Harmony Singing
As a rule, the chorus of most bluegrass songs is sung either
as a trio (baritone, lead and tenor) for a secular song or
in four parts (baritone, lead, tenor and bass) for a gospel
song. The reason that good bluegrass singers can sing harmony
together on the fly is that bluegrass harmonies follow
a few simple rules.
First, bluegrass harmony is generally as close as
possible. This means that the tenor, lead, and baritone parts
are formed as adjacent notes in a chord. In bluegrass (regardless
of what you may have learned elsewhere) the tenor part
is the note in the chord which is as close as possible to
but above the lead, and the baritone part is the note
in the chord which is as close as possible to but below the
lead.
(It should be noted that the terms "tenor’ and
"baritone" are applied to both male and female singers
in bluegrass, and are really only a description of where the
particular part is being sung in relation to the lead. So
when we say that the normal bluegrass harmony stack is a baritone,
lead and tenor, we mean that the lead is always being sandwiched
between a baritone part below and a tenor part above in the
form of a chord. It is also possible to add a high baritone
part, which is an octave above the regular baritone, and a
low tenor part, which is an octave below the regular
tenor.)
It is also important to know that even though there will
generally be several people singing on the chorus, it is also
not a sing-a-long.
Generally, there is one lead singer, one tenor singer, one
baritone singer, and (for a gospel song) one bass. However,
the rule for the chorus is not as strong as for the lead.
This is because the skill level and vocal range of the available
singers may not allow a standard harmony configuration. It
is still not good to sing along with the lead, although it
may be ok to add a high baritone, a low tenor or even to double
one of the other harmony parts occasionally.
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