"Harmony" Blogs & Blog Posts

Not everyone likes to sing in harmony with others, but those who do are often really nice people. photo by Richard Foster Why is that? And is it a universal truth? I think I ought to start with a disclaimer: this has been my experie...

Casual movie watchers might assume pretty much everything is available on streaming these days; or at the very least, easy to find on DVD or Blu-ray. Sadly, that’s not the case...not even close. A ton of films—from obscure cult releases, to nosta...

I thought I’d share a few vocal exercises that I use to help singers tune in to a cappella harmony. © Susie Mendelsson I often integrate these into the warm up sessions to get people listening more closely before we move on to learning h...

An interesting question popped up on a Facebook group: How do you teach harmony parts to your singers? There were several different approaches, some of them using recordings or keyboards. Here is how I do it. First a bit of background. I wo...

Rounds are often seen as a simple way into harmony singing.photo by Hyacinth, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons But I would argue that they’re not that simple and aren’t a good way to introduce harmony. Here’s why. Rounds are very easy t...

Many choir leaders demonstrate and teach songs by singing them. But can you lead a choir without being able to sing? Similarly, do you need to be able to read music to be a song arranger, or be a musician to write songs?  The simple answer to t...

Once you’ve decided to paint the interior of your house—or even just a room—the next decision is much harder: picking a color scheme. Maybe you really like canary yellow, but you’re worried about making that kind of commitment. Or maybe you m...