How to Sing Harmony
Learning Harmony Singing
Have you ever wanted to know how to sing harmony? Great sound and richness is added to a song when two people are able to sing together in varying pitches with success. The sound that is created with good harmony is amazing. Then there is the extreme where people try to sing in harmony unsuccessfully only to create a noise that is truly difficult to bear.
Begin With Scales
When singing in harmony, each person will sing the same song only in different pitches or by adding a different sound or inflection to the pitch.
It is very important to understand and familiarize yourself with minor and major scales in order to sing harmony. A scale is basically a group of 8 notes following each other that go from letters A to G.
The key characteristic of the major scale is the whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half notes breaks. With the minor scale the notes follow the whole-half-whole-whole-half-whole-whole sequence.
Harmony singing is usually done using notes of the major scale.
The Use of Two Voices
Singing harmony involves being able play around with the melody and the pitch of the song. When there are two people singing one person will start off by singing melody notes. Any musical instrument can be used in order to play the chord of the song.
In order to sing in harmony a second person will begin singing the same song but at a pitch that is either lower or higher than the first singer.
To harmonize, this is the method that is done over and over again with a song where the second person sings higher or lower than the first person throughout the song.
Utilizing Harmony to Your Advantage
In order to learn how to harmonize you will have to be very familiar with the song. It is recommended that you learn how to sing both harmonizing parts of the song.
In most cases it will usually require a lot of patience and work in order for harmonizing to be successful. However, there are those circumstances where some people are simply able to jump in and begin singing at a different tone or pitch with no problem at all. This is called on-the-fly harmony as the person is able to just simply begin singing the song with ease.
An individual that is capable of on-the-fly harmony has the ability to find the correct melody and pitch. Just by simply listening to the music for a brief moment they can figure out the correct melody and pitch of the song and start singing. This is the same method that is used for ear training.
As a matter of fact, many of the methods that are used for ear training can also be used to for developing harmony. For instance, you can use a piano to play a particular song, figure out the pitch and then envision yourself singing the song. Then, you would sing the song while playing the music on the piano. You would also sing it again just at a higher note than the one that you are playing on the piano. For the third try, attempt to sing the song at a lower note compared to the piano version.
Many of the online lessons for singing have creative methods of teaching which include pianos that are interactive and also provide feedback on your voice. With the help of software, you will be better able to learn how to find the correct pitch and learn how to harmonize by going lower and higher. The only way to learn how to harmonize and learn pitch is to practice often.
No Secret
All types of music such as country, pop and rock utilize harmony. A group called the Oak Ridge Boys was renowned for their ability to combine all four of their voices into a song where oftentimes more than two of them are harmonizing.
People that are professionals at harmonizing make it look pretty easy. The basic elements of this form of singing are not hard to understand. However, you will have to practice in order to learn how to determine the correct pitch of a song and then be able to sing either lower or higher.
The best way to learn how to harmonize is to invest in singing lessons.
Tags: sing harmony