I've been practicing something a lot lately: harmonies. Holy crap.
Who knew I was such a lead singer?
It started with Del Barber, who asked me to play his CD release in March at Winnipeg's Park Theatre. Del casually asked me to join in on harmonies for "Someday Soon" by Ian Tyson.
I'm always (usually) up for a challenge and so I said yes... and then practiced for an absurd amount of time.
That gave me enough confidence to try it again, so I signed up to sing with Blake Berglund on a few shows. With all the practice, it's possible that I'm improving.
Maybe you think harmonies are easy. I dunno... maybe they are. But I find it hard. Really hard. I don't know how people just "find a part". I have to bang it out on the piano. Plug my ears. Block out everything else and try to just sing in tune. And that's never been an issue for me. I can sing lead, dammit. Why do harmonies gotta be so different?
Through the struggle of getting my stubborn ear to hear something other than the melody I've developed much more respect for Anna Rose, who is a truly gifted harmony singer and gives my live show depth and nuance with her voice. Not to mention bassist Beth who didn't sing at all before we met, and is now belting out the second part.
To further drive the point home, last night I watched 20 Feet From Stardom. It's good. Ugh... so good. I'm a big softie, so I had tears in my eyes from the women's beautiful voices throughout. Their joy of singing is too familiar to me, as is their the love of performance. It's just fabulous. It's incredible what a few women did to shape popular music. Watch it.
And so I'm gonna keep working at it because harmonies are incredible. Hearing two voices in parallel is the most moving sound that humans can produce, as far as I'm concerned.
Even if I have to learn how to sing all over again, I'm proud to do it.
xo
bp
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