Much as I adore The Beach Boys, I'd wager that The Beatles were more "wide" in their discovery of musical idioms (in lack of a better term) than TBB. Hoping you will not flame me, I'll risk saying that TBB sounded more the same over time than Beatles. That is, in my opinion, why Beatles is one of the top picks for use in examples. That, and that probably more people are familiar with The Beatles work. I'll say this though: For n-part harmonies with n > 2, The Beach Boys are the richer well to drink from.
I can still remember the first time I heard "If I Fell" by the Beatles when I was just a young kid of 12 sitting in a movie theatre and knew nothing about harmonies. It was like being transported into a whole new magical world. Their harmonies were so good I still get that feeling today - 60 years later.
Yes! I saw the movie at a drive in when I was 5 and fell asleep during that song. Then ten years later heard it again on the radio. It was instant time travel for me! Very compelling harmonies. 👍
Same for me when I first heard it! "If I fell" made me realize that there are more ways to do harmonies than just sing the same melody a couple notes higher or lower. Blew my mind. 😄
@@ianfowler9340 Many, many years ago someone pointed out a thing about If I Fell to me, and I have made it one of my life quests to now re-point this out whenever the song is mentioned: The "intro"! For the interested reader: What key is it starting in? What key are we in when the song "proper" starts? How did we get from the first to the second point? Maybe The Beatles didn't know theory explicitly but that intro is an excellent base to use when talking theory.
Yes !! About 8 years ago I started trying to learn If I Fell. And the vocal harmonies are very complex. The melody line passes between John and Paul. And at the end John goes down when Paul goes up, for a really full ear twisting. I got on stage to perform and the person who was supposed to sing Paul’s part completely froze. I found myself switching on the fly between John’s and Paul’s parts as they handed off the melody line. I long to find a singer that I can harmonize with and get really good at harmonizing.
Funny you mention the Beatles after Nirvana - Kurt did not want to double any of his vocals until Butch told him 'look, the Beatles did it on everything, go in and double the vocals'
Alice in Chains used harmonies in fifths/fourths fairly often. It's part of what makes their harmonies so distinctive. Check out the verses of "Them Bones" and "Would?", for example.
Alice in Chains have some of the best vocal harmonies. And surprisingly, Nirvana. Dave and Kurt harmonies were perfect too. Dave and Krist are putting in so much word to fill out those songs.
California Dreamin' by The Mamas and The Papas has great harmonies and call-and-response backing vocals. Also, The Bee Gees harmonized like nobody's business. ;)
Love the Bee Gees! The song Guilty that Barry wrote for Barbra fascinates me: the song transposes from her key to his, but at the chorus she sings the same notes! Woof!
I don’t know how David didn’t include a Bee Gees example. They’re one of the most famous harmony groups of all time. He focused more on the Beatles who were better songwriters than they were harmonists (not taking anything away from them), but the Bee Gees could harmonize circles around the Beatles, and so could tons of other groups. He didn’t mention Boyz II Men, the Jacksons, not even TAKE 6, THE best a cappella group of all time. This is a good lesson for uneducated people but it doesn’t make for a very interesting video when 99% of his examples are just the Beatles. No hate, but does this guy listen to anyone other than the Beatles?
@@triad5766 there was an indirect mention though it would have been great to include some of their songs.. The Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers song "Islands in the Stream" was written by the Bee Gees. The Bee Gees did some live performances of it. ruclips.net/video/usezH_d3HV8/видео.html
It's a nice effect in "I've Got a Feeling" when Paul and John sing different lyrics at the same time at the end of the song (a preview of going solo, perhaps?)
This video was so much fun! I know you cab never be comprehensive on a giant subject like vocal harmonies, but if you ever want to do a second part to this one, I would be super interested to hear your take on barbershop harmonies, and the way those close harmonies create the warm overtone the style is so famous for. If you wanted to include some more avant garde harmony techniques, overtone singing is pretty wild, where the singer can harmonize with him or herself. Thanks for the good stuff! Inspiring, educational, entertaining 🙂
@@shedidntthinkthisthrough: I spoked to a barbershop guy recently and asked similar questions. To answer one question, yes, they use just intonation. Since they are singing a capella, they have no need for the conveniences of 12 TET, so they can sing pure intervals. There are also particular formulas for voicing and voice-leading in barbershop, but I don't remember the details.
Have to say. When the harmony is in thirds and they do it "literally" all the time it kind of starts sounding robotic and as if it's just digital doubling which makes the more "weaving" kind of barbershop harmonies so much more satisfying.
Depending on what songs you’re talking about, you may be referring to modern recording which often use auto tune. Real voices are slightly off, making them sound human. Auto tune is like using drum quantizing-makes it sound digital and monotonous.
You could honestly do a whole video just going over how The Beach Boys used harmonies. So much complexity was in their harmonies, listen to a song like “Our Prayer” it’s all over the place
Harmonies are literally one of my favorite things in music! Period! I am so glad you included Simon and Garfunkel, as they usually come to mind, but I also think of bands like, Steely Dan, The Guess Who, or CSNY. Just to name a few! (And of course from my time in choir)
I love inventing harmonies for the songs that I love and that I've heard a thousand times. It gives me the opportunity to re-discover them. Also, sometimes is my way to get to sing the song, if it gets too high or too low for my voice. Instead of changing the key, I harmonize it. It's kind of inventing duets for them ^_^
Think about the song "52 Girls". The two ladies sing most of the song in unison, but when they sing "Can you name them today", the harmonies on "name" and "today" really jump out at you surprisingly and are satisfying.
A lot of folk bands like the Everly Brothers have siblings as singers and the harmonies really stand out. Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart also have the crazy sibling harmony thing. The chorus of Alone wouldn't sound nearly as massive without the super high top line.
@@gman13531check out First Aid Kit from Sweden, it's two sisters that didn't know they could harmonize so well until their parents heard them singing at the same time.
@@gman13531There's a pseudo-scientific theory called 'blood harmony' that posits that family members can naturally sing much tighter harmony. The Louvin Brothers are an incredible example of this - 'You're Running Wild' is absolutely haunting.
A technical explanation would include a discussion of "timbre" and the physical similarities of the singers' voices. This gets masked in a larger chorus, but when it is 2 or 3 singers together, the effect can be magical.
Depeche Mode have some of my favorite 2-part vocal arrangements of all time. They often use counterpoint, or call-and-response, or singing a few lines in octaves. But my absolute favorite is when Dave and Martin sing in unison or harmony, and Martin suddenly goes really high on one note, like on "People Are People," "Stripped," or "Broken." On "Broken" they sing entirely different melodic lines really close to each other and it somehow works!
