Today I’ve been working on some harmonies for ‘Hannah’.
I decided to leave the new song (‘Clean The Fan’) for a day. Sometimes I find myself getting too familiar with a song, and start messing around with it too much that I end up nowhere. So sometimes it’s good to be working on more that one song at a time.
I’ve done one verse and one chorus. The choruses are usually the same, but I like to make each one slightly different. I like to add different harmonies or slightly change the bass line or something like that.
I like to think of it as mixed bag of sweets. Having lots to choose from makes them more interesting, but if it’s filled full of cola bottles or boot laces then it becomes a bit too boring. Also, having too big a bag, i.e. a song longer than 4 minutes, can also make it a bit boring.
Anyway, what I’ve done is:
I’ve made 9 mono audio tracks and panned 3 left, 3 center and 3 right.
Then I’ve listened to the whole song, with the microphone on, ready to record and roughly sung the ideas that came to mind.
Then I went back to the start and slowly proceeded to develop those ideas as I went along.
It’s hard, deciding where the harmonies should come in. I find that it makes it easier if I treat them as three different groups of people, listening in and voicing their opinion when they’ve got something to say or want to emphasize a certain point.
I also like them to say things in the background. But that can sometimes be confusing if you don’t do it right. A good way that I’ve found is to construct the background phrase out of words that the main vocal is singing at that particular time. That way it lessens the amount of different words you have to take in.
So, all I have left to do is the second verse, the break and add a few extra harmonies on the choruses…
Hoy he estado trabajando en las armonÃas para “Hannah”.
He decidido dejar la nueva canción (‘Clean The Fan’) para otro dÃa. A veces me familiarizo demasiado con una canción, y empiezo a liarlo todo tanto que no termino en ningún sitio. Asà que a veces es bueno estar trabajando en más de una canción al mismo tiempo.
He hecho una estrofa y un estribillo. Los estribillos normalmente son el mismo, pero me gusta hacerlos cada uno un poco diferentes. Me gusta añadir diferentes armonÃas o cambiar un poco la lÃnea del bajo o algo asÃ.
He hecho 9 pistas de audio mono, giradas 3 a la izquierda, 3 al centro y 3 a la derecha.
Entonces he escuchado la canción entera, con el micrófono encendido, listo para grabar y cantar brutalmente las ideas que me venÃan a la mente.
Luego he vuelto al principio y he procedido a desarrollar lentamente esas ideas conforme me venÃan.
Es duro, decidir dónde van a ir las armonÃas. Me parece que se hace más fácil si las trato como tres grupos diferentes de personas, escuchando y dando sus opiniones cuando tengo algo que decir o quiero enfatizar algo en concreto.