How To Create a Three Part Harmony
I have always looooved the sound of three-part harmonies - for voices and instruments. As a younger player who didn’t grow up learning harmony parts, I always wondered how other musicians could figure them out on the fly. Did they just know how the parts sounded and used their ears? Were there ‘rules’ that I just didn’t know about? Some of the time I could figure out a bit of a harmony part - if I lucked out that the third above or below the melody was also a chord tone, but I inevitably would get stuck and not know how to ‘fix’ it. Or all the notes would be ‘correct’ and yet all the parts wouldn’t blend together. So if this scenario sounds familiar to you, I’m here to help give a little guidance on how to figure out the tenor and baritone parts to complement your melody.
First off, what is the ‘tenor’ part, and what is the ‘baritone’?
This used to confuse me, coming from an organized chorale setting, where I always sat in the soprano or alto sections.
In folk settings, the ‘tenor’ line refers to the part that starts on the chord tone above the melody note. As an example, if you’re on a C chord, and the melody is an ‘E’ note, the C chord tone above E is ‘G’. The ‘baritone’ line refers to the part that starts on the chord tone below the melody note. Continuing on with the C chord example, if the melody is an ‘E’ note, then the C chord tone below E is ‘C’. (That’s because you spell a C chord CEG.
**If you’re new to spelling chords or would like to have a better practical understanding of how they feel and function, you can download this chord book and read these two posts: Figuring Out the Key and Chord Shapes and Capos).
Okay back to three-part harmony! These tenor and baritone titles are most often referencing the chord tone and not so much the register/range that the part is being performed. However, in most traditional settings, the tenor part is most often in a higher range than the melody, and the baritone is below the melody. This works out nicely if the musicians are usually the same gender and have three different ranges: the easiest example is of an all-male bluegrass trio with a clear stack of the lowest voice singing baritone, the mid-range voice singing melody, and the highest voice singing tenor. It can get more confusing if there are male and female voices, or if the person who’s available to sing harmony has a very different range than the lead singer. That’s because everyone is trying to achieve a blend - that’s when all the colors and notes swirl together in a magic wave and you can’t quite tell which musician is performing which part. In order to achieve this blend, parts might be swapped for register. An example would be a female singing lead, and then the tenor notes are sung by a man below the melody, and the baritone part is sung by a woman with a lower voice.
Let’s break this down.
I’m going to use fiddle tunes as examples (shocking, I know, since I’m a fiddler).
Here’s Little Liza Jane in the Key of A. If you don’t read music notation, that’s okay. I made a little grid to map it out. Each one of these boxes is an eighth note.
Here’s what that sounds like: just the tune and the chords:
Now let’s add in the other two parts.
It’s important to note that when you’re working out three parts that *most of the time* each part needs to ‘stay in its own lane’ instead of picking and choosing your most favorite note. If you’re coming up with just one harmony part to the melody, you have your pick of notes. But it is best to keep the three-part harmonies in their own lane, especially when you’re beginning.
We’ll do the tenor first.
Since we’re in the Key of A, and the 1/A chord is spelled AC#E, the 4/D chord is spelled DF#A, and the 5/E chord is spelled EG#B(d). The melody starts on a C#, so if the tenor part starts on the chord tone above the melody, the tenor part will start on an E and follow the shape of the melody. When you get to phrase 2, you’re still on a 1 chord, and you continue this chord tone above movement.
On the fourth phrase you have both the 5 and the 1 chords, so you need to make sure you’re keeping the chord tones lined up.
In the B part, you’ll add in the 4 chord- DF#A.
To find the tenor part, remember you’re selecting the chord tone above the melody. Since the melody has the F#, the tenor uses the A. This is an example of staying in your lane. Normally you’d probably like to play/sing a D there, to hear the chord progression. But don’t worry- the baritone will eventually get that D note.
Here’s what the melody and chords sound like with just the tenor part added:
Time to add the baritone part.
You’ll be using the chord tone below the melody. The melody starts on a C#, so if the baritone starts on the chord tone below, the baritone part will start on an A and follow the shape of the melody.
Here’s what the melody, chords, and the baritone sound like:
You’ve got all the parts!
Let’s see and hear them all stacked up:
Here’s what the melody, chords, tenor, and the baritone sound like:
What you just played and heard was the Traditional Stack:
Tenor
Melody
Baritone
Chords/Bass
Now check out how you can use exactly the same notes, but change octaves/registers of these parts for a different blend.
If you bump the baritone part up an octave the stack looks and sounds like this:
Baritone
Tenor
Melody
Chords/Bass
Here’s what it looks and sounds like if you bump the tenor down an octave. This puts the melody on the top of the stack.
Melody
Baritone
Tenor
Chords/Bass
Here’s one last example of a huge spread, using the high baritone and the low tenor. It’s a massive range and not the best blend. But it *potentially* works in more instrumental settings.
Baritone
Melody
Tenor
Chords/Bass
Moving these parts to different octaves on your instrument requires you to know your fingerboard really well. If you could use help in this endeavor, I have a big beautiful book devoted to your fingerboard in the key of A. Here’s a link for you to download the Key of A book.
Let’s move to a different tune and key.
Here’s Angeline the Baker in the key of D.
**Need help changing keys? Download my free major scales workbook for maps of your fingerboard in 6 different keys.
I chose this melody because unlike Little Liza Jane, which starts on the third (middle note) of the chord, Angeline starts on the fifth (top note) of the chord. This is what the melody and chords look and sound like:
This tune has two chords: the D/1 and the G/4. The D chord is spelled DF#A and the G chord is spelled GBD. Remember as I fill in the tenor line, I’m grabbing the chord tones above the melody, and for the baritone part, I’m using chord tones below the melody.
Here’s what the above chart, which is the Traditional Stack, sounds like:
If I move the tenor down an octave, the parts are stacked like this:
Melody
Baritone
Tenor
Chords/Bass
And if the tenor stays low and the melody gets moved down an octave as well, the parts stack like so:
Baritone
Tenor
Melody
Chords/Bass
Okay!
One last tune for this post- an all-time favorite of mine: The Girl I Left Behind Me, in the key of G.
Not gonna lie, this one gave me trouble for the three parts (I had always just played a twin part instead of a triple). The melody starting on the root (bottom note) of the chord made for some foul sounding problems if I played by the rules.
I had to call in the troops. In this case, “the troops” consisted of Brittany Haas.
Here’s a picture of what I sent her:
I typically just use old fashioned paper and lined notebook paper for my grid if I’m not using manuscript paper (most of my students read music, but not all do, so I use the grid when I’m teaching. And I like the grid because it is helpful when you’re changing octaves)
Here’s what she sent back to me. Some of it is the same, and other bits are better, because Britt is the Boss.
So here’s your assignment:
I am starting you off by filling in the grid with the phrases, chords, melody, and some of the tenor and baritone lines. You can use your eyes and ears to fill in the rest of the parts. I only recorded one track for this because the tune has a pretty big range. But you can definitely have fun moving the parts to different registers. I used GarageBand for these tracks- nothing fancy. You can probably hear my family in the kitchen while I work in my studio. But that’s just the point. It doesn’t need to be perfect, as long as you’re learning. If you’d like more help playing by ear, hearing chord progressions, creating your own variations, and more, I have an entire curriculum devoted to these very components of music. You can find my lessons here: JamWithLauren All-Access Membership
Happy Jamming!
