Intuitive Harmony : Singing in Harmony Easily and Naturally

1. Intuitive Harmony Introduction: Hello and welcome. In this class, you will train your ear through learning and singing harmony. Music No need for music theory or sheet music. We will learn and understand music by experiencing it. We will stack different melodies to enjoy immersive harmony. My name is Laura Lamb and I'm a folk singer, song sharer, recording engineer, and music producer. I've released two albums and I'm currently working on my third album, which I am recording, producing, and mixing myself. During my ten year career, I've collaborated with musicians and producers from all over the world, but I can't read sheet music. And I barely understand music theory because I couldn't read sheet music during my school years. Music felt inaccessible to me. I wasn't allowed to join the choir. And I spent a lot of my life carrying around the idea that I couldn't do music as an adult. I've learned that we all have natural music ability because humans have been singing and making music for thousands of years and music theory and sheep music is a relatively new invention compared to the years of singing and music making. In this class, you will easily and naturally learn how to sing in harmony through music production techniques. I have created recordings in spatial audio, which means you'll hear voices in different places. Which means that it's possible then to hear one part and sing another part at the same time. Which is the key to good harmony singing. Being able to listen to different parts all around you and sing your part with confidence. I call my spatial audio recordings four D audio, because through experiencing songs in three D all around you, you access the fourth dimension which is feeling. Because that's ultimately what music does. It changes how we feel. This class is for anyone who enjoys the sound of harmony music and would like to give it a go. It's also for those who already may have some music experience. Perhaps could read cheap music or understand music theory. But would like to train your ears and train your musical memory. So you're able to learn songs by ear. In this class, we will learn three different songs which will progress in difficulty. So that by the end of the class, you'll be able to confidently listen and sing in harmony. All you need to take this class is a pair of headphones for the best listening and learning experience. Let's sing together. 2. About This Class: Welcome. Welcome. Thank you so much for signing up to this class. I want to make you feel especially welcome if you're shy about your voice. I experience being shamed out of the choir twice. During my younger years, I carried a lot of shame around my voice. I imagine me back in the day ten years ago, this would have been a big step to learn and sign up for something like this. Well done, if this is stepping out of your comfort zone. Learning to sing in harmony is really about training your ears so you're able to hear what you hear and then sing it back. And then also, so you'll be able to hear one part while singing another part. As discussed in the introduction video, we will be learning three songs which will increase in difficulty. And then what will happen? There will be a song teach, that's what I call it, a song teach, where you learn the song. And then once you've learned all the parts, there will be a song experience which is where you will hear it in four D audio and you can pick out all the parts and sing along with the part that you want to sing with. For the four D audio, I really recommend headphones for the best listening experience and for the ability to be able to pick out the different voices. Many of us in our lives have been told we can't sing, which is really sad because if we can speak, we can sing. It's a natural ability for all of us. The problem is if you try and sing when you're very tense or stressed, which is often the situation we find ourselves in when we sing. If we have to sing on stage, for example, then all the muscles that we need for singing tense up and then it's very hard to sing. That's why in this class, the first thing we're going to do is a nice, gentle soothing of our nervous system and a warm up, so we are best prepared to sing. I'll see you in the next lesson where we will warm up our voice. 3. Breathe and Warm Up: Welcome to this lesson where we are going to warm up. We will first of all, calm our nervous system through breathing and then we will do some simple vocal warm ups. First of all, just finding yourself comfortable where you are. You might like to stand up if that's comfortable for you. I personally find it quite comfortable singing. Sat down, I'm sat on a chair. You might even like to sit cross legged on the floor, but just feeling your body in space, taking a moment to settle, you might feel the weight of your body on your seat. And we're also just going to unclench our muscles. Often we can tense our jaw and we can tense our shoulders together. We're going to breathe a sigh of relief and feel that jaw relax. You might let it hang open, let the tongue. Let's do one more of them. Lovely if your eyes aren't shut already, the invitation now is to shut your eyes while we do some simple nervous system breathing. This is a useful tool we can use any time. When we feel ourselves getting a bit stressed and tense, what we do is we do a nice slow in breath through the nose. Then we breathe out slowly through the mouth as if we're breathing out through a straw. Let's do that together. Breathing out to begin in through the nose. 1234, out through the mouth. 