hi Steve, My formal training in singing harmony came in high school singing Madrigal music and also Barbershop. The music theory is the same for bluegrbutt. In bluegrbutt there is often 2 or 3 part harmony. Since you asked, heres a brief bit of music theory for you to chew on, I hope I dont lose you. The basics. Musical scales. Im only going to talk about major scales. Major scales are made up of a series of tones or pitches. The tones or pitches are placed in relationship to each other. Think of Sound Of Music for a minute. Remember the Do Re Mi song? Do re mi fa so la ti do. To achieve those tones you use a formula. The formula for a major scale is Whole step, whole step , half step, whole step whole step, whole step, half step. The first of those notes, is called the "KEY". Lets show a C major scale. The notes are CDEFGABC. Ok, rest for minute and try to grasp that a second. lol Ok the reason for this long tale- Chords ( the harmony part). The formula for a major chord is the 1st 3rd and 5th notes of the keys scale. ( Do Mi So) Take our C major scale once more CDEFGABC The first note C the third note is E, the fifth note is G. CEG makes a C chord ( also called a triad) any combination of those tones makes the chord. A bit about root notes. The root note of a C chord is C. The root note of a D chord is D, etc. To sing harmony, you sing either a third or a fifth above or below the melody note and sometimes the root note of the chord above or below the melody note. Typically in 2 part harmony you sing a third above. (3 notes above the melody note) and in 3 part harmony, the lower part sings a fifth below the melody line ( or root note) Depends on the song and arrangement, not to mention vocal range abilities. This works in songs written in major keys. Most songs are, if the song is in a minor key well then theres a slight twist. The formula for a minor chord is 1st 3rd 5th note and the 3rd note is flattened a half step. So going back to the C scale again. CDEFGABC. for a minor chord we have CEbG So now to sing harmony we have to sing the 3rd note flattened a half step.

In singing the human voices are designated the following way. Bbutt, ( the lowest male part) Baritone ( above bbutt) 2nd Tenor (most men fall between 2nd tenor and baritone and 2nd tenor sings lead in barbershop) 1st tenor ( highest male part) 2nd alto (lady bbutt) 1st alto (above 2nd) 2nd soprano ( most women fall between 2nd soprano and 1st alto) and 1st soprano ( highest part) There are also male voices called trebles, not to be confused with Tribbles from Star Trek lore. Trebles are males singing soprano parts who havent seen puberty yet. Though Ive heard Del McCoury doing a close imitation on a few songs. Some men can sing Falsetto, ( think of the Bee Gees ) which enables them to sing in the soprano range,. I used to be able to do that when younger but cant anymore. Seems I read somewhere its accomplished by only vibrating half your vocal chords. Personally I always thought it amusing to hear Frankie Valli singing Walk Like A Man, in that high girlish voice. lol

How do you learn to sing harmony? Like anything else I suppose, practice practice practice. In most 4 part SATB ( soprano alto tenor bbutt) arrangements the sopranos carry the melody.Good place to start is with some hymns, almost all of them have harmony parts written out in the alto and tenor lines. In time you can learn to do it without anything written.

For 3 part harmony my favorite group is Riders In The Sky, yeah not bluegrbutt, but all 3 of those guys can yodel.

Hope this doesnt hinder but helps .

good pickin to you Michael Over 100,000 served 50 banjo players free mp3s.

source I