Harmonize Your Solos

One of the most powerful ways you can spice up your tunes
whether you're recording or playing live is to harmonize
your leads and melodies.

When you're ready to sink your teeth into this creative
approach, you'll have taken a giant step toward musical
maturity.

Harmonization is actually an easy concept. What will take a
little work and time is, and I've said this on numerous
occasions in the past, you must know in what key or mode
you're playing and you need to know your modal scale
patterns and positions in order to exercise your creativity.

I've taken harmonization from one end of the spectrum to the
other on my debut CD. From simple diatonic harmony (which I'll show you today) to two distinct melodies raging
simultaneously on each side of your stereo. (As far as I know,
I'm the only instrumental guitarist to ever do this.)

The basics of harmonizing begin with taking your lick or melody and adding notes to it that are a diatonic third above.

Here's what I mean. Let's say your lick goes like this:

Need help reading tablature?

Tablature:

E --8--7--5-----------------------------------------
B -----------5--6--5--------------------------------
G --------------------------------------------------
D --------------------------------------------------
A --------------------------------------------------
E --------------------------------------------------

A third above this would be:

E --12--10--8---------------------------------------
B -------------8--10--8-----------------------------
G --------------------------------------------------
D --------------------------------------------------
A --------------------------------------------------
E --------------------------------------------------

Now either record the first lick on your recorder and play
along with it using the second lick;

or

play this to hear the harmonization. These are the same
notes but in a different position to make solo playing
easier.

E --12--10---8--3--5--3-----------------------------
B --13--12--10--5--6--5-----------------------------
G --------------------------------------------------
D --------------------------------------------------
A --------------------------------------------------
E --------------------------------------------------

Now give a listen to my tune "Mainstay" and hear how I used
harmonization to enhance the chorus melody.
Makes it sound a lot bigger huh?

Ok, let's take another look at harmonizing with thirds. A
third is a step interval between the notes of a scale.
Obviously there are other intervals too like seconds,
fourths, fifths, and so on. You determine the interval by
counting the notes starting with the one you want
harmonized.

For example, the G major scale is G, A, B, C, D, E, F#.
We find that a third above the G is B by counting...
G is one, A is two and B is three.

Imagine if you have a lick that is comprised of the notes
above like A, C, F#, C, F#, G. Without even picking up your
guitar, you can harmonize this with thirds and know it will
sound ok. The result would be:

Melody   A C F# C F# G
Harmony  C E A  E A  B

or in tablature:

E --------5-----5--7--------------------------------
B -----5--7--5--7--8--------------------------------
G --5--5-----5--------------------------------------
D --7-----------------------------------------------
A --------------------------------------------------
E --------------------------------------------------

Now imagine if you have all of the modal scales memorized.
It makes it that much easier to figure out your note
sequences and you know it's going to sound correct.

Of course, harmonizing with thirds is only the first step.
Now that you understand the concept of harmonization, you can
experiment with different intervals.

What makes harmony so strong and powerful is finding the
best notes to compliment your melody. That may be a
combination of thirds, fourths, sevenths and ninths. You just
need to explore the possibilities based on what you learned
here today!

Rack mount harmonizer!? Give me a break!

Article by Will Landrum of www.willlandrum.com. Will is helping thousands of on-line guitarists with his all original content web site, free guitar teaching ezine and
growing line of instructional software and products.