General Music Chat

I was having a discussion with a few people and we were talking about HARMONY.

AS I understand it, Harmony is really either a major 3rd, a minor 3rd or a 5th away from your target note or root.

Is that all there is to it? I am experimenting and looking for the correct intervals to get the sound(s) I need.

Break out your brain, I wanna skim it.. lol

Thats it for the most part Cap'n. If you are playing a major scale it would be a 3rd above or below. If you are playing a minor scale you flat the 3rd (down 1/2 step). I am not an expert at articulating how it is done. I have an ear for it and just naturally no where to go in a harmony. One thing you always want to try and do if you are singing or playing harmonies is to not spread them out to far. In other words avoid playing the 3rd below the root and octave above, it loses the harmony effect when you do that.

roots, thirds, and fifths are the most common but any and everything is fair game. 6ths, Maj7's, etc. and there's close harmony which actually uses 2nd (or 9ths)....think beach boys or barbershop quartet harmony.
sometimes things will be harmonized in 4ths too. (you hear that a lot in jazz chords).

you can't create harmony unless you have something to harmonize.
that being said.

the harmonization is dictated by the intervals or predicted intervals in the progression.

these intervals are indicated or predicted by several conditions;
the Key or the mode, the root of the mode, the several dominate intervals in the selected progression and lastly the placement of specific tones in the meter to emphasize those tones thus relegating alternate tones to subordinate specified tones.

with predicted intervals in place you can select intervals that compliment what you have scored, as well as have several jumping off points for key changes.

you can't create harmony unless you have something to harmonize.
that being said.

the harmonization is dictated by the intervals or predicted intervals in the progression.

these intervals are indicated or predicted by several conditions;
the Key or the mode, the root of the mode, the several dominate intervals in the selected progression and lastly the placement of specific tones in the meter to emphasize those tones thus relegating alternate tones to subordinate specified tones.

with predicted intervals in place you can select intervals that compliment what you have scored, as well as have several jumping off points for key changes.

yeah, what he said....



.

an octave divided into twelve equal steps produces a chromatic scale..
. ...an octave divided into six equal steps produces a whole-tone scale..
an octave divided into four equal steps produces a diminished seventh chord
,.. an octave divided into three equal steps produces an augmented chord
an octave divided in half produces the tritone interval <--- devil music.. LOL!

Dane

I hadn't thought of it that way. But I guess I will now.

I'm fond of that 'devil's tritone,' something about a Bmin to F that rattles the cage I live in.

Talbot

Mike, maybe I should roundup Lynard and we drive down to Georgia and try putting a band together? ... you seem like somebody who would be easy to work with..

Mike, if possible, could you lay out the setting on "Mechanized"? is that you singing? playing guitar? or bass? or all of the above...

Mike, if I am out of line for asking, just disregard my question, but are you really 63 years old? and if so, is the picture of the fellow playing bass on your page you at an earlier time?

Chief - it's already been defined for you above, but the harmony interval can help define the tone of the song. maj7, min7, 9 interrvals can all be used to 'pretty up' a song.
When I took a 'music theory for non-music majors' class at college, the professor showed us how changing scales/intervals changed the mood of a song. He woudl take a Burt Bachrach song, then change the scale and it woudl go from upbeat-peppy to dirge-depressing, etc.
So working VOCAL harmonies is no different than the harmonies created when you play a chord on guitar or keyboard.

I have no idea . . .

I think I get it now.

I am only interested in vocal harmony, 2 voices and that's it.

Never be any barber shop quartet nonsense, but it's good to know.

I kind of thought it was mainly a third.
The option from minor 3rd to major 3rd is interesting.
I am getting the feeling you can bend those rules a little as well.

And I never gave any credence to the double at an octave above or below, that's just a lazy card game there..

Nah 3rd's, 4th or 5th is what I am after.. I have a few more dissonant intervals set up, but I won't bore you with that crap.

"The proof is in the pudding". lol

I have no idea . . .

Yes you do, George.

If your root note is E and it's a major scale, you are looking at an interval of a major 3rd, 4th or 5th. (you try them out to see which is pleasing to the ear)

E + 3= G, E + 4= A or E + 5= B.

If your root is say Em;

Em + 3= Gm, E + 4= Am or E + 5=Bm.


Try it out, you might like it although it takes more effort to sing harmony than the regular melodic line. (It's easy to double and boring as well)

Substitute whatever root your using.. stir, lather, rinse and repeat.