Yes! Whenever I look at one of Davids tutorials, DM almost always comes to mind in a way or another. Martin Gore's use of borrowed chords makes for some quite interesting counter melodies.
Some people are just good at it. I can break it down and practice my part (I'm a bass player) but I have friends I work with who absolutely are not thinking in terms of WHAT they're singing and are just SO good at it.
The Eagles and CSN&Y are probably my 2 favorites in terms of harmonies. But an overlooked song, in my opinion, is "Bus Stop" by The Hollies. I've always loved how the harmonies in that song sound.
Has to be said: the Beatles learned oblique harmony from the Everly Brothers. Cathy's Clown is probably the song the Beatles were influenced by for Please Please Me.
George said he and John listened to the Everly Brothers records and then they practiced singing together. Paul practiced harmony with many different peoples records.
A refinement I like a lot is when the "response" part jumps ahead, anticipating the "call". Guess who used this? Yup, The Beatles. The classic example is in the verses of "Help!" -- (When) When I was younger... (I never nee...) I never needed anybody's...
Saw the harmony vocal vid and clicked. Did not pay attention to the channel. Then I heard Bennett's voice and I thought, "I know this guy." Sure enough. I have seen Bennett's videos in the past. Always outstanding. Thanks Bennett. sw
Eagles are good in harmonizing as well. Glenn and Henley are a powerful duo too. But when you add Randy Meissner, Joe Walsh, Don Felder. They'll take you to another universe. A great example of this is New Kid In Town
It’s just practice. I was in a choir for ten years. When it gelled, it sounded really sweet. The Basses often seemed pitchy. The Altos always seemed to have the toughest lines, but executed them well.
@boxsterman77 Monitors / onstage sound been around for a long time. Nowadays could be some in-ear plugs. The Beatles claimed they couldn't hear themselves playing when doing the big venues though, and it is said that this was one of the reasons they decided to stop touring.
The singular best example of backing vocal harmonies is without question is "Somebody to Love" by Queen, and I am immensely happy to see you skip it here as you must be preparing a full-length video on it.
Something I love are the three parts harmony that are delayed in time, in God Only Knows and Golden Brown by the stranglers, it's got a never ending feeling that's very satisfying
The slight differences in phase that occur when doubling make the vocal really stand out in the mix, it’s a bit of studio magic. These days, I double all my vocals both lead and harmonies. It’s great having so many tracks available, back in the 8-track days it was a lot more work to use this technique, now I typically have 6 to 8 tracks just for vocals.
Speaking of John, it would have been interesting to get a take on "This Boy" considering Rick Beato (4+m subscribers) insisted that John sang all the vocals on that track. I'm not buying it.
John Lennon famously hated doing double tracking and didn’t make much effort to sing the line exactly the same the second time, that’s what pushed them to develop auto double tracking.
You can't talk about vocal harmonies without mentioning Yes; can't think of a Yes song without harmonies. Sparks is also a good example of double tracking and occasionally also counterpoints. Pink Floyd used harmonies all the time too, and the Moody Blues are practically a choir. All the cool bands and solo artists used harmonies. Creating a good song without harmonies is probably harder than learning how to harmonize, unless you're doing instrumental music.
Very impressive. My sisters and I sang harmonies while we washed dishes every night. We just worked them out based on what we had heard. This explains A LOT! Thank you.
Jimmy Eat World‘s album Clarity opened the door to vocal harmonies for me when I was a teenager. Still loving to sing the second voice to it when I‘m driving my car.
Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins multitracks her vocals so there's lots of interesting things happening. In "those eyes that mouth", for instance, there are three "verses", the fist with melody A, the second with melody A&B together and then the third with melody B but with different chords.
On the top of my list is Gentle Giant, masters in complex vocal harmonies, some completely à capella. Also the harmonies of Paperback Writer by the Beatles has my forever appreciation.
One of my favorite examples to explain polyphony to my students is "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" by Simon & Garfunkel. In this piece, two completely independent melodies are sung in parallel.
Neil Young put out a film called 'Harvest Time' a couple of years ago, and in it there's some incredible footage of Young, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash ad-libbing harmony vocals for 'Words Between the Lines of Ages'. They're all clustered around one mic, and they're half-drunk, but it sounds incredible.
From my mother's and my experience with a capella music, there's a well-deserved joke about the alto voice stuck on the fifth for the entire song. It's the a capella equivalent of the meme about the cello in "Canon in D" by Pachelbel playing the same ostinato over and over and over and it's in half of the pop songs on the radio so you can't get away from it. Classic example of counterpoint that almost everyone knows is "Heart and Soul."
The vocal arrangements of Yes go above and beyond as far as employing all of the aforementioned techniques. A good early example being "It's Your Move", or check out "Leave It" (by the 80s version of Yes) for some densely-arranged, meticulously-crafted harmonies that still work in a pop context.
Crosby, Stills and Nash song 'Helplessly Hoping' is one of my favorite vocal harmonies (CSN had many other songs the same) - each voice is purposely separated but sounds sublime. Country and bluegrass songs are famous for their great vocal harmonies. I always think of vocal harmonies as singing the individual notes that make a chord. This is a great video on harmonies, excellent work David B.
When I was young, I was listening to She Loves You and suddenly, I understood harmonies! Now, all these years later, I have been using all kinds of harmonies when I would write a song or hang around with my friends. I was THE harmony guy!
One of my favourite Beatles harmony vocals is There’s a Place. Especially on the lines “And it’s my mind, and there’s no time”. I’ve listened to that over and over again. Never tire of it.
IIRC, John & Paul set out deliberately to write a song that would be all harmony, no melody. In places it drops to 1 voice, but whenever it's 2 voices, it's tough to pick out which should be melody, isn't it? They envisioned it as neither one being melody.
@@jcarty123 Good point. It is difficult to know which is the melody line in the part I mentioned for example. It’s a really great song but is sort of underrated I think. I’m a second generation fan, born in 1960, and I think a lot of people my age and younger wouldn’t know it.
It's taken me a long long time to come to this conclusion but David Bennett and his team deserve some kind of award for their services to music. After watching this video and all of the others over time i'm absolutely convinced they are totally honest and good people and THAT is why i am going to buy Ripx DAW Pro. (Hope it's not too expensive) lol. David mate, you have shot to number one in my estimation. It's very gratifying to meet somebody who loves music as much as i do. You're a much better musician than me although i love playing guitar and piano i am a singer / songwriter. When i first saw this DAW Plugin i though, "Yeah, it's only gonna work on digital tracks" (in other words newish stuff), but no, i can now see it will work on any track - well, not sure if it works on 100%, but most. Mate i'm blown away today. I always wanted to know how to harmonise, i'll be watching your video again a few times. But another great thing is trhat i know i'm in good hands. You're not a con man trying to sell ads as your main thing, you're a genuine disciple of music which is beautiful. I can't thank you enough my friend, you've made my day today and i'm gonna start writing again. Thanks a million mate, thank you.
