Harmony Guitar Solos
iarwain
about different well known harmony guitar solos. I was thinking I
might try and see if I could reproduce some of them with the pedal.
What songs have harmony guitar solos in them? Probably most of the
ones I know are from classic rock, but feel free to list whatever. I
guess it wouldn't even have to be technically a solo, just any harmony
part.
I'll throw out a few to get things started:
Can't Get Enough - Bad Company
Hotel California - Eagles
Boy are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy
Jessica - Allman Brothers
TheChris
news:dfc677cf-7379-444f...@o21g2000prn.googlegroups.com:
Don't confuse 'dual guitars' with harmony. The way those pedals work is with
note harmony - You play a note, and it harmonizes a 3rd higher, or a 5th higher.
You go two notes up, it goes up two notes in the scale.
"The Boys are Back in town" is a great example - One guitar player CAN do both
parts (I've done it) and it's a workout, and a study of cool harmony - but not
sequential harmony. There is a section or two where one set of notes is moving,
and the other isn't - it's very well written.
"Can't Get Enough" will break the bank because the first part of the solo is C
major, (major 3rd) but then it goes into a C Blues (minor 3rd) pattern, so, the
pedal will only be good for one part :)
I'd still like to get one for some stuff. I have a rack piece that does it..
Unless you use two amps, it sounds pretty alien, but it's a cool effect to play
with.
dugjustdug
Thin Liz had a bunch. "I Am Just A Cowboy" is one we used to do quite
a bit.
Don't ignore Country. Check out a bunch of Vince Gill stuff. He did
a fair amount of overdub in the studio.
Nil
> Can't Get Enough - Bad Company
> Hotel California - Eagles
> Boy are Back in Town - Thin Lizzy
> Jessica - Allman Brothers
Check out Jay Graydon's great harmony solo from Manhattan Transfer's
"Twilight Tone"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WAskyGIkfs
Todd Rundgren does some nice harmonizing on the melody of the intro to
"A Treatise on Cosmic Fire"
RichL
news:Xns9E7BB63...@188.40.43.213...
Second. I've had the Digitech Brian May pedal for several years now, and
one of the options is a harmonizer. It plays full chords, major and minor
(you rock back and forth on the expression pedal to switch back and forth)
but it always takes the note you play as the root and it generates a fifth
and a major or minor third. It's a nice effect because it's simulating
distortion on top of all the notes but you don't get that "beating" effect
like you do when you play a root + third through a distorted amp. However,
taking every note you play as the ROOT makes it pretty limiting. I've yet
to find a good application for it in a real song.
iarwain
> major, (major 3rd) but then it goes into a C Blues (minor 3rd) pattern, so, the
> pedal will only be good for one part :)
If I understand what you're saying, the pedal has different presets
that you can change.
So you can start in C major and then hit the footswitch and go to C
minor.
But of course you are right that it can't do everything that having a
second guitarist will do.
Nevertheless, I think it could be quite useful. Just using a minor
third above could be very useful.
A lot of solos just use some harmony on a phrase here and there.
Things like this are best used sparingly anyway.
I've never been one to use a lot of pedals, but I do like harmony, so
I think I will use this. It has a lot of options you can use.
A third up and a third down. A third and a fifth. An octave down and
a sixth up. Etc, etc. Plus some detune effects.
It recognizes (or you can tell it) what key you're in so it will
respond accordingly.
Bottom line, even if it won't reproduce some cover solos exactly, I
bet I can do more with it than without it.
Brian May definitely got some use out of his harmonizers over the
years.
Lost in The Wasteland
> Jessica - Allman Brothers
The intro riff(s) of the song is done by two guitars -- and a
piano , and organ.
No doubt the all time Grand Master piece of American instrumental
rock.
Duane and Dickie often complemented each other - not copying - Listen
to parts of
" In Memory of Elizabeth Reed " -- yet another Master of Art.
I'll add dual guitars of The Outlaws : "Green Grass and High Times"
and
of course "Free Bird" jam at the end.
rct
> > Jessica - Allman Brothers
>
> The intro riff(s) of the song is done by two guitars -- and a
> piano , and organ.
> No doubt the all time Grand Master piece of American instrumental
> rock.
Well hey, I didn't have to say it! Thanks for that!
> Duane and Dickie often complemented each other - not copying - Listen
> to parts of
> " In Memory of Elizabeth Reed " -- yet another Master of Art.
Again! Dickey and Jack Pearson MURDERED that song each and every time
I saw them. A bunch. Warren too, but Jack was just awesome with him.
> I'll add dual guitars of The Outlaws : "Green Grass and High Times"
Stick Around For Rock And Roll, their opener back then(ours too!).
rct
The Interceptor
news:79c04784-900d-49c9...@m27g2000prj.googlegroups.com...
========================
That would be "Cowboy Song". Sorry to be picky, but Thin Lizzy is very
close to being perfect music so we must be respectful.
Brett
TheChris
news:fa03bb48-a4c9-432e...@r4g2000prm.googlegroups.com:
If you can change the preset on the fly you're okay - but, I don't know how
practical that is live :)
As for Brian May - he PAINFULLY played most of those harmony parts. The only
time he used rack gear were for the alien type sounds in the middle of 'Get Down
Make Love' and stuff like that.
I'm not trying to talk you out of the pedal at all - just don't expect to come
out of it sounding like Tom Scholz :)
RichL
> As for Brian May - he PAINFULLY played most of those harmony parts. The
> only
> time he used rack gear were for the alien type sounds in the middle of
> 'Get Down
> Make Love' and stuff like that.
Right, and he used echoplexes live (not harmonizers) to recreate a lot of
those effects.
iarwain
That's probably my favorite of all the southern rock classics.
Lost in the Wasteland
>
>> I'll add dual guitars of The Outlaws : "Green Grass and High Times"
>
> Stick Around For Rock And Roll, their opener back then(ours too!).
>
> rct
>
An Outlaw fan ? Wow. My 2nd favorite band of the 70's after ABB .
I think their guitar work was steps above LS too with much
better song(s) and writing. Too bad being a Outlaw was a deadly
as being in LS .. Harvey (bass),Billy, Hughey .. dead .
TheChris
news:XaWdnZ8jWNDxg9nQ...@supernews.com:
Talk about walking on eggshells... One wrong note, and you've got 30 repeats of it
to deal with :)
iarwain
I knew Brian May used delay to get a lot of those effects, but I had
thought he used Eventide harmonizers live also.
I don't see how he could have done certain things otherwise, unless he
had recorded loops ahead of time.
Oh well, I've been wrong before, it's hardly the first time.
At any rate, I've harmonized solos in some of my own material by
doubling them a third up, so the pedal will certainly be good for
reproducing those at least.
RichL
news:e1db2322-9a9c-48da...@u24g2000prn.googlegroups.com...
>>he used echoplexes live (not harmonizers) to recreate a lot of those
>>effects.
>
> I knew Brian May used delay to get a lot of those effects, but I had
> thought he used Eventide harmonizers live also.
> I don't see how he could have done certain things otherwise, unless he
> had recorded loops ahead of time.
> Oh well, I've been wrong before, it's hardly the first time.
I did a little digging, it appears Brian used an Eventide harmonizer in his
live rig starting in the early 80s, but apparently everything before that
was done with Echoplexes.
>
> At any rate, I've harmonized solos in some of my own material by
> doubling them a third up, so the pedal will certainly be good for
> reproducing those at least.
Yeah, the biggest problem I've had using the Digitech May pedal doing those
sorts of things was trying to