Quotes About Harmony

People would call me up because they liked my voice, and they wanted some kind of vocal harmony. Sometimes I was asked to come in and sing all the harmony parts, and sometimes I would sing with other people.

When I was a kid, I used to listen to my Emerson radio late at night under the covers. I started by listening to jazz in the late 1940s and then vocal harmony groups like the Four Freshmen, the Modernaires and the Hi-Lo's. I loved Stan Kenton's big band - with those dark chords and musicians who could swing cool with individual sounds.

It's always a pleasure when you can compose guitar parts from a strong vocal and not just put the melody on top of guitar riffs.

I don't dictate the solos and I don't dictate the vocal harmonies.

A female vocal can lift a song.

The most effective instruments do have a vocal quality.

If you listen to my tapes, you'd hear 14 different ways to arrange the rhythm guitar behind the harmony vocal, and then 14 different ways with a different vocal. You'd have to really be a music lover to sit through that and find it entertaining. I enjoy it, but I'm easy to please.

My dad was a soul fan and a singer himself, and he loved vocal harmony, stuff like the Beach Boys and Motown like the Four Tops, which was a big influence on me.

Singing together is something human beings just do, and there are hundreds of years worth of just European vocal music available to read and hear.

For me, songwriting starts with a melody. When a musician plays a chord progression, either the words and vocal melody come to me, or they don't. That's how I determine who to write with. It works, or it doesn't.

The thing with One Direction songs is that you can probably break them all down to an acoustic guitar and vocal.

I think it was definitely a love for the four- or five-part vocal male harmony groups that really took me away. I'd always try and be, like, the fifth Drifter; I'd always try and find another harmony that wasn't there.

It's so much fun to have vocal groups out on the road because we get to see them do their thing, and at the end of the night, we come back, and we all do a big thing together for the encore with 'American Band.'

I always start with writing vocal melodies before writing lyrics.

We always try to make every song we do sound like a track. It's vocal, but we want it to be really full so no one really can even know if it's a cappella. It's not like it's missing anything, per se.

Almost every time, if the vocal is really good, the band is almost always good too.

Often, when I work with a vocalist, I like to focus on the melodies first.

I did recording sessions as a musician as well as a background vocalist and enjoyed every minute of it. I remember singing harmony with Waylon Jennings on a few songs that were hits. Chet Atkins always put me up so high that I strained to hit every note. It was a lot of fun.

My mother was into church so she listens to gospel music. I like the way gospel is composed... the great vocalist chord and the way they make you feel.

Pat Simmons and I always had a great blend together. We did the background vocals on a Little Feat track called 'Red Streamliner,' and that was great fun. I always really loved the way it turned out.

It's fun singing with other people who are really good singers. There's something kind of poignant about braiding a couple vocals.

I've always been fascinated by the idea of creating music using only vocals.

I treat my vocals as an instrument.

I just like simplicity. I like simple songs, I like simple chords, simple vocals, simple lead guitar. I just like simplicity. That's just the way I like it.