The version of Hey Jude on the album has a "call and response" where the response comes in the verse well before the "call". "So let it out and let it in" is slid in between phrases for what comes in earnest later.
easily my favourite vocal harmony in any song is the beatles "because" its just so enchanting and beautiful and as soon as i heard it i had to replicate it in a song i was working on at the time
There's also a form of Call&Response that I really like, that uses voice and guitar. For example in Real love by The Beatles you can clearly see vocal phrases followed by different guitar responses and I find it very exciting to listen to!
George was really a fan of that. He and Paul got into an argument when George wanted to do that on Hey Jude and Paul refused. In that case I think Paul was right, but echoing the vocals with the guitar is really effective
i love how all your examples are in sheet music, bro is clandestinely teaching us how to read lol i got musescore 4 a year ago and its changed my life.
Best vocal harmonies I've ever heard have been The Chicks, hands-down. Their harmonies sound so intricate, and I've heard people say they're really hard to replicate, so I'd love to know more about them. Would also be cool seeing what about PTX's vocal stylings make them so unique among a capella groups
The first example of a counterpoint harmony that springs to my mind is the final chorus of Country House by Blur where the main chorus is still sung in the forefront but underneath, the backing vocals reprise the middle eight section (“Lo, lonely and sad, I’m so sad I don’t know why”)
I was gonna mention Blur. On some Blur songs Graham's harmonies are just lovely and very effective. Girls and Boys and Under The Westway have great backing vocals too.
Love the Beatles harmonies, also love Fleetwood Mac's 3 part harmonies. Timing is very important, starting and finishing at the same time. McCartney had Wings practice harmonies a lot and it showed in their live shows.
Another technique, which I call "cascading" or "staggered" harmonies" is best exemplified by The Band's "The Weight", where the members sing "and" one after each other on different chord tones, just before Levon Helm (I think) sings "you put the weight right on me" alone. Another famous example of that technique is "Twist and Shout" (both the Isley's and Beatles' versions) on "Oh, oh, oh oh".
If you want a masterclass in backing vocal harmony, just listen to anything composed by Amy Lee. She's mostly known for her singing voice, but to me it's her composition where she really excels. Rather than just singing the same melody an interval above or below, she makes the backing vocal line a fully-fleshed counter-melody, full of variations that either compliment or contrast with the main melody, or even just go off and do something different. In fact, I think she's used every technique described in this video, often multiple in the same song. There's an acapella you can find for "Going Under" that includes the backing vocals, and you'll hear 3 part harmonies, double-tracking, and call-and-response happening at the same time, and in the verses she uses another technique that you could have included in this video which is to double track the same melody an entire octave apart. Or "My Last Breath" where the last chorus drops the harmony used in the first two choruses and instead uses a double-tracked version of the bridge's main melody and lyrics as its counterpoint backing vocal. Some good songs of hers for harmony parts are "Weight of the World", "Call Me When You're Sober", "Blind Belief", "Better Without You", "Speak to Me", or her duet harmony on Lzzy Hale's "Break In". And one thing she likes to do to maintain variation in a song is that when the main melody repeats a phrase, she will deliberately make it so the harmony does NOT repeat how it responds to it. You can hear this in songs like "New Way to Bleed" and "Cloud Nine". In "Feeding the Dark", the chorus repeats the same phrase twice, then repeats it twice again with one more note added to the end. That could come across as repetitive, except that the chords and the harmonies radically shift every time the phrase repeats.
Oh my God, this is SO interesting. I love Evanescence (especially the first 3 albums), but have no musical background at all. I could listen to you talk about this all day! Thanks for sharing!
@@lauramarsh7091 I don't have a musical background either, I've just always been fascinated by the complexity of the layers in her compositions, and how she doesn't treat backing vocals as an afterthought, but puts a lot of thought into them. I have tried making my own music (even though I don't know theory, can't read music, and can't play any instruments) and she's a big influence on how I try to structure melodies and chords to keep things from getting repetitive. Amy Lee and Mike Shinoda are my biggest influences in terms of composition. Not that I'm really any good.
Barbershop had SUCH a rich history, would be an amazing video! Maybe even a series. I know growing up and doing a little myself, there was a big emphasis on getting those overtones to match so as to get that perfect "ring" on the finish chord in particular
@@shedidntthinkthisthrough I don't have any good resources, no. I'm not super experienced, so other people might have real resources for you though! IMO The big thing about barbershop is the group dynamic/interplay, so unless you have a group to practice with, my personal thought is that the best thing to do would be to listen to as much as you can (to get a feel for the style) and maybe practice some individual parts that you particularly like.
Matthew Wilder, who wrote the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan, has described the song as a "very odd pop song" and I can see why. The part that begins with the line "I'm never gonna catch my breath" is especially odd, as it is either a bridge that happens before the first chorus, or it is a pre-chorus that only occurs once in the song. This would be an interesting subject to bring up in a future video.
Thanks David and your team that contribute to these videos! Just when you think the video has been complete, you go above and beyond, and give an abundance of information and make the video exceptional and enjoyable to musicians and non musicians alike!
I've always really liked the harmonies on Shiny Happy People by REM. Kate Pierson of the B-52's did most of the vocal harmonies, which she crafted herself. There is nearly every type of harmony in this video in the song: Constant lead with descending harmonies, intervals, harmonies weaving above and below the melody, Ahs, a steady dit dit dit from Mike Mills (the unsung hero of the band) toward the end, etc. The harmonies really take the song to a completely different place.
Vocal harmonies are really what sparked my love for music when I was a kid. And as I grew older I kept finding new and beautiful harmonies in all types of music no matter the genre. I've always been curious about the harmonies that System of a down uses, they've always tickled the right part of my brain
A lot of people seem to think that parallel harmony (the arc of the harmony matching the arc of the melody, with the size of the interval between them maintained) is a good thing. But unless the overall harmony is also parallel harmony, it’s quickly going to clash with the chords. In most cases, a harmony will work best if it sticks exclusively to chord tones, even if the lead melody doesn’t. This often means the harmony will remain static in phrases in which the lead vocals move, and vice versa.
I've been trying to work on making better vocals. This is very helpful. Especially for improvisational singing. Looping and vocal lines work really well with alot of these techniques.
The counterpoint harmonies in the 2nd middle-8 of McCartney's 'Wanderlust' is a wonderful example of the style. 'I Saw her standing there' features my favourite Lennon/McCartney vocal blending - John's rustic low notes topped with Paul's honey-sweet highs is/was a match made in heaven, in deed!
