Harmonies | Lesson 16 & 17

So in our last lesson we worked out the harmonies to the verse of the song, so in these two lesson we worked out the rest of the song. We started the lesson with a warm up that focused on both the high notes and the low notes. We sung up the scale of C and then back down the scale of C, we also sung a mix of vowels to widen our pronunciation. Then once we had completed the warm ups, we did a run through of the first part of the song to remind ourselves of the different harmonies we had learnt in our previous lesson on ensembles.

Once we had sung the first verse through we went through the harmonies again just to make sure we knew what we were singing. We then moved onto the chorus and the second verse. The chorus already had clear harmonies, it was just assigning them and finding the voice that suited them. We decided that Evie would sing the melody of the song as she knew it well and also the melody suited her voice well. Amelia would then sing the low harmony along with Evie as her voice suits low notes. Maddie would sing the high harmony due to her high vocal range, and I would sing the harmony in between Evie and Maddie. My harmony wasn't too high and it helped carry the song. Myself and Maddie would sing the same note for some parts of the chorus due to the harmonies in those sections being hard to pin point, but doing this helped create more power to the harmony which makes the dynamics of the song sound good.

We originally found the chorus quite hard to begin with as there were multiple harmonies that each of us had to remember and stick to. We sung the chorus through multiple times in the hope that we would know what we were singing and catch on to it fairly quickly. Repeating the chorus several times helped each of us remember our different harmonies, and I think if we keep doing this method throughout the rehearsal period then we will perfect the harmonies quicker. Once we all thought the chorus sounded correct and we were all pleased with how it sounded, we sung the song from the beginning bringing the first verse and the chorus together.

We then moved onto the harmonies in the second verse. These harmonies weren't too difficult to remember or learn as they were very similar to the first verse with the exception of the third line. "Deep down I know this never works." In the original song the artist, Sam Smith, sings higher than he did in the first verse, which meant we had to readjust some of the harmonies. We decided that the higher harmony would hold the same note until "this" and then it would follow down along with the style of the melody. Once that was all sorted out, we decided to sing the first verse, the chorus, the second verse and then the chorus again to see what all of the harmonies would sound like.

We started listening to and thinking about the harmonies in the bridge, but we decided to leave that until the next ensemble lesson as that gives as all time to perfect the harmonies in the verses and the chorus.