• Simple harmonies are the obvious choice when writing for backing vocalists – they sound impressive and add richness and interesting layers to the vocal sound. Singing in thirds is always a winner, but if you’re feeling adventurous don’t be afraid to try more unusual intervals like sixths and sevenths. Octaves are not always the obvious choice but can give you a really striking sound, especially if you combine male and female voices.

• Backing singers can be used to sustain the tune, rather than merely add to it. For example, they could take over the chorus while the lead singer improvises over the top. Just because they do less prominent singing than the lead vocalist, it doesn't mean backing vocalists have less skill, backing singers are often more versatile, so make the most of their abilities.

• Instead of blending voices using harmonies, why not maximize the contrast between them? You could do this by writing a completely different line for your backing singers, independent of the lead in both lyrics and tune. Using both male and female voices can also produce a striking contrast. Many artists pick backing singers of the opposite sex, often they have very distinct parts, too.

• If your backing singers are new to the job, get them to practice as much as possible. A good exercise is for them to take a song they know well and improvise their own harmonies. If they can’t do this by ear, then do it mathematically (use a keyboard). Identify the key, remind yourselves of the scale and then just give some intervals a try. They won’t all sound great, but the best thing about improvisation is experimenting until you find something that does. You don’t have to choose complicated intervals, even singing in octaves helps you get used to not singing the lead line. 

If you’re writing and arranging for a band, don’t miss out on the chance to include backing vocals. They can add depth, richness and interest to your sounds.
But how should you go about arranging your music for backing vocalists? If you’re working on short songs you should be able to do it without writing anything down, making things much easier if your backing singers (or you) can’t read music. You may, however, have to teach backing vocalists their exact lines and get them to practice working in harmony with the lead singer. Here are some general bits of advice:

• Good backing vocalists may be able to come up with their own lines. If they have a really good musical sense and feel for the music, it can be a good idea to let them do this. Even if you’re set on imposing your own melodies on backing singers, at least listen to their advice about what works and what doesn’t. If you’re asking them to sing a line that doesn’t ‘feel’ right, or - worse - a line that is hard to sing, you’re not going to get the best results.

• Rehearse your lead vocalist with the backing singers, especially if he or she is relatively inexperienced and hasn’t share vocals before. Anyone who is not a practiced singer can be really put off - and, indeed, quite freaked out - by the experience of someone else simultaneously singing the same tune a third or a fifth up the scale.

Make sure all your vocalists – including the lead – really listen to each other. It sounds simple, but it’s all too easy to become absorbed in your own part (this can be especially problematic for lead singers, see above). Remind everyone that their parts, though vital, are just that: components of the whole piece of music. If just one stands out more than it should, it will affect all the others and you won’t get a balanced sound. If your singers are not listening to each other, it will show: you risk losing the balance of timing, rhythm and tuning and, more obviously to an audience, you won’t get any satisfaction from the experience. To make good music you need a good team.

• When writing for backing vocalists, a little music theory goes a long way. ‘Learn some theory’ is a pretty regular refrain on Jam cast, and this is another of those instances where a little knowledge really does make a difference. When you’re putting together harmonies for backing singers, it’s very useful to have an understanding of intervals: they’re the musical measurements that musicians are using when they talk about singing ‘a third above’ or ‘a fourth below’ a particular line.

1. A key point here is that harmonizing is intuitive. If you were to sing karaoke to a song, you might actually be singing at a slightly different pitch (in the same key) than the written vocal melody. You are in effect harmonizing to the original note without realizing it. Also, the phrasing of music, chord and/or lyric progression also dictates you may not stick maintain the gap between notes and 'phrases'. Sometimes, you may match the lead note to make transitions or to finish the verse or chorus. 2. You must practice to get this right. It may take a while, but you will get it with practice, and you will have a ton of fun. 3. Match up the notes before trying to harmonize. For example, if you match up 'doh' and 'soh' it will sound nice. Find out what notes will sound nice with what notes, then find out what are the notes you have in your song and match them up! 4. If you are harmonizing, don't overpower the singer doing the main melody, either by volume or power. Soften the notes, even for a rock song, even if the roles somehow got confused. 5. It will help if you or a friend can play notes on a piano. You can hear how different note combinations (chords) sound together. It's much easier to learn the basics of harmony by hearing the notes played on a piano and matching one of them. Then start to sing along to the piano, and then move on to singing harmony with another singer. 6. Singing an entire octave above or below the note is not harmonizing; that is unison. 7. Traditional two-part harmony is a third or fourth above and below the lead vocal melody. To those of you not familiar with that terminology, that means just a LITTLE bit higher than the original. Or as Julie Andrews taught us: If I was singing 'do', then your harmonizing note is 'mi', or 'la' or 'so'. 8. Don't over think this. Don't think of the exact notes that you are supposed to sing, if you are knowledgeable of scale theory. This is all by ear. Ear first, thoughts second. 9. Try singing to a karaoke song at a slightly higher or lower pitch. Vocals in a song may confuse your attempt at harmonizing because you will want to make your pitch identical to the lead singing voice. But the leading voice can change, even for a duet, which is a great way to hear how harmonizing is done. Karaoke removes that distraction. 10. Besides the major chords, there are also minor chords, diminished and augmented chords, but that's not for introductions to music or harmony. 11. Have fun the pressures of performing are hard enough. If u are well practiced and have performed your notes well at practices you will do fine. If you find your self struggling with the same note you might need to make adjustment's to your harmony or wait longer before a performance.