I always found the harmonies of The Sound of Silence by S&G to be particularly fascinating, actually all of S&G harmonies were exceptionally good. The Everly Brothers are probably the grand fathers of pop harmonies. They were so in-sync with each other it was hard to tell which voice was who's. You did mention The Beach Boys, their style of barbershop harmonies were very compelling. Actually that style probably deserves a video of its own. Thanks for this video David, like all your videos I find them extremely well researched and instructive.
not just barbershop. exquisiete complex harmonies, far beyond what any artist has ever done in pop music. still under appreciated. I guess people just are not capable of hearing it
Brilliantly explained and presented. This was the video I've been searching years for. I can't sing for toffee, but always wondered about the musical theory of what I was hearing in the vocal sections of some songs. Thanks.
I’ve heard that the Beatles didn’t actually like double tracking, well John specifically and that the adr double tracking technique came from John not wanting to double his vocals.
There are so many more examples, like Queen, Boston, Journey, EW&F; but one of the best is when harmonies were first being explored, Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame. The Kyrie is unlike anything I've heard in the world and it blows my mind every time
I love Happiness is a Warm Gun harmonies. There are calls and responses, aaahs, etc. I also love the lead vocals (probably one of Lennon's best vocal performances). Well, I definitely love this song.
I've been waiting for you to do a video on this ❤ My favorite musicians when it comes to harmonizing (apart from John and Paul) are the Everly Brothers. Because their voices, their style of singing, their phrasing etc. were so similar, on some songs it actually sounds like only one voice recorded twice.
This is really interesting. I love the backing vocal on You're Going to lose that Girl by the Beatles where they sometimes echo the singer's main point, and occasionally expand on it: 'you're not the only one".
Love your videos David. Thank-you for introducing me to RipX. Being able to separate voices (stems) in a quality way, is a relatively new tool in musicians arsenal. I have recordings of my duo, with guitars and voices, and wanted to separate and re-mix. Everything I've tried wasn't very good. I'll give RipX a shot.
Superbly curated bit of education David - I’ve really learned something valuable after years of just being a keyboard player - thank you so much - genius content 🙏🏻
One of my favorite examples of harmonies is “All I Have to Do is Dream” by The Everly Brothers. It just sounds so damn good. Gives me chills every time!
If you wanna be blown away by oohs and aahs checkout Heroes and Villains by the Beach boys. Actually most of their songs have great vocal arrangements but this one takes the cake for me.
14:00 This call and response type of singing was often used in worship music, especially in poorer congregations who couldn't afford many hymn books. The congregation is given the words to sing, most likely by the worship leader, in the "call" so that they know what to sing in the "response".
I'd like to shout out Huey Lewis and the News; The News are great harmony singers who doesn't get enough credit. Their backing vocals are prominent on hit singles like "If This Is It" and "Stuck with You", but they also did something quite unusual for a rock band by occasionally singing a cappella (look up "It's All Right" and "Naturally").
immediately a beatles example
What can he say? The Beatlez did everything 😅
They were the best
The Beach Boys were levels ahead, yet he used one of their very early songs and that's it!
Much as I adore The Beach Boys, I'd wager that The Beatles were more "wide" in their discovery of musical idioms (in lack of a better term) than TBB. Hoping you will not flame me, I'll risk saying that TBB sounded more the same over time than Beatles. That is, in my opinion, why Beatles is one of the top picks for use in examples. That, and that probably more people are familiar with The Beatles work.
I'll say this though: For n-part harmonies with n > 2, The Beach Boys are the richer well to drink from.
Naturally.
I can still remember the first time I heard "If I Fell" by the Beatles when I was just a young kid of 12 sitting in a movie theatre and knew nothing about harmonies. It was like being transported into a whole new magical world. Their harmonies were so good I still get that feeling today - 60 years later.
Yes! I saw the movie at a drive in when I was 5 and fell asleep during that song. Then ten years later heard it again on the radio. It was instant time travel for me! Very compelling harmonies. 👍
Same for me when I first heard it! "If I fell" made me realize that there are more ways to do harmonies than just sing the same melody a couple notes higher or lower. Blew my mind. 😄
My favorite Beatles' song!
@@ianfowler9340 Many, many years ago someone pointed out a thing about If I Fell to me, and I have made it one of my life quests to now re-point this out whenever the song is mentioned: The "intro"!
For the interested reader:
What key is it starting in?
What key are we in when the song "proper" starts?
How did we get from the first to the second point?
Maybe The Beatles didn't know theory explicitly but that intro is an excellent base to use when talking theory.
Yes !! About 8 years ago I started trying to learn If I Fell. And the vocal harmonies are very complex. The melody line passes between John and Paul. And at the end John goes down when Paul goes up, for a really full ear twisting. I got on stage to perform and the person who was supposed to sing Paul’s part completely froze. I found myself switching on the fly between John’s and Paul’s parts as they handed off the melody line. I long to find a singer that I can harmonize with and get really good at harmonizing.
Funny you mention the Beatles after Nirvana - Kurt did not want to double any of his vocals until Butch told him 'look, the Beatles did it on everything, go in and double the vocals'
what kurt did wasn't vocal harmony.
Yeah that quote was about vocal doubling, not harmony
Edit: Whoops, should've watched the whole video before commenting
@@TRex266yeah and David was talking about that
@@sammyinengland Yes, the example was in a part of the video talking about singing in unison.
Butch did not mention the Beatles - he specifically talked about John Lennon.
Alice in Chains used harmonies in fifths/fourths fairly often. It's part of what makes their harmonies so distinctive. Check out the verses of "Them Bones" and "Would?", for example.
Yea, I was a little surprised at the lack of AiC examples. Fantastic video though! Super informative.
Alice in Chains have some of the best vocal harmonies. And surprisingly, Nirvana. Dave and Kurt harmonies were perfect too. Dave and Krist are putting in so much word to fill out those songs.
I had hoped that AIC would be covered here due to their unique harmonizing
AiCs vocal harmonies always reminded me of early Sabbath. Did they get it from them? (Or is it just the vocal delivery that's similar?)
@@glennlittle7955Probably the delivery. I don't think Sabbath used harmonies until their 5th album.
California Dreamin' by The Mamas and The Papas has great harmonies and call-and-response backing vocals. Also, The Bee Gees harmonized like nobody's business. ;)
Love the Bee Gees! The song Guilty that Barry wrote for Barbra fascinates me: the song transposes from her key to his, but at the chorus she sings the same notes! Woof!
