Harmony Solo

There is something more to it than that. Basically you want to think of the two guitars as singers. One is singing a line of notes and the other is singing a harmony line. Thin Lizzy, having two guitarists, made great use of this, as did many other bands. Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, for instance, would usually add (overdub) additional harmony lines to the recordings (The Land of Make Believe, You and Me and Isn't Life Strange are great examples). Or think of the opening of And Your Bird Can Sing by the Beatles, where George and Paul (both on guitar) play in harmony with each other.

Essentially you need to know a little bit about chord structure and you have to be aware of the key of the song you're in, but also having a good ear for what's known as "voice leading" is a big help. One of the easiest forms or harmony to figure out is thirds. Say you are playing a solo over a C major chord and the first lead guitar is playing C, D, and E in a row. To make it an easy example, let's also say the first guitar is playing these all on the B string (C on thefirst fret, D on the second fret and E on the fifth) The second guitar could play E, F and G, which would create what's called "parallel thirds." The second guitar could play these higher in tone (using only the high E (first) string, this would be open and then the first fret and then the third) or lower (the second, third and fifth frets of the D string) or even higher (twelfth, thirteenth and fifteenth frets of the high E string) depending on what kind of voicing you wanted the harmony to have.

Harmonizing is a fun and fascinating topic. As silly as it may sound, one of the best ways to pick up tips and ideas on this is to listen to simple church hymns or barbershop quartets (both are usually sung in four part harmony) as well as listening to vocal duos, who tend to rely on two-part harmony. Once you get used to hearing it with voices, it's not that big a step to transfer that knowledge to guitar.

You know, this might make an interesting series of short articles, too. I'll put it on the list!

Peace

David,

Thanks and I kind of get what you are saying, how is this different than say one guitar player playing an underlying chord rhythm and the other one playing a "lead"? I take it that they are different.

So are harmony solos comprised of two parts that have some intervallic relationship to each other. I think I just made up a word intervallic but I hope you know what I mean.

What if, and maybe this doesn't happen two guitarist's were soloing using the same scale say an Am but totally different notes. Would this be considered a harmonic solo?

cnev - try this

-0-1-3-5-7-8--10-12-
-1-3-5-6-8-10-12-13-
--------------------
--------------------
--------------------
---------------------

You are playing e-f-g-a-b-c-d-e on the high e-string and at the same time c-d-e-f-g-a-b-c on the b string

Harmonies (thirds) over the C scale - try playing around with this over C F G - you can do the intro to Brown Eyed Girl for instance

my 2cents

It's different from one guitar player playing an underlying chord rhythm and the other one playing a lead in that you're using two notes (three if the bass player is involved) to make the harmony as opposed to the whole chord. With just two notes, you get an "implied" harmony. Say you're playing C and the second guitarist is playing E. What chord is that? Many would say it's C major because C and E are the first two notes of the C major chord (C, E and G). But suppose you're playing C, the second guitarist is playing E and the bass player is playing A. Then it will be an Am chord (A, C and E). How about if the bass player plays F while you're playing C and the second guitarist is playing E? Now you'll have an Fmaj7. With only two notes, harmony is usually more implied than specific. And I hope I explained that well...

As to your second thought, you can have two, or even more, guitars playing the same scale over the same chord progression, but that's not usually called a "harmony solo." That's often just jamming. A harmony solo is when there is a distinct melody and harmony part to the two instruments playing together. This is an incredibly simple way of putting it, but usually a harmony solo means that they're playing their notes (different notes which are, as you put it, intervallic in some way) in the same rhythm as each other. Like when two people sing harmony. If they were playing the same notes at the same time, that would be "playing in unison." It's the different notes done at the same time that are harmony.

