Hey guys,
Sorry if someone has already asked this but can someone explain how to harmonize guitar parts to me?

Thank you for your time and effort.

Harmonising is just playing the same melody on guitar 2 but in a different position on the fretboard to guitar 1. As far as I'm aware there are two ways of harmonising:

1. Keep the harmonising interval fixed for every note of the melody, ie, just shifting the melody up or down a fixed number of frets. this method is useful if you are playing a lot of riffs that are chromatic. Most death metal bands harmonise in this way. Eg,



2. You can shift the harmonising melody up or down within the scale you are playing in, ie, the harmonising interval is not fixed. Metallica employ this method frequently. Eg,



Hope that helps.

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hey that was helpful, john. i was thinking id like some of those inflames harmonized leads. i like the idea of harmonizing in the scale but not strictly intervals

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queen. anybody who harmonises solos, is almost certain to be compared to brian may of queen.

some examples of bands harmonising are bruce dickinson/iron maiden. BD, who i actually own an album from, has one guitar tuned to standard E (E A D G B E) and one to standard A (A D G C E A). this is cool because it enables a very low sound but melodic at the same time.

also, with the first example that john showed, amon amarth do that alot on their first album, once sent from the golden hall.

im not sure if this is what you ment by #2 john (hell this might even fit into #1) but transposing something into anther key and playing it could be a form of harmonizing.

so say you have the 3rd scale step in a C major scale (so the not E) then you would play it in the 3rd scale step in the scale you wanna go to so say you go to Bb, then the 3rd scale is the note D. so on and so forth

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Yeah, this is a big help. I'd like to find out more about it, but I don't know what to ask...

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theres tons of ways to harmonize...

http://www.geocities.com/kalmahswamp/tripleharmony.wma

hah thats a triple harmony, i usually just do modal harmony...if you want me to tab that out for each guitar, i will, so maybe you can get an idea

So whats all this thirds, fourths, fifths, etc. that I'm hearing about every now and again?

thirds fourth fifths, ect are intervals

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Alright thank you all very much you've been a tremendous help.

harmonizing can be done in many ways.
3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th basicaly whatever u want (but i think 5ths and 3rds are used most, not sure though)

u can play the 3 note from the basic note u play.

---2-3-5-- to harmonize the 2 play a 5 with it. (the 5 is obvious the 3rd note if u start counting from the 2)

just follow the scale and add the 3rd note from the note ur playing ur playing.
So the setting depend on the scale ur playing in

u can use these little chords to get the same effect(settings depend on the scale ur using)

--3--5--7---8--
--5--7--8--10--
the 8 is the same note as the 3 on the higher string.


harmonizing with a 5th
this ones easy.
say u want to harmonize this
-5-6-8-9-----
with a 5th note play this
-5-6-8-9-----
-5-6-8-9-----

i duno if this makes any sence, im not a teacher so
atleast i did my best to explain

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Yeah, I was basically describing modal harmonisation. For example, one guitar could be playing in the Aeolian mode and another guitar playing the same melody but in the Mixolydian mode.

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That's a fourth, which sounds cool. A fifth would be like your traditional "power chord"

-7-8-10-11
-5-6- 8- 9

In my experience thirds fourths and fifths give the most "Metal" sound, fourths especially.


Edit: unless what you tabbed was in drop tuning, in which case it would be a fifth.

yea guitars are runed up in 4ths, and power chords are 5ths, for solo/licks i like 3rds a lot, like a lick from Silent Night, Bodom Night like this.

E - 3-0-0-0-0-0-5-0-0-0-0-0-7-0-0-0-0-0

he uses a basic scale format goin up the fret board 3-5-7 droning it with an open E. Th harmony then goess like this.....

B - 5-0-0-0-0-0-7-0-0-0-0-0-8-0-0-0-0-0

Which is cool cause hes doing a harmony in 3rds with the actual fret'd notes but then harmonizes the drone in 4ths. gives it a pretty cool sound.

Also listen to Gary Hoey - Hocus Pocus that lick you does down the fretboard is in 3rds, its not 2 guitars harmonizing but its still using intervals.

-12----12---10---10----8---8----7--7----5--5---3---3--------------
----13---------12--------10-------8-------6-------5----0-4-5------

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ur right
it isnt drop tuned

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there's one thing that i think was neglected to mention with triple harmonies though. be careful when doing this, that you are perfectly in tune or you get a horrendous wobbling kind of sound, which can be a lot more common in triple harmonies. say you are doing a series of perfect 5th notes:

--------
--------
--------
--------
-3------

--------
--------
--------
-5------
--------

--------
--------
-7------
--------
--------

essentially, that can only be done with clean guitars. yes there are ways around it like octave/fifth triple harmonies, but i'm just stating that as a tip.

also i got sick of that "what is music lol" thread

That triple interval (a fifth, and then another fifth starting from the second) is something Death uses all the time on The Sound of Perseverance album.
He uses nearly always fifths, In Flames uses mostly thirds I think.

Really depends on what sound you want to achieve.

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i know it can be done, i'm just saying be careful is all, and do it right. as for just a single third interval, amon amarth do this alot too.