I don’t know how David didn’t include a Bee Gees example. They’re one of the most famous harmony groups of all time. He focused more on the Beatles who were better songwriters than they were harmonists (not taking anything away from them), but the Bee Gees could harmonize circles around the Beatles, and so could tons of other groups. He didn’t mention Boyz II Men, the Jacksons, not even TAKE 6, THE best a cappella group of all time.
This is a good lesson for uneducated people but it doesn’t make for a very interesting video when 99% of his examples are just the Beatles. No hate, but does this guy listen to anyone other than the Beatles?
Check out Heart - These Dreams live in Seattle for some of the greatest live harmonies/BVs I've ever heard
@@triad5766 there was an indirect mention though it would have been great to include some of their songs.. The Dolly Parton/Kenny Rogers song "Islands in the Stream" was written by the Bee Gees. The Bee Gees did some live performances of it.
ruclips.net/video/usezH_d3HV8/видео.html
It's a nice effect in "I've Got a Feeling" when Paul and John sing different lyrics at the same time at the end of the song (a preview of going solo, perhaps?)
But hey, that's just a theory
@@deggo6522a game theory
@@deggo6522
"a mu- *song* theory..."
This would be another example of counterpoint wouldnt it?
Interesting take on that...
This video was so much fun! I know you cab never be comprehensive on a giant subject like vocal harmonies, but if you ever want to do a second part to this one, I would be super interested to hear your take on barbershop harmonies, and the way those close harmonies create the warm overtone the style is so famous for. If you wanted to include some more avant garde harmony techniques, overtone singing is pretty wild, where the singer can harmonize with him or herself.
Thanks for the good stuff! Inspiring, educational, entertaining 🙂
Agreed, I'd love to see that.
Great ideas.
what is barbershop harmony?
I agree! I can’t figure out how they’re doing it. Is it just intonation? Is it just really clean? It may as well be magic to me.
@@shedidntthinkthisthrough: I spoked to a barbershop guy recently and asked similar questions. To answer one question, yes, they use just intonation. Since they are singing a capella, they have no need for the conveniences of 12 TET, so they can sing pure intervals.
There are also particular formulas for voicing and voice-leading in barbershop, but I don't remember the details.
Have to say. When the harmony is in thirds and they do it "literally" all the time it kind of starts sounding robotic and as if it's just digital doubling which makes the more "weaving" kind of barbershop harmonies so much more satisfying.
Good point 😊
Depending on what songs you’re talking about, you may be referring to modern recording which often use auto tune. Real voices are slightly off, making them sound human. Auto tune is like using drum quantizing-makes it sound digital and monotonous.
Works best when it’s done just on certain phrases or just on the chorus.
You could honestly do a whole video just going over how The Beach Boys used harmonies. So much complexity was in their harmonies, listen to a song like “Our Prayer” it’s all over the place
Most beautiful vocals ever!
I've been listening to so much The Mamas & The Papas lately. Their voices work together so well.
Amen.
I'm so in love with Michelle Phillips. Timeless music.
Yeah, but some of their live stuff is a bit rough. Like the didn’t rehearse enough or were hammered.
Harmonies are literally one of my favorite things in music! Period! I am so glad you included Simon and Garfunkel, as they usually come to mind, but I also think of bands like, Steely Dan, The Guess Who, or CSNY. Just to name a few! (And of course from my time in choir)
The Eagles, though much maligned over production (and other) excesses really started as a vocal harmony band.
@@0xDEAFF00D totally! And many bands of that era.
A simple but very effective example is "Baby Blue" by Badfinger. Pete Ham & Tom Evans harmonise beautifully in this song!!
I love inventing harmonies for the songs that I love and that I've heard a thousand times. It gives me the opportunity to re-discover them. Also, sometimes is my way to get to sing the song, if it gets too high or too low for my voice. Instead of changing the key, I harmonize it. It's kind of inventing duets for them ^_^
Some people were meant to sing together. I've always been fascinated with the way Kate Pierson and Cindy Wilson voices matches together in the B-52's.
Think about the song "52 Girls". The two ladies sing most of the song in unison, but when they sing "Can you name them today", the harmonies on "name" and "today" really jump out at you surprisingly and are satisfying.
A lot of folk bands like the Everly Brothers have siblings as singers and the harmonies really stand out. Ann and Nancy Wilson from Heart also have the crazy sibling harmony thing. The chorus of Alone wouldn't sound nearly as massive without the super high top line.
@@gman13531check out First Aid Kit from Sweden, it's two sisters that didn't know they could harmonize so well until their parents heard them singing at the same time.
@@gman13531There's a pseudo-scientific theory called 'blood harmony' that posits that family members can naturally sing much tighter harmony. The Louvin Brothers are an incredible example of this - 'You're Running Wild' is absolutely haunting.
A technical explanation would include a discussion of "timbre" and the physical similarities of the singers' voices. This gets masked in a larger chorus, but when it is 2 or 3 singers together, the effect can be magical.
Depeche Mode have some of my favorite 2-part vocal arrangements of all time. They often use counterpoint, or call-and-response, or singing a few lines in octaves. But my absolute favorite is when Dave and Martin sing in unison or harmony, and Martin suddenly goes really high on one note, like on "People Are People," "Stripped," or "Broken." On "Broken" they sing entirely different melodic lines really close to each other and it somehow works!
Yes! Whenever I look at one of Davids tutorials, DM almost always comes to mind in a way or another. Martin Gore's use of borrowed chords makes for some quite interesting counter melodies.
The Night Before, one of my favorite Beatles songs, has three different types of harmonies: Double tracking, call and response, and Ahhhs.
Some people are just good at it. I can break it down and practice my part (I'm a bass player) but I have friends I work with who absolutely are not thinking in terms of WHAT they're singing and are just SO good at it.
With Bass it’s much harder to pick up your part of a harmony particularly if it doesn’t follow what you’re playing
The Eagles and CSN&Y are probably my 2 favorites in terms of harmonies. But an overlooked song, in my opinion, is "Bus Stop" by The Hollies. I've always loved how the harmonies in that song sound.
Have a listen to the original line up for Little River Band. Awesome aussie music that never quite made it out of Australia.
I love that Hollies song
I was astonished that CSN did not make it into the lineup of amazing harmonies.
Bus Stop is a killer track!
Seven Bridges Road by the Eagles !
Highest honour a video can get: being moved from my “watch later playlist” to my “Best Performances” playlist
😊😊
Has to be said: the Beatles learned oblique harmony from the Everly Brothers. Cathy's Clown is probably the song the Beatles were influenced by for Please Please Me.
Absolutely right!!!
George said he and John listened to the Everly Brothers records and then they practiced singing together. Paul practiced harmony with many different peoples records.
“I need you so” in All I Have To Do Is Dream is a harmony made in heaven.
