When you blend vocal harmonies you are not only bringing together the pitch of each voice but also its tone, pronunciation, phrasing, volume and rhythm. Tone refers to the timbre or characteristic sound of your voice. For the best blend, work on matching your tone to one another. That means matching qualities such as brightness or deepness of sound, nasality and vibrato.

Phrasing choices should sound natural and make emotional sense while working rhythmically with the instrumental parts and lead vocalist. Ragged phrasing is the commonest reason that back-up harmonies may sound amateur. For the optimum back-up blend, each singer’s rhythmic phrasing should be identical. Listen for and decide on mutual rhythms for each word and syllable so that they synchronize.

A good vocal blend includes matching the way you pronounce your words. Even small differences in pronunciation may result in clashing intonation and sloppy rhythms. As a rule, sustained words should be held on the vowel sound, not the ending consonant. Be sure all singers end their words at the same time. Many singers close off on the consonant too soon. If this occurs at the same time as trying to sustain the pitch, you may sound strained and/or go off pitch.

For more on singing harmonies, buy and read The Singer’s Guide to Powerful Performances by Jeannie Deva.