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  Harmony Lesson Needed

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Author Topic:   Harmony Lesson Needed
Larry Beck
Member

From: Pierre, SD

posted 25 December 2006 05:45 PM     profile     
T.C. Helicon's Voiceworks has several modes of harmony. The scalar harmony lets you set the scale, then the interval (say a third) and it will generate a harmony voice that tracks the lead voice maintaining the selected scale interval.
Un-accompanied, this sounds ok, but somewhat "barbershop-ish", with instuments, not so good.

The other method is to play a chord on a midi device and the unit will generate harmony based on chord tones rather than fixed interval tracking.
The second mode sounds a lot more like what you hear in a band with someone singing harmony.

I want this unit to generate the harmony parts from the lead singer's track.

Any practical tips, music theory, experience, etc to pass on?

basilh
Member

From: United Kingdom

posted 26 December 2006 04:48 AM     profile     
quote:
The scalar harmony lets you set the scale, then the interval (say a third) and it will generate a harmony voice that tracks the lead voice maintaining the selected scale interval.

That in itself is no good, you need to vary the interval to suit the chord changes. How you do that is hard to explain (By Me) and in the case of a beginner at harmony, probably just guesswork. 3rds, 4ths and 5ths, in the way of intervals, depending upon the chord under the melody.

[This message was edited by basilh on 26 December 2006 at 04:49 AM.]

Larry Beck
Member

From: Pierre, SD

posted 26 December 2006 01:34 PM     profile     
Basil,
Exactly! The midi chord method does let you do that. You can change the chords in "real" time throughout the song and thus generate the kind of harmony you are talking about that fits with the chords.

Curious type that I am, I want to know the why of it which might lead me to how live harmony singers find the right harmony notes, or how one plays harmony to another instrument.
As an example, take the B part of S-G-Rag which is a repeated 3 note arpeggio. Do you just move down a string or two in the same chord position to get a twin part? Or is this a secret that everyone else is in on and I'm the only one who hasn't been told ;-)

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