"Love Hurts" - Melody & Harmony

So this is my first attempt at transcribing the vocal melody and harmony part. It took me a while and I listened through the song probably over a hundred times! Anyway, aside from a few notes where I really had a hard time hearing the harmony note, I believe it's accurate.

The few areas where I have my doubts:

• The "to" on "to take a lot of pain", the "I've" in "I've really learned a lot", and the "I" in "I know it isn't true". They are all the same note but I cannot pick out the harmony note in the recording. I basically guessed that it follows the melody (a major third above the melody note). If you can hear the note and it differs from what I wrote, please let me know.

• The only other area I'm slightly doubtful is the first few notes of the bridge. I really listened to this section over and over so I'm pretty sure it's right (even though there is a tri-tone interval on the word "fools").

"Love Hurts" - Chords & Lyrics

The first tune I'm going to work on is "Love Hurts", written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant. It was recorded by the Everly Brothers in July 1960 and was released on the Album "A Date with the Everly Brothers". 

Here's a link to the PDF file of the Chords & Lyrics sheet. The Everlys played it in the key of Gb, which isn't really a super friendly key for guitar, so I wrote out the chart in the key of G.

Here's a video of the original version of the song. It was covered by many artists including Roy Orbison and Gram Parsons/Emmylou Harris.

Coming up next will be a breakdown of the harmony parts...

Introduction

I am starting this blog because with all the stuff available on the internet, I was unable to find any information on the harmony parts of the Everly Brothers. I thought surely someone has already transcribed the beautiful two-part harmony parts of at least their hits - but no. So, I'm going to give it a shot.

I've been playing music most of my life, but only reason started delving into singing. I love the sound of two voices blending together as well as the Everlys did and have been working lately on covering some of their songs.

My plan is to transcribe Don's and Phil's individual parts. I'm hoping to do about a song a week, although the first few may take longer as I'm still training my ear to pick up the individual parts. They blend so well that it's not always easy to do. There are a few more experienced musicians in town that cover many of these tunes, so I hope they might be able to offer some help if I get stuck.

Also looking for feedback from anyone else that happens to come across this. If you find any errors in my transcriptions, please let me know.

I hope this proves to be a useful resource for anyone trying to play these great tunes.