Harmony

Let’s talk about harmonies. 

Thought to have evolved from music practices of the middle ages, a harmony occurs when more than 1 pitched note is played, or sung, at the same time. 

When a backing singer is singing a different, but complimentary melody to the lead singer's melody, a vocal harmony is created. This thickens out the overall sound and the complimentary frequencies are pleasing to the ear.

For me, the first song that comes to mind when talking about harmonies is Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. The band’s guitarist, Brian May, remembers Freddie Mercury giving the band a first listen to the song in the early 70s:

“I remember Freddie coming in with loads of bits of paper. He played the piano like most people play the drums. And this song he had was full of gaps where he explained that something operatic would happen here and so on. He’d worked out the harmonies in his head.”

A great way to learn to work out harmonies in your head is by listening to your favourite song and singing a different melody (a melody is a sequence of single notes) above or below the lead singer's vocal melody. This is how I first got into creating vocal harmonies! 

Why use harmonies? 

Using harmonies can deepen the emotional impact of your music. They can really stir a listener, and even result in goosebumps (or other emotional outbursts!). Multiple harmonies can add elements of richness, complexity and texture to a song - helping them go from good to great; basic to sophisticated.

Ariana Grande is arguably one of the greatest when it comes to vocal arrangements and complex harmonies:

‘I love adding more harmonies than anyone will ever notice or hear that no one ever asked for or needed,’ Ariana tweeted.

There’s a science to it...

Not only do harmonies help with the complexity of a song, but they also FEEL good to our brains:

‘Harmonious musical intervals trigger a rhythmically consistent firing pattern in certain auditory neurons, and sweet sounds carry more information than harsh ones’

Have you ever wondered why some notes sound great together and some sound terrible? 

For centuries, humans have studied melody and harmony to try and figure out why we enjoy certain harmonies and melodies over others.

When two notes played together sound good, it’s called consonance.

When they sound terrible together, it’s called dissonance. 

A long time ago, musicians and scientists put together a list of tone-pairs that, when played together, produce consonance or dissonance. These were listed in order of pleasantness. The resulting list – called the “consonance pattern” – was created by Helmholtz in 1895, and is still used in audio research today. 

Singer-songwriter, Nao, uses vocal harmonies to weave different emotions throughout a song. I love how she doesn’t always choose a regular harmony (that’s pleasing to the ear). Sometimes there’s a slight clash, which creates a tension in the song, before it resolves. This makes her music more unique and instantly recognisable.

If you are not clued up on the music theory behind harmonies, don’t let this hold you back! I know many musicians, including myself, that don’t rely on music theory knowledge when creating complex vocal arrangements and multiple harmonies within a song.

Here are some tips on getting acquainted with harmony, without getting bogged down with music theory:

• Listen and sing along to your favourite songs and try harmonising with the melody

• Join a choir - it’s a great way to pick up this skill!

• Download an app such as Harmony Helper to help you to find and create a harmony for different melodies

• Get into music production - there are many tools that can help you find or create a harmony digitally, including vocoders, pitch shifters and autotune. Singer-songwriter Imogen Heap has an incredible song called Hide and Seek in which vocal harmonies weave in and out of each other to create an incredible, full sound. She created this using a keyboard-controlled digital harmoniser (similar to a vocoder) which generated distorted harmonies of her voice.

• Don’t be afraid to experiment - the more nuanced and personalised a harmony is, the more personal (and unique sounding) the music will be.

Remember - the goal of a harmony should be to support the melody of a song, not outshine it!

Good luck and happy harmonising! :)