Vocal harmony and acapella

Acapela is a musical genre or style of music that is performed without the use of musical instruments but merely vocals. It requires a great use of vocal harmonies ranging from 3 or more singers. As you may know, 3 singers will create "chords" or triads that would sound enjoyable to listen to if they each use a different musical note.

The more people involved in the acapella performance the better it would be. A large ensemble of acapella performers can also be called a choir while a smaller one is often call an acapella group (3 to 8 people). The difference is that for a choir, a single musical note can be sung by more than one singer, thus having a voice doubling effect. This effect is similar to a chorus effect that you find in a guitar effects processor for example.

In a music production for albums or television / radio commercials, the use of vocal harmony can be used for two common reasons:

• To provide a rich texture or layer of harmony in the music arrangement and to create an ethereal effect that defines space in the music.
  
• To support the main vocal and lift the entire mood of the music if the singer sounded too weak or lack of characteristics in his or her performance.
  

To harmonize when singing can be a difficult task to accomplished. You need to practice a lot and it is best to be done with friends in a group of three or more. Use a piano or keyboard as a reference and you can start by choosing a note on the keyboard and have each and everyone of your friends to sing a different note that correspond to a triad or chords. For example, you can hum to tune of C while another friend of yours hum to the tune of E and the other one on G. This will create a triad of C Major chord.

Here's an example of a well arranged vocal harmony / acapella performance by the infamous vocal group Boys II Men. The song is "Yesterday" originally from The Beatles.