Joe--The harmony part tends to have less interest in it than the melody----typically, the harmony part will stay on a single note(a chord note) while the melody wanders around, and it won't change until the melody moves to a note that is not in that chord--In some kinds of singing, the harmony is simply a drone note that does not change(makes it easier to concentrate on the words)--in others, the voices sing block chords that hold to a particular chord voicing(we had a nice discussion on this, courtesy of JimmyT, a while back) and move the minimum distance needed when there is a chord change.

If you write the dots out for this kind of singing, you'll see that the recessive lines often stay on the same note for quite a few counts--