Best way to play in harmony? (with guitar)

[LOLyourFace]

I don't know the technical term but it's found in many pop songs with Santana in it. For every songs, there is the main melody and Santana plays as a 'back up role' with hitting the notes both inside and outside of the given chords.... The following songs are perfect examples:

Put Your Lights On- Everlast feat. Santana
Smooth- Matchbox 20 feat. Santana
Game of Love- Michelle Branch feat. Santana

How do I learn to harmonize first? (Before learning the guitar) What's the science behind it?

I guess this 'harmony-ing' obviously applies to all music.. piano, bass, choir, etc...

Where should I start and what's a good online guide?

 

[RagingBITCH]

Erm....what? Do you mean harmoics? The Dorian scale, which Santana uses frequently? Soloing?

 

[LOLyourFace]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH
Erm....what? Do you mean harmoics? The Dorian scale, which Santana uses frequently? Soloing?

Obviously I am very clueless.

By your response I take it there are more than one ways to harmonize to a single note? What is Dorian? I've also heard of Pentatonic and so on.. Is that what it is?

 

[Amorphus]

You mean like how he plays his own riff thing while the rest of the song is going on? That's soloing. All you have to do is have a good sense of melody, and then get the chord progression for the song, and play the notes in those chords.

Easier said than done, however. Jazz would be the best place to start learning, as that's where this sort of thing originated. Check out an improvisation book at a local music store to get started.

 

[LOLyourFace]

Originally posted by: Amorphus
You mean like how he plays his own riff thing while the rest of the song is going on? That's soloing. All you have to do is have a good sense of melody, and then get the chord progression for the song, and play the notes in those chords.

Easier said than done, however. Jazz would be the best place to start learning, as that's where this sort of thing originated. Check out an improvisation book at a local music store to get started.

Yea but there's a science behind it. When the song is playing in G, Santana riffs in AND OUT of G chord frets. He may play in E or F or whatever but the original melody notes and his guitar notes are in harmony together (sounds right, not off.)

That's what I'm trying to learn..

here's a good description of what I'm trying to say:

In choir, people have different sets of notes: alto, soprano, and so on. I think that's what santana is doing. He's playing totally different notes in alto or something compared to the original melody and they sounds good together.

Where do I go about learning this?

 

[tweakmm]

I'm not sure if there is a guide to playing harmony parts. A harmony is simply another part of music that is harmonizes with the melody. You need a solid understanding of musical theory,a good sense of rhythm and a very good ear.

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Originally posted by: Amorphus
You mean like how he plays his own riff thing while the rest of the song is going on? That's soloing. All you have to do is have a good sense of melody, and then get the chord progression for the song, and play the notes in those chords.

Easier said than done, however. Jazz would be the best place to start learning, as that's where this sort of thing originated. Check out an improvisation book at a local music store to get started.

Yea but there's a science behind it. When the song is playing in G, Santana riffs in AND OUT of G chord frets. He may play in E or F or whatever but the original melody notes and his guitar notes are in harmony together (sounds right, not off.)

That's what I'm trying to learn..

Are you trying to learn how to harmonize individual notes or entire chords?

 

[tweakmm]

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Originally posted by: Amorphus
You mean like how he plays his own riff thing while the rest of the song is going on? That's soloing. All you have to do is have a good sense of melody, and then get the chord progression for the song, and play the notes in those chords.

Easier said than done, however. Jazz would be the best place to start learning, as that's where this sort of thing originated. Check out an improvisation book at a local music store to get started.

Yea but there's a science behind it. When the song is playing in G, Santana riffs in AND OUT of G chord frets. He may play in E or F or whatever but the original melody notes and his guitar notes are in harmony together (sounds right, not off.)

Well, the science of music theory, for each note there are several notes that sound harmonious or dissonent from the base note, playing a harmony is choosing the right notes and putting them in a fitting rhythm for the piece.

 

[LOLyourFace]

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Originally posted by: Amorphus
You mean like how he plays his own riff thing while the rest of the song is going on? That's soloing. All you have to do is have a good sense of melody, and then get the chord progression for the song, and play the notes in those chords.

Easier said than done, however. Jazz would be the best place to start learning, as that's where this sort of thing originated. Check out an improvisation book at a local music store to get started.

Yea but there's a science behind it. When the song is playing in G, Santana riffs in AND OUT of G chord frets. He may play in E or F or whatever but the original melody notes and his guitar notes are in harmony together (sounds right, not off.)

That's what I'm trying to learn..

Are you trying to learn how to harmonize individual notes or entire chords?

Okay, in terms of practicality this is what I'm exactly trying to learn:

I'm thinking of joining a church band. The band already has a kickass drummer, acoustics, bass and keyboard. As I'm trying to learn electric guitar right now, my only fitting role is to play those riffs and harmonics in given chords. I can't just play the chord strumming because the acoustics does that already...

The praise songs are mostly easy, they're like sets of 4 to 6 chords playing over and over. Let's say that the songs is made of A E G E B... (I just made that up) I need to learn to play solos within those chords or other chords that are in harmony with A E G E B... (like B F A F C?)

Where do I start?

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Okay, in terms of practicality this is what I'm exactly trying to learn:

I'm thinking of joining a church band. The band already has a kickass drummer, acoustics, bass and keyboard. As I'm trying to learn electric guitar right now, my only fitting role is to play those riffs and harmonics in given chords. I can't just play the chord strumming because the acoustics does that already...

The praise songs are mostly easy, they're like sets of 4 to 6 chords playing over and over. Let's say that the songs is made of A E G E B... (I just made that up) I need to learn to play solos within those chords or other chords that are in harmony with A E G E B... (like B F A F C?)

