I have tried and tried again and tried a bit more and then i tried again but I can't seem to make any good backing vocals. I searched the internet but there is not very much information about it.. seems like a secret that you either know about or don't. :)
I saw one tip about just raising the pitch 2 half note steps but it seems that doesn't work as a general plan since sometimes the notes of the backing vocals then end up "outside" the scale. So i reckon they have to be adjusted to notes that actually are in the scale but it still doesn't sound too well.
I also tried just singing the notes of the chords but that ends up with a backing track that sounds like a voice organ.
Are there any other techniques you recommend? I'd like to have the same kind of hamonies like in the songs of Teenage Fanclub, for example.. eventhough i know we won't be able to sing that well.. :) We have no problem staying in pitch though.. so there ought to be a way. The question is just how..
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The obvious anwser is just practice practice practice. Cover a f
The obvious anwser is just practice practice practice. Cover a few songs with lots of harmonies in them and get used to singing in harmony. Once you get a feel for it, they're pretty easy to come up with by-ear most of the time.
Theoretically speaking, yeah - you generally want to stay in the same key as the song. Further more, you'll often find that you're singing notes found in the underlying chords.
ie: If you have a (B - D - C#) melody over a (G - D - A) progression, you might sing (G - F# - E) or (D - A - A) as a harmony line. All notes from both the melody and harmony are found in the chords and will 'fit' to the ear. This is a good starting place, even if it can sound like - as you said - a vocal organ. The more you practice singing them, the easier it gets to become more and more creative.