How to play harmony riffs?

[RaynerT]

Hi guys, are there techniques to do harmony riffs behind the lead riffs in any type of song? Like do we do it in fifths or fourths or anything else? Or is it based on pure improvisation whatsoever? Thanks!

 

[sleepykitty]

i tink you got to play around with the major and the minor of the notes.. so let's say u're playing a 'G' on the sixth string, the minor or major would be a 'Bb' or 'B' on the fith string respectively..

examples of harmony riffs is the intro to 'unholy confessions' by avenged sevenfold.. listen to when the second guitar comes in..

 

[tany]

usually harmonies are 3rd/6th above the note or 3rd/6th below the note. the 3rd above and 6th below the note are octave higher, and vice versa.

but usually try 3rd above, sounds nicer in my opinion. u have to sharpen certain 3rds due to the key.

 

[ShredCow]

Try to utilise different harmonies.

A melody in 3rds, very pleasing, but way overdone, it sounds very stale.

Listen to hymns. Seriously.

Listen to bands like... Blind Guardian, their vocal lines. Queen, the vocals and guitar harmonies.

3rds can get boring.

 

[tany]

haha my teacher taught me 3rds that time.

but theory also has this section of writing 4 part harmony, the SATB stuff. very nice man when harmonised!

 

[Crawldaddy]

Hmm.

Thin Lizzy has great stuff.

Listen hard, study the tabs, improvise accordingly.

Shud be an educational experience in its own right.

 

[Ized]

Try Iron Maiden...masters of harmonization. 8)

 

[AEnimic]

usually harmonies are 3rd/6th above the note or 3rd/6th below the note. the 3rd above and 6th below the note are octave higher, and vice versa.

but usually try 3rd above, sounds nicer in my opinion. u have to sharpen certain 3rds due to the key.

3rd? u mean if that other dude is playing an A i should play a C note?

 

[letterhead]

i think avenged sevenfold deserves a thumbs up for harmonization of guitar parts

 

[letterhead]

oh i forgot to respond to the thread sorry... people normally harmonise in thirds, u occasionally harmonise in 5ths or 6ths. If u harmonise in 4ths or 7ths u will get a hollow sound... try harmonising in minor 2nds, best... anyway try not to think too much of the harmonisation, just play what ever sounds right la...haha

 

[jon__]

3rd? u mean if that other dude is playing an A i should play a C note?

depends on the key..if the key calls for a major flavored a chord, then it's a c# or db depending on the key. on guitar, they're the same thing, but on instruments which don't have set intervals (like your voice), a c# sounds slightly different from a db.

basically, you need to know enough theory to know what kind of chord you are playing the 3rd of. harmonizing doesn't need to be in thirds. when you're harmonizing a lead line, you're basically playing chord elements that the lead line is not playing. three- and four-part harmonies are just full chords or triads with each chord element given to a different instrument/player/singer/etc.

just to add on to what vheissu said, harmonizing in thirds tends to give the lead line a lot more depth (or if you have lots of chorus and gain it creates an awesome cheesy 80s metal effect). harmonizing in 5ths and octaves (not really harmonizing) just fattens up the sound of the line. you should be careful when using a 2nd (major and minor 2nds are the same, but they can be altered as #9 or b9 depending on the key and chord) or 7th, though, because they have a tendency to sound a little more dissonant than you might want.

harmony is a bit hard to get your head around if you haven't had the time to learn some theory, but i hope that helps a little

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

how do u hormonise in thirds? i know thirds are 4 semi tones up so lets say sum1 is doing a lead line in C ionian... so all the harmony notes should be 4 semi tones up? i.e. E ionian?

or should it be that the E corresponds with C, F with D, G with E, ..., D wtih B etc?
in other words, does the harmony play E phrygian?

 

[jon__]

how do u hormonise in thirds? i know thirds are 4 semi tones up so lets say sum1 is doing a lead line in C ionian... so all the harmony notes should be 4 semi tones up? i.e. E ionian?

or should it be that the E corresponds with C, F with D, G with E, ..., D wtih B etc?
in other words, does the harmony play E phrygian?

MAJOR thirds are 4 semitones from the root. MINOR thirds are 3 semitones. if you're harmonizing thirds over a line in C ionian, just play the same line 3 scale notes up. some of them will be minor thirds and some will be major.

E phrygian is the same scale as C ionian, so yes, the harmony is playing in E phrygian if you want to look at it that way.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

ooo cool.. thx for ur help! time to play with harmony... haha hormonise... homo

 

[Guest]

:roll:

tts how my eyes are goin.round and round and round.

too complex for sumone like me.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

oh no... tis quite easy... let me write what i know for harmonising in C harmonic major:

Note Harmony

C E
D F
E G
F A
G B
A C
B D
C E

yeah from what i understand, its like this... for harmony in 3rds maj/minor

 

[tany]

note in every major key,

the 2nd, 3rd and 6ths are minors
the 7th is diminished
root, 4th and 5th are perfect

so in that case, u have 4 minor 3rds, D F, E G, A C, B D.

in every minor key, a diff. story lol. lazy to write out.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

oh no... tis quite easy... let me write what i know for harmonising in C harmonic major:

Note Harmony

C E
D F
E G
F A
G B
A C
B D
C E

yeah from what i understand, its like this... for harmony in 3rds maj/minor

hmmm i tried it out... i don't get the effect i want... haha is it suppose to be what i've written?

is this how 1 should view harmony as? or should i look at chords and derive harmony from there? meaning i can harmonise all the time with different intervals instead of strictly 3rds? as long as they're in the same chord?

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

if i harmonise with thrids or sixths, the harmony parts just sound phrygian and aeolian respectively... which sound minor

what if i want the harmony to be more major? do i harmonise with with fifths and fourths?

harmonising with fifths sounds like i'm playing power chord for every note cept the seventh... argh help... i'm confused