Guy recreates Queen's 'bombastic' vocal harmonies and high notes in epic tribute video
Queen took no shortcuts to create their massive sound.

Freddie Mercury performs at the New Haven Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1977.
If you're debating the most breathtaking harmonies in rock history, you might consider The Beatles' youthful blend, The Beach Boys' highly orchestrated beauty, or the stacked sweetness of Crosby, Stills & Nash. But if you're lobbying for wall-to-wall, glass-shattering power, there's only one clear winner: Queen, who famously displayed that gift on '70s epics like "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Bicycle Race."
Now, in a stunning tribute video, a musician and content creator pays homage to the band's multi-layered, over-the-top vocals.
Jon Smith, leader of the Pennsylvania-based "theatrical rock band" Jon Smith's Voyages, details his approach in a viral Instagram clip titled "How to make your harmonies sound like Queen."
"I have always been fascinated by Queen's bombastic harmonies," he writes in the caption. "Here's a little breakdown of how to achieve a similar harmony style!"
Using a memorably vocal-rich section of 1978's "Don't Stop Me Now," he channels his inner Freddie Mercury to build an operatic web of vocals, piece by piece.
"Like an atom bomb"
In the video, Smith starts by recording a snippet of lead vocal (in this case, "like an atom bomb about to whoa-oh, whoa-oh, oh-explode!"). He then records that part two additional times to thicken it up. Next, he repeats this triple-take process for two harmony vocals, and then again one octave higher for each harmony, adding a lower-octave line for some bass presence. As he sings each line a cappella, it sounds more than a little goofy. But the full picture emerges when you hear the complete choral-style arrangement at the end.
Naturally, many fans were impressed. Here are some of the best comments:
"Epic!"
"Staggering"
"Dude how good is your range?? Fantastic! Love seeing things like this and playing around with harmonies!"
"Basically: record an entire choir 😂"
"Yeahhh! 🤘"
"Ohmygod I freaking LOVE your energy dude, you are like the 2026 version of queen"
"So the answer is I should have 6 octaves vocal range, got it boss👍"
"Unfortunately, I am a baritone"
"This only works if you can sing"
"me 1000 octaves high"
- YouTube www.youtube.com
Queen's complex vocal parts
Replying to one user, Smith noted that the video is not meant to be a literal example of Queen's process. Instead, he described it as "wayyyyy oversimplified," meant to demonstrate how the band often used elaborate layering to achieve those mile-wide harmonies.
Elsewhere, multiple commenters rightly pointed out Queen's democratic approach to studio harmonies. While Mercury was the band's primary lead vocalist, guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor were also crucial in fleshing out the vocal parts.
In a 2002 Queen mini-documentary, May went into fascinating detail about the band's approach:
"That's normally what we'd do: Three of us would sing the line once, double it—in other words, do the same thing again—and then probably triple it, so you have three tracks of us all singing the same line. And only then do you move on to the next part...It sounds like a lot of people singing really, and part of that's good construction, and part of it's luck because our voices blended very well."
- YouTube www.youtube.com






Thomas Jefferson's Monticello.via
The Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C.via Joe Ravi/Wikimedia Commons

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