Greetings great minds,
I need your help with a song I'm writing. It's my intention to take the chorus of the song to church (by this I mean, have it sung choir style in SATB) like R Kelly, MJ and many other great artistes did with a number of their songs. I feel that the song really needs this especially for the chorus at the end of the song.
I want to do this properly and make it sound professional, not just some randomly sung harmony.
The chorus is in the popular I-V-vi-IV progression.
Of course, I have done a little search on the internet but am yet to find anything indepth enough to really help.
I would be grateful if anyone here could help explain this better or point me in the right direction where I can find helpful tutorials on this.
Thanks for everything.

 

I found this with a quick search. http://web.utk.edu/~mtheory/courses/murphy/documents/PartWritingRules.pdf
I found it rather informative.

 

S. 5th, 7th or higher notes
A. 5th an octave below or 3rd
T. 3rd
B. Root note or lower notes

 

http://www.capella.de/us/index.cfm/products/tonica-fugata/info-tonica-fugata/

 

Thanks Funk U, I saw that a few days ago with a search on google and already read that. But I appreciate it.

Thanks for this. But I am assuming that the already written melody of the chorus will be the Soprano and I will have to compose alto, tenor and bass. Erm...the thing here is the first note (and also the note that appears most) in the first measure of the chorus is the 1st and not the 5th or 7th. The melody is structured with more of the 1st in the the 1st measure, 2nd in the second measure etc. So I'm not exactly sure how I can apply this

 

Wow...Thanks. This sounds like an interesting alternative.

 

Just remember that the 3rd and root are ALWAYS the strongest notes of a chord (followed by the 7th with 5th being weakest) and also remember to have each section make the smoothest and shortest move to the next available note, even if it means staying on the same note. To prevent the choir sounding "mechanical", don't just assign the notes of a chord but rather the notes from the scale of the key that those chords are from... R Kelly and MJ benefited from Gospel choirs and those type of choirs rely heavily on jazz voicings. Lots of 6th (or 13th), 9th, 11th (or 4th) and standard 13th chord voicings (not to mention the alterations -9, +9, -5, +5). Good luck and may the Fourths be with you!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_and_open_harmony

http://www.learngospelmusic.com/forums/index.php?PHPSESSID=ac12b53e4b7f773e6a1333d558e8e760&

 

Last edited: Apr 2, 2016

Satb ?

What is
SATB?

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 11, 2016

Thanks. This is very informative.

The 5th is the weakest.

So I guess the 5th should be used in only one voicing at a time, like if I have it in the alto in a particular measure, it should not be used any other voicing in that measure

 

Yes, SATB...any advice or info on that? Any place you can point me to?

 

http://davesmey.com/theory/index.php

 

Thanks for the link @foster911

 

If you have an idea of the church maybe enlist their choir leader for input? Choirs don't always have to follow the lead vocal.

 

In music, SATB is an initialism for soprano, alto, tenor, bass, defining the voice types required by a chorus or choir to perform a particular musical work. Pieces written for SATB (the most common combination, and used by most hymn tunes) can be sung by choruses of mixed genders, by choirs of men and boys, or by four soloists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATB

 

Thank you very much!
I apologize for not having googled that term before asking .

Is there anywhere an example how this actually sounds like ?
I am always curious.

 

Man, this is the crappiest piece of advice I ever seen. Bass having the root all the time will sound boring so quickly. Give it a third at times, give it some movement instead of same exact rhythm as others. Soprano should usually be the lead melody so it doesn't get covered up by higher registers. Tenors should have something that keeps the piece together, either held notes, or if it's a more lively kind of thing - some runs. The "keep it like that all the time and just change the chords" mindset will kinda work for dubstep intro. In the long run it's just boring and doesn't sound good at all.

And most importantly, to the OP:

If you want harmony that sounds professional and not like somebody said "hey let's sing 4 voices" so everyone just splits up the chords and they're singing in bullshit meaningless harmony after 3 seconds, take your time. Make sure your altos aren't "oh crap, I need to put something here to fill up the empty space". Give their melody a meaning. Yes, it's additional voice. Make it a voice, not a glue. Make it have its meaning. Make it sound great on its own.

The linked guide, this one
http://web.utk.edu/~mtheory/courses/murphy/documents/PartWritingRules.pdf

Is basically what are we taught in music schools all those years, in a nutshell. It's a set of "rules" for classical harmony. You don't have to resolve everything as it says. Go by ear, make it sound good. As long as it sounds good, it is good. They say you can't go V-IV. You can. You can say "screw it" and go chromatically and for a bridge go F - F# - G instead of a nice modulation you were supposed to do. Try stuff. You'll make things that sound awful, try changing something up until they don't, make it interesting. Then call it a day and move on. If you want to get good, just repeat that A LOT of times. And you'll be harmonizing "properly" and sound "professional, not just some randomly sung harmony".

Here, have a look from page 4
https://jkta3w.dm2303.livefilestore...OCyIHMM7vD82sqMUXhxsLUQ/Menu_Theme.pdf?psid=1

There's stuff around EVERYWHERE. Flute running upwards, strings going crescendo to counter the flute's movement, right after that a huge trombone line, then viola has it's moment, then a little grace note on the flute. And so on, and so on. Everything moves, the voices talk to each other. To give you an idea of how that sounds like. See from 0:35.


So yeah. Give everyone a little 1-bar or even half-bar solo and shuffle the solos all the time. Give them a reason to feel excited about their part in the music. It helps even psychologically, encouraging them to give a better performance!

 

Come on, you must have seen even worse advice.
But I agree with you that 'static' bass sounds boring. I made that mistake every so often to only assign it root chord.
We were taught that the Soprano an Bass should move more than Alto + Tenor, suddenly it does make sense.

 

I have some advice if you're writing in a chorale style:

· Each voice must articulate the lyrics in a way natural to the english language.
· Each voice must express a melodic unit complete in itself; it must sound good solo.
· Each voice must be distinct but not distract from the sum total; no excessive novelty.
· Keep the voices in their own lane with an arc that befits the whole.
· Write the soprano first if it is your principal melody.
· Write the bass second which will determine the harmonic progression.
· Write the middle voices last which will fill in the harmony.
· Think unity in variety. How different are the lines and how well do they come together?
· Think taste, balance, and clarity. Artful simplicity is best. It should sound unlabored.​

I made a sketch using your progression I-V-vi-IV to demonstrate.
I don't know how your melody goes so I used a bare C-D-E-F in the top voice.


I exported the score with a choir patch—'ba-ba-ba' or something—not realistic but you get the idea.


Hope it helps. Good luck!

 

How's this:


"On The Sunny Side Of The Street" - The Manhattan Transfer (2008)

 

I'd argue and resolve that B in altos to C and go with the E for the tenors (or go F-E-D-F and then to E in altos), but well, whatever. Totally agree with your points.