I think he could do a whole segment on the Everly Brothers. Their vocals were so tight it sounded like one big voice.
@@jonathanamos5026 I love that song!
A refinement I like a lot is when the "response" part jumps ahead, anticipating the "call". Guess who used this? Yup, The Beatles. The classic example is in the verses of "Help!" -- (When) When I was younger... (I never nee...) I never needed anybody's...
Yep, The Beatles used it, but I'm not sure about the Guess Who. 😅
nice one mate, yep.
@@rennyschweiger Errr, that was funny lol - Not everyone's gonna get that one lol. ;)
Saw the harmony vocal vid and clicked. Did not pay attention to the channel. Then I heard Bennett's voice and I thought, "I know this guy." Sure enough. I have seen Bennett's videos in the past. Always outstanding. Thanks Bennett. sw
Among the impressive things about your videos is your ability to find apt examples of the points you make. Well done.
Eagles are good in harmonizing as well. Glenn and Henley are a powerful duo too. But when you add Randy Meissner, Joe Walsh, Don Felder. They'll take you to another universe. A great example of this is New Kid In Town
Don't Fear the Reaper, great call and response, to the point that they're basically swapping lead back and forth.
Really interesting video. I’ve always been fascinated by the harmonies in This Boy by The Beatles. So good. The boygenius harmonies are wonderful.
This was an eye opener for me, now looking for more explanations and Beatles examples.
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Absolutely blows my mind how singers can actually do perfect harmony live
It’s just practice. I was in a choir for ten years. When it gelled, it sounded really sweet. The Basses often seemed pitchy. The Altos always seemed to have the toughest lines, but executed them well.
Especially when they have to compete with so much noise at the venue. How do they hear themselves?
It's hard, it's so easy to flip into the other line. Practice, practice, practice!
@boxsterman77 Monitors / onstage sound been around for a long time. Nowadays could be some in-ear plugs.
The Beatles claimed they couldn't hear themselves playing when doing the big venues though, and it is said that this was one of the reasons they decided to stop touring.
The singular best example of backing vocal harmonies is without question is "Somebody to Love" by Queen, and I am immensely happy to see you skip it here as you must be preparing a full-length video on it.
Simon and Garfunkel’s version of Scarborough fair has a great counter melody
Teach Your Children is a great example of counterpoint. CSN had some of the best harmonies in the business.
Something I love are the three parts harmony that are delayed in time, in God Only Knows and Golden Brown by the stranglers, it's got a never ending feeling that's very satisfying
I have wanted someone to explain this to me like this for about 20 years. THANK YOU!
The Beatles - Baby's in black: probably my favourite harmonizing from them
Day Tripper
My favorite is Because!
I was expecting ABBA, but despite that, amazing and interesting video!
me too 🤭
Me three! Anni-Frid and Agnetha's harmonies are otherworldly they’re so perfect.
I would also like to know how the Bee Gees do harmonies.
this is exactly what I was hoping you would work on, thanks david!!!
Fun Fact: Kurt Cobain didn’t like to do double tracking. So Butch Vig had to remind him that “John Lennon did it” in order to get Kurt to do it.
The slight differences in phase that occur when doubling make the vocal really stand out in the mix, it’s a bit of studio magic. These days, I double all my vocals both lead and harmonies. It’s great having so many tracks available, back in the 8-track days it was a lot more work to use this technique, now I typically have 6 to 8 tracks just for vocals.
Speaking of John, it would have been interesting to get a take on "This Boy" considering Rick Beato (4+m subscribers) insisted that John sang all the vocals on that track. I'm not buying it.
John Lennon famously hated doing double tracking and didn’t make much effort to sing the line exactly the same the second time, that’s what pushed them to develop auto double tracking.
You can't talk about vocal harmonies without mentioning Yes; can't think of a Yes song without harmonies.
Sparks is also a good example of double tracking and occasionally also counterpoints.
Pink Floyd used harmonies all the time too, and the Moody Blues are practically a choir.
All the cool bands and solo artists used harmonies.
Creating a good song without harmonies is probably harder than learning how to harmonize,
unless you're doing instrumental music.
Very impressive. My sisters and I sang harmonies while we washed dishes every night. We just worked them out based on what we had heard. This explains A LOT! Thank you.
That is awesome!
In a band setting backing vocals and harmonies can often be the hardest part to get right. But it's soo satisfying when you nail them.
This might be my favorite video of yours yet! So many cool ideas for song arranging
Cheers 😊😊
Jimmy Eat World‘s album Clarity opened the door to vocal harmonies for me when I was a teenager. Still loving to sing the second voice to it when I‘m driving my car.
Liz Fraser of Cocteau Twins multitracks her vocals so there's lots of interesting things happening. In "those eyes that mouth", for instance, there are three "verses", the fist with melody A, the second with melody A&B together and then the third with melody B but with different chords.
On the top of my list is Gentle Giant, masters in complex vocal harmonies, some completely à capella.
Also the harmonies of Paperback Writer by the Beatles has my forever appreciation.
One of my favorite examples to explain polyphony to my students is "Scarborough Fair/Canticle" by Simon & Garfunkel. In this piece, two completely independent melodies are sung in parallel.
Descant.
Neil Young put out a film called 'Harvest Time' a couple of years ago, and in it there's some incredible footage of Young, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash ad-libbing harmony vocals for 'Words Between the Lines of Ages'. They're all clustered around one mic, and they're half-drunk, but it sounds incredible.
From my mother's and my experience with a capella music, there's a well-deserved joke about the alto voice stuck on the fifth for the entire song. It's the a capella equivalent of the meme about the cello in "Canon in D" by Pachelbel playing the same ostinato over and over and over and it's in half of the pop songs on the radio so you can't get away from it.
Classic example of counterpoint that almost everyone knows is "Heart and Soul."
The matching notes in Not Strong Enough sounds like lungs compressing and then boom they jump back into the harmony. …’breathing in’. I like it.
The vocal arrangements of Yes go above and beyond as far as employing all of the aforementioned techniques. A good early example being "It's Your Move", or check out "Leave It" (by the 80s version of Yes) for some densely-arranged, meticulously-crafted harmonies that still work in a pop context.
I love the harmonization in the middle part of Close to the Edge. So beautiful!
Crosby, Stills and Nash song 'Helplessly Hoping' is one of my favorite vocal harmonies (CSN had many other songs the same) - each voice is purposely separated but sounds sublime. Country and bluegrass songs are famous for their great vocal harmonies. I always think of vocal harmonies as singing the individual notes that make a chord. This is a great video on harmonies, excellent work David B.
