Arrangement elements like vocal harmonies are found in almost every music genre. Before music and sound engineers became a thing, artists and musicians were solely responsible for creating harmonious parts for their vocals.
However, with technological advancements, vocal harmonies and other arrangement elements became easier to produce with the help of pitching and editing software. They allow you to flex, wrap and mix melodies into multiple parts, creating suitable harmonies for your songs and tracks.
But there’s a lot more to creating good vocal harmonies than just messing around with pitch-shifting software. This blog will go over some basic concepts and tips you need to consider when working on vocal harmonies.
Double down on the main melody
In simpler terms, the harmony lines or intervals are the numbers of notes and steps above and below the main melody. Doubling down on these intervals is possibly one of the easiest ways to create harmony.
If you want to make the added parts stand out even more, you can increase or decrease the melody lines’ octave for a higher or lower pitch. Adding octave doublings into the mix creates a good melody and a more complex harmony.
Add a Third harmony
A Third harmony is one of the more common harmony lines used to create a beautiful blend of various melodies and pitches. It follows the contours of your main piece but is still three or four semitones away from it.
To create a seamless blend, you can’t just throw your track or melody into the software and expect it to do all the work for you; the notes of your harmony line have to fall within the Scale pitches of the track’s key, or they won’t sit well with rest of the chords.
Pick selective harmony lines
Using a Third harmony may be the easy and classic route, but there are other options you can explore. You can incorporate pitches that don’t fall within the Scale of your melody’s key for a better sound and vocal effect.
You don’t have to harmonize every single tone and note as it’ll create a more stiff and cluttered composition, which is why being selective with your harmony lines is vital. You can pick and choose notes, lines, and phrases you want to harmonize on and ignore the rest for a seamless and memorable sequence.
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