Hi,
Perhaps somebody could explain how 4 part harmonies are contructed. Is there a general rule as to how they are to be layed out? i.e a root note followed by a 3rd a 5th then an octave etc?

I havent really worked with voices before in my work and i am keen to improve my understanding of vocal harmony. Particularly the type used in 'when u were mine'.

howcomeudontcallme said:

My knowledge of harmonies is limited on a technical level. I know that the haramony voices depend on the key, chord, etc, you just dont follow the lead vocal by a 4th, (unless you're Alice In Chains).

When you were mine, for instance, during the verses, uses a lead vocal and a drone vocal, where the voice stays on a single note, except certain spots, like where the initial voice would HIT that drone note. During the chorus and the backup spots, ("so fiiine, didn't care, when he was there" etc) is a different story. When I do harmonies, I'll usually do just a two part harmony and then add an octave on top of it.

Another example of harmonies is to have two parts that do NOT follow each other. Take my version of "Life Can be So Nice" (see the link below). The vocals at the break - at around 1:45 - the lower vocal on the left is just an ascending line, while the lead and right voices are in unison. There WAS a 4th part in there going counter to the left channel, but, it was hollered at the top of my lungs, so it REALLY didn't fit so well.

The more complex harmonies DO use some serious musical theory to pull it off, (like "An Honest Man" - that's like what, 8 part harmony?) That stuff is mapped out, charted and crazy stuff. I just go by what sounds right - so, I KNOW I'm really cheating myself of a wide spectrum of options, because, what sounds "right" can be tricky. Sometimes dissonance on a second voice will make a third voice pop out even better, ("When Doves Cry" comes to mind).

Now I'm just rambling.

There are some classical contrapunct rules you could follow, of which the most important ones that spring to mind are:
* Avoid parallel octaves and parallel 5ths
* Don't cross voices (you know, the bass voice getting above the tenor)
* all other rules I don't remember right now (now where's theChronic when you need him... )
Of course you can blindly use these rules and it will all sound nice, but it's better to be aware of such rules and do your own thing with them (especially in pop music). For example I am a sucker for parallel octaves (like a falsetto voice one octave above the main melody).

erikd said:

Good points Erikd. And yeah, I'm with you - I LIKE folks who break the rules tastefully. Indigo Girls tend to overlap each other all the time and it's wicked cool, but, if you do it a lot, it just sounds like you don't know what you're doing... which is to say, I do that stuff A LOT in my songs!

The bass note doesn't always have to be the root. I found this cool link: http://www.smu.edu/totw/invert.htm

There are many rules, depending on what chords you are using. I still have the books we used in high school for my AP Harmony class. Every week we learned a new rule for different chord progressions, so it's pretty indepth. I would take a music theory class if you really want to get into it. However, Erik and Otan have some good tips!

Ooooh, I think this might be what you need:

http://www.smu.edu/totw/partwrit.htm

And here is the full table of contents: http://www.smu.edu/totw/toc.htm

Takes me back to high school.

in my best B sharps barbershop quartet voice - Thannnnk U all For your comments, for youuuur comments.

howcomeudontcallme said:

The B sharps were great.
I remember when I was in a singing group, we used a lot of thirds in our harmonies. Other than that, I've always just done what felt good.
Rules suck. Remember to do what feels good to you.

The best thing is to learn some real music theory first like voice leading and about harmony in general, and then break all of the rules when you write your own music. Let your ear be your biggest teacher. If Prince followed the classical rules of voicing his music would sound like Bach or Beethoven. So you see my point?

Bach and Beethoven broke the rules too.
The funny thing is, when you let your good ears to be your biggest teacher, you'll probably end up following the classical rules for the largest part.
Remember that rules are coming from awesome musicians who also did what they did because it *felt* good, they are just some rules of thumb to help you.
But sure, in the end you always have to trust your ears and use or break the rules to your own best judgement.
If you can't trust your own judgement and follow the rules blindly, you're better off teaching rules than making music.

I really like the harmony Keith Richards used to do, like on Live with me (get yer yaya's out). He basically sings a drone an octave above Jagger and only changes the last note. Rock n roll.
Appart from that, basically if I need to sing harmony I just take the next chord tone above what the lead singer is singing and folllow the intervals from there. Simple!

The most beautiful back up voices are when the singers uses lots of thirds. Octaves sounds cool in funk jams. When there is lots of voices what teh groups do is sing the chords, with all the freedom they would have if they were reharmonizing the song.

If you're going for 4 part harmonies, you may want to write the arrangement out if you can. When dealing with that many parts, it helps me to think about it like a set of chords (this is the way I do it anyway, it's different depending on what kind of arrangement you're going with). I say it's good to have the root and the 3rd represented in each chord if you're trying to to Motown or barbershop style stuff, and then put in the other notes as per your own taste. 5ths, 7ths, 9ths, etc. just try out different things and use a 4-track or whatever to record each part and experiment with muting out different parts. Experimentation is the the key no matter what rules you decide to go with! Good luck, I hope this helped a little.

Actually, a really good way to practice is to take bits from say, Prince, The Beach Boys, a Motown group, whoever, and see if you can somewhat accurately reproduce all their parts with your own voice. Not only will this get your ears and voice in good shape, but it'll allow you to sort of figure out how they're getting the sounds they're getting and might even give you some arrangement ideas!

guitarslinger44 said:

You just reminded me of that ABC special on the symbol album where Levi is talking about how Prince recorded the harmonies for "7". Levi was in the studio, soloing the parts and he said that Prince would record different takes, trying different things and not listening to the other vocals he had recorded. Then he would combine them and see what happened. I love the harmonies in that song.