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Harmonising lead melodies in thirds...


Dan G

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Guest iamkelly

Running parallel 3rds is cheesy (when the notes ascend/descend in a scale with 3rds harmonizing every note). Not to mention horrible. What a way to ruin a song, in my opinion. But hey, that's metal la Iron Maiden (etc) for you.

I don't mind if notes have harmonized 3rds, just as long as they don't run along in a scale in a 'metal-god' manner.

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Originally posted by iamkelly:

Running parallel 3rds is cheesy (when the notes ascend/descend in a scale with 3rds harmonizing every note). Not to mention horrible. What a way to ruin a song, in my opinion. But hey, that's metal la Iron Maiden (etc) for you.

I don't mind if notes have harmonized 3rds, just as long as they don't run along in a scale in a 'metal-god' manner.

Sorry to shoot you down but running in "parallel 3rds" would not achieve the sound you're talking about. That would give a disonant effect as some of the notes would be non-diatonic, as Dan's already pointed out. Maiden do harmonise in 3rds but certainly not parallel, Guns n Roses use them all the time though :D

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Guest iamkelly
Originally posted by Mac Atom:

Sorry to shoot you down but running in "parallel 3rds" would not achieve the sound you're talking about. That would give a disonant effect as some of the notes would be non-diatonic, as Dan's already pointed out. Maiden do harmonise in 3rds but certainly not parallel, Guns n Roses use them all the time though :D

Just to defend myself against theory gods; I'm not 100% aware of what intervals Iron Maiden (or for that matter, any other metal band) use typically. I'd be curious to know what interval is 'typical' to use in a running scale. And by 'parallel', I don't mean to say that EACH scale degree is harmonized with a 3rd, because that would, as you said, include non-diatonic tones. I know sometimes they do skip tones that would involve a note not in the scale. On the other hand, I am almost positive that I have heard metal songs (other than Guns 'n' Roses) include running scales with harmonized 3rds (which to my knoweldge are imperfect consonances). I know I'm not desperately out of it when it comes to music theory,so no need to 'shoot me down.' ;( On the other hand, If I'm wrong, I'm wrong.

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Originally posted by iamkelly:

Running parallel 3rds is cheesy (when the notes ascend/descend in a scale with 3rds harmonizing every note). Not to mention horrible. What a way to ruin a song, in my opinion. But hey, that's metal la Iron Maiden (etc) for you.

I don't mind if notes have harmonized 3rds, just as long as they don't run along in a scale in a 'metal-god' manner.

That's not parallel thirds... that's diatonic thirds ;):D

Parallel thirds would be harmonizing every note in either minor or major thirds like this:

(guitar 1) D ----1----2----4----6----7----9--

(guitar 2) A ----2----3----5----7----8----10--

That would sound totally minging...

Diatonic thirds (i.e. iron Maiden) would be like this:

(guitar 1) D ----0----2----3----5----7----9--

(guitar 2) A ----2----3----5----7----8----10--

Assuming you're playing in A minor, diatonic refers to all the harmonizing notes (guitar 2) to correspond to the notes in the A minor scale. Therefore the intervals between the notes played by guitar 1 and guitar 2 varies from minor and major thirds. In parallel however, the intervals would stay the same (in the furthest above case, major thirds) and therefore not work as you'd be playing notes outside the key.

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used 3rds in many a last minute music folio

nice and easy.

It makes it sound much more complete when you have the 3rd of the chord in a harmony line, but not the 3rd above every note (parallel/diatonic)

i gave up theory after the crap exam now its jsut a mm that sounds nice, lets bung it down

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Guest pop-notmyface
Originally posted by Dan Atom:

Lets pour manual a big glass of shut-up juice for infecting a thread with an unncessary post.

is the drink on the house?

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