Ever since I first put up the video of myself singing all the parts to Helplessly Hoping, by Crosby, Stills and Nash (see the video here: http://youtu.be/FfhKEp-GAKc), I’ve had a lot of people ask me for the individual parts, so they could learn them and sing the song in 3-part harmony. So I’ve just been e-mailing the three mp3 files to whoever asked. But that takes a bit of effort each time I do it – and you know how I feel about effort;).
So I’ve decided to just post each of the three vocal parts on this page and put the link on the video. Hopefully that will be a win-win for all parties.
What to Do With These Audios
Well obviously you don’t have to “do” anything with them except listen. But if you want to hear them all together, just stick each one on its own track in your favorite DAW (digital audio workstation). In Reaper, simply click Insert on the menu, and Media file in the drop-down. Then navigate to where the files are and insert them onto their own tracks. They are already panned, and there is some reverb on each file already.
So all you have to do is hit “Play” and they will sing together in harmony. Then you can mute and/or solo the tracks at will to get a feel for how they fit together. Plus you can practice your part by muting whichever part that is, and singing along with the other two parts. Fun, fun, fun! Note about using the guitar track: if you want to try to put the guitar track in with the vocal tracks, you’ll have to shift the vocal parts over to the right to make time for the guitar intro. This is easy in Reaper. Just click, hold and drag the vocal parts so that the start point is at about 13.5 seconds. You may need to fine-tune.
First I’ll put audio players below so you can just play and listen to them right now. Then after those you’ll find links that will let you download each mp3. Ready?
| Melody |
| Middle Part |
| High Part |
| Guitar Part |
If you would like to download the mp3 files, just right-click the below links and select “Save Link As” or the equivalent for your browser.
Melody
Middle Part
High Part
Guitar Part
How to Use These Files To Sing With Others
Lots of people like this song and would love to sing it with their friends and sound like CSN. The problem is that it isn’t easy for most people to listen to a song and then figure out each individual part. With these files, you can listen to one, have one friend listen to another and learn it, and another friend listen to the 3rd. Then you can all sing those parts together and have 3-part harmony, which is seriously cool.
How to Sing Harmony With Yourself
If you don’t HAVE any friends who can sing, you can sing harmony with yourself. The basic idea is to learn all 3 parts first. Then sing the first part in a track in recording software. then add a track and sing the 2nd part, then the 3rd.
Click here our post on how to sing harmony with yourself (and record it on your computer) like this using the free software, Audacity. I actually used Reaper software for Helplessly Hoping. The process is quite similar no matter what software you use.
There is an in-depth series of videos showing you how to do all this in Reaper, including how I did Helplessly Hoping, in our newest home recording course, The Newbies Guide to Audio Recording Awesomeness 2: Pro Recording With Reaper.
If you are really only interested in focusing on learning to record vocal harmony, check out our course, Harmony Recording Awesomeness.
Enjoy!
If you want a few free videos from our Harmony Recording course, click below…
Great job Ken! As a CSN&Y fan of many years, and as a musician (keyboards and vocals) I was very impressed and appreciative. Have you thought about a trifecta? Doing harmony breakdowns for ‘Suite Judy Blue Eyes’ and ‘Carry On’?
Thanks Joel. I just replied to your comment on YT. I would like to do Suite Judy Blue Eyes – as soon as I plow through all the other urgent projects I have going on. So look for it long about 2014;). Seriously though, I appreciate the comment.
Hey Ken, I can’t wait to get started. I was going to do it on my own until i happened across your page. Nice tone to your voice; you are a professional thru and thru and a patient soul to lay it all out for everyone to enjoy!
Thanks Ed! I Very much appreciate that. Good luck on your your version.
Cheers,
Ken
Hey Ken, thanks muchly for this work. You’ve saved me weeks of squeezing my eardrums and testicles in my junk heap loft trying not to terrify the neighbours. Neigh being the operative word.
Now, to find someone to sing with…
Pete
You’re welcome Pete! I feel your pain. My wife and I do great 2-part stuff but not having someone to sing harmony with all my life is what got me into recording in the first place:). Then I can do as many parts with myself as I want.
Good luck with it.
Ken
Hey! Thanks so much for this! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried (and failed) to nail this song’s harmonies. This helped a ton!
Greetings from Estonia. All the best!
You are very welcome, Tanel! I’m very glad that it helped.
Ken
Hi Ken, very good work and very helpful! I would try to sing it with other 2 friends using your file with your guitar base, but it seems that your link in the download page is not working.
Anyway thanks a lot.
Bye
Carlo
Thanks for letting me know that, Carlo. I just fixed the guitar track download link. They all work now. Good luck!