Where do I start?

The acoustic would be playing rhythm and you'd be playing lead. Short of you actually playing a long time and just knowing guitar and notes inside out, that's next to impossible to really come up with a harmony that matches the chords.

At the Crossroads Guitar Festival at Dallas with Eric Clapton - everyone up on stage literally is a guitar god and you could differentiate everyone playing different tunes, but it all flowed together. You have to have the ear and the experience to play lead in that respect.

 

[LOLyourFace]

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Okay, in terms of practicality this is what I'm exactly trying to learn:

I'm thinking of joining a church band. The band already has a kickass drummer, acoustics, bass and keyboard. As I'm trying to learn electric guitar right now, my only fitting role is to play those riffs and harmonics in given chords. I can't just play the chord strumming because the acoustics does that already...

The praise songs are mostly easy, they're like sets of 4 to 6 chords playing over and over. Let's say that the songs is made of A E G E B... (I just made that up) I need to learn to play solos within those chords or other chords that are in harmony with A E G E B... (like B F A F C?)

Where do I start?

The acoustic would be playing rhythm and you'd be playing lead. Short of you actually playing a long time and just knowing guitar and notes inside out, that's next to impossible to really come up with a harmony that matches the chords.

At the Crossroads Guitar Festival at Dallas with Eric Clapton - everyone up on stage literally is a guitar god and you could differentiate everyone playing different tunes, but it all flowed together. You have to have the ear and the experience to play lead in that respect.

So how do I actually start to learn? Memorize all the notes on any given fret and strings then memorize the pentatonic/diatonic or whatever scale notes for each string? sigh.

 

[Ns1]

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Okay, in terms of practicality this is what I'm exactly trying to learn:

I'm thinking of joining a church band. The band already has a kickass drummer, acoustics, bass and keyboard. As I'm trying to learn electric guitar right now, my only fitting role is to play those riffs and harmonics in given chords. I can't just play the chord strumming because the acoustics does that already...

The praise songs are mostly easy, they're like sets of 4 to 6 chords playing over and over. Let's say that the songs is made of A E G E B... (I just made that up) I need to learn to play solos within those chords or other chords that are in harmony with A E G E B... (like B F A F C?)

Where do I start?

The acoustic would be playing rhythm and you'd be playing lead. Short of you actually playing a long time and just knowing guitar and notes inside out, that's next to impossible to really come up with a harmony that matches the chords.

At the Crossroads Guitar Festival at Dallas with Eric Clapton - everyone up on stage literally is a guitar god and you could differentiate everyone playing different tunes, but it all flowed together. You have to have the ear and the experience to play lead in that respect.

So how do I actually start to learn? Memorize all the notes on any given fret and strings then memorize the pentatonic/diatonic or whatever scale notes for each string? sigh.

you're talking about scales and stuff

fretbuzz.com

read up on music theory =P

 

[RagingBITCH]

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Originally posted by: RagingBITCH

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace

Okay, in terms of practicality this is what I'm exactly trying to learn:

I'm thinking of joining a church band. The band already has a kickass drummer, acoustics, bass and keyboard. As I'm trying to learn electric guitar right now, my only fitting role is to play those riffs and harmonics in given chords. I can't just play the chord strumming because the acoustics does that already...

The praise songs are mostly easy, they're like sets of 4 to 6 chords playing over and over. Let's say that the songs is made of A E G E B... (I just made that up) I need to learn to play solos within those chords or other chords that are in harmony with A E G E B... (like B F A F C?)

Where do I start?

The acoustic would be playing rhythm and you'd be playing lead. Short of you actually playing a long time and just knowing guitar and notes inside out, that's next to impossible to really come up with a harmony that matches the chords.

At the Crossroads Guitar Festival at Dallas with Eric Clapton - everyone up on stage literally is a guitar god and you could differentiate everyone playing different tunes, but it all flowed together. You have to have the ear and the experience to play lead in that respect.

So how do I actually start to learn? Memorize all the notes on any given fret and strings then memorize the pentatonic/diatonic or whatever scale notes for each string? sigh.

Just play. Learn the scales, theories, etc. Take lessons. After a while a lot of this just comes naturally to you. I've never been good at soloing but I can do most everything else fairly decent. Actually I can't solo worth sh!t.

 

[LOLyourFace]

a week later bump

 

[pulse8]

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace
a week later bump

Your weeks are 3 days long?

 

[LOLyourFace]

Originally posted by: pulse8

Originally posted by: LOLyourFace
a week later bump

Your weeks are 3 days long?

been a long week X(

 

[TheNinja]

As mentioned, you need to basically learn what notes make up a chord. You need to learn where these notes reside on your fretboard. When you see a chord being played you can basically play some notes that make up a chord. In time you will begin to find other notes that maybe don't make up the chord but that in a sense harmonize with the chord. Also learn the scales that can be played in any given key...each song is in a key, for example the key of C. You would do will to figure out which key a song is in and then play your scales in this key for basic lead notes.

 

[nakedfrog]

Well, you could just play the chords in a different location on the neck, that'd be a start. So if the acoustic is playing the 6th root G chord on the 3rd fret, you could play it as a 5th root on the 10th fret.
Other than that, practice, practice, practice. Turn on the radio, and try like hell to play along with whatever happens to be on. It took me a good long while to actually be able to play decent lead, but that's how I did it. I'd play along with anything at all. Naturally, there's little chance of hitting the right notes when you first start, but just keep at it.