How to create vocal harmonies?

Question

i have recorded a lead vocal on my music, but how do I spice it up with harmonies? I know some basic music theory but not much about composing vocal parts, the song is in A minor, I tried singin the 5th notes of the lead, like lead: C, C, E harmony: G, G, B. but it sounded lame :p How do I aproach it? Is there a standard way to do it? I don't want the whole thing to be one big vocal harmony but just small lines along with the lead to make it more interesting, and some bigger ones.

Answer 1

just try lots of different stuff. you dont want it to sound all generic. try going all the way up or down an octave, or singing it differently speaking the words rather than singing them. and try editing it a little two. maybe make one track quieter and only in the left side or something. switch to right half way through. just goof around.

Answer 2

While I don't think I can give you the "correct" way to write vocal harmonies, I can at least push you in the right direction.

You want to treat each instrument in harmony as a part of a whole. If a bass is playing an A, and the guitar is playing an F5, then you know you have an F major chord at that point in time, so a vocal harmony could be any tone that is harmonic with that F major chord. A C or F could work, or you could harmonize further and add an extension ... perhaps an E to give it a major 7th quality, for instance.

That's one approach. Another approach is to harmonize by thirds or fourths. You have to know the key you're playing in, or be willing to expiriment a little, but the idea is that if you're singing a line C E D in the key of C major then you would harmonize it in thirds by singing E G F.

Singing fourths is a very neutral way of harmonizing, and can work a good chunk of the time. It's a little easier since a fourth is a perfect interval, ie, always the same distance away from the note. When you hear the dual guitar harmonies from 80's bands, that's what they're doing - harmonizing mostly by fourths, sprinkled with a few thirds or other intervals here and there.

Harmonizing by fifths is the worst way to do it... composers have a specific name for it, parallel fifths, and it is one of the biggest things to avoid, since it doesn't sound right.

Hmm. Well, I hope that helps a little. Knowing enough music theory to know what chord is happening at any one second or the overall key of the piece is critical to efficiently writing vocal harmonies.

Good luck!

Saul