Harmonizing with other Singers, by Jeannie Deva

For those of you already singing in or desiring to sing in a group with other voices, here is some information and tips on this fun but often challenging setting.

No matter how many other singers are in the group, there is, of course going to be a melody. Sometimes the arrangement moves this melody from one singer or chorus section to another, and many times the melody is sung by only one singer or, for example in a chorus, is sung only by the soprano section.

All the other parts are harmony parts. The harmony parts can be considered melodies as well, but as they are not the lead melodic line, they support what is thought of as the melody.

ArtistWorks: When did you first learn how to sing and who taught you?

Jeannie: I was blessed to grow up in a family of professional artists, actors and musicians. I was surrounded by all manners of amazing and well-known musicians from Classical to Blues, Jazz, Folk, World Music and Gospel. So with those influences and without any vocal training, I began singing and performing at a very early age.

My professional singing career began when I was 12 years old in New York City where, along with Janis Ian, I opened for Richie Havens. I had a powerful but small vocal range. Even though I couldn’t do everything that I wanted to do with my voice, for many years I was afraid of going to a vocal coach. I didn’t want my individuality as a singer to be taken away and had heard too many instances of that happening to non-classical singers.

By the time I was about 20, I decided to focus on music (I had also been performing as a dancer and an actress). I really wanted to be a complete professional. I decided that meant I needed to be totally confident with my voice and able to sing anything and any way I wanted, with ease. So a friend of my family referred me to Barbara Streisand’s voice teacher. I studied with her in New York City for a couple of summers in 1970-71.

Following that, while in Boston I took some singing lessons with another teacher. He was teaching all the big Rock acts coming out of the Boston area. Though he was an Opera singer, he called himself a Rock and Pop voice teacher. During my time in Boston in the early ‘70s I also tried a few other teachers for a lesson or two.

If you're interested in auditioning for the breakout hit singing show of 2012, The Voice, then you better get going. Auditions run all through January and February.

To help you get started, this singing lesson can give some pretty instant improvement to your tone and projection while working directly with one of your audition songs.  It’s amazing how “taking your tongue out of the equation” can make such a dramatic difference in the your sound and ease of singing.