How do vocal harmonies work?

[@ianfowler9340]

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.

[@Larrymh07]

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. 👍

[@3leggedkitten]

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. 😄

[@gtrdoc911]

My favorite Beatles' song!

[@davebowman6497]

@@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.

[@leesystems]

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.

[@goat9629]

immediately a beatles example

[@peelslowly28]

What can he say? The Beatlez did everything 😅

[@Sparksnorthern]

They were the best

[@dj71162]

The Beach Boys were levels ahead, yet he used one of their very early songs and that's it!

[@davebowman6497]

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.

[@multisplace3783]

Naturally.

[@aprofondir]

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'

[@sammyinengland]

what kurt did wasn't vocal harmony.

[@TRex266]

Yeah that quote was about vocal doubling, not harmony Edit: Whoops, should've watched the whole video before commenting

[@idralag]

@@TRex266yeah and David was talking about that

[@David-iv6je]

@@sammyinengland Yes, the example was in a part of the video talking about singing in unison.

[@spurv]

Butch did not mention the Beatles - he specifically talked about John Lennon.

[@rome8180]

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.

[@QuinnParsley]

Yea, I was a little surprised at the lack of AiC examples. Fantastic video though! Super informative.

[@satevo462]

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.

[@thomasgomez4263]

I had hoped that AIC would be covered here due to their unique harmonizing

[@glennlittle7955]

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?)

[@ronmay9196]

​@@glennlittle7955Probably the delivery. I don't think Sabbath used harmonies until their 5th album.

[@dawidmamczur]

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. ;)

[@auldthymer]

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!

[@triad5766]

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?

[@alpinion323]

Check out Heart - These Dreams live in Seattle for some of the greatest live harmonies/BVs I've ever heard

[@mattheww4862]

@@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. kzbin.info/www/bejne/q6TIq3uVmZh7jJo

[@daveburns3886]

@@dawidmamczur early BG’s harmonies before disco were epic , Beatles and csny and S&G, and America, and some eagles are magic!

[@dylanward4364]

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

[@ronfowlermusic]

Most beautiful vocals ever!

[@woverby1963]

I agree. The Beatles are my band for all time, they are amazing and have amazing harmonies. The Beach Boys harmonies are probably my favorite of all time though, nothing in the world like them.

[@MyNameIsNeutron]

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!

[@Emesemelgy]

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.

[@YingwuUsagiri]

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.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Good point 😊

[@eyetalic]

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.

[@MrLuigiFercotti]

Works best when it’s done just on certain phrases or just on the chorus.

[@sniktawsemaj5951]

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 🙂

[@tljmusic]

Agreed, I'd love to see that.

[@LuckyFlesh]

Great ideas.

[@gigiovanna]

what is barbershop harmony?

[@shedidntthinkthisthrough]

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.

[@victorwilburn8588]

@@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.

[@blancabt]

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 ^_^

[@teagancombest6049]

The second part is basically how I learned how to improvise harmonies, sing along until you can't reach a note then swap it on the fly and it begins a new line.

[@Peaceful_Rayne]

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)

[@0xFEEDC0DE]

The Eagles, though much maligned over production (and other) excesses really started as a vocal harmony band.

[@Peaceful_Rayne]

@@0xFEEDC0DE totally! And many bands of that era.

[@ryreinhardt]

Beach boys , CSN greatest rock harmonies

[@ryreinhardt]

@@0xFEEDC0DE they wanted to be CSN according to GlenFrey

[@raymondstephan6234]

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.

[@spindriftdrinker]

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.

[@gman13531]

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.

[@joermnyc]

@@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.

[@metalnut92]

​@@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.

[@batya7]

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.

[@zzzaphod8507]

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?)

[@deggo6522]

But hey, that's just a theory

[@szonyoka]

​@@deggo6522a game theory

[@scalesconfrey5739]

@@deggo6522 "a mu- *song* theory..."

[@mattd8325]

This would be another example of counterpoint wouldnt it?

[@like2view]

Interesting take on that...

[@riverw4721]

I've been listening to so much The Mamas & The Papas lately. Their voices work together so well.

[@boxsterman77]

Amen.

[@MrLuigiFercotti]

Yeah, but some of their live stuff is a bit rough. Like the didn’t rehearse enough or were hammered.

