trick is when one singer sings all the parts, I'll have them sing three or five tracks of each part, take one of those tracks and digitally tune the dogsnot out of it, just short of being a warbley yodel, then put that track in the center, fairly low volume. After that I pick the untuned parts to hard pan around it. Another thing, when singing my own harmonies, I'll do four parts, the bass and baritone, then the tenor with two unison parts that I hardpan.

Harmony is fun and it just...well...harmonizes so well with the song.

I do a lot of harmonies and background oohs and aahs. One time I posted a song on JPF with some harmonized ooohs in the background and someone said "nice patch". I think they thought it was synthesized or sampled. Not sure what to think about that!

Colin,

A good friend once told me that when I'm unsure how to take something, I should assume that it is positive. That way, I don't give negative "vibes" to people who have said something positive, but I give positive "vibes" to people who have said something negative. Either way it is a plus for me.

Good advice Mike!

I sing harmony like intoxicated elephants tap dance! I barely sing lead. Actually, until I suffered a near 6-month episode of laryingitis many years ago, I had a relatively deep, decent voice. Now, I sound like a cement truck having a hernia! I would post one or two samples of "back then" when, my voice was good, but...they're cover tunes for which I have no license. So, I really shouldn't post them. But, I asure you, you would be amazed at the difference! You would hardly know it was me from what you have heard from me here at JPF. I lost half an octave on the low register and three-fourths of an octave on the high end. That leaves me pretty monotoned with a limited range. Sucks!

To more specifically answer your question, I usually do a tenor harmony and then either a duplicate of the lead or the lead melody an octave lower. I often have to stretch bigtime to get that lower octave! I would love to be able to do a baritone harmony. But the voice ain't there anymore. Plus, I cannot sing any harmony (never could) during a live performance because my voice always drifts back to following the lead vocal. When I record at home, I turn the lead vocal down substantially so I can hear my harmony good enough to be somewhat on key.

On this one I did recently for John Hoffman, you can hear the melody twin and the one octave lower.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=276329&songID=7639624

It's still very mediocre harmony. And you can here the monotone in my voice. It's in the key of "D" but would sound so much better in "F" or "G". My vocal limitation since the laryngitis has robbed me of that range.

I've always admire guys like Darrell McCall and Steve Wariner who can just do killer harmony.. All the best to you, Mike!

Alan

Actually, my attempts at self-harmony and chorus type stuff arose from Mark K's pioneering stuff here at JPF. I know it is done a lot out in the recording world, but Mark's stuff was the first time I had heard a home recordist do it all. I don't really plan out the harmonies -- I just try and sing higher and lower and see how it works out (LOL!).

Sometimes it works out and sometimes it defies description.

Here's a couple (I actually plan to re-do American Dream with a little more universal/timeless second verse pretty soon).


Take Me Where You're Going: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6805441. I go from one backing singer, to 2, to 3 and then 4.

Hey American Dream: http://soundclick.com/share?songid=6496523 Tried to go for more of a big fat Rolling Stones type chorus.

Kevin

I harmonize with myself all the time. Tend to improvise, altho I do occastionally write out the notation as I am a visual person. I like multi-layered stuff, so it can get complicated. I find when I harmonize by ear I do more interesting things than if I write out a 3rd/5th chart.

I record with myself all the time too, Normally i make at least three, one lead, two choir, sometimes I like to make also weird things like at the end of "NIGHTMARE"
http://myspace.com/priscillahernandez
the easy way to harmonize for me is with less like in "away"
youtube.com/yidneth
Right now in my second album i'm approaching a little bit of more "symphonic classical choir" in which i'm making the mimic of voices different than mine (children like, very low tone, and very high pitched, in at least 14 layers and very softly in the back of the mix which gives the feeling of a choir there) and then the lead and main harmonies on top . Have done successfully a couple of songs, but it's not perfect yet, now all i need (for these so heavily with myself is to find a few volunteering different voices on top and i think i'll have a real choir feeling )

I see (above) I already answered this once. That part hasn't changed--you might say I can put the "harm" in "harmony."

I did record one song with myself (felt really kinky doing that, too)--"Electronic Love." www.soundclick.com/share?songid=6630113. Since the singer is intentionally androgynous (it's got the line "I can be whatever sex you want me to"), I thought it'd be fun to have both a guy voice and a girl voice on it. And there's a setting on the Tascam that allows me to do that. It's called "duet": you sing, and it records a second copy of your voice in a higher register. So "we" (if you can call it that) are both (if you can call it that) singing melody (if you can call it that). Haven't used it anywhere else.

Joe

Harmonies is one thing I don't have a very good musical imagination for, so I tend to rely on my harmonizer.

Sometimes I stretch to double my vocal track and use it for backing vox, or for improving a mix by changing the pitch an octave.

So, it's an area I could use some learning for sure.. maybe in a couple years

Magne,

Here's a little harmony drill.

Sing do re mi fa sol la ti do

Then do mi sol ti, drop down to re fa la do and repeat often. That will give you a feel for thirds...one of the most basic harmonies.

Thanks Mike, I will work on that.. whats a guitar player if he can't sing.. great drill.. Appreciate it!

I often feel lost without my guitar, so when Im to accompany a vocal with my voice, Im no good. I look forward to improve with this..

Mark's work in that department is nothing but outstanding!

Magne,

Once you get good at that, try this.

Record yourself singing:

Do Re Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

record a "count in" on it, you know 1 2 3 4...do re do re etc.

Then when you play it back, sing:

Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do Re Mi...keep going up for the last "re me"

The first "Do Re" will be in unison, after that, you'll be singing harmony thirds with yourself.

I am singing three part harmonies with myself on this new song...... [u][color:#000099]Florence Is The Name[/color][/u]

I love singing harmonies with myself - as with Mark, that was one of the reasons to get multitracking software.

Coming up with the first harmony part is usually pretty easy for me - I just sing something that I like. Coming up with the second part is a bit harder - I try to carve something out that isn't hitting the same notes as the melody and first harmony part. Not always successfully.

Here is an example of one of mine - a song called "Your Voice Singing". The three part harmony is on the third verse - near the end.

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/page_songInfo.cfm?bandID=377550&songID=8211995

Cool to read what other folks do.....

Scott