While we are not the world's foremost experts on harmony singing, we have been studying the subject for nearly fifty years and we have learned a thing or two about what makes it "good".

First, phrasing. It's important for all singers to start and stop words at precisely the same time and breath together. This can be accomplished by three things: practice, practice and practice. All of the groups cited above do this superbly.

Second, intonation and temperament. To get the kind of harmony singing that sends chills up and down your spine, the harmonics of the tones each singer is singing need to blend perfectly. Once again, all of the cited groups are excellent in this respect.

Third, arrangement. For any given melody there is no "the harmony". It is possible to harmonize a melody in many different ways. At one harmony workshop we presented we sang a seven verse song singing the first verse in unison and using six different harmonies on the other verses. In our opinion, good harmony singing uses interesting and unusual arrangements. No one should be able to predict what your arrangement will sound like.

Fourth, "tight harmony". If you want to sing "tight harmony" all singers must have nearly the same range and accent with "tight harmony" being defined as singing in which it is difficult or impossible to identify who is singing what part. That is why the really good and tight harmonies have been done by siblings such as the Blue Sky Boys, The Louvin Brothers and the Everly Brothers. Among the groups cited above, The Civil Wars and Cloudstreet have very tight harmonies. If you don't believe accent is important, try to imagine a duet consisting of one person from Brooklyn and the other from Mississippi! It is possible to sing "good harmony" without singing "tight harmony".

We're sure the above will generate a lot of discussion but that's what we've learned.

Bev and Jerry