Hey Ken thanks for your harmony breakdown. I did that song many moons ago with a drummer (very good ear for harmonies, but couldn’t read a not of music). Without your mp3’s I would have never attempted it again. Thanks bro.
You’re very welcome, John! Glad it helped.
Ken
This is Great, thanks so much!
You’re welcome!
Ken
Your helplessly hoping made learning that song so much easier. I’m wondering if you’ve worked on Sweet Judy Blue eyes? Please email me back, maybe I can purchase the harmony tracks from you?
Thanks in advance!
Roni,
Thanks for the feedback! I have not recorded Suite Judy Blue Eyes yet. I do know the harmonies though. Maybe I’ll try what you say. IF so, I’ll certainly make an announcement to my mailing list. IF you’re not on the list yet, you can sign up by filling out the form on in the top right of the sidebar here: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/ Thanks again!
Ken
Thank you so much!!! I sing in a band and even though we got close, it has always been so hard to tell the exact melodies!!!
You’ve helped us a lot!!!!!!!
You’re welcome. Glad it helped!
You made my day with the guitar part of my favorite song…
I am traveling and did not bring my guitar, but with your guitar part and my laptop I could still enjoy myself recording a bit.
Would you by chance know of any website that has these nice ´clean´ guitar parts of other songs (I´m thinking Dust In The Wind, The Arms Of Mary, stuff like that)?
In any case, many thanks and good luck to you,
Bermir
Thanks Bermir!
I play Dust In The Wind myself. But I know there are good sites out there with the part as you request. Music Notes has the sheet music and MIDI playback here: http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtdFPE.asp?ppn=MN0063566& And this video on YouTube is quite good: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN6VLI1Dml4
Hope that helps.
Ken
Hi Ken, thanks for your reply. In fact I do know how to play the song, it´s just that I don´t have my guitar with me for a while… just my laptop with Audacity on it, so I am searching the net for a basic guitar part of Dust In The Wind (no solo, no vocals, no strings) but most of what I find is a bit too dressed up.
I figured there must be someone somewhere who puts straightforward guitar parts of good songs on the net, much like you did on this page…
Thanks again, have a good weekend,
Bermir
Aha. I see now. No, I don’t have a recording of that.
Sorry about that.
Ken
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I am not trained musically but have a good ear for harmony. I sing in a little group and we want to add this to our list but I was having a hard time isolating the mid and high part by just listening to the song…you are an answer to prayer. Haven’t completely decided if I will be singing the middle or the highest but now I feel more confident about being able to do either part after listening to this. By the way…in case you missed it…THANK YOU.
Wow thanks! You are very welcome! I’m so glad it helped you. Good luck with performing it!
Ken, you are a gift. You just brought me out of my lonely rut. I can now practice singing harmonies with your recorded parts!!!! Plus this gives such insight on how the wrote these unusual lines of harmony. Like everyone else here, would love to have MORE! Seems a lot of people want Suite Judy Blue Eyes, but I would love to learn any of the other groups that had wonderful harmonies as well. I think there is a magic that you chose something with just a guitar part. It makes it all the more reachable versus trying to reproduce 4-5 different instruments. You mention you sing with your wife, being a woman would love to hear you with a female voice. Just more thoughts. Seems you are a treasure chest of great stuff and it seems there are a lot of us that would love to be blessed with your talents. Hope to hear more from you.
Thanks Beth! I’m so glad you liked it. You’re right. I know I need to do more. And your comment helps motivate me;). Have you seen the video of Lisa and I doing “My Eyes” (from Dr. Horrible)? It’s just 2 parts, but that one is here: http://youtu.be/8ELoTupLcL0. Also, here is a link to a page that has songs from our Christmas album – lots of harmonies:) – http://www.ravenboymusic.com/christmas-album-the-gifts-of-midwinter-by-ken-and-lisa-theriot/ As for doing more parts-breakdowns like with “Helplessly Hoping,” I will move that up on the priority list. Thanks again!
Ken
This is great and I wish you’d do more. Thanks!
One suggestion: tune up. You’re not quite in tune with A440.
Thanks. I am actually planning to do Suite Judy Blue Eyes. And yes, I know I’m not at 440. But that’s because neither were CSN:-P. And they still aren’t for SJBE. Sigh. I have a mania for doing covers exactly as they were done by the original artists as much as possible. I’m getting therapy:).
Hello ,
what is to do to get the individual parts of the voice
and the guitar part of “helplessly hoping” in MP3 ?
kind regards
Günter Hecker
Hi Guenter,
Just go to this page: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/individual-parts-for-helplessly-hoping/ and right-mouse-click on the links about half-way down to page. The audio players are just for listening, not downloading. The downloads are underneath the players, further down the page. Hope that helps.
