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…
