#those are my jam!! and scatting is FUN Actually Altos

[void-tiger]

How can I pick up “weird” choral parts that aren’t a lazy “just singing a third below at all times”? Well, for one I got tossed into the deep end in college with the second soprano part being “whatever’s leftover ‘cause y’all can actually read. Now have fun or you’re getting kicked out, ya expendable surplus soprano!” (no really. weeks of that. the director didn’t Shut Up until I ended up having a public nervous breakdown, especially since he spent years taking my name off the audition list but letting freshman sopranos in after telling me I WAS good enough when I first enrolled years ago) in addition to my actual music theory and ear training classes (and accepting it’s NOT a “sour note”, the chord’s just dissonant. That’s the point!)

But in my own time? I just think of harmonies like counter melodies weaving a tapestry, and listening for whatever’s playing in the base, root, or main melody and making a “grab bag” of notes in the chord. Experimentation. What’s smooth or crunchy. (And when in doubt, droning the root is almost never wrong, but Not Every Chord Has A Third, Altos!! Music can have more texture than that!)