[@burntsider8457]

Among the impressive things about your videos is your ability to find apt examples of the points you make. Well done.

[@TigerRogers0660]

A simple but very effective example is "Baby Blue" by Badfinger. Pete Ham & Tom Evans harmonise beautifully in this song!!

[@DonDueed]

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...

[@rennyschweiger]

Yep, The Beatles used it, but I'm not sure about the Guess Who. 😅

[@MultiCappie]

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.

[@Paulnap]

How about Killer Queen? or how about their entire catalog?

[@SiberianThunderT]

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

[@matts6272]

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.

[@MidlifeRenaissanceMan]

Have a listen to the original line up for Little River Band. Awesome aussie music that never quite made it out of Australia.

[@gaffer2602]

I love that Hollies song

[@anncartier1406]

I was astonished that CSN did not make it into the lineup of amazing harmonies.

[@mr.k905]

Bus Stop is a killer track!

[@georgesprouse9561]

Seven Bridges Road by the Eagles !

[@jonathanamos5026]

“I need you so” in All I Have To Do Is Dream is a harmony made in heaven.

[@valvenator]

I think he could do a whole segment on the Everly Brothers. Their vocals were so tight it sounded like one big voice.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

@@jonathanamos5026 I love that song!

[@erikverkoyen8689]

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.

[@RyanHannaMusic]

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.

[@reginaldperiwinkle]

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.

[@michaelmamp9096]

Absolutely right!!!

[@oldmal60]

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.

[@stephenharwood381]

Absolutely blows my mind how singers can actually do perfect harmony live

[@wilsonbrownofficial2828]

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]

Especially when they have to compete with so much noise at the venue. How do they hear themselves?

[@dalegreer3095]

It's hard, it's so easy to flip into the other line. Practice, practice, practice!

[@davebowman6497]

@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.

[@marytornetta161]

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.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

That is awesome!

[@Jaggerbush]

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.

[@haigthomasbabaian6241]

With Bass it’s much harder to pick up your part of a harmony particularly if it doesn’t follow what you’re playing

[@gayatriunni549]

im not that good at it, but i often instinctively start singing the third/sixth harmonies over songs (which probably sounds a bit weird to others when i’m wearing headphones). i’m in awe of people who can figure out intricate harmonies on the spot

[@beenaplumber8379]

My experience with bar bands has been that people who seem intuitive about harmony got that way one of 2 ways: 1) They studied it very hard and practiced it when they were young, probably with an instructor. (They put in the effort.) 2) They grew up going to church every week and heard the people around them singing harmonies to the hymns, eventually developing the feel for themselves. I've played with many who had each background. I had neither, and I'm really rough with harmony. I find lead vocals much easier.

[@ShiningHourPop]

Really interesting video. I’ve always been fascinated by the harmonies in This Boy by The Beatles. So good. The boygenius harmonies are wonderful.

[@nathanwahl9224]

Don't Fear the Reaper, great call and response, to the point that they're basically swapping lead back and forth.

[@hhilkner]

This is the most perfect video i've ever seen about vocal harmonies. Congrats!! 🇧🇷

[@dudeduderino2872]

this is exactly what I was hoping you would work on, thanks david!!!

[@ggus8512]

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!

[@salutcmoi2287]

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

[@sirwinston2368]

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

[@davidschwartz2670]

Teach Your Children is a great example of counterpoint. CSN had some of the best harmonies in the business.

[@tutortle1820]

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

[@umbertoyltp]

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.

[@stevezapinski7706]

I've been singing in bands forever, and I'm just learning this, Oh Vey! Thank you!

[@AshArtzMusic]

The background vocals in hadestown (particularly from the fates) is just amazing

[@guydouglas6094]

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.

[@ronfowlermusic]

I can't read music, so that explanation makes more sense to me, the notes in a chord

[@matthewoates3201]

Everybody seems to have something to say but nobody has said wow great video🙈thank you so well explained and visualised - thank you

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thanks so much! 😊

[@ddo666]

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.

[@batya7]

Descant.

[@royalex21]

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.

[@bunkie2100]

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.

[@comicus6769]

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.

[@shazmeister2005]

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.

