View Full Version : writing harmonies - help!
the band i'm in consists of a singer, a guitarist (me), and a drummer. up til now our songs have been strictly sung by the singer but we were thinking of me adding backing vocals and harmonies to make our songs more interesting. i've had almost no music theory whatsoever so can anyone help me out and give me some pointers and a quick rundown of how to go about writing backup vocal melodies?
kevinholbrook
04-01-2004, 02:50 PM
What you might want to do first is to figure out the melody from your singer, then learn how to play it on guitar/bass/whatever.
Once you know the notes, you can create harmonies easily.
Say you find that the singer is riding a C, the "happy" melody for that is the Major 3rd - E. A bit sadder and somewhat dissonant would be Eb.
You are almost always safe with a 5th, tho. So, it will be like the first 2 notes of a power chord. If teh singer is on C, you should be on G.
You should also think of counter melodies. Don't sing with your singer, start before or after they start singing. Use a similar but different melody.
Hope this helps.
Raskolnikovs axe
04-05-2004, 02:28 PM
that's good advice, but if you really don't know any music theory one way to do it is to just start singing along with him-start going higher, lower, and at first it will sound completely out of tune and ridiculously bad. all you need to do is find a single note in harmony though-like the E above C Kevin mentioned-and then often you'll just fall into the rest of it. Just keep trying and don't worry about sounding like a retard!
1boogieman
04-07-2004, 10:52 PM
Use notes from the chords tha accompany the singer. The ones right under your fingers + add some depth by adding notes not usually played, like instead of Am play Am7 and sing the 7th.
m7, Maj7, Maj9, sus, A2, sus7 are some to listen and experiment with. Have your singer help decide, too. You sing the melody (phrase) part you want to harmonize and have the singer add the new parts. If the notes you find are too high, try it down an octave.
Next, get some info on "triads" for more musical understanding.
Lemme know if I can help :D