Okay, at first i figured this should be in the bands forum but i am not really talking about the band, i am talking about the harmonies they use so dont move my thread or flame me for being a stupid n00b or something. To my question :
I have noticed in a lot of cathedral's songs, take #2 from Forest of Equilibrium, Ebony Tears, that they have some really cool harmonizing. Usually a really low part and then another high part that basically is the same but at a set interval up. Listen to that song at 21 seconds and you can easily hear what i am talking about. I have looked in the tabs but most of the tabs i can find just dont put the harmony up there, they only tab the low part. Generally from what i can tell, they use that same interval a lot in many of their songs. So, if someone can tell me what they are doing, i would be much obliged.

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You answered you own question, dimwit. It called harmonizing--unless you need something else answered.

By the way

There is a tab request forum, and a theory forum; so far, this thread isn't really about guitars. And there are tons of threads already for harmony so use the seach function.

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i know it is called harmonizing, but they always seem to use the same interval and i dont know what it is, i am not looking for the tabs of the songs, i am looking for the interval they always seem to use with their harmonies

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Its a hard topic to place, but I'll move it to Theory.

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Many bands harmonize melodies in 3rds. So a melody of:

Guitar I
C-E-G#

would be harmonized by

Guitar II

E-G#-C

I think thats right ^ but I am at school and don't have any of my theory notes with me. I'll post more later.

etc. I know thats not exactly what you want, I don't have many Cathedral songs, but if you could send me some on AIM sometime I could help you. My sn is Hardpact467.

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Guitar II would actually play E - G# - B# and that is a major 3rd harmony.

I believe this is called a static or parallel harmony which means your always staying a major 3rd away from Guitar I. The other way is diatonic harmonies which follow the intervals of the major/minor scale.

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Could you explain diatonic harmony a bit more? I think I understand it somewhat but it may be something useful to this poster and everybody else on MT as well.

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for diatonic harmony of 3rds take the key signature and play 3 scale degrees up. so for diatonic harmony somtimes you get 2 whole steps inbetween and sometimes a step and a half depending on which note you started on - so theres not always a constant interval between the notes.

A major - diatonic 3rds (both lines are in A major)

D-------------------6-7--
A-----------5-7-9--------
E--5-7-9-----------------

D-------------------9-11-
A----------9-11-12-------
E-9-10-12----------------


A major - parallel major 3rds (only the fist line is in A major, for the second line i just moved each note up by a major third)


D-------------------6-7--
A-----------5-7-9--------
E--5-7-9-----------------

D-------------------10-11
A----------9-11-13-------
E--9-11-13---------------

That album kicks ass.

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Couldn't of said it better amerok. Good example too! Remember the interval reflects the property of the scale tone your starting with.

So if it was the minor scale. This is how many tones your harmony would be.

minor - 3 semi
diminished - 3 semi (not concerned with b5, unless we're doing 5th harmonies)
major - 4 semi (start of the major scale)
minor - 3 semi
minor - 3 semi
major - 4 semi
major - semi

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