How to Harmonize by Ear – Part 1

Anyone who can sing can learn to harmonize by ear (also known as woodshedding).  Learning to harmonize is all about training the ear to hear the implied harmonies to a given melody.  While there is not a specific set of instructions to follow that will guarantee instant success, there are a number of tips and tricks that are helpful in learning this skill.  This article will outline a few things you can do to get started training your ear for successful harmonizing.

Listen to Barbershop

Creating barbershop harmony by ear is very difficult if that kind of sound is not already resident inside.  It’s often surprising to learn just how little time most barbershoppers spend listening to barbershop music.  (Learning tracks don’t count because the brain is performing a different function: learning a part.  Memorizing notes and words is very different than listening to harmonies.)

While listening to any barbershop is better than none at all, old barbershop is much better for learning how to harmonize.  It’s hard to draw a line pointing out what qualifies as old barbershop and what doesn’t.  While there’s plenty of recent barbershop that can be helpful in training the ear, older melodies (and arrangements) will create a stronger foundation for learning to harmonize.

To start, choose one or two songs, and listen to them several times in a row to gain familiarity with the tune.  Next, try to listen to only the lead singer for a couple of times through.  Then hone in on the tenor part.  Use your ear to “focus” solely on the tenor part for the entire song.  Once the tenor part seems to stick out more and feels easier to hear, do the same exercise for the bass part.

Listening for baritone is quite a bit more challenging than the other three parts, but go ahead and give it a try.  Concentrate hard to discern the bari notes from the other three notes in the chord, but don’t be surprised if it seems too difficult.  When listening for baritone, just as much effort should be spent listening to the other three parts to know where the baritone should be to fill in the chords.

When listening for ear training, it is best to ignore the lyrics.  This will free up resources in the brain to focus on just the harmonies.  Also, try not to just memorize each part, but rather try to distinguish each note from the other notes in each chord.  This will train the ear to hear music vertically (harmonically) instead of just linearly (melodically).  If the above exercises initially prove to be too difficult or time consuming, never fear.  Just find some classic barbershop recordings and let them play in the car or in the background when working around the house.  Even passive listening trains the ear.

Harmonize to Simple, Familiar Melodies

To get started creating harmonies by ear is to sing along with melodies that are already familiar.  Ideally, these would be unaccompanied simple songs, though that is not absolutely necessary.  Find recordings of kid’s songs, traditional melodies, holiday favorites, or hymns.  If you are tech savvy, record yourself singing a number of these kinds of tunes, then play them back and harmonize alongside your own voice.

At first, don’t worry about singing a specific part (tenor, bass, bari) along with these melodies.  Just try to sing notes that sound good to your ear but are different notes from what the melody has.  Also avoid singing in octaves with the melody.  The most common error in this kind of exercise is the tendency for people to migrate to the melody notes, but just up or down an octave from the melody.

This is a great exercise to do in pairs:  one person sings the melody, while the other tries to sing along a harmonized part, then swap.  The lead singer can also lend an ear to aid the harmonizer in knowing whether or not the notes he is choosing to sing sound acceptable or not.  This can be simply communicated with facial expressions while singing.

Once this exercise becomes easier, try singing a harmony part that is always above the melody.  Then, try singing a harmony part that is always below the melody.  Don’t try to think in terms of tenor, bass, or baritone just yet.  Creating specific harmony parts by ear will be addressed in a future article.

Harmonize in a Group

Clearly, it only takes two voices to harmonize, and of course, our end goal is to create barbershop harmonies by ear in a quartet setting.  However, a great way to get comfortable with the concept of harmonizing is to have a group woodshedding session.  This is best done in group of at least seven or eight.  It is a very good exercise to use with an entire chorus.

Have one person stand in front of the group and sing the melody to a song that everyone in the group is familiar with.  Again, it is important to pick a song that is not in the current repertoire or one that has not been popularized by an arrangement or recording.  Have the person sing through the entire song alone so everyone can hear it.  Stress to the group that this first time through is a listening exercise only, which means no one else should be singing or humming along – just listening.

Next, sing through the song again, but this time have everyone else hum along a harmony part.  At first, have everyone create harmony on the part they normally sing in the chorus (leads need to pick a harmony part – only the “song leader” is to be singing the melody).

It is not expected that everyone will sing the same harmonies as the person next to them.  There will be chords with doublings and many different voicings.  This is okay.  The point is to get people to use their ears to create harmony parts that fit with the rest of the music around them.

Do this once or twice, then instruct everyone to sing a different harmony part.  One way to insure all parts will be covered is to have everyone “move up” a part (i.e., basses go to bari, baritones go to tenor, and tenors go to bass).  Switch parts two more times so that everyone has a chance to harmonize three different parts to the song.

Practice, Practice, Practice 

Again, the goal with all of the above exercises is ear training – learning how to coordinate the voice and ear harmonically.  While good vocal production techniques should always be used when singing, the focus of the exercises is not about this.  Nor is it about the lyrics or “right notes”.  Yes, some note choices will be better than others, but introducing the concept of harmonizing is very different from honing the skill.  And as with any skill, the more time and effort spent on the work, the quicker results become apparent.  Stay tuned for future articles outlining specific tips for harmonizing the different parts as well as more advanced exercises to sharpen these skills further.