- A melody is just a sequence of notes, sometimes called a voice. A harmony is a second voice playing on top of your first voice. Most of the time, we harmonize with thirds, which are essentially diads. Each note is harmonized with a minor or major third, which ever one is in the scale you are playing in.
- For example, a simple melody in E Minor is just the three notes E, F#, and G. To harmonize this melody, we play G, A, and B. The intervals are minor third, minor third, and major third. The reason we play these intervals is because we play notes that are in the scale of E Minor. In order to harmonize any melody, you play notes that are a third higher, and to determine if you should play a minor or a major third for each note, you just play the note that is in the key that you are playing in.
--------|-------
--------|-------
--------|-G-A-B-
-E-F#-G-|-5-7-9-
-7-9-10-|-------
--------|-------
- You can also add a third guitar for a triple harmony. You would add fifths. However, there are problems with doing this. Most bands don’t have three guitarists, and it starts to get a little messy in terms of sound clarity. Another issue is that you sometimes run into conflicting issues. From our example above, it’s unclear how to harmonize the F# minor diad. The fifth of F# is C#, but C# is not in the key of E Minor. You could play C, but C is not the fifth of F#, so it sounds strange.
-------|--------
-B-C-D-|-B-C#-D-
-4-5-7-|-4-6-7--
-------|--------
-------|--------
-------|--------
- A way to get around this is to play a D instead, which changes your F# minor diad into an inverted D major. You could then potentially invert the next note, to change it from a G major to an inverted E minor.
-------|-------
-B-D-D-|-B-D-E-
-4-7-7-|-4-7-9-
-------|-------
-------|-------
-------|-------
- Here’s what the entire harmony would look like, first with the inverted D major, and then with both the inverted D major and the inverted E minor.
--------|--------
--------|--------
-4-7-7--|-4-7-9--
-5-7-9--|-5-7-9--
-7-9-10-|-7-9-10-
--------|--------
- Another thing you can do is to harmonize the fourth and fifth of your minor scale with the minor seventh and octave instead. This essentially creates inverted power chords.
- Here’s an example. It’s the song Deadnight Warrior – Children Of Bodom. They don’t harmonize the melody on the record, but here’s how you can do it.
---------------------------------------
---------12-10-12-10-------------------
-9-11-12-------------12-11-12-11-9-7-9-
---------------------------------------
-Main Voice----------------------------
---------------------------------------
---------10-8-10-8-------------------
-8-10-12-----------12-10-12-10-8-7-8-
-------------------------------------
-------------------------------------
-Upper Voice-------------------------
--(Normal Harmony, 3rds)-------------
---------12-10-12-10-------------------
-8-10-12-------------12-10-12-10-8-7-8-
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
-Upper Voice---------------------------
--(4th and 5th with 7th and octave)----
- You don’t always have to play a harmony as a higher voice. Here’s a way to play a lower harmony with your main voice.
---------------------------------------
---------------------------------------
---------12-11-12-11-------------------
-9-12-14-------------14-12-14-12-9-7-9-
-Lower Voice---------------------------
-(4th and 5th with 7th and octave)-----
- Here’s an example of a song where the notes are harmonized normally. The song is Fire Power – Annihilator. On the recording, the band harmonizes with thirds, instead of the inverted power chords I’ve been showing you.
-----------------------
---------12-10---------
-9-11-12-------12-11-9-
-----------------------
-Main Voice------------
-----------------------
---------10-8---------
-8-10-12------12-10-8-
----------------------
-Upper Voice----------
--(Normal Harmony)----
---(Record Version)---
---------12-10---------
-8-10-12-------12-10-8-
-----------------------
-Upper Voice-----------
--(Different Harmony)--
---(My Version)--------
- Another way of harmonizing is to use the same interval all around. Harmonizing this way gives a completely different sound. Some common intervals are minor thirds, major thirds, and fifths. Minor thirds are used a lot in death metal, in particular, by Cannibal Corpse. Major thirds are not that common. One player that used fifths extensively was Chuck Schuldiner (RIP) from Death. Here’s what our simple example would look like harmonized with those intervals:
-Minor Thirds-|-Major Thirds-|-Fifths--
--------------|--------------|---------
--------------|--------------|---------
----5-7-8-----|----6-7-9-----|-9-11-12-
----7-9-10----|----7-9-10----|-7-9--10-
--------------|--------------|---------
- Most bands these days don’t follow these rules at all. This also has to do with the fact that many bands don’t play melodies that stay in one key. A great example is the verse riff to the Children Of Bodom – Blooddrunk. For that harmony, some notes go above or below the main voice, and they harmonize as thirds, fifths, flat fifths, inversions, and so on.
Main Voice
---------|------------
---------|------------
---------|-7-----10-7-
-3---7---|---7-6------
---5---6-|------------
---------|------------
Second Voice
---------|-------------
---------|--------10-9-
-----7---|-10-9-8------
---7---6-|-------------
-5-------|-------------
---------|-------------
Combined
---------|------------
---------|-8-----10-9-
-----7---|-7-9-8-10-7-
-3-7-7-6-|---7-6------
-5-5---6-|------------
---------|------------
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