123456, It's nice if we can extend the outbreath. Let's do that a few more times in our own time. As you breathe, breathe into your lower ribs. Your shoulders should not be rising and falling. You should feel the expansion in your belly and your lower ribs. Let's do one more together. Slowly batting the eyes open to warm up our body. So we're going to imagine golden olive oil traveling through our body, and you can sing along with me. Let's start with the feet in the field. Olivoil in the field in the ankles, Olivo in the ankles. You might like to move that part of your body as you feel the olive oil in the calves, Olivoil in the calves, in the knees war olive oil in the knee, in the thigh, war molifoil in the thigh, in the heap, war olivoil in the hip, in the belly War olivoil in the bell, in the re, war olivoil in the ribs in the shoulders. War olivoil in the shoulders are the way lev oil in the shutler, in the arms, in the arms, in the handlevoil, the hand. Then we're going to do our neck on an Ah. So two rolls each way, like so slow and gentle. Ah, one more, that way. Ah, the other way. Ah, a more yawning on this side of the face. Yawning on this side of the face. Lovely. Let's chew a big piece of gum. Give that jaw a little rub. Give the temples a little rub. I don't know about you, but that's often where I get a feeling of tension in the jaw and in the temple. So it's nice just to give ourselves a little love and soothe that tension. Lovely. Let's do some sirens now. I'm just going to slide away from my microphone a little bit, so I'm not too loud. So we're going to do, and we're going to go, let's just check that didn't peak. Hm. So we're going to do lovely. And then we're going to do, oh, oh, crackling at the bottom, as well as a warm up. This is a bit of check in to see where our voice is. I'm recovering from a bit of cold. There's a bit of tension here and there in my voice, but it's just interesting to notice where it is. Next we're going to do R. We're going to do it as slowly as possible, and then when we get to the bottom, we're going to do that crackling or croaking. Ah, ah, one more of them. A lovely. Now let's focus on our resonating chambers. So, first of all, resonating in the mouth with a, relax your jaw and you should feel your lips tingling. Nice, deep breath. Another one of them. She'll feel almost a little bit uncomfortable and tingling on the lips, then resonating on our nose with the letter. So we go nice, deep breath. Notice how my shoulders are. I'm breathing down here. You might like to touch the bridge of your nose. Let's do another one of them. One more of them. And then lastly, our throat chamber. And that's through nice deep breath again. You might like to put your hand there to feel it. Lovely. Now we're going to move between the three by doing this, and you might try it with different notes. It's quite nice to move your hands as well to help with the awareness. And you may like to close your eyes too, Mugg, Right now that we are all warmed up, it's time to start learning the songs. I'll see you in the next lesson for song teach one, or we will learn the first song. See there. 4. Song Teach Level 1 - Dawn Chorus: Welcome to our first song teach. Just a little note before we begin. So each of these three songs were written by me, so for that reason, I think it's nice before we learn the song that we just learn a little bit about what inspired it and what it means to me to give us even more listening and singing enjoyment. This first song is called Dawn Chorus. It was inspired by a walk in nature. I live in a little village in Kent, and I was on a walk around my village and I started to hear the different birds singing. And I was being a bit of a parrot really and just repeating what I heard and layering it up. This song has five layers and what we will do, so we'll learn all the five parts. And then after this, you'll go to the song experience. And you'll be able to pick those five song parts out which I've written out for you. The first part is the songbird, and it goes like this. D. Let's do that together again. D. Then the second part of the songbird, Dd again. Did listen to the two together. Did did agent did? Agent did last time. This first song, as we're building on difficulty, this first song is just noises. Well, there are some words later on, but the other ones are more lyrics and singing traditionally, if you're a bit like whoa, hang on. Are we just going to be singing all animal noises? No, don't worry. Just for this first song, we've been inspired by birds. So first we've got the songbird, then we've got the pigeon who goes 0, 0, 0 together, 01 more 0, 0. So that's how they sit together. You'll hear them in the song experience all sitting together nicely. And then the third one is a bit of fun. It's a bit of a funny noise to make. It's the gee, can you do that? So I made the geese sound a bit melodic and rhythmic. And it goes, ah, do it with me. A couple more, last one, nice. So we've got the songbird de the pigeon, then the gee Mr. Plant. You can hear their sat in different places, so the songbirds pigeon is quite low. And the up bit then we've got some words. Although I can hear the trees, this is what I imagine them sing. They, when a pre set sing that with me. When a pre, then one more, when a breath, then the second part of it, you breathe out together, you pre out. So listen to that. In totality, when a pre, then you pre out, you'll notice between the two parts, I had time to take a nice deep breath. Let's try that together. A deep breath to be in. Breathe deep breath. You breathe out again when breath, then you breathe out. Lovely. And then the fifth one is a bit of a bonus one. It is quite high and it's a bit fast. And it goes, when I breathe, you breathe out. Let's try it. When I breathe, you breathe out again. When I breathe, then you breathe out. Last one, when I breathe in, you breathe out lovely. Now we've learned all five parts. The next video will be the song experience. Well, you hear all those five parts in spatial audio, the challenges on screen, I'll have a list of the five parts. The challenges to, first of all, be able to listen to them, so you listen to each of the five parts in space and then join in to whichever one you feel inspired to sing with hope you enjoy the song experience. 