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Posted by: Kapto Jul 12 2008, 05:45 PM

Hi all.
Just wondering what's the rule while playing melodic harmonies kind of Judas P or Maiden. Guitar 1 Plays a note and the guitar 2 the 3rd or 5th for instance?. Not sure really
I guess it must be a lesson related to this somewhere here if anyone knows could post the link please. Thanks

Posted by: Matt23 Jul 12 2008, 05:55 PM

Most common harmony in metal is the 3rd, then the 6th. Andrew's got a theory lesson about harmonization and i think Kris did a 101 lesson on it as well.

Just wanna add that you can use any interval in harmony, not just the 3rd and 6th.

Posted by: Nazgul Jul 12 2008, 06:04 PM

Here


I think this is Kris' lesson. Short, but very well explained.

Ah, the link doesn't work. Just search for it, it will work as well.

Posted by: Muris Varajic Jul 13 2008, 12:22 AM

That's 3rd usually,above or bellow lead line,
depends of chord progression atm.
Or 6th,which is inverted 3rd tho

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Jul 13 2008, 12:46 AM

Yeah, there are of course no rules at all. I think Ron Jarzombek harmonized a solo in one semitone once - had a strange, yet Jarzombek-ish feel to it. Will have to see if I can find the song.

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Jul 13 2008, 01:15 AM

I found the song - on my computer. I'm not sure I can upload it on here. Due to file sharing and such. Does anyone have any ideas?

Posted by: Déjà vu Jul 13 2008, 06:20 AM

Give the name of the song... maybe we can check it out out youtube. Or, maybe you can give a link (Hopefully that applies to rules ) . Yes, in certain cases you can use those "daring" sounds to your advantage.

Posted by: Vasilis Jul 13 2008, 09:21 AM

well in heavy metal you ll find like the guys said 3 or 6th (like the revelations solo from maiden) sometimes even octave.
Whle others like Death,Annihilator play in 5ths check out alice in hell after the intro when the first riff kicks in.Also bands like psychotic waltz sometimes they duplicate one part 3 frets up.Thats gives a very psycho feeling

Posted by: Daniel Robinson Jul 13 2008, 10:39 AM

Any harmony will do, the cool thing though when dealing with two instruments is that you can experiment with all kinds of harmonic sounds, typically when playing on 1 guitar there are certain harmony values that sound crappy, especially when playing with any amount of distortion. Its a characteristic of the guitar, for example. On the piano it sounds good (in context of course) to play two keys right next to eachother. Playing on a guitar with two notes right next to eachother with alot of gain will invariably sound horrible, its not unheard of but its a harsh dissonant tone.

But if another instrument plays that tone while you play the first it takes on a different "Color" harmonically.

Daniel

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Jul 13 2008, 02:37 PM

The song is called "Control and Resistance" and is a Watchtower song. I know it's on ultimate-guitar.com as a guitar pro tab. There's only a live version on youtube, I'm not sure about the harmonies on that one.

Posted by: Gerardo Siere Jul 13 2008, 03:37 PM

You should take a look to the color of every inerval created by the two lines. Also every interval could be played in closed or open position, but lot of stranges leaps in a melody line ussualy don work very well. Also you can check it out but intervals works differently in lower register and in higher register. (in lower you can get some radical but muddy colors using intervales from minor 2 to diminish 5.
Also it are important the harmonic time, form and speed of the lines.
Here are some guidelines: paralel movement will enphasize a line with color check out 8va 5th 4th (watch out for disonances here) thay can get little dull and boring, little less boring 3 and 6. More extreme color sounds with parallel 2nds and 7nts.
Oposite direction here works specially great diatonicaly step moving (consecutive diatonically seconds)
Oblique: One thing stays, other things move, note that what stays can become obstinato and may be even as radical as you want and music will still work.
For metal and rock music you should use the harmonic time and form as guide of what functions, collors, directions and dinamics you want to add, making a little draft first help a lot.
Good luck and have fun.

Posted by: Kapto Jul 13 2008, 06:25 PM

Wow
Thanks for the help guys. I got the information about harmonies x200 more than I expected. Let's see if an instructor makes a video lesson about it Main melody all the way through the song as a backing track repeating itself lets say 3 or 4 times second one doing different intervals of melodies to see how the mood changes.
Thanks again

Posted by: Caelumamittendum Jul 13 2008, 07:02 PM

That's a very good idea to a lesson, actually. Let's see if any instructors catch on to it.

Posted by: steiner666 Jul 15 2008, 11:19 PM

I wrote a song that has a riff that both guitars play together, and then on the first repeat one plays the same riff 3 frets up, and then on the second repeat it switches to 5 frets up... it has a strange tension-building dissonance sound to it that i liked for a while, but i've always wondered if it was just crap or not because its not a by-the-book harmonization and the riff has some chromatic notes that i've never been able to make sense of in a scale sort of way. I kinda just confused myself and got frustrated with the whole thing and thew it on the back burner for a while now.