Vocal Harmonies and arrangements?

[An Absent Friend]

Vocal Harmonies and arrangements?

I wonder how many of you are interested in writing music but I am having troubles about this fact. I hear most of the amateurs music and there is no vocal in it ( Mostly , especially here ). But SW is one of my biggest influences and I am interested in vocal harmonies and that stuff too. For example he says his influence about this was The Beach Boys ( 1965-73 ). But I think it's interesting.

I wonder how many of you are trying this thing. But it's for sure that it's a lot harder than writing songs on guitar or piano for me.

And do you guys know what can help me. I can do some , but it's not enough for me.

 

[Id]

Write the melody lines on guitar/piano then harmonize them then sing them I guess

 

[a síctia]

listen stuff and do stuff

or only do it
you dont have do copy anything, use your own harmonies/disharmonies...
voice.

 

[worldwide_suicide]

^+1@Id'spost

 

[Keith!]

If theres a hard part it's coming up with a good melody, harmonizing just adds to it.

 

[An Absent Friend]

Well Thank U.

 

[soundave]

Vocal harmonies can be really tough. A knowledge of theory certainly helps. The cool thing about harmony writing is that you have to take into account the horizontal as well as the vertical. So, the harmony should sound good as a melody all by itself, and it should sound good against the other voices. You need to keep in mind that you're really making chords, and that some intervals will sound right together and some won't. Just as some melodic movement sounds good and some does not.

Listen to harmonies that you think are good and see if you can recreate them to see what the artist was doing. Experiment with contrary motion (one voice goes up, the other goes down). Experiment with voices that stay put. Go with what sounds good.

I've always felt that a piano is easier to use to write harmony lines than a guitar. It's laid out much better, and it's easier to see what's going on. But that may be just me. Seriously, you should learn some very basic music theory (particularly voice leading) and that will help. There are probably a million websites out there that can help you with that. Just google it.

 

[Heavenscent]

Get a good book, on orchestration or choir singing. They're out there, just haven't had the time to properly find one for you.

 

[An Absent Friend]

Well Dave , thank U a lot for your ideas. And yeah I have written my coolest stuff on piano too. I will try does out. For ex I can listen some PT and arrange my own harmonies with the help of SW

And yeah I will get a book.

And maybe I can have a help from you. I have a song called Starship Virgo. Avaible at www.myspace.com/moonloopaty please listen to first one. Should I put some vocals on it? And I hope you like it , it's a sample recorded in sound recorder

 

[Heavenscent]

I would say no. It sounds more like an intro to a song anyway. Maybe some incoherent mumbling would be kind of interesting though.

 

[An Absent Friend]

Yeah I agree it's more like a intro. But my friends kept insisting And did you like it as the theme? The second one is the later stages of the song by th way.

 

[soundave]

Well Dave , thank U a lot for your ideas. And yeah I have written my coolest stuff on piano too. I will try does out. For ex I can listen some PT and arrange my own harmonies with the help of SW

And yeah I will get a book.

And maybe I can have a help from you. I have a song called Starship Virgo. Avaible at www.myspace.com/moonloopaty please listen to first one. Should I put some vocals on it? And I hope you like it , it's a sample recorded in sound recorder

Lots of opportunities to go in many directions, actually. Do you have the ability to multitrack? That can help.

Are you thinking about putting in, like, harmonized ahhh's and such? That would seem to work, and would be the easiest to work out. Start with one voice that holds the root for a while (particularly into the part @ 0:10 - 0:19). The drone sounds pretty cool and creates harmonic tension. Build on top of that, and those voices might move around a bit more than the first one. Pick out some of the notes from the chords in the above-mentioned section and see what emphasizing them with vocals can do.

Anyhow. Let me know what you come up with.

 

[An Absent Friend]

Well anyway that aaah thing can be very cool on some notes in the begining you are right. And I am glad you like it. Also I will try with multitrack recording with Cubase.

And I can post here when it's done. But I working on 2 or 3 songs it might have some time. And thanks again.