Belgian bluegrass artist Thierry Schoysman has come up with a great way to learn bluegrass harmony singing, which he is offering online as Bluegrass-Harmony.com. His method is sold as singing itself.
How do you normally learn a song? You listen to someone sing it, and then try to sing it yourself. Your ear recognizes the melody, and you can the sing it back.
Thierry’s system is to present synched audio files for all three parts in common bluegrass harmony, and allow the user to listen to all three parts together, any one part isolated, or any two together. If you can hear just the tenor or baritone harmony, you can learn that part, and then play the song with the baritone removed, to make sure that you are harmonizing with the other two.
Each of 50 standard bluegrass jam songs is presented this way, with guitar accompaniment, which can also be removed, or have its volume lowered. The words for the chorus are also so, in English.
Most everyone who becomes comfortable singing harmony has done so by memorizing isolated parts, and then singing them with the melody, or with all three parts together.
This strikes us as a foolproof way to learn how to quickly find parts on your own, by memorizing these 50 examples.
Subscriptions are available song-by-song, for $2.99/year, or you can obtain access to all the songs for only $24.99/year.
Two examples are provided for free on the site, Blue Ridge Cabin Home and Will The Circle Be Unbroken, so you can test out how it works. All of the volume sliders are there in these free demos; play around and see how you do with these isolated parts.
If you find yourself able to sing these harmony parts, go ahead and subscribe and learn them all.
Anyone looking for a gift idea for that hard-to-shop-for picker on your list, might find this to be a great suggestion.
See it all online.
