About This Workshop
In this stand-alone Peghead Session, Crystal Lariza, Kaden Hurst, and Joe Suskind of Never Come Down teach you the basics of singing three-part bluegrass harmony. You’ll learn how to properly warm up and support your voice, identify harmony notes, move harmony parts with the melody, and blend with others.
Meet the Instructor
Never Come Down
Never Come Down is a Portland, Oregon-based band composed of Joe Suskind, Crystal Lariza, and Kaden Hurst. Their dedication to thoughtful songwriting and dynamic arrangements highlights polished technical skills and a commitment to listening to each other. Formed in 2018, NCD released their first studio album, “Better Late Than Never,” in 2021 and their second LP, “Greener Pastures,” in 2024. They’ve toured internationally and have found acclaim at festivals such as Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Americanafest, FreshGrass, and RockyGrass.
The Three-Part Vocal Harmony Workshop Session Includes:
- Permanent access to the material in this Session as part of your Peghead Nation login
- One-time fee of $30 for the Session
- 45 minutes of high-quality video instruction
- Lessons on how to breathe and support your singing voice
- Exercises for safely warming up your voice
- A lesson on how to identify your chest and head voice, with exercises for each
- Instruction on the names of bluegrass harmony parts
- Helpful instruction in finding tenor and baritone harmony in relation to the lead
- Exercises on how to move your harmony part with the melody
- Line-by-line instruction of harmony on the chorus to “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
- Downloadable Sing-Along Track MP3s for vocal exercises and “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
Sign Up for Session
Session fee of $200, view recordings on your own schedule.
In this stand-alone Session, Crystal Lariza, Kaden Hurst, and Joe Suskind of Never Come Down teach you the basics of singing three-part bluegrass harmony. You’ll learn how to properly warm up and support your voice, identify harmony notes, move harmony parts with the melody, and blend with others, with techniques and tips that you can apply in any style.
Three-Part Vocal Harmony Workshop Workshop
Vocal Warm-Up
Singing with good technique is essential to caring for your voice. Breathing, supporting your voice, and identifying where you are singing from in your body are skills that we can learn and practice. Crystal introduces you to how she thinks about her breath and body while singing, and shows you some warm-up techniques for the different ways you’ll use your singing voice.
How to Find and Move Harmony Parts
Three-part bluegrass harmony singing has some rules, naming conventions, and practices that differ from other types of harmony singing, so understanding these guidelines helps you ground yourself in the style. And once you understand what harmony parts are available, you can find the part that suits your voice. Kaden leads you and the trio through the basic harmony parts and demonstrates the ground rules for how to move those notes with a melody line.
Three-Part Harmony on “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms”
Now that you know how to find and move the tenor and baritone parts in relation to the lead, it is time to put it to work in a familiar song. Kaden, Crystal, and Joe demonstrate three-part bluegrass harmony on the classic song, “Roll in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.” They demonstrate each part individually, in pairs with the lead, and all together, line-by-line through the chorus. They also review the concepts you’ve learned in the workshop, and encourage you to use the Sing-Along Tracks to make harmony singing on any song easier and more fun.
