Harmonising guitars

[Rye]

Okay guys, basically, I have this:

Code: Select all

    Gtr I (A-E-A-D-F#-B) 

(trem picked)
                                4x
||------------------------------||
||o----------------------------o||
||--9----5--4--5--2----5--4-----||
||--7----3--2--2--0----3--2-----||
||o----------------------------o||
||------------------------------||

(normal)

||--------------------------------||
||o------------------------------o||
||--9----5--4---5--2----5---4-----||
||--7----3--2---2--0----3---2-----||
||o-7----3--2---2--0----3---2----o||
||--------------------------------||

and would like to harmonise it, since I suspect it'd sound neat. So, how would I go about doing so?

[YT300000]

Depends on what function you want for this section in the song. Straight parallel motion with one line a certain interval higher than the other can work pretty well for short passages, with different intervals having different effects. For example, the fifth tends to build excitement, while the fourth brings it down - similar to key modulation. Different results can be had from contrary motion, oblique motion, and so on. With heavily distorted guitars, the best approach is often to have each playing individual notes, since two guitars playing the same part with double stops will just become a muddled mess.

But I get the feeling that I'm not answering your question. Are you saying that you want to play these two parts simultaneously? They have nearly the same notes, so harmony shouldn't be a problem, and you'd just syncopate the rhythm to fit the tremolo picking in. Perhaps you could clarify your question?

[TithonusSyndrome]

I assume you at least know your scales and modes, correct? If so, there won't be much luck in discussing how to harmonize anything here unless we go through every major permutation of every variety of harmony visually, and I'd rather not.

[Rye]

Depends on what function you want for this section in the song.

Ideally I want to have a go with the phyrgian mode (I had fully intended to write that, I'm not sure why I didn't), just to generally make it sound more evil.

But I get the feeling that I'm not answering your question. Are you saying that you want to play these two parts simultaneously? They have nearly the same notes, so harmony shouldn't be a problem, and you'd just syncopate the rhythm to fit the tremolo picking in. Perhaps you could clarify your question?

No, the second one is played after the first, slower.

I assume you at least know your scales and modes, correct?

Not really, no. The extent of my music theoretical knowledge is a collection of snippets from my friends and reading such numerical tabs, basically. If you could give an example of how you would harmonise it, I could probably work backwards from there to see what works and what doesn't.

[YT300000]

Well, at a glance it looks like what you've written is in E natural minor, so an enharmonic G. I find it more convenient to think in terms of the major scale, since the Phrygian is derived from the Mediant degree - in this case, B. Therefore, G major corresponds to B Phrygian.

Alternatively, you can get a Phrygian scale by starting with B major and flattening the 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th degrees.

Thusly, B C# D# E F# G# A#
becomes: B C D E F# G A

Which is the same as G major: G A B C D E F#

With the Phrygian, it's fairly important to avoid using 3rds in your chord harmony when applying loads of distortion (the Tonic and Mediant don't jive very well relatively from the harmony to melody because of overtone beats) - though considering the genre of music you play, that shouldn't be an issue.

However, for that very reason, the difference in harmonic function won't stand out very much. A much more effective use of the Phrygian in your case would be to modulate along with your chord progression. For example, yours goes B, G, F#, F#, Esus4, G, F#. So your licks should go G maj, D# maj (or G maj again, since it's the intro and bridges very nicely into D, whereas D# is tricky to get right), D maj, D maj, C maj, D# maj, D maj.

Here's an example I whipped up, using exactly that. Obviously that'll be a little different from what you're looking for. Sorry about the low quality and high noise, I just used my computer mic as I didn't want to set anything up. Also, sorry about the sniffling, but I'm still coming off a cold.

EDIT: As a final note, sus4 chords sound amazing with Phrygian licks on top, so do more of that. Added note about distortion as well.