A music note

This is really random, BUT I just wanted to say- Whenever I'm learning a part in a song (that's not the soprano) and I have a hard time finding a note, occasionally someone will suggest, "listen for it in the previous chord because the tenors -or whoever- are singing it then." This may be helpful advice to some people, but I find it to be ever so problem-some and only annoying in my case, this is why:

Sure I may hear a note some other part is singing, but I hear it only in the context of that chord; by the time we get to the next chord, that note is left with it's previous harmony and I couldn't possibly place it in the new chord because it would sound different with the new harmony even if it's the same note exactly. I don't know if this is making sense to anyone else.

I guess the best way I can find a note is to just feel it in the chord that it's in and my voice will train to want to go there to make that harmony. I never thought I had an ear for hearing all the parts together, but I think I'm starting to realize that I do have a feel and connection with music to help me place the notes. I don't have much experience with harmony (because I almost always sing melody), but I think I do have a gift that would be brilliant if I exercised it a little more. I do miss the progress I was making in school with voice, but I don't regret the things I do with my time now and perhaps I'll try to pick it up a little more intensely in the future.