5. Song Experience 1 - 4D Spatial Audio : Welcome to this first song experience for dawn chorus. Enjoy listening and singing with me. De de de de de de de de de de de de de and when, when, when, when, when and when, when, when, when, when, When you then bending then praying, bending it well done for listening and singing with me. Let's head into our next song teach. 6. Song teach Level 2 - Open Your Heart : Welcome back. In this song teach, we will be singing open your heart. This is a song that I wrote and recorded in an EP called Heron. So if you're a fan of listening to music on Spotify or itunes, you will find a recording of it there on my Heron EP. And this song was inspired by Ram Das who gave me those lyrics. Quiet your mind, open your heart. It's so simple, but so powerful. This song has three layers. We have the low part, the middle part, and the high part. Let's have a got singing them together. The first low one, it goes quiet your open your heart together. Quiet your open your heart a couple more times. Quiet your mind. Open your heart last time. Quiet your open. This song is almost like a, this layer is almost like a drone chant. It goes underneath everything else. Then the second part, which is the middle line, which goes quiet your mind. Sing that together. Quiet your mind. Then second part, open your heart together. Open your heart. Listen to them both together. Quiet your mind. Open your heart. Sing with me. Quiet your mind. Open your heart two more times. Quiet your mind. Open your heart. You'll notice I'm taking a deep breath in the middle. Before I sing. Open your heart. Let's do that one more time together. Nice. Deep breath. Quiet, quiet your mind. Open your heart. Bonus time. Quiet your mind. Open your heart. Lovely. And then finally the high one. So we've got quiet your mind, then we've got quiet your mind. Then the high one goes to your mind. Sing that with me to your mind. Then the second part. Oh, Penny, hard, sing it. Oh, Penny, your heart? Like the other one, we take a nice deep breath in between. These are nice high long notes, so let's sing that together. Nice deep breath to your mind. Deep breath. Oh, heard a couple more times to your mind. Oh, pen your heart last time, your mind. Oh, pen your heart. Lovely. Now we've learned those three parts. We can go and listen to them and sing along in the song experience. 7. Song Experience 2 - 4D Spatial Audio : Welcome to the song experience. For open your heart, make sure you've got your headphones. You'll see on screen parts low, middle, high. And I want you to listen carefully and be able to hear where all the song parts are and then sing along with the part that most moves you or you might like to have a go at singing all the different parts. Enjoy. Quiet your mind. Open your heart. Quiet your mind. Hi. Quiet your mind. Your quiet. Quiet, open. Well done. I hope you enjoyed that song experience. Let's get onto our third and final song teach. 8. Song teach Level 2 - Washing Dishes: Welcome to our third and final song, Teach. This one is slightly more challenging because we will be singing at the exact same rhythm and the same lyrics, but just the melody will be different. So this really does challenge our brain. This song is called Washing Dishes and it's going to be on my third album. I'd like to credit Emily Bates Smith and Miriam Cox who wrote the harmonies for this part. They're beautiful harmonies and I think you're going to really love learning this one. We will learn each of the three parts. My part, Emily's part, and Miriam's part, starting with mine. Hang on a second. Before we start, let's learn a bit about what inspired this song. I wrote this song when I was washing dishes and I was washing dishes in a really grumpy and bad mood. And in that moment, a little spark of awareness came within me and said, why are you doing this in a bad mood? Why don't you do it with joy? And almost instantly these lyrics came out. And I love to sing this song when I'm washing dishes, dishes together. Washing dishes, listen, I'll be washing dishes together, I'll be washing dishes. Listen Well, no more shin dishes. I'll be washing with joy. We no more shindshes, I'll be washing with joy. So now I'm going to sing the whole thing. You can listen. And then we're going to sing it a few times together. So we've got it nice, Deep breath. Hinshesllhsheshinshesi'll be washing with joy. Lovely. Let's do that a few more times. When washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes. We washing dishes, I'll be washing with joy again, when I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes. When washing dishes, I'll be washing with Joy last time. When washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes, we washing dishes, I'll be washing with Joy. Lovely. Next we're going to do Miriam's part. And I call this part the subtle stairs. So because I can't read cheap music, then I have to create visuals in my own mind. So in my mind my part goes right up and right down. And Miriam's is a bit more subtle. So it goes like this when it goes down. When I'm washing dishes together. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes together. I'll be washing dishes. Listen, when washing dishes, I'll be washing with joy together. Well, washing dishes, I'll be washing with joy. So we're going to sing that now a few times and get it in there. You might like to listen the first time if you're still not sure. And then join in the second time or just go for it. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes, we washing dishes, I'll be washing with joy. Again, when I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes, We washing dishes. I'll be washing with joy last time. When washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes. When washing dishes, I'll be washing with joy. Oh, my cold's got better. The bit of the better of me there. A lovely well done. So that's Miriam's part, which I call the subtle stairs. And now we're going to do Emily's part, where we go right down the stairs. So Emily has got a very powerful low voice and I struggle to sing this part. So if you struggle, that's okay. You might like to just sing my part on Miriam's part, but it's good to learn it for your brain. Emily. What's interesting as well to mention is all these songs start with when. That's the same for all three parts and then they just all head off in different directions. So this one goes when I'm washing dishes. I have to sort of do this in a male operatic voice to be able to hit it. Excuse that, when I'm washing dishes together. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes together. I'll be washing dishes. And then the second part, when I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing with joy. It goes right down and then back high at the end. Let's just listen to the whole thing together and then we'll sing it a few times together. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing with joy. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing with Joy last time. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing dishes. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing with joy. Lovely, That parts a bit hard for me to sing, especially at the end of a cold. Well done. If you sang that with me. Now it's time for the song experience. You will notice that when you hear the voices, I will be at the front here, Miriam. That's the subtle stairs will be in your right ear, and in your left ear will be Emily who goes right down here. Now it's time to get into the song experience where we will sing this song in spatial audio, you'll be able to try and pick out each part and then sing along with the part that you most like, or you might like to have a go at singing all of them. See you in the song experience. 9. Song Experience 3 - 4D Spatial Audio : Welcome to this song experience where we're going to listen and sing washing dishes in spatial audio enjoy when washing dishes. I'll be washing dishes when washing dishes. I'll be washing with joy when washing dishes. I'll be washing dishes when washing dishes. I'll be washing with Joy when washing dishes. I'll be washing dishes when I'm washing dishes. I'll be washing with Joy when I'm making breakst. I'll be making breakfast. When I'll make breakfast, I'll be making with Joy when I'm feeding baby. I'll be feeding baby. When I'm feeding baby, I'll be feeding with Joy when I'm washing dishes. I'll be washing dishes when I'm washing dishes. I'll be washing with Joy when I'm washing dishes. Washing dishes. When I'm washing dishes. I'll be washing with Joy when I'm folding laundry. I'll be folding laundry. When I'm folding in laundry, I'll be folding with Joy when I'm cooking dinner. Be cooking dinner when I'm cooking dinner. I'll be cooking with Joy when washing dishes. I'll be washing dishes when washing dishes. I'll be washing with Joy when washing dishes. I'll be washing dishes. When I'm washing dishes, I'll be washing with Joy. Thank you so much for listening and singing this song with me. Let's get into the final lesson of this class where we'll wrap up and I can point you to some further resources. 10. Your Class Project: Hello, just hopping in here before the final class outro to invite you to submit a class project For this class, I would love to see a video or hear an audio of you singing one of these three songs in three part harmony. You can film a simple video or record a simple audio using one of many apps. I am an iphone user and I personally use the Acapella app for video and the loopy app for audio. I also am a music producer, so I use things like, I'm currently using Ableton, which is fantastic for layering up vocals, or if you're a Mac user you might have Garage band. So try out using some new technology, awesome technology, already familiar with, to record a three part harmony. And then once you've created your video audio, please do submit it in the class project section. And if you're going to add it to social media, please do tag me at Laura Lamb using the hashtag folk singing with Laura. I'll see you in the next video where we will wrap up and say goodbye. Thanks. 11. Further Resources and Goodbye: Thank you so much for taking part in this class. I hope you enjoyed your harmony singing experience. I have some further resources that I've prepared about learning and singing in harmony that you can find at Laura Lamb.com forward slash Harmony Singing Skillshare is all about community and it's what Skillshare values. So please do, take a moment to connect with the skillshare community. You can do that by asking a question in the Discussions tab, which I will get back to you within one to three days and answer your question. Also, it really, really helps if you leave a review if you like this class, if it inspired you, if you like my teaching style, please just take a second to rate this class and write a sentence or two about how you enjoyed it. Because that really helps me and it helps other students find this class. If you'd like to stay in touch with me, please visit my skillshare teacher page where you can follow me and then you'll get updated when I add new classes. Also on that page, you will find a link to my e mail list. So if you'd like to sign up, I send out friendly e mails a couple of times a month with things I'm making and learning. And also there's links there to my social media. I'm on Instagram and on Facebook. In the oral tradition, songs can travel all over the world, which is so lovely and you are very welcome to sing this song with your friends. It's very important to credit the artist and make sure you credit me. And if you want to use this song for commercial purposes or use it in your community choir, you can reach out to me for a license. Hello at lauremb.com and there's also some more information about that at www.lamb.com Four Sash, Harmony singing. Thank you again for taking this class. And the joy of harmony singing, bring some light and fun to your day. 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