Harmony? Help!
Robert Edwin, Consultant to Harmony Helper
So, what do you see when you look at this picture? Do you see a woman? Do you see a balding man with a moustache? Do you see both?
Harmony is kind of like this picture. What do you hear when you listen to two people singing a duet in harmony? Do you hear the melody, the harmony, both?
Harmony has been around for almost ever, and I have been around for what seems like almost ever as a singing teacher and coach. I help my students with all their vocal needs, including harmony. Harmony is an integral part of all kinds of music from choral to classical opera to Barbershop to Broadway musicals. The woman who sings the very funny song “Alto’s Lament” (check it out on YouTube) may complain about never being allowed to sing the melody; but without her, and the tenors and the basses, music would be the lesser for it.
In order to sing harmony, you must be able to turn down in your head all the other parts, like the melody and other harmonies. Beginners, especially, have to clearly identify and concentrate on hearing predominantly their part.
Let’s go back to the picture. If you want to see only the woman, you have to block out the man in your mind. Conversely, if you want to see only the man, you need to block out the woman. The same is true for singing harmony. If you are singing the melody, you have to block out the other parts. If you are singing a harmony part, all other parts need to be blocked out in order to concentrate on your part. Just as in the picture, to be able to do this, you have to know the differences between the parts.
Harmonizing is hard for a lot of people. Young Andrew Goren was no exception. As his weekly private singing teacher, I literally spent hours working on his harmony parts so he could accurately sing them in the shows in which he was cast.
First, I played and then had Andrew sing the melody of the song. He needed to hear what some other folks in the show were singing. Then I played and had him sing his assigned harmony part so he could hear the difference between the two. Next, I asked him to sing his part while I played both the melody and his harmony part. Finally, I had him sing his part while I played only the melody. That’s when things usually got messy. Andrew would start to listen to what I was playing (the melody) and would lose track of what he was supposed to be singing (the harmony). The mantra became, “let’s try it again,” as we went over the song again and again until he got it right.
This process was and is very time-intensive. He’d also record the song with me playing only the melody, then only the harmony, then both parts together, then just the melody so he could sing his harmony part against it. Homework outside the studio.
The repetition continued to pay off as Andrew gradually cut down his note-learning time so we could concentrate more on vocal technique, repertoire development, and artistic expression.
Earlier this year, I got a chance to chat with another one of Andrew’s teachers and mentors, Broadway star Rob McClure. We met in January at the Harmony Helper booth at BroadwayCon 2020 in New York City. Both Rob and I are literate in reading music - we see it as well as hear it. It definitely speeds up the learning process to be able to use our eyes and ears. However, we both agreed that even if we weren’t professionally involved with Harmony Helper, we’d still be using the app because of how much time, energy, and money it saves us in learning music.
In the end, no matter what method or aid you choose to use, nothing can replace good old-fashioned study and practice. Put in the time and effort now so that someday when someone asks, “Who here can sing harmony?”, your hand goes up!