I can't read music, so that explanation makes more sense to me, the notes in a chord
When I was young, I was listening to She Loves You and suddenly, I understood harmonies! Now, all these years later, I have been using all kinds of harmonies when I would write a song or hang around with my friends. I was THE harmony guy!
One of my favourite Beatles harmony vocals is There’s a Place. Especially on the lines “And it’s my mind, and there’s no time”. I’ve listened to that over and over again. Never tire of it.
One of those early Beatles songs that make me feel very nostalgic. Idk if I am the only one 😣
IIRC, John & Paul set out deliberately to write a song that would be all harmony, no melody. In places it drops to 1 voice, but whenever it's 2 voices, it's tough to pick out which should be melody, isn't it? They envisioned it as neither one being melody.
@@jcarty123 Good point. It is difficult to know which is the melody line in the part I mentioned for example. It’s a really great song but is sort of underrated I think. I’m a second generation fan, born in 1960, and I think a lot of people my age and younger wouldn’t know it.
It's taken me a long long time to come to this conclusion but David Bennett and his team deserve some kind of award for their services to music. After watching this video and all of the others over time i'm absolutely convinced they are totally honest and good people and THAT is why i am going to buy Ripx DAW Pro. (Hope it's not too expensive) lol.
David mate, you have shot to number one in my estimation. It's very gratifying to meet somebody who loves music as much as i do. You're a much better musician than me although i love playing guitar and piano i am a singer / songwriter. When i first saw this DAW Plugin i though, "Yeah, it's only gonna work on digital tracks" (in other words newish stuff), but no, i can now see it will work on any track - well, not sure if it works on 100%, but most.
Mate i'm blown away today. I always wanted to know how to harmonise, i'll be watching your video again a few times. But another great thing is trhat i know i'm in good hands. You're not a con man trying to sell ads as your main thing, you're a genuine disciple of music which is beautiful. I can't thank you enough my friend, you've made my day today and i'm gonna start writing again. Thanks a million mate, thank you.
The version of Hey Jude on the album has a "call and response" where the response comes in the verse well before the "call". "So let it out and let it in" is slid in between phrases for what comes in earnest later.
The entire Supertramp catalogue comes to mind.
easily my favourite vocal harmony in any song is the beatles "because" its just so enchanting and beautiful and as soon as i heard it i had to replicate it in a song i was working on at the time
There's also a form of Call&Response that I really like, that uses voice and guitar.
For example in Real love by The Beatles you can clearly see vocal phrases followed by different guitar responses and I find it very exciting to listen to!
I agree. Van Morrison has a number of songs like this too.
George was really a fan of that. He and Paul got into an argument when George wanted to do that on Hey Jude and Paul refused. In that case I think Paul was right, but echoing the vocals with the guitar is really effective
i love how all your examples are in sheet music, bro is clandestinely teaching us how to read lol i got musescore 4 a year ago and its changed my life.
I was searching for something like this for years!!! Thank you.
Best vocal harmonies I've ever heard have been The Chicks, hands-down. Their harmonies sound so intricate, and I've heard people say they're really hard to replicate, so I'd love to know more about them.
Would also be cool seeing what about PTX's vocal stylings make them so unique among a capella groups
The first example of a counterpoint harmony that springs to my mind is the final chorus of Country House by Blur where the main chorus is still sung in the forefront but underneath, the backing vocals reprise the middle eight section (“Lo, lonely and sad, I’m so sad I don’t know why”)
Great example 😊
I was gonna mention Blur. On some Blur songs Graham's harmonies are just lovely and very effective. Girls and Boys and Under The Westway have great backing vocals too.
2:48 They sound like Louis and Peter griffin singing together
Yes
Love the Beatles harmonies, also love Fleetwood Mac's 3 part harmonies. Timing is very important, starting and finishing at the same time. McCartney had Wings practice harmonies a lot and it showed in their live shows.
Another technique, which I call "cascading" or "staggered" harmonies" is best exemplified by The Band's "The Weight", where the members sing "and" one after each other on different chord tones, just before Levon Helm (I think) sings "you put the weight right on me" alone.
Another famous example of that technique is "Twist and Shout" (both the Isley's and Beatles' versions) on "Oh, oh, oh oh".
Just listened to The Weight. Yes, I see :)
If you want a masterclass in backing vocal harmony, just listen to anything composed by Amy Lee. She's mostly known for her singing voice, but to me it's her composition where she really excels. Rather than just singing the same melody an interval above or below, she makes the backing vocal line a fully-fleshed counter-melody, full of variations that either compliment or contrast with the main melody, or even just go off and do something different.
In fact, I think she's used every technique described in this video, often multiple in the same song. There's an acapella you can find for "Going Under" that includes the backing vocals, and you'll hear 3 part harmonies, double-tracking, and call-and-response happening at the same time, and in the verses she uses another technique that you could have included in this video which is to double track the same melody an entire octave apart. Or "My Last Breath" where the last chorus drops the harmony used in the first two choruses and instead uses a double-tracked version of the bridge's main melody and lyrics as its counterpoint backing vocal.
Some good songs of hers for harmony parts are "Weight of the World", "Call Me When You're Sober", "Blind Belief", "Better Without You", "Speak to Me", or her duet harmony on Lzzy Hale's "Break In".
And one thing she likes to do to maintain variation in a song is that when the main melody repeats a phrase, she will deliberately make it so the harmony does NOT repeat how it responds to it. You can hear this in songs like "New Way to Bleed" and "Cloud Nine". In "Feeding the Dark", the chorus repeats the same phrase twice, then repeats it twice again with one more note added to the end. That could come across as repetitive, except that the chords and the harmonies radically shift every time the phrase repeats.
Here's that acapella: ruclips.net/video/UXICPuyWTZY/видео.htmlsi=UVXyhiD7iLw4EjfA
Oh my God, this is SO interesting. I love Evanescence (especially the first 3 albums), but have no musical background at all. I could listen to you talk about this all day! Thanks for sharing!
@@lauramarsh7091 I don't have a musical background either, I've just always been fascinated by the complexity of the layers in her compositions, and how she doesn't treat backing vocals as an afterthought, but puts a lot of thought into them. I have tried making my own music (even though I don't know theory, can't read music, and can't play any instruments) and she's a big influence on how I try to structure melodies and chords to keep things from getting repetitive. Amy Lee and Mike Shinoda are my biggest influences in terms of composition. Not that I'm really any good.
You might want to go town on Barbershop vocal harmonies next, where the perfect 5th actually joins perfect thirds and other weirdness 😁
I’ll second that
Barbershop had SUCH a rich history, would be an amazing video! Maybe even a series. I know growing up and doing a little myself, there was a big emphasis on getting those overtones to match so as to get that perfect "ring" on the finish chord in particular
@@SiberianThunderTDo you have any resources i can use to teach myself? I love this style of vocal and have no clue where to start self learning it.
