The 80/20 rule could apply here.
How can folks who play instruments that must harmonize with each other not hear poor vocal harmonies? Makes me wonder how the rest of it sounds?
Hell, you have to hear the harmonization between strings to tune a guitar or bass by ear. I don't understand the issue. Maybe your friend is just deaf?
Just because it worked out that way for you, doesn't mean it's going to be the same for everyone. Many players simply duplicate what someone else is singing, or fail to "hear" the appropriate interval before they begin singing, because they haven't been trained to sing an interval. This is why you train very young music classes with "rounds", instead of parallel harmony, to start them off. Singers who have spent significant time in a choir or singing group tend to harmonize very well, but not everyone gets this experience as part of their music education.
And instruments are funny things. Nowadays, a Snark tunes your guitar or bass. Just because a harmony is presented on something external, doesn't mean that it will translate to something internal, like your voice. There's a bridge to be crossed.
There are also some interesting acoustic things which happen to vocalists on stage. If, for example, they're hearing a ton of bass from a loud bass amp, singers almost universally sing flat. And most everyone's pitch improves when the monitoring situation is made better. Some untrained vocalists will simply stack a note on top, at some interval, and follow the melody verbatim, which can lead to some out-of-key note choices.
And you would be surprised at how much a vocalist can improve, given a year of voice lessons and focused practice.
Okay, I've never sang on stage, so I get that.
The tuning thing, I don't get. If you tune the low E, you then hold the fifth fret on the low E and tune the A until they harmonize. You can hear it. Nothing to figure out, that's why I don't get it. Harmonies are easily heard. Even me, a drummer only, can hear it. That's why I have a hard time buying they can't hear it. Granted, all I've done on stage is drum so I don't have the experiences of the nightmares singers must go through to hear. But on playback it should be obvious, one would think anyhow.
No offense...but you sound like somekne who has never sang harmony before...Okay, I've never sang on stage, so I get that.
The tuning thing, I don't get. If you tune the low E, you then hold the fifth fret on the low E and tune the A until they harmonize. You can hear it. Nothing to figure out, that's why I don't get it. Harmonies are easily heard. Even me, a drummer only, can hear it. That's why I have a hard time buying they can't hear it. Granted, all I've done on stage is drum so I don't have the experiences of the nightmares singers must go through to hear. But on playback it should be obvious, one would think anyhow.
Well, to give you an idea, try this test, and record the whole thing. Walk over to a piano, and play an E. No other notes, just the E. Now, before you play any other notes, sing, with your voice, an A. Without playing the note ahead of time, try singing a B. Now, play an E and the B above it, and without playing any other notes, sing a G#. Let us know how you do.
Try the same test the next day, after listening to the recording. Do things improve?
No offense...but you sound like somekne who has never sang harmony before...
To hear it is one thing, to hold it while everyone else is singing something different (not to mention hearing the melody) and playing your instrument at the same time?
Takes some skill and needs to really be worked on if it is to be done well and with confidence.
I have done some singing in a choral and small group setting and it can be a lot harder than it looks...at least for me it was.
That would be pointless. I can hear the harmonies, never said I had good, or any, pitch. But if I can hear them, surely folks who deal with them can notice on playback. That's my questioning, the playback. It should be obvious when just listening.
Nope, never have. But I can hear them. So again, it should be obvious on playback. It was stated that even on playback no one seemed to notice. How can that be?
We don't know the extent, or nature, of the attempt. If it was 5 cents flat, could you tell?
And it's entirely possible that the singer DOES hear an issue, but doesn't know how to correct it, or believe that it CAN be corrected, or believe that working on it is worth the effort.
I may have inadvertently stumbled across videos of your friend's band, and would agreeYeah, my buddy has been recording the shows and letting everybody hear them. Nobody is saying anything about the questionable harmonies yet. To him, it's obvious. But with the band it doesn't seem to be.