[@ItzBotz]

Everyone says this everywhere

[@ryreinhardt]

Kurt who ? never heard of him

[@Blyeat2]

My favourite vocal harmonies are “If i fell” and “because” by the Beatles. Actually pretty much any song with harmonies by the Beatles ) SOAD has great vocal harmonies and Serj’s and Daron’s vocals blend so well together Also Pentatonix… they’re just pure vocal harmony! No wonder - they’re a Capella group )

[@halfbrothersbrandchannel]

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.

[@oliverzwahlen]

I love the harmonization in the middle part of Close to the Edge. So beautiful!

[@moviemovieband]

Squire's choirboy background, no doubt.

[@tariqkhawaja2720]

Been looking for a video like this for ages! Thanks so much David!

[@MelodyTripp]

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".

[@DavidBennettPiano]

@@MelodyTripp great example 😊😊😊

[@mashedpotatodj5395]

The quality of your work in this video is simply amazing

[@PenneySounds]

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.

[@PenneySounds]

Here's that acapella: kzbin.info/www/bejne/i4msdIOrrryHkLssi=UVXyhiD7iLw4EjfA

[@lauramarsh7091]

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!

[@PenneySounds]

@@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.

[@spooky_zoo]

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.

[@fabioalbertani945]

Simon and Garfunkel’s version of Scarborough fair has a great counter melody

[@gordonlee1768]

And also the sound of silence

[@jayorag]

The Beatles - Baby's in black: probably my favourite harmonizing from them

[@azloii9781]

Day Tripper

[@BlueManIan]

My favorite is Because!

[@sheilakrstevski8148]

Yes It Is

[@jacobtallen]

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

[@metalnut92]

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.

[@fathuman]

Octaves are an underated type of 'harmony' too IMO. They can add depth and fatness when an octave below and some energy and excitement when an octave above without the phase issues inherent with unisons. They're fantastic if you're feeling lazy because they save you having to figure where the thirds are and having to make them sit with the underlying chords.

[@ethantanatsiwasesedza8305]

Thanks David. 16 minutes well spent with a wealth of knowledge that will go a long way📝✨💯

[@BrockBarr]

This might be my favorite video of yours yet! So many cool ideas for song arranging

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Cheers 😊😊

[@gustavoibarracarrizalez]

I was expecting ABBA, but despite that, amazing and interesting video!

[@gigiovanna]

me too 🤭

[@flyteoffancy]

Me three! Anni-Frid and Agnetha's harmonies are otherworldly they’re so perfect.

[@One.Zero.One101]

I would also like to know how the Bee Gees do harmonies.

[@StreetCarma]

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.

[@patrivolta2484]

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.

[@dirgemcelvoy2583]

This was an eye opener for me, now looking for more explanations and Beatles examples.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

😊😊😊

[@jvblhc]

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!

[@Goddzi]

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”)

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Great example 😊

[@kirstiegregory9740]

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.

[@johnrackham1696]

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!

[@martoto77]

The chorus of California Girls is effectively two vocal harmony groups singing call and response.❤

[@jacksonsay37]

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.

[@michellatendresse1700]

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.

[@thomasvanderzande5846]

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

[@paweida1]

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".

[@Aritro77]

Just listened to The Weight. Yes, I see :)

[@petersage5157]

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."

[@CorAlRoca]

I was searching for something like this for years!!! Thank you.

[@unknown-hx2oy]

LOVE YOU ! UR VIDEOS ARE SO FUN TO WATCH AND SO EDUCATING! KEEP GOING !

[@ragnarviews]

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.

[@fromchomleystreet]

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.

[@jonnyhenningson1182]

I have wanted someone to explain this to me like this for about 20 years. THANK YOU!

[@narayan581]

this video is gold

[@slavaukraini404]

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.

[@iraalexa]

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!

[@StevenStJohn-kj9eb]

I agree. Van Morrison has a number of songs like this too.

[@ragnarviews]

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

[@hadji828]

A great, well-thought-out lesson on harmonies and background vocals. I feel that in the example of the Beach Boys "Little Deuce Coupe," the background singers were simply singing a chord behind the lead singer, not too unlike a barbershop quartet would do from time to time.

