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HARMONY
A basic knowledge of music is important for the sound system operator unless only speech is amplified. When running a sound system you should consider yourself the “mix musician”. You will be balancing the musicians against each other and determining how the congregation hears them. As such you are an important part of the musical group, and need to understand what is important for music to sound good.
This does not mean you have to be able to play an instrument or read music (although that could not hurt). It does mean you need to understand some musical concepts and be able to speak the language of music in order to properly communicate with the other musicians in your role as the mix musician.
It is not possible in a short text based article to convey everything that would be useful for you to know, but I will attempt to at least cover a few highlights and if these concepts are not familiar to you, help you understand what you need to learn about.
Most Western music is written as a combination of musical “parts” that “harmonize” when played together. Sometimes each instrument has its own part, and sometimes particularly with keyboard instruments an instrument may play multiple parts at once. The main part is often called the melody and makes up the notes that most of the congregation will sing. Therefore it is important that the instrument(s) playing the melody be clearly heard so the congregation can follow and sing along. The other “harmony” parts blend with and support the melody.
The other parts are very important as well because they create the harmony, add beauty to the music, and in some cases are used to emphasize the words. Skilled composers and musical arrangers may change the harmony parts for each verse of a song to highlight the words of that verse.
The combination of all the parts creates a series of “chords”, but the individual parts may themselves be musically interesting and not just be a background for the melody. Traditional church choir music is often written with 4 parts; Soprano, Alto, Tenor, and Bass (from the highest pitch to the lowest). Usually women sing the soprano and alto parts, and men sing the tenor and bass parts. Typically the melody is sung by the sopranos, but not always.
As the mix musician it is important that you learn to listen to music like a musician does. Listen to recordings with musician friends and ask them to point out to you the different parts of the music and how they blend together to make a whole that is greater than the sum of the parts.
As you mix, it is not only important that the melody be clear, but also that all the harmony parts be audible and properly balanced as well. In a well balanced mix all the parts will be audible, with the melody slightly out in front of the other parts to make it easier to follow.
As in many things in life there are no absolute rules in music, and some of the best musicians make things interesting by intentionally breaking the rules at times. As you develop your musical ear and learn more about music you will learn when to “break the rules” in your mixing. It is my hope that the very simple guidelines above will at least give you a start at learning how to become a better mix musician.
Ray A. Rayburn
Ray@K2Audio.com
http://www.K2Audio.com/
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