@@shedidntthinkthisthrough I don't have any good resources, no. I'm not super experienced, so other people might have real resources for you though! IMO The big thing about barbershop is the group dynamic/interplay, so unless you have a group to practice with, my personal thought is that the best thing to do would be to listen to as much as you can (to get a feel for the style) and maybe practice some individual parts that you particularly like.
Buffalo Bills. "Music Man" 1957.
Matthew Wilder, who wrote the song "I'll Make a Man Out of You" from Mulan, has described the song as a "very odd pop song" and I can see why. The part that begins with the line "I'm never gonna catch my breath" is especially odd, as it is either a bridge that happens before the first chorus, or it is a pre-chorus that only occurs once in the song.
This would be an interesting subject to bring up in a future video.
Thanks David and your team that contribute to these videos! Just when you think the video has been complete, you go above and beyond, and give an abundance of information and make the video exceptional and enjoyable to musicians and non musicians alike!
I've always really liked the harmonies on Shiny Happy People by REM. Kate Pierson of the B-52's did most of the vocal harmonies, which she crafted herself. There is nearly every type of harmony in this video in the song: Constant lead with descending harmonies, intervals, harmonies weaving above and below the melody, Ahs, a steady dit dit dit from Mike Mills (the unsung hero of the band) toward the end, etc. The harmonies really take the song to a completely different place.
Everybody seems to have something to say but nobody has said wow great video🙈thank you so well explained and visualised - thank you
Thanks so much! 😊
Vocal harmonies are really what sparked my love for music when I was a kid. And as I grew older I kept finding new and beautiful harmonies in all types of music no matter the genre. I've always been curious about the harmonies that System of a down uses, they've always tickled the right part of my brain
A lot of people seem to think that parallel harmony (the arc of the harmony matching the arc of the melody, with the size of the interval between them maintained) is a good thing. But unless the overall harmony is also parallel harmony, it’s quickly going to clash with the chords. In most cases, a harmony will work best if it sticks exclusively to chord tones, even if the lead melody doesn’t. This often means the harmony will remain static in phrases in which the lead vocals move, and vice versa.
I've been trying to work on making better vocals. This is very helpful. Especially for improvisational singing. Looping and vocal lines work really well with alot of these techniques.
This is the most perfect video i've ever seen about vocal harmonies. Congrats!! 🇧🇷
The chorus of California Girls is effectively two vocal harmony groups singing call and response.❤
The counterpoint harmonies in the 2nd middle-8 of McCartney's 'Wanderlust' is a wonderful example of the style. 'I Saw her standing there' features my favourite Lennon/McCartney vocal blending - John's rustic low notes topped with Paul's honey-sweet highs is/was a match made in heaven, in deed!
I always found the harmonies of The Sound of Silence by S&G to be particularly fascinating, actually all of S&G harmonies were exceptionally good. The Everly Brothers are probably the grand fathers of pop harmonies. They were so in-sync with each other it was hard to tell which voice was who's. You did mention The Beach Boys, their style of barbershop harmonies were very compelling. Actually that style probably deserves a video of its own. Thanks for this video David, like all your videos I find them extremely well researched and instructive.
not just barbershop. exquisiete complex harmonies, far beyond what any artist has ever done in pop music. still under appreciated. I guess people just are not capable of hearing it
Brilliantly explained and presented. This was the video I've been searching years for. I can't sing for toffee, but always wondered about the musical theory of what I was hearing in the vocal sections of some songs. Thanks.
My favorite RUclips music content. Thanks for sharing.
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I’ve heard that the Beatles didn’t actually like double tracking, well John specifically and that the adr double tracking technique came from John not wanting to double his vocals.
Yeah. It was a time consuming process Lennon grew tired of
They didn't like the process of it. They liked the sound they got out of it. That's what David means.
LOVE YOU ! UR VIDEOS ARE SO FUN TO WATCH AND SO EDUCATING! KEEP GOING !
thank you for a wonderfully done deep dive into different type of harmonies
There are so many more examples, like Queen, Boston, Journey, EW&F; but one of the best is when harmonies were first being explored, Guillaume de Machaut's Messe de Notre Dame. The Kyrie is unlike anything I've heard in the world and it blows my mind every time
I love Happiness is a Warm Gun harmonies. There are calls and responses, aaahs, etc. I also love the lead vocals (probably one of Lennon's best vocal performances). Well, I definitely love this song.
I've been waiting for you to do a video on this ❤ My favorite musicians when it comes to harmonizing (apart from John and Paul) are the Everly Brothers. Because their voices, their style of singing, their phrasing etc. were so similar, on some songs it actually sounds like only one voice recorded twice.
This is really interesting. I love the backing vocal on You're Going to lose that Girl by the Beatles where they sometimes echo the singer's main point, and occasionally expand on it: 'you're not the only one".
@@MelodyTripp great example 😊😊😊
Love your videos David. Thank-you for introducing me to RipX. Being able to separate voices (stems) in a quality way, is a relatively new tool in musicians arsenal. I have recordings of my duo, with guitars and voices, and wanted to separate and re-mix. Everything I've tried wasn't very good. I'll give RipX a shot.
Never thought I’d say this…but thanks for that sponsor! Going to look into that
Great video as always❤ I do love the 3 part harmonies of Silly Love Songs. I hope you’ll talk about the song one day
Superbly curated bit of education David - I’ve really learned something valuable after years of just being a keyboard player - thank you so much - genius content 🙏🏻
One of my favorite examples of harmonies is “All I Have to Do is Dream” by The Everly Brothers. It just sounds so damn good. Gives me chills every time!
If you wanna be blown away by oohs and aahs checkout Heroes and Villains by the Beach boys. Actually most of their songs have great vocal arrangements but this one takes the cake for me.
14:00 This call and response type of singing was often used in worship music, especially in poorer congregations who couldn't afford many hymn books. The congregation is given the words to sing, most likely by the worship leader, in the "call" so that they know what to sing in the "response".
Lining
Amazing, amazing video that touched everything I wondered about and made it make sense. Perfect video.
I always thought that David Crosby’s harmony in “ Eight Miles High “ was just sublime .
Really useful video, thank you. I’ll definitely apply it
Cheers!
Best explanation of harmonies I have seen that I could understand.
I'd like to shout out Huey Lewis and the News; The News are great harmony singers who doesn't get enough credit. Their backing vocals are prominent on hit singles like "If This Is It" and "Stuck with You", but they also did something quite unusual for a rock band by occasionally singing a cappella (look up "It's All Right" and "Naturally").
This was a great video! Thanks for bringing up the sheet music for the examples!