[@bj.bruner]

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

[@tigranayvazyan5974]

As a vocal arranger myself, I tend to include at least one oblique harmony in the mix. Just creates this really interesting effect, where it both moves and is stationary at the same time,; with all these constantly changing intervals. - Here are some more examples to consider: Oblique harmony: "Drowning" by the Backstreet Boys If you listen closely, in the chorus, there's an oblique harmony, sung by Brian, that sits above the main melody line. A similar approach is taken in Bon Jovi's "It's My Life", where Richie's part is on one note for the most part, while Jon sings the melody underneath it. Plus, they have plenty of "Aahs" underneath the main layer. And for a counterpart, One very well-known example is the outro of "Eleanor Rigby" when the higher melody goes "Ah, look at all the lonely people", with the second vocalist (well, it's in fact, Paul on both) singing "All the lonely people, where do they all come from?"

[@adriannass9396]

My favorite KZbin music content. Thanks for sharing.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

😊😊😊😊😊😊😊😊

[@gigiovanna]

Ahhh, I'm so happy! What a coincidence! This was exactly the kind of video I've been looking for for a few days, but none of the ones I've watched have pleased me as much as this one! It was very enlightening and I loved the way you gathered examples of songs with different classifications. It will definitely help me identify different types of harmonic lines and apply them to a new or existing melody. I also have to say that you are one of the best creators of content about music theory and related topics here on KZbin. I've already learned a lot and I intend to continue binge-watching your videos for as long as I can. I always absorb some new information and incredible curiosities that I've never seen before!! To add, the first examples of artists that I think of who use second voices very well are the classic Brazilian country singers and ABBA. They both do it wonderfully. It's worth stopping to analyze each verse and realize how interesting this part of the construction of a song is. It really enriches it a lot. I'm a big fan of yours, thank you David! 🤗

[@Abose87]

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.

[@timallen6025]

Your videos are getting way good at illustrating what’s being said ( and sung😊) . Greatly appreciated too, thank you

[@originalvonster]

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.

[@dashmagic6211]

Yeah. It was a time consuming process Lennon grew tired of

[@TheJayson8899]

They didn't like the process of it. They liked the sound they got out of it. That's what David means.

[@StuMas]

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!

[@ulfdanielsen6009]

The entire Supertramp catalogue comes to mind.

[@kennet7837]

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").

[@johnnyseg754]

Excellent point!

[@romenyesayan3855]

2:48 They sound like Louis and Peter griffin singing together

[@e_cole_eye]

I have been wondering about harmonies for so long! Thanks for making this!

[@meroller1]

You might want to go town on Barbershop vocal harmonies next, where the perfect 5th actually joins perfect thirds and other weirdness 😁

[@MidlifeRenaissanceMan]

I’ll second that

[@SiberianThunderT]

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]

@@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.

[@SiberianThunderT]

@@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.

[@johngjesdahl-xx2gb]

Buffalo Bills. "Music Man" 1957.

[@christheother9088]

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.

[@rome8180]

In contemporary music, harmonies are often treated as texture. You rarely hear harmonies in the style of The Everly Brothers or Simon and Garfunkel anymore, where what you really have is simultaneous melodies. I wish that would come back in fashion. For my own music, I often deliberately mix the harmony as loud as the "lead" vocal. That goes against everything you hear in online mixing tutorials, where you're told to mix the harmony 3-6 db quieter than the leads. I love harmonies and want them to be emphasized. And I really don't give a damn if people are confused about which vocal is the "lead" for a little while.

[@lucaspsm125]

I'm not sure if you've already covered this in another video, but the way that Thom Yorke's vocals and backing vocals interchange on the end of Let Down is phenomenal and always makes me emotional

[@zappababe8577]

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".

[@chuckiec20]

Lining

[@dangiogames7167]

man it's feels so good to see how you evolve. congratz

[@ianfowler9340]

There is a famous live performance on KZbin with Alison Krauss and Vince Gill, from the 90's, singing "Tryin' To Get Over You".

[@southsideronnie]

Your videos are always so good and informative. Thank you David!!

[@pensivepenguin3000]

When I think of counterpoint and call-and-response, I think of the husband/wife indie rock duo Mates Of State. They perfectly exemplify this, especially in their earlier stuff

[@rumbuzz1]

One of my most favorite of your posts ! Thank you, David !