Ken
Hello, i am a rising singer and would like to know how you are able to make a video with all four pictures and singing separately… noone seems to be able to tell me how to do this.. could you please let me know how i can do this with my music? Thanks in advance… FYI… i like your song
Hi Netoya! I used Vegas video software. I used Vegas Pro, but I think you can do it with Movie Studio too. You just record yourself singing the song 4 times and then stack each video as a track in Vegas. Then use the Crop tool on each track to shrink it down and move it to the corner. Once it is shrunk down, the underneath tracks will show through. Do that to all 4 tracks and bingo! multiple videos on one screen. Then just render it down. For the music, you can see our video here: https://www.homebrewaudio.com/sing-harmony-with-yourself-learn-how-to-record-your-voice-on-your-pc-and-sing-along-with-it/ at the bottom.
Hope that helps.
Ken
This is so helpful! Thanks so much for posting this!!
You’re welcome, Jill!
Ken
Hi Ken,
I am an alto singer who loves singing (privately). A friend at work who is a classically-trained soprano asked me if I’d like to sing with her during our lunch hours. I was looking for something that would be easy for us to start with for harmonizing. Your Helplessly Hoping recordings and instructions are simply PERFECT! I’ve never been sure how to harmonize well through an entire song with someone. What you’ve done here will give me confidence. Please do more songs for us!
Anne
You’re welcome:-). Wow, thank you Anne! It’s so great to know you found this so helpful!. I had no idea it would be received so positively. So if I’m going to do more songs like this as you suggest, what song(s) would you be most interested in? No promises;-).
Cheers,
Ken
Dear Ken,
first, thank you very much for the individual parts to helplessly hoping, it’s one of my favourite songs, and I have wanted to attempt a cover with two friends for some time. Prior to finding your recordings, I attempted to figure out the harmonies myself, but never quite got it right – and now finally we can do it. Thanks so much! Do you have any advice on transcribing three part harmonies in general? How do you go about it?
Seeing that you asked for suggestions in the last post: Apart from the suite judy blue eyes, which by now has been requested a few times but must be a monster project to do, did you ever think about doing find the cost of freedom? I find it most beautiful, there really is only one phrase with harmonies, and apart from the voices there is only a basic guitar track to cover, which I guess would make it a much easier thing to do in a shorter time, and also closer to helplessly hoping than the above suggested suite. There is also the version which is completely a capella, as performed by crosby, nash, and david gilmour – if you haven’t seen it, here’s a link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-Y0SMitMpk
thanks again and all the best,
Joe
Thanks Joe. Yes, time is a huge factor. I will be doing more of these just because so many have asked. But I have to find the time first. Thanks for the suggestion!
Ken
Hey Ken,
Thank you so much for this tutorial, I ve been dying to find those separate voices of this amazing song for ages ages, and given up trying to find those with my own ears ( I am French…)
By chance would you have any similar split voices for this other great song “Our house” from CSN&Y ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9I27w8Tuyw
That would be really really awesome !
Merci beaucoup !!
Roch
Roch,
You’re welcome. I’m glad you like it. I do not have any other split voices yet:-P. Sorry about that. Maybe in the future;).
Cheers,
Ken
Thank you Ken! This is terrific. My siblings and I just love singing together, and this will make this song work!
Hi Ken
Are you able to advise if you have completed your project to prepare the vocal mp3 parts for Suite Judy Blue Eyes. I’m performing a festival in Cornwall in July and really wanted to do this one. I know the Graham Nash part really well and the Steven Stills part – sort of but can’t nail the middle David Crosby part at all.
Here’s Helplessly Hoping you have.
Regards
Ijaz
I’m out of the state right now. But when I get back, I’ll see what I can do.
Cheers,
Ken
Very good work, thanks a lot!
Thanks!
Ken
Wow! That is so awesome! Thanks so much for posting this!!!
Can you do Southern Cross by the same band as well? 😀
Thanks! And yes, I actually do that song:). Maybe I should record it like this one some day.
Cheers,
Ken
Thanks, Ken. Tremendously educational (and it sounds terrific). I too would love to hear other notable CSN vocals pulled apart like this.
You’re welcome. Glad you liked it. I actually have been wanting to do another one. I may do Southern Cross at some point;-).
Is there a place I can go for the actual sheet music for Helplessly Hoping the way you sing it? I’ve seen it at some online sheet music stores but I’m not sure they are written the way you sing it. Thanks!