The term Harmony is used to refer to notes that "blend" nicely with the melody. The melody consists of the essential notes that form the basic structure of any tune. Harmony requires at least 2 tones or voices and can be done with any number of additional tones/voices. Most harmony is written for 3 to 6 voice parts. Some arrangements go to as many as 8 or more parts, but these are uncommon. A good step to harmonizing is to fully know the melody, and then sing to it in a slightly lower pitch not an octave low. If you have another person with you, it also helps to sing with a piano first, and then move on to singing and harmonizing more independently. Once you have some sense of the basic 1,3,5 major chord or 1,3,5,7 major 7th chord, you can harmonize by singing any of the notes. The 1 is the soprano or lead (Lead is singing soprano an octave low for a male or female with a lower alto voice). The more people you have the more of the notes you can sing. Once you have a sense of the basics of harmony in some key, you can experiment with other notes in other, such chords.

The best rappers fit their rhymes seamlessly into the bars of their songs. Their voices function as another instrument. Aspiring rhyme-smiths may have the ability to write intricate, sophisticated lyrics, but a song is about the whole package. If the words don't match the music rhythmically, the song's bound to flop. Begin writing rhymes. Start simple. A common strategy is to write in two-bar loops, similar to rhyming couplets. Bar one rhymes with bar two, bar three rhymes with bar four, and so on. Each couplet often represents a complete thought. For example, 2Pac begins his song "Dear Mama" like this: "When I was young, me and my mama had beef./ Seventeen years old, kicked out on the street./ Though back at the time, I never thought I'd see her face,/ Ain't no woman alive that can take my mama's place." He uses four bars and two ending rhymes. Each couplet constitutes a complete sentence or thought. Notice he also utilizes the midbar breaks. When writing your own couplets, start by putting down a series of paired end words like bird, word, hazy, lazy. Each end word matches up with a four-beat drum hit. Complete the lines so they fit in the rest of the bar ("Looking out the window, I saw a funny bird./ Guacamole tuna fish, listen to my words/ Rain and clouds sure make things look hazy/ All this fog outside just makes me feel lazy"). They don't have to make sense at first. Just get used to putting words into a rhythm. Make sure you rap the words as you write them, so you hear the way the spoken rhythm fits with the beat. Rapping allows a lot of room for slant rhyme, so pay attention to how words sound, or how they are pronounced, not just how they look on a page. For example, "still" and "steal" don't rhyme on paper, but they sound like they do if spoken with the right inflection. Play with the rhyme scheme. Once you get the hang of simple end rhymes, try adding internal rhyme. Eminem is a master of internal rhyme. He displays this talent in his song "Lose Yourself": "His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy/ There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti." In two bars he rhymes the "-eady" sound five times and "-om" twice. Squeezing seven rhymes into two coherent lines comes with a lot of practice. A good way to extend your rhyme library is to try rhyming multiple words with one. For example, rhyme "incomplete" with "win some feet." Try to come up with as many variations as you can. Try playing with the end rhyme pattern, too. Many rap songs continue with the same end rhyme for many bars. Finally, play with your vocal inflection and the way you speak certain syllables. You can stretch a too-short line ("I want thiiiiiis to fit"), or mush a too long line ("so-I-spit-a-lot-faster-than-pigs-spin-over-pits") just by controlling your delivery. Keep in mind that listeners have to be able to understand you, so if you can't articulate, keep it simple. Practice. Neither 2Pac nor Eminem achieved their superstar status without a lot of work. Both put a lot of time and effort into their rhymes. Make rhyming word lists, play with your delivery and record yourself. Often a verse you think sounds tight sounds a little different when played back. Think of verses while you work, in the car or during any downtime.

When you sing, your sound moves up through your throat… your mouth… and your nasal cavity. The way in which this happens, causes the tone quality that you hear. You can think of these three cavities like tone controls. Your throat and mouth contain the power and depth. While your head resonance controls the sweetness and rich quality in your tone. To sing in a choir situation, you must learn to sing with more head resonance which will give you that sweet, angelic tone that you’re after. Here’s a tip for doing this: To see what it feels like to use more head resonance, try this little exercise. Take a CD out of your song collection, and sing a song all the way through. But instead of singing the words, use an “Ooooouuuuu” sound. What does this do? It automatically redirects your tone so more sound resonates in your head cavity. This will cause your voice to have a sweet, angelic tone quality, this is vital to singing in a choir situation.

The general rule here is, if you CAN rhyme, then you should. If you CAN’T rhyme, then you shouldn’t. What this means is, if it will sound too forced to rhyme a lyric, don’t bother. Overall, you want the song to flow, so if rhyming the lyrics seems too obvious or causes a hang-up in the song, move on. You can either come back to it later or simply don’t try to rhyme. Whichever way you choose, however, make sure you do the same on each verse. Others might not notice or care that you’ve switched formats from one verse to another, but other songwriters (and song publishers) will be blinded by it. It’s okay to break the rules now and again, but, as many have learned, you have to know what the rules are first before you can break them. Another option for rhyming is to try near rhymes, rather than exact rhymes. For example, practice rhyming vowel sounds like "sound" and "brown," rather than using exact rhymes like "blue" and "clue." A lot of times, near rhymes sound more natural and less forced than going overboard with Nursery School rhymes, which tend to have a bit of an unprofessional feel to them. So, rhyme or don’t rhyme, but whatever your preference, keep it consistent throughout the song.