First off I'm not a singer, that's for sure, I think I have improved by paying attention over the last year or so.
 
I wanted to ask everyone, what are the best harmonies? Should I approach them like I do doing guitar solo harmonies?
 
What I am getting at and asking is : Should I try and harmonize the most in 3rd, 5ths, 7ths, or what is the most common?
 
I've tried an octave higher and that just doesn't achieve the result I am looking for.
 
What I am looking for is kinda that Def Leppard type of harmony in parts on the vocals for this song I wrote and am working on, it sounds nothing like Def Leppard music that's for sure, but I thought that would best describe what I am after for vocals.
 
Any advice? I know some might say "Good Luck", but I ain't looking for Joe Elliot and Def Leppard to sing for me, what I am looking for is the best approach to achieve a powerful harmony vocal part and I have no idea where to start.
 
I'm thinking singing the second vocal part in 3rd's instead of an octave higher? But I'm guessing. I guess I will have to experiment and see what works and what does not work for what I am trying to achieve here.
 
Anyway, just thought I would ask for those of you who might have any good advice on what I am talking about here. I hope I explained my question right.
 
Thanks in advance.
 
Bobby

"I wanted to ask everyone, what are the best harmonies? Should I approach them like I do doing guitar solo harmonies?"
 
The best harmonies are the ones that sound best to your ears.  Simple, but true.  You have to be the final judge.
 

Serious_Noize!
I'm thinking singing the second vocal part in 3rd's instead of an octave higher? But I'm guessing. I guess I will have to experiment and see what works and what does not work for what I am trying to achieve here.

I believe you might have answered your own question here and that's most likely where I'd start as well. You'll have to see/hear what fits in with the song....... try 3rds, 4ths, 5ths. I heard Melodyne Editor does a great job with this as well. 

I agree with Lynn. I don't think most singers think in 3rds, 5ths, etc. (I'm not even sure what all of those sound like). You can probably hear what you want to do in your head. Getting it out may be the tricky part. Try singing harmonies behind melodies and recording what you do. You might discover that you have an intuitive sense of what sounds good and what doesn't. Personally, I think some of the best sounding stuff happens by accident (or spontaneously). 

Vocal harmonies are probably the most difficult component in music you will ever come across. As far as harmony is concerned, you have the right idea. Root,2nd,3rd,4th, etc. The problem comes with having to figure out how the harmony notes move or don't move in the melody. You also may not have the vocal range to hit the specific note you need! Well, there is a plug for Melodyne or V-Vocal! Maybe check out some YouTube videos or launch a search for info. One more thing! It is ABSOLUTELY critical that the person singing the lead vocal is in tune. Nothing is more tiring than trying to get a harmony going on with a flat or sharp note in the lead vocal!
I wish you luck because it has been said many times the most difficult instrument to learn and perform with is the human voice!

In recording harmonies..... avoid what might seem to be the easy path... using something like Melodyne Editor (ME) to make the harmony from a lead vocal. The note changes are generally too great of a jump to do them cleanly and leave no strange sounding artifacts behind. Once you get past a full step to a step and a half, you start running into trouble quickly.  That's not to say that you can't do that and pull it off because you can. I have done it on a few tunes but those harmony tracks are well down in the mix to try to cover the evident artifacts.
 
http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=12024980  harmony at the PC & chorus created from the vox lead using ME.
 
The better way is to set at the piano or guitar and solo the vocal track and one rhythm guitar. Pull the fader down on the guitar so that you can hear the chord it's playing but you want the vox to be dominant. Now, using the guitar or the piano, play the exact melody the vox is singing. Take this process section by section. I would also recommend setting up the looping function so that it will repeat for you as many times as is needed to nail the parts exactly. Once you have the lead melody exact now, use the guitar or the piano to learn and play a harmony to the lead vox. You learned the lead so that you got the feel for the groove on the harmony since the note values and phrasing should be exact. No notes should be unison or octaves or not compatible with the underlying chord.  For example if the underlying chord is a C major, you should probably not be singing  a D# (minor 3rd) in it. 
 
Do not limit yourself to only the 3rd, 4th and 5th.....for sure, start there but..... it's even better if you can work in augmented and diminished vocal notes..remember that a harmony vocal is simply using the vocals to create a chord.... for a really really good example of the more advanced harmonies, listen to some of the Eagle's vocal harmonies..... 7 bridges road is a classic. Crosby Stills Nash & Young also come to mind on harmony examples. Quite a few rock groups are just as competent with vocals as they are with their instrumentation. Queen & Bohemian Rhapsody come to mind.... and yes, Def Lepard have some pretty sweet harmony as well.
 
Using this very method, I was able to get a female singer who said she didn't know how to sing harmony, to learn the harmony notes she needed to sing in a song we were working on in my studio. I would play the piano part, she would copy it.... then we'd record it and move to the next phrase.