How to Sing Harmony

What is Singing Harmony?

When most people think of singing in harmony, they think of a bunch of background singers singing together at the same time as a lead vocalist.

And although this is true to some extent, it’s not the full story.

They’re not singing the exact same thing.

If you’re harmonizing vocals, you’re more often than not singing different notes than the lead vocal is singing. They’re not random notes, however – they’re strategically chosen so they sound good (i.e. in harmony) with the lead.

Harmony in Music Theory

In music theory, harmony can mean a couple of things. In simple terms, it can mean more than one note playing at the same time (i.e “chords”) or a series of chords played one after the other (i.e “chord progressions”) that sound pleasant when played in sequence.

These are closely related to the concept of music scales – something you can learn more about in our free music theory guide (read now) if you’re totally new to the idea. (It’s a good idea to learn music theory essentials in that guide to really understand what’s being said here).

Think of harmony like this: sing or hum your favorite song.

What you’re most likely humming is the melody of the song, and that’s usually the lead vocal line in popular music. If you imagine the rest of the song (the piano/synth/guitars/bass, etc) you’re thinking of the harmony of that song.

It’s the underlying movement of the music from chord to chord that brings our a certain emotion or feeling.

Harmony When Singing

So with all that in mind, how do you harmonize vocals?

When we’re talking about harmony when singing, we’re usually talking about more than one singer singing together at the same time, but using different notes.

One vocalist will sing the original melody of the song while the other will either:

• match the shape of the melody (ex/ if melody moves down, the harmony moves down as well)
• stay on the same note regardless of how the melody moves
• move in an opposite/different direction than the main melody moves

Most often, harmony parts will match the movement/shape of the original melody.

But, singing in harmony will often use different notes.

Why Learning Harmony is Essential

If you’re an aspiring singer, you need to know how to sing harmonies and how to harmonize vocals in general. As an independent artist, you’re responsible for everything related to your music production and career. You can’t always (if at all) have a producer or writer come in to help you with your harmonies.

Performing live with harmonies is tough as an independent act, but you’re also probably a recording artist (and if you’re not, you should be). Meaning you can absolutely record your own harmonies when working on a single or album.

You could do every single vocal part yourself, and indeed even the pros do this.

Ariana Grande did her own harmonies in that massive choir outro in her smash “God Is a Woman.” It was like 27 vocal harmonies. Craziness.

Getting Started

So how do singers know which notes to harmonize with?

Well if they write their own parts, they have a good understanding of music theory – chords, scales and intervals.

What do you do if you don’t know all that?

Using Songs to Discover How to Sing Harmonies

Then you need to practice harmonizing with your favorite songs to get an idea of “where” normal harmonies would occur and how they’re structured.

Related Content You Might Like: Finding Your Vocal Range – Read Now

Here’s a quick exercise you can do to familiarize yourself with how they’re supposed to sound

• Find a song you love (and know well) that features a female singer and a male singer singing together.
• Listen through the song paying attention to the main melody being sung (the part you’d naturally sing along to)
• When both singers sing at the same time pay close attention to both vocalists – who is singing the main melody?
• Now listen again and try to “ignore” the main melody singer and focus in on what the second vocalist is singing – that’s the harmony.
• Try to match what the second singer is singing – often it will be different notes than the main melody.

At first, you’re going to automatically fall into singing in perfect unison (the same notes/pitches) with the main melody when trying to sing along.

That’s normal, just remember to catch yourself and go back to matching the harmony note, ignoring the melody while you’re singing only the notes you’re supposed to be singing.

If you do the above exercise a lot with various different songs you’ll find yourself able to naturally just “know” what sounds good as a harmony.

But there’s a quicker way to get better – use music theory. Here are more musical concepts if you’re interested.

How to Create Your Own Vocal Harmonies

Harmonies can get pretty complex and intricate when you fall down the rabbit hole.

Most basic vocal harmony parts simply use either an octave, a major/minor 3rd or a perfect 5th interval to harmonize with the lead melody.

What’s that mean?

If your melody line is using a C note in one place, you use the note that’s a 3rd, 5th or octave above that C note when singing along.

If another spot in the melody is sung using the F note, you could look to the 3rd/5th above that note as a harmony note.

But you don’t HAVE to only use a 3rd, 5th or octave. Try out a 7th above/below the note. Try something else. If it sounds good, it sounds good. And that’s all that matters.

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But for the sake of simplicity, let’s stick to thirds and fifths for now. Here’s how to find those intervals for various notes.

Finding Thirds and Fifths Using Musical Intervals

An interval in music is simply the distance between two notes.

Intervals are measured in the number of “half-steps” or “whole steps” that you have to travel to get from your starting note to your destination note.

A half-step is a move from one piano note to the note directly next to it. A whole step is when you skip a key between the note you’re on and the next note.

So a half step would be a move from the C note on a piano to the C-sharp (D-flat) note.

A whole step would be a move from the C note to the D note.

Here’s a picture of a piano to help illustrate this concept:

And here are the intervals you need to know to start writing basic harmonies for your melodies:

• Minor 3rd – 3 half steps (ex/ C -> E-flat)
• Major 3rd – 4 half steps (ex/ D -> F-sharp)
• Perfect 5th – 7 half steps (ex/ F -> C)
• Octave – 12 half steps (ex/ C-> C)

There are many other intervals you can use and various scales you can write in to get really crazy, but those 3 intervals will get you started.

Tips for Better Harmonies

Strategies to get your harmonies sounding better

Once you’re comfortable with the basic concept of finding and singing harmonies, you should keep pushing yourself to get better. In the history of singing, this has always been essential.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when you’re starting out singing in harmony with someone (or yourself).

Avoiding Clashes

When you’re learning how to harmonize vocals, you can’t just choose a random interval and think it’ll automatically work. At first, you’re going to have to go through trial and error, note by note.

It’s going to be daunting, but it’s important.

For example, depending on the scale you’re singing the song in, your harmony might not work with a minor 3rd on any given note. So try a major third. Still doesn’t feel right? Try a fifth or an octave.

Work it out so that you sound the best you can.

Perfect Your Pitch

It’s important that your pitch is as good as it can be. You don’t necessarily have to be pitch perfect but you have to be in the ball-park.

And a strong voice (learn more) doesn’t hurt either! Be sure to practice breathing from your diaphragm (learn how).

And then you can work on singing louder (learn more).

There’s nothing worse than a great written harmony that’s sung off-key. Make sure you’re singing on pitch (learn more). 

Practice your pitch! Auto-tune won’t always save you.

— Related content: Learn how to sing higher – Read Now —

Learn the Theory

One of the best ways to quickly know what will work is to learn the music theory behind it all.

We have a full guide available for free.

If you learn about “diatonic harmony” it’ll make it a lot easier to know your way around intervals, chords, scales and more.

You’ll be able to confidently build and know how to sing harmonies that sound fantastic.

Study the Music

But if you really want your harmonies to become out of this world, study your favorite songs closely.

Break down the melodies and harmonies and find out why they work by analyzing them against your music theory knowledge.

You’ll be writing hits in no time this way.

Re-Harmonize the Greats

In this context when we say “reharmonize” we mean create a new vocal harmony to famous singers and their most popular music.

Find acoustic/”unplugged” versions of songs where it’s just the lead vocalist and a guitar/piano. And then create your own harmonies to these versions of the songs.

Make sure:

1. it’s different than the original harmony in the studio version of the song and
2. it actually sounds good.

This is an invaluable exercise that will markedly improve your ability to write and sing harmonies like a pro.

Frequently Asked Questions