Originally Posted By: David Snyder
I have a friend and musical colleague who is a prodigy (kind of Mozart-like) and he works out 8 part harmonies in his head like that, but doesn't even practice them or sing them out loud until he is ready for his one takes.

He blows people's minds.

"No, I'm ready," he says, as he steps up to the mic. "I can hear it. Just hit record." Then he does it, eight times in a row.

You play it all back it and it sounds like a choral ensemble that practiced for a week.

That is not me. There are a few people like that and it is trippy.

I think the rest of us have to work it out.


Our friend and mentor whom we played with for years was a child prodigy and shortly before his untimely passing was grammy nominated. Janice and I would record some rhythm tracks (guitar, mandolin and bass) along with her vocal before he would visit (after he had moved to N'ville) so we could have that out of the way for him to do his thing on. He would record a killer mando, guitar or fiddle melodic solo track and then immediately afterwards say he was ready to play harmony on another instrument or more with that track. He said he was hearing the second or third part while he was playing the lead. And this was often songs that he had no familiarity with. Janice would ask him after a solo why he was smiling during the recording and he would say he was listening to what he would do on the harmony.

Those folks have such a gift from nature that subsequent nurture can turn them into geniuses for any genre IMO.

Bud

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