harmonize

how do you do a harmony with 2 guitars? like, the way children of bodom does on all their songs with the guitar and the keyboard?

One way you can do it is just by ear. It takes awhile to get good at it, but with practice you can easily find the harmony of a lead.
I've always done it that way myself... just trial and error.
Sometimes I'll play the chord that's being played behind the lead to see what notes are available but most of the time it just comes naturally.

It might be easier for some people than others. I'm always singing harmonies to pieces of music just to see if I can do it in real time without screwing up.
Doing the higher harmony is relatively easy, but coming up with a lower harmony screws up your head a bit cause you end up accidentally putting notes in unison.

looking into theory, theres a couple different ways of harmonizing.

common harmonies include the root and: 3rd's, 5th's, 6th's, octave.
obviously the easiest to hear and figure out would be the octave. technically, any Diatonic interval can be harmonized with another, but certain ones sound better and work better together. its up to your ear as schmange said.

Originally Posted by: rockonn91 its up to your ear as schmange said.

> ear as shmange said.

You went back and re-spelled that didn't you. :p

yeahh my bad. i didnt notice i missed the c untill i sent it :rolleyes:

a good song to practice harmony is A Gunshot to the head of trepidation (Trivium). The two guitar harmony part. But tricky to get the guitar syncronised but easy to play

Originally Posted by: rockonn91looking into theory, theres a couple different ways of harmonizing.

common harmonies include the root and: 3rd's, 5th's, 6th's, octave.
obviously the easiest to hear and figure out would be the octave. technically, any Diatonic interval can be harmonized with another, but certain ones sound better and work better together. its up to your ear as schmange said.

And fourths.

....annnd fourths. :p

The important thing to remember when harmonizing is that the harmonized part is complimentary to the original idea, but yet it can stand alone and sound good. Better results are from writting another part over the original without much regards to the interval used. Constant and variable interval harmonizations are good.

Any intervals except two are good to use. Those two are minor seconds/major sevenths, and tri-tones. They can be used but are usually to dissonant to produce any kind of correct musical phrasing.

Originally Posted by: ryrysweetiepiehow do you do a harmony with 2 guitars? like, the way children of bodom does on all their songs with the guitar and the keyboard?

All the other responses were good but didn't say anything about how you would know whether to use a minor or major third, or a diminished or perfect fifth for example. Of course you can use your ear, but there is a purely theoretical way too.

Say you are playing in Em, and your melody is built on notes from the natural minor scale in E only. Say you are harmonizing in thirds. To find the notes you want to harmonize with, simply start from the note you already have written in the melody, and go up two steps within the scale, a third up, and voila, there's your harmonizing note. Do this with each of the notes you wish to harmonize and remember to stay within the E natural minor scale and you will automatically get minor or major thirds where they sound good!

Originally Posted by: noticingthemistakeThe important thing to remember when harmonizing is that the harmonized part is complimentary to the original idea, but yet it can stand alone and sound good. Better results are from writting another part over the original without much regards to the interval used. Constant and variable interval harmonizations are good.

Any intervals except two are good to use. Those two are minor seconds/major sevenths, and tri-tones. They can be used but are usually to dissonant to produce any kind of correct musical phrasing.

However, if there are four guitars, you could have some wicked tritone harmonies.

Originally Posted by: Jolly McJollysonHowever, if there are four guitars, you could have some wicked tritone harmonies.

Yeah. They sound really cool between two voices more than an octave apart. Like the bass playing F and the lead playing B. Just remember dissonance needs to resolve, and sometimes such an interval can sound out-of-tune.