Estimated reading time 6 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
Have you ever listened to a chord and couldn’t pick out the notes? Or maybe you’ve tried to hear the inner parts, but couldn’t? If you want to harmonize in tune, you need to be able to hear the parts. Read more to learn how to hear the notes when harmonizing.
- In the post Singing Exercises with Harmony, we already sang the different parts in the current post’s vocal arrangement. However, today you will be mostly listening instead of singing. In fact, just listening can be more challenging than singing along with the song.
- To hear harmony in tune, you need to develop your listening skills. Hearing how your part sounds in the overall harmony remains a critical aspect of tuning. To hear the overall harmony, you need to listen to the tone color. However, you can learn to hear not only your part, but also the other parts as well.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
How to Hear the Notes When Harmonizing: Basic Skills
What Most Singers Listen to When Harmonizing
- My wife has one of the best sets of ears I’ve ever run into. Once, when we had a recording session, it impressed the studio owner that, while my wife did not always sing in tune, she always knew when she went out of tune. (Most people do not recognize when they go out of tune.)
- I asked her how she listens when she sings harmony. She said she would listen to her own part and also to the overall sound of the vocal group. I harmonize in much the same way. Even with singers who harmonize well, awareness of all the parts does not happen all the time, or even all that often.
- Nevertheless, hearing all of the notes when harmonizing is a valuable skill that can be learned.
A Skill That Can Be Learned
- If new to harmonizing, start simple. Try listening to music groups that have instruments with very different sounds. If you listen to different instruments with very similar sounds, you will find it much harder to pick out the parts.
- This also happens when you listen to the different parts in vocal harmony, because the good groups try to achieve vocal blend. (Blended music has a smooth and even quality to the sound.)
- Begin with live videos of woodwind groups, percussion ensembles, and jazz and rock bands. Seeing the instruments play can help you to identify them. Eventually, transition to audio recordings.
- Once you can easily identify each instrument in these types of music groups, try viewing a brass ensemble. Telling the trumpet from the horns from the trombones and tuba will be more challenging.
- However, it will still be easier than doing the same with a string quartet or a vocal group. Once you can hear the different instruments in a brass or string group, you can try the exercises below.
- If you can already hear some notes in a chord played by instruments with very similar tone colors, you have a head start. Most people find it easiest to the hear the highest part, closely followed by the lowest part. The inner parts are the most difficult to hear. Once again, you can learn to hear all of the notes when harmonizing.
How to Hear the Notes When Harmonizing: Intermediate Skills
Hearing Out
- In the post 10 Elements that Impact Singing in Tune, we had already talked about what to listen for when trying to harmonize in tune. When trying to hear the notes when harmonizing, you listen using a skill call hearing out.
- William Sethares explains, “… it is possible (with a bit of practice) to learn to ‘hear out’ these partials, to directly perceive the spectrum of the sound. This kind of listening is called analytic listening, in contrast to holistic listening in which the partials fuse together into one perceived entity.
- “When listening analytically, sound fragments into their constituent elements. When listening holistically, each sound is perceived as a single unit characterized by a unique tone color, or timbre. When presented with a mass of sound, the ear must decide how many notes, tones, or instruments are present” (Tuning, Timbre, Spectrum, Scale 25).
- Analytic versus holistic listening skills sit on a continuum. To a degree you can do both, but in this post, you will mostly focus on analytic listening.
Developing Your Listening Skills
Now we get to the heart of how to hear notes when harmonizing:
- Listen to the SATB track (the last track). In most music, the sopranos almost always sing the highest note in each chord, making it the easiest part to hear. Listen for how its notes sound within the chord.
- Next, listen to the bass part. The bass part has the advantage of also being an outside part, making it the second easiest part to hear. If you have a hard time hearing it, listen to the solo bass track. Keep switching between the SATB track and solo bass track until you can hear the bass part on the SATB track. If necessary, you can sing along with the tracks.
- The alto and tenor parts will be much harder to hear on the SATB track. In fact, it really disturbs some people that they can’t hear the inner parts.
- To help you, I have panned the soprano and tenor to the right speaker and the alto and bass to the left. In the SATB track, the tenor sticks out a bit more than the alto part, so we’ll start with the tenor.
- Again, listening in turns to the tenor and SATB tracks will help you pick out the tenor in the full arrangement. When you can hear the tenor part on the SATB track, start listening for the alto part. Keeping the first note of the alto part clearly in mind will help you attain your goal. Don’t lose heart if you can’t hear the inner voices right away.
For a discussion about the shape note notation used in the examples below:
Mobile users: for best results reading the music, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
Soprano (with Organ):
Alto (with Organ):
Tenor (with Organ):
Bass (with Organ):
SATB (without organ):
How to Hear the Notes When Harmonizing: Advanced Skills
- What is the next step in hearing the notes when harmonizing? Try listening to two parts at the same time. You do this step after you have developed the skill of hearing each part in the SATB track.
- Again, the top and bottom parts remain the easiest places to start. Begin with the soprano part. Listen to it and the alto part. Next, repeat with the bass then tenor parts. Your goal should be to listen to all combinations of two parts. After you’ve gotten two parts, try three and finally four parts.
- As you listen to the four parts on the SATB track, you need to defocus your awareness. In other words, it will be much like playing a video game. In a game like Pac Man, you will be aware of all the elements of the game: Pac Man, the dots, the doors, the ghosts, and the power pellets. However, you can’t over focus on any one element. You have to do the same kind of thing when listening to four-part harmony.
Conclusion
This exercise will help you to learn how to shift your focus while listening to music. Once you can hear it, you can sing it, allowing you to hear the notes when harmonizing.
© 2021 Geoffrey Keith
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