How do we find harmonies... hmm... when we're learning a song that's already been recorded, I have to push the guys not to copy the harmonies (and even the supposedly impromptu asides)even though the original recording is great. I guess it's my folk background. Many of the songs we do are ones that I've written, so there's no recording to imitate. Even on songs where I sing the lead where I've learned it from a recording, I only let the guys hear the recording once or twice, and then we make it ours. Sometimes, we run into serious trouble when one of the other leads choses a song that's been recorded, and learns the lead EXACTLY as it's done on the recording, when the rhythm changes unpredictably throughout the song. That makes it almost impossible for the rest of us to follow, because some lines are held out longer than the number of beats they're legally allowed.
Don't ask me what the rhythm is, or how many beats to a line, but I know when extra beats are added, without a pattern. And, because I'm playing guitar, I do a lot of vamping, waiting until the lead singer finally gets done with one line and decides it's time to sing the next..

After singing as a quartet for a couple of years, we added a fifth person, and were tripping all over each other on harmonies... mostly because the fifth person usually sang solo, and kept drifiting back into the lead melody. As a quartet, we learn a new song with my blocking it out on guitar, picking the melody so the guys can hear it, and where the chord changes are. Depending on who is singing the lead, the other two harmonies (other than Joe who sings bass, and has his own freedom) figure out who is going to sing the high harmony, and who is going to drop down between the lead, and Joe bringing up the bass. We're not a typical group because we all sing lead, and none of us have a high tenor. When Joe sings lead, I sing bass, when Derrick sings lead, Frankie sings tenor and I sing baritone... sometimes Frankie and I will switch harmonies during a song. Whatever needs singing gets sung, the best that we can. Because we don't have a classic second tenor, we tend to pitch our songs lower than a classic doo wop or black gospel quartet would. If we had a second tenor, we could probably find enough space for a five man group with four harmony lines.

One of the ways that we compensate for the lack of a second tenor (is that the right term for the higher of the two tenors?) Frank will sometimes sing falsetto. He has a fine falsetto. I have a sneak-it-past-in-a-pinch falsetto which I use ocassionaly when there's enough room to hide, and Derrick sometimes goes into falsetto.

I have a wonderful video of the Fairfield Four which includes a sequence where they're working out a song in someone's living room.
They also talk about the pace of the song, and what happens if you take it too slow, or too fast. They've sung together for so many years, they can probably find their harmonies after a couple of times through a song, and then try some variations to find more unusual chords.

And I'm with you, jimmy... the Four Freshmen are my favorites. As for Doo Wop, Fred Paris of the Five Satins lives locally, and I was glad to see he was singing again on one of the PBS programs.

Some people know what they're doing jimmy... some just do their best..

We fall in the second category..

Jerry