Vocal Harmony for Wildflowers (Wailin' Jennys cover Tom Petty)

Hello everyone,

This post has recieved a lot more attention than I had anticipated.

I've decided to upload the score to Musescore for a free download.

I cannot in good conscience sell this as I did not compose it and do not have the means to interface with Warner brothers or other legal entities that own this property.

That said, I would appreciate any donations for my efforts as an educator.

You could help me continue with my mission here.

Best of luck!

Christopher

One of the enigmas of music culture seems to be "How do I sing vocal harmonies?" It seems to be one of the things that you either grew up learning to do and it was a no brainer, or you didn't and now you're perplexed. There are a number of ways to remedy this. First off, as a choir boy I would recommend joining a community choir. It's good experience working with others interested in music and an opportunity to practice singing in general. I will say that this is especially helpful for learning harmonies if you are a tenor or an alto. Basses get root motion and the sopranos often get the melody. It seems to be pale in training if you're wanting to learn support parts. Wildflowers is a lovely example because we use three chords the entire song. Give the above linked Original by Tom Petty a listen. Once you can clearly hear the melody, listen to the live cover by The Wailin' Jennys some attention.

If you're coming at this from an academic perspective we need to understand our chord structures clearly. Otherwise, keep listening and singing along till you have a part you think works. Ask for other's opinions and keep developing your ear. Remember your role as support. We want to offer complementary parts that either follow the melody's motion or are relatively static. In my example I've lowered the key from the Wailin' cover a whole step from B to the key of A. Tom Petty's original is in Bb.

Our chords are the primary chords in a key, the I (A) IV (D) and V (E). We use Roman numerals to help clarify major and minor with upper and lower case letters. The chord progression moves from D to A to E to A.

Fifth(YELLOW): A E B E

Third(ORANGE): F# C# G# C#

Root(RED): D A E A

These "chord tones" are the "target tones" for any of our parts. They serve as safe destinations and the skeleton of our motion in harmony and melody. I've color coded them in the red and yellow spectrum to see how closely the relate to the current chord.

The other selections come from our key signature and major scale.

A B C# D E F# G# A

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8/1

The blue notes that we see are non-chord tones. They are usually and approach tone (leading to a chord tone), suspended tone (delaying resolution) anticipation (about to be a chord tone), or passing tone (notes in a stepwise motion towards a chord tone). The common theme is that they all come from the A major scale. All "diatonic" (of the scale) notes.

See how much is in the red and yellow spectrum. It's a huge majority of what is present. Try tracing the colors (chord degrees) around each part as you move through the chorus. More often than not we can sit on the same pitch as the chord changes and still be singing a present chord tone. Most of the rhythmic embellishments are in unison, so that everyone is shifting together. Rarely is there a part left all alone.

Notice how the soprano part is almost stagnant. Very little motion and only 5 pitches. Primarily the root of the chord. The lower harmony has 6 pitches, but is much more active. Primarily the third of the chord. The melody is primarily the fifth of the chord.

Learn the melody. Then try singing each part that you can fit inside your range while playing the melody on your instrument. Ideally you take the time to become comfortable hearing and singing all three.

You can download the sheet music here. Take it slow, enjoy the process and keep playing.

Christopher