If you listen to Thin Lizzy you hear that the guitars are tracking each other rhythmically, playing their different notes at the same time. That's what makes it a harmonic solo. If you listen to the end of Layla on the Derek and the Dominoes album, you hear lots of guitars playing different parts. Yes, a lot of it is in harmony with each other but they all are not following each others melodic lines. Some are. So part of it is harmonic. But some aren't. And I've a hunch I didn't explain that well at all :wink:

But it sounds like you're getting the difference. As Lars posted, you can make harmonic solos with a single guitar (lot's of players are good at it). The main reason for using two guitars is for expanding the scope of the lines in a solo. Two guitars have a bit more reach than one. If you wanted to match the B note at the seventh fret of the high E string with the G note at the third fret of the low E string, for instance, you'd have a bit of a stretch to deal with. Two guitars - no problem.

Again, hope this helps.

Peace

I wonder why this technique isn't used more in popular music. I need to check me out some Thin Lizzy, if they use it a bunch. I love the mid to late era Triumph albums that to a lot of this (Thunder Seven, The Sport of Kings, etc.).

Any other suggestions for bands, songs to check out that use this technique?

*Thinking* Don Henley and Joe Walsh towards the end of the Hotel california solo? - I think they are playing harmonies there :roll:

I wonder why this technique isn't used more in popular music. I need to check me out some Thin Lizzy, if they use it a bunch. I love the mid to late era Triumph albums that to a lot of this (Thunder Seven, The Sport of Kings, etc.).

Any other suggestions for bands, songs to check out that use this technique?

It was a big thing in 90's metal. Some of the best guitar harmony I've ever heard is on Metallica's "And Justice for all..." album. Basically any metallica stuff, mostly from Master of puppets and And justice for all has some of the coolest guitar harmony.

Edit: An example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WdYt9VkVek

Fastforward to 4:20 in or so if you're interested in getting right to a good one. The nice lead harmony comes in around 4:45

I wonder why this technique isn't used more in popular music. I need to check me out some Thin Lizzy, if they use it a bunch. I love the mid to late era Triumph albums that to a lot of this (Thunder Seven, The Sport of Kings, etc.).

Any other suggestions for bands, songs to check out that use this technique?

Definitely check out Thin Lizzy, "The Boys Are Back in Town" is a great example. One of the licks in "Whiskey in the Jar" uses it.

Thanks guys. Thread hijack over.

Ok - here's another slight hijack to this thread.

I've been trying to come up with some arrangements of songs - and what I would tend to do would be to include other notes from the chord. My question is this - when should you use thirds/sixths etc. and when should you use other notes from the chord?

In addition, what is the impact of using thirds/sixths to fortify notes which are non chord tones?

Thanks!
Oliver

Hi by the way - I've been lurking for some time but not said anything. Great site!

A normal major chord is composed of the 1, 3 and 5. The 3rd is always usable and can be held indefinitely without disturbing the chord. The 5th as well although if you're going to move to the V chord next you don't want to be hanging onto the 5 very long as this will tend to obscure the change.

The 9th (2) and the 13th (6th) are pretty innocuous and add colour without disturbing the nature of the chord too much. I wouldn't hang onto them for the duration of the chord, but on the whole they sound harmonious.

The maj7th and the dom7th change the essential nature of the chord and have a major effect, so they should be used with care. The maj7th makes a strong, "happy" major chord sound more wistful and perhaps melancholy, so make sure that's the effect you want. It can be used on the I and the IV. The dom7th converts the major chord to a harsh, tense, unstable dominant chord that wants to move elsewhere. It is normal on the V chord, but is often used on the I before moving to the IV as in: C C7 F G7. The secondary (minor) chords are often substituted for a dominant chord in order to make a subsequent move stronger as in: C E7 Am G7. The E7 is a substitute for the normal, enharmonic Em.

The b3 (minor 3rd) is often used as an approach note to the 3rd. This gives a bluesy feel (Peter Gunn).

In the same way the b5 can be used to link the 4 and the 5.

The b2 and b6 aren't used as much, but there's nothing to prevent you from trying. The b2, when used with a major 3rd, will give a Middle Eastern flavour.

Going from the b6 to the 5 makes for a nice blues turnaround.