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Thinking about doing a video on 3-part vocal harmonies in rock, alternative & indie music! Any you're dying for me to talk about? A 3-part vocal harmony means there are voices singing 3 different notes at any given time; usually this results in full chords. If you're not sure if the harmonies are 2- or 3-part, just drop your recommendation anyway because I will probably be doing something for 2-part as well, which are more common. :) 

Examples of 3-part vocal harmony:

Down In A Hole ("oh I wanna be inside of you") - Alice In Chains

Oslo in the Summertime @ 1:34 - of Montreal

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Comments

Steve Bock

Galactic Cowboys are an under-celebrated band in this sense. I'd particularly recommend the choruses of Kill Floor and My School from their self-titled debut album. Queensryche recorded a cover of Scarborough Fair which mostly has a Geoff Tate solo vocal, apart from the second verse where two backing singers fade in to make proceedings gloriously pompous. I couldn't post in this without a shout out to my favourite band, The Wildhearts. Whilst their sound relies heavily on the close harmony singing of Ginger and CJ, they're not shy of getting the rhythm section involved. I'd recommend checking out Nita Nitro, Two-way Idiot Mirror and The Revolution Will Be Televised. (amongst so many others)

RobinYutani

There’s lots of fun vocal harmony in Pedestrian Wolves by Oingo Boingo, the harmony at 3:50 sticks out to me a lot. I also love the entirety of Temporary Secretary cuz it just rattles my brain, although that may not fit the channel as much. And of course the chorus of The Perfect Drug has probably of my favorite vocal harmony in any song.

Kevin Connell

I'm down, just can't think of any! Unless you count Freddie Mercury quintuple-tracking his voice on every song!

Matt Munro

I’d love to hear you talk about the Alice In Chains harmonies on “Down In A Hole” and “Would.” I often try to take note of what each vocal is doing but those vocals work so well together that I inevitably just get lost in the song as a whole (same with APC). But I’d love to know what Jerry and Layne are doing from a theory perspective. Please enlighten me Ixi.

Travis Hyde

I've Seen All Good People by Yes.

Toney Vecchio

The first time I heard what vocal harmonies could do was seeing a vocal performance of Toto’s Africa haha. Lord Huron’s The Night we Met.

evolutionQ

Get Born Again by Alice in Chains starts with 3 vocal I reckon. And also Grind, though one of Layne’s lines is a bit growlier. It often sounds to me that AIC have different vocal takes hard left and right, or layered, or both? I’d love to hear from any engineers on here what’s actually going on.

Kai Ellis

Of course the intro to Kiss From a Rose. So many layers of harmony! Def Leppard is famous for their rich harmonies. Would love to hear your take on a song like "Hysteria" or "Love Bites".

Kai Ellis

Lord Huron! Yes!!!

Kai Ellis

Would love to hear ixi talk about the harmony in The Perfect Drug. Such a beautiful song.

ixi music

thanks! These are all new to me.

ixi music

TPD is getting its own video in March!

ixi music

Looks like I might need to do a whole video just for AIC harmonies :)

ixi music

Oh yeahhhh. Seal, my man! Remind me to tell you an anecdote about Def Leppard on Thursday.

Alec Collins

The Defence by Bad Religion. Or Infected by Bad Religion. Are those three part harmonies? Why not make a video and find out?!

evolutionQ

Pregnant Whale Pain do a bit of it too. Mythical Creature and Blank Long Nights Kill Romance Vengefully for sure. Paperplanes as well I think.

Travis Hyde

I just remembered Sour Girl chorus harmonies are dope af.