Hi Chuck,
Try http://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/mtd.asp?ppn=MN0074607. The harmony parts are going to be super close to what I do, if not exactly.
Cheers,
Ken
Thanks! I guess maybe it’s weird but Crosby & Nash of always sounded like one voice to me which is amazing but I can’t really get a handle on what each one is doing so that should help
I hope it does!
Is there a bpm or click track you used while recording and if so whats the bpm? thanks!
Hi Chris. I actually didn’t record it to a click track. But I just stuck it into Reaper to find the closest BPM and it’s very close to 140 BPM. Hope that helps.
Wow, exactly what I was looking for : just now I realize how difficult thid is to sing. Thanks !!
Glad you found it helpful!
Hi Ken,
This was amazing!!! thank you for this!!! I am usually good at getting harmonies but this one really had me stumped!!! thanks again!!!!
Nikki
You’re welcome, Nikki. Glad I could help :-).
Ken, Greetings.
Glad to find you as I was hoping to find a CSN(Y) acapella website. Well, after a Google search, there you are.
Thank you for sharing.
Brian
Did you complete the Suite Judy Blue Eyes project?
Hi Brian. You’re welcome for the HH parts. I have not finished the SJBE project yet. It got preempted by several other things. But I do still plan to do it, though. I promise!
There are no resources for learning the indiv parts of SJBE – I know youve been hounded for years but Id love to see you do this!
OK I’m definitely going to do this :-). Thanks for the poke.
Great resource for learning this song, thank you. What would be helpful for me is to mix in a tiny bit of the other parts so that you can hear each vocal line in it’s harmonic context. Still good, thank you.
You’re welcome. And thanks for the tip. That’s not a bad idea.
I literally was crying as I was listening to the different parts. I am neither a singer nor a musician but I love singing and I love harmony and I love this song. I was so frustrated after years of not being able to stick with the melody (bc I couldn’t hear it!) that it led me to Google something that led me to your page. And then tears. Your voice is beautiful and I hope that someday I will learn to sing harmony but for now, I can sing the melody and stick with it!!! How beautiful and what a gift to give us all:)
Wow Maria, thanks for that feedback! I’m so very glad you found what you were looking for!
Hello Ken ! Thank a lot for your work, it’s really helpful and I enjoy singing in harmony with your voice 🙂
You’re welcome! I love that yo are singing harmony with my voice :-).
Great recordings Ken. I actually have a question about Reaper…. before I invest…. is it possible to create sheet music of the recordings with this program??
Thanks Sandi! And no, you’d need a notation program to be able to create sheet music. But you can import MIDI files created by notation programs and work with the MIDI in Reaper. Also though, the investment in Reaper is super small. You can evaluate for 60 days and it won’t stop working after that, only tell you it’s not free software. But the price is only $60, which is amazing. Then if/when you start making serious money using Reaper, they ask that you purchase the commercial license for $225. But it’s totally on the honor system! There is no difference in the software between the $60 version and the $225 version. Reaper is unique with this pricing scheme. Never seen anything else like it.
Hi Ken. Just googled you and love your beautiful breakdown of these harmonies. Thanks for making it so easy and accessible as well. I am taking voice lessons and we are currently focusing on harmonies/counter harmonies with a lot of CSN tunes. Would you, by any chance have this similar format for Carry on/Question & Teach Your Children since we are trying to isolate these presently. If not, would you be able to refer me to a source or site that might have them as well. Thanks again for sharing. Please let me know.
Thanks Rich! Unfortunately I don’t have parts for those songs. And I really don’t know where else you could get them. I have plans – based on on many requests – to do another CSN song or two. And most of those have been for either Suite Judy Blue Eyes or Southern Cross. So when I get around to doing another of these, it will be one (or both) of those songs. Possibly Wasted on The Way as well, since again, I’ve had requests for those.
It’s amazing how many folks have responded to this. I was just doing it as an example of how to sing and record harmonies. The recording aspect of it was the intended draw. But this has been pretty popular. If it weren’t so time consuming, it might be fun to make a business out of just this though :-).
Hi there, I would love to learn this song but it seem the audio tracks aren’t working – or is it just my computer? Any idea what’s up?
That’s weird. Let me go check and I’ll fix it ASAP.
They are playing on my computer. Can you try again?
If they just won’t play still, I put download links further down the page. And if that doesn’t work, try these:
https://www.homebrewaudio.com/download/HelplesslyHopingMelody.mp3
https://www.homebrewaudio.com/download/HelplesslyHopingMiddle2.mp3
https://www.homebrewaudio.com/download/HelplesslyHopingHigh2.mp3