ive noticed with some bands that have 2 guitarists, they often will play the same riff on different frets...

say 1 guitarists plays a riff, and guitarist #2 plays the same thing only 2 frets higher...

will this give it a better sound than just having em both play the same thing?
obviously it would make for a higher sound, but is there another purpose to doing it?

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it's harmonizing.. I think it sounds good.. it has it's place just like everything else I guess.. if a band did it alot I guess it would get tiring..

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yep, its all about harmony. See Iron Maiden. non stop harmony

the most common are 3rds and 5ths. to do it find the note that you origannaly play it on. then go three notes over so like this

A

ABCDEFGABCDEFG

so to do 3rds go three over so it would be a C. Simple as that and it makes the iron maden sound. you can do it with everything 2nds dont sound good and 7ths are just shitty but every thing else is great sounding, try it.

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in flames always has harmony and they don't get tiring

Yeah yeah I know.. I knew i'd get shit for saying that comment about getting tiring..

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yes, harmonizing.

or, sometimes known as 'wire choir'.

its very very popular among the sweedish metal/melodic death scene. ie; enter my silence, in flames, at the gates, etc

3rds is wat many of them play in, its more on the minor.

at http://www.ultimate-guitar.com they have some good theory lessons explaining 1st's right through to 12th's and so forth.

Death also uses a lot of harmonized riffs.....really cool.

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when slayer does it, it makes the song a lot more evil sounding

thats because of the scale.....do it in major and it sounds like the ice cream mans comming

me and me bands other guitarist were fucking around with harmonies the other day and seeing wat funky shit we could come up with (moving back and forth and away from each other on the leads and scales) and the coolest thing we did was harmonize the national geographic theme

lol

dont knock it till you've tried it man

yeah. i like arch enemy's harmonizing and twin guitar playing alot. it just sounds so good. yeah.let's say someone was playing a solo based on the scale of D+, you can have someone play it's minor relative of Bb. cool stuff. every band should have twin guitars

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harmonizing is the shit, but too many bands around where i am just do that and nothing else really, they all just sound like "eternity is within" from Shadows Fall off of "The War Within". it sickens me, i mean i suck ass, but at least i play music that makes old folks cringe, i know i've played in front of them

Then just imagine what a second guitar, harmonizing, would do...
Here they more sort of curl up at the edges.

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What you do... is make some badass music, then find out how you can add another guitars sound in there to accompany the other. Sometimes I'll just hear the other guitar just wail on one note, but for the whole, ... nothing sounds better.

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It's like singing. After a certain number has been reached, even soccer fans sounds more or less acceptable.

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this threads gay, just think of four part harmonizing, alto,tenor,baritone(bass), and soprano(not the t.v. show)

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does this explain why when i play B-tuned stuff in E (without adjusting the fretting) it sounds "right"?

This isn't guitar talk so I'm gonna move it to theory.

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You should just learn bit more bout music theory. Harmonies are easy to do...well, at least easier than most of the other stuff. You dont even need your guitar to write beautiful harmonies, if you know enough about theory, you just will know what will sound good.

Most neoclassical, gothic, and melodic bands harmonize guitars with different notes. Using mostly the third interval. Both the minor three (three half steps), and the major three (4 half steps). Also the five half step interval (perfect forth) sounds good. I know some bands that use the seven step interval (perfect fifth) at times. It sounds good as well. Does anyone know of any bands that use the 2 step interval (Major second) and the six half step interval (Dim)?

harmonizing if doen well, can sound totally awesome, it sounds sick if u harmonize octave riffs. Slayer harmonize in 5ths to get there totally evil sound, i harmonize basically all of my riffs, it can make a shit riff sound awesome

Using fifth intervals sound really sad and hallow to me. Especially the 1,5,7. GraveWorm uses the fifth interval a lot in soloing, melodies, and harmonizing. The Major Second interval sounds evil especially 1,2,7. Has anyone tried harmonzing dim stuff. That sound is so uncomforting.

I have..

I think it sounds sick as fuck esp in a DM feel. I also think it sounds cool when your harmonizing and you change intervals somewhere within the lines. Like I have one piece written in the diminished scale and shifts halfway through the riff from a perfect 4th to a dim 5th. Maiden shifted harmonizing intervals alot too, that's where I got the idea.

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Cradle of Filth does a lot of interval changing harmonizing like from 4th's (5 half steps), to 5 (7 half steps), to 3rds (3 or 4 half steps). It sounds pretty sweet as well. I like Cradle of Filth better than GraveWorm because GraveWorm guitars are just power chords 90% of the time with the keyboard acting as the leads. Cradle of Filth are more creative and have better song structures.

Which 2 are you talking about? m2 (1 half step) or the M2 (2 half steps). The M2 sounds pretty good in harmonizing but the m2 doesn't sound good for me. You don't like harmonzing in M2? Also playing Sus2 chords sound bad in m2 interval but sound good in M2. Dim 5 (6 half steps) don't sound well as well. It is the most uncomfortable sound I've heard in my life. No wonder why in movies or shows when a bad person emerges they start playing dim intervals! The dim makes you think that the person is evil! Everything else sounds good because the m3 or M6 or, M3 or m6, and P5 or P4, M2 or m7 intervals which are all the intervals except for teh dim 5, m2 or M7. It depends on where you take the root as.

do you guys prefer diatonic harmonies or... i forgot the word for it... when you only move the riff up a certain scale degree.

I have no idea, but I'd like to know more.

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ah, the word i was looking for is parallel...so theres that and diatonic harmony. Ill screw around with them and post a sound clip this weekend.

Cannibal Corpse use alot of harmonies and stuff i'd like to use them in my band but there's only one guitarist at the moment whihc is me so it may be hard

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