Vocal Harmony Lessons in Mississauga

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Vocal Harmony Lessons in Mississauga

Learn to intuitively pick up chords

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Vocal Harmony Lessons • What To Expect

When you sign up for private voice and harmony lessons at the Mississauga Fine Arts Academy, you will learn how to sing vocal harmony like you never thought you could. Regardless of your previous singing experience or your skill levels, we are sure that you stand to benefit a lot from taking private music lessons at our music school.

Whether you like to sing harmony along with your favourite songs, or harmonize with other singers in a duo, trio, or sing in a band or a choir, you'll find that the vocal teachers at our music school provide the best one on one private voice lessons in Mississauga and the Peel Region.

Our vocal harmony teachers will  help you learn how to warm up and protect your voice, teach you breathing techniques, and build your confidence in singing and performing. This along with your passion for music, positive attitude towards learning, determination, and diligent practice will guarantee your success in mastering singing vocal harmony.

Rarely singers can intuitively sing harmonies with others. For the vast majority of singers out there, singing vocal harmony requires skills gained through learning music theory and vocal coaching by a qualified teacher.

Our music teachers have received their music education from prestigious institutions such as The University of Toronto, Humber College, York University, Berklee College of Music, Glenn Gould Professional School, McGill University Faculty of Music. Many of our instructors have gone on performance tours of Canada, the US, and Europe. They have over 30 years of professional performance and teaching experience.

Our Vocal Harmony Teachers

Our music school offers a cutting-edge music education curriculum developed in collaboration with the Royal Conservatory of Music. Our collaboration with the Royal Conservatory of Music guarantees our students access to a nationally accredited program giving them a solid foundation in their music studies.

Our music teachers will prepare you for the  Royal Conservatory of Music exams (RCM examinations). Whether it's RCM exam preparation in voice, harmony, or RCM theory, you are definitely going to succeed if you are prepared by a qualified teacher at the Mississauga Fine Arts Academy.

What Is Vocal Harmony?

The simplest definition of vocal harmony is: “The sound of two or three notes sounded simultaneously, notes that are different from each other.” Some pairings of notes are pleasant to listen to, and some might sound like they are clashing, but they are still called harmonies.

When three or more notes are sounded together, they represent a chord.

Here is a video of the band Queen's harmonies in the song "Bohemian Rhapsody."

Queen Team Members Sing Harmony
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What Is Melody?

To understand what singing in harmony means, you need to know about melody.

What Is Melody - Singers
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Melody is the principal part of a song that is harmonized. It's the leading singing line, the one you usually sing along with when you hear a familiar tune.

Harmony is any other vocal line sung with the melody but is different from the melody itself. Therefore, vocal harmony happens when second and third singers layer their voices with the one singing the melody line.

Here is an example of a beautiful harmony performed by the band Joseph.

In a two-part harmony, the first person sings the melody, and the second person sings above or below that melody within the chord structure.

An example of this is a pop or rock song where the backup singer will harmonize with the lead singer. The lead singer would sing the main melody, and the backup singer would sing the harmony, often adjusting their pitch so that they are in tune at all times.

In the video below of Lady Gaga's song "Million Reasons," you can hear her background singer harmonizing and making the song even more beautiful.

Lady Gaga Sings Harmony
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Differences between singing in unison vs singing harmonies

Unison comes from the Latin "one sound," meaning the same notes are sounded. Unison singing is when notes (pitches) are all the same and are sounded simultaneously.

In harmony, the notes are not the same.

This video demonstrates singing in unison vs harmony.

Unison vs Harmony
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In general, the harmony lines will follow the melody line, so if the melody goes up, the harmony usually follows.

The vocal harmonies in the song "The Eye" by Brandi Carlile bring such lushness of emotions to the song.

Brandi Carlile sing harmony
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What Is Descant?

Sometimes the harmonies could stay on the same note while the melody goes up, or it could do something completely different from the melody. These improvisations in music are called descant.

In this video you can hear the magic of descant, adding energy and a unique sound to this well known Christmas carol.

Descant - Harmony
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Choir

Most choirs sing in harmony. Sometimes choirs sing in unison with instrumental backing.

A choir singing without musical accompaniment is called a capella singing.

The Pentatonix a cappella singing is an excellent example of this beautiful way of blending voices into a beautiful melody with many intricate harmonies.

Vocal Harmony Choir
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The choir is usually divided into different parts or according to vocal ranges. One part of the choir would sing the melody, and the other would sing harmony.

Traditional choirs have four parts. The women's voices would be divided into sopranos and altos, while men's into tenors and basses.

Singing harmonies in a choir

Many singers take voice lessons to learn to harmonize. Some singers join a choir to practice their harmonizing skills. It can be quite challenging at first to stick to your harmony line, but with practice and commitment to your voice lessons, you will be able to master it.

Singing together in a choir creates feelings of togetherness, unity, and belonging. It brings peace.

Let's listen to the sound of 1999 choir voices singing Prince's "When the doves cry" at the Massey Hall in Toronto.

choir voices sing harmonies
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About Our Vocal Harmony Classes

Our Academy of music provides many other different types of private lessons.

To accommodate your busy schedules and lesson preferences we provide private in class music lessons in Mississauga, Ontario (Peel Region) and also online music lessons, including:

We provide one on one private music classes, including RCM theory classes, voice lessons, and harmony lessons, in person at our convenient Mississauga location and online voice and harmony lessons.

Our current rate is $37.50 per 30-minute private music lesson.

Lessons are scheduled once a week and available seven days a week.
There is a one-time registration fee of $25.00.

No prior musical experience is required to start lessons.

Come, become a member of the Mississauga Fine Arts Academy music family! We will ignite your talent and help you discover and grow your ability to sing well and harmonize with ease.

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