Learning Harmony

Lots of my favorite rock songs make use of at least some vocal harmony. At the last meeting of the Cartersville Songwriter's Exchange, I tried working on this with Randy on a couple of his songs. I could get it after he sat down and we figured out the third. Singing in the third of the key of the regular vocal makes for a nice harmony - the third and the fifth all will work for a major key harmony. Sometimes it is hard not to have a "sympathetic ear".

Having a "sympathetic ear" means that you tend to continue to sing the normal vocal part instead of sticking to your part, because you can no longer hear your harmony vocal in your head. Sometimes I am falling into this trap. It helps to practice by singing the harmony part solo while playing the individual notes on guitar to keep yourself in key; I'm finding that I may need to practice in this way every day in order to get my part down and to not lose the key when it comes time to perform. I will be meeting again with Randy tomorrow and I hope to impress him by being spot on.

Well that's all for now. I hope everyone has a fun and harmonious weekend.