If you need an overview of harmony or intervals in music, head over to our resources to brush up. You don’t have to be an expert in music theory to write harmony vocals, but knowing the basics will help you get good results faster. To create vocal harmony you need to know a little bit about harmony in general. Vocal harmonies can even become the song’s hook when they’re part of a memorable chorus or call-and response figure. In arrangement, vocal harmony can boost, augment or create contrast to a lead line. Vocals have a unique timbre that adds a distinctly human element to a track when used harmonically. Harmony vocals have a much different effect than other harmonic instruments like guitar or keyboards when used to reinforce chords and progressions. Vocal harmony is a powerful sound that’s commonly used in almost every genre of music.
Harmony vocals can be sung by multiple singers or a single singer overdubbing tracks in a DAW or multitrack recorder. Vocal harmonies are used in music to complement the lead vocal and create chords and harmonic textures. Vocal harmonies are additional vocal lines sung in time with the lead vocal at different musical intervals.
In this article I’ll go over everything you need to know about vocal harmonies-what they are, why to use them and five helpful techniques to write them.
From soaring harmonized lead lines to classic stacks of backing vocals, vocal harmonies play a major part in many different genres of music.īut knowing how to write good vocal harmony is tough, especially when you’re just getting started with music theory.Įven so, learning how to do it is worth it and it’s not so hard once you grasp the basics.