Harmony Lead Lines



For this lesson we are going to look at harmony lead lines. When you hear a chord being played it is an arrangement of notes that 'Harmonise' together from the scale. To harmonise means they sound nice played together and create what is call a harmony.

To start with lets play the E Major Scale on string 2 going up the neck. (1)

1 --------------------------------
2 --5--7--9--10--12--14--16--17---
3 --------------------------------
4 --------------------------------
5 --------------------------------
6 --------------------------------

(1)


We are going to Harmonise in '3rd'. This means we are going to play the E Major scale but from the 3rd note upwards. (2)


1 --------------------------------
2 --9--10--12--14--16--17--19--21-
3 --------------------------------
4 --------------------------------
5 --------------------------------
6 --------------------------------

(2)


For ease of position lets play this on string 1 instead (3)

1 --4--5--7--9--11--12--14--16----
2 --------------------------------
3 --------------------------------
4 --------------------------------
5 --------------------------------
6 --------------------------------

(3)

Now if you're lucky enough to have another guitarist in the house get them to come and play (2) while you play (3)
For most of you this wont be an option unless you have a Super Rock Mum and she can play guitar.
This is how it would sound but arranged for one Guitar. (4)

1 --4--5--7--9---11--12--14--16----
2 --5--7--9--10--12--14--16--17----
3 ---------------------------------
4 ---------------------------------
5 ---------------------------------
6 ---------------------------------

(4) The Harmonised E Major Scale


Now down to the most important section of this month's lesson. MAKING RIFFS IN HARMONY !!!!
We all know how important scales are when it comes to making riffs or solos. This reinforces that fact.


Lets make a simple melody - We do this by mixing the notes of the E Major scale up to create a tune. (5)


1 ------------------------------ 1 1 1 2 4 3 3 1 1
2 --5--5--5--7--10--9--9--5--5-- E E E F# A G# G# E E
3 ------------------------------
4 ------------------------------
5 ------------------------------
6 ------------------------------

(5)

Play this a few times and get familiar with the note positions. Now we are going to create a harmony for it by using (3) as our harmony reference chart. If you play 5 the harmony will be the 3rd note higher in the scale. (6)

E F# G# A B C# D# E

G# A B C# D# E F# G#

1 --------------------------------
2 --9--9--9--10--14--12--12--9--9-
3 --------------------------------
4 --------------------------------
5 --------------------------------
6 -------------------------------- SOUNDS PRETTY COOL DOESN'T IT !!!!!

(6)


This is how you would play it on one Guitar. (7)

1 --4--4--4--5--9---7--7--4--4----
2 --5--5--5--7--10--9--9--5--5----
3 --------------------------------
4 --------------------------------
5 --------------------------------
6 --------------------------------

(7)


Now it is your absolute mission to create more elaborate melodies and lines round the guitar in the key of E Major and then put harmonies to them and see how they sound. Feel free to email me any melodies you have made with harmonies and we can check through them to see they sound as good as they could !

Here are a couple of basic harmony scale patterns with the melody written and their relevant harmony underneath.

NO 1 -

MELODY E E A A B B E
HARMONY G# G# C# C# D# D# G#


NO 2 -

MEOLDY E G# B E G# B B
HARMONY G# B D# G# B D# D#

Lesson courtesy of http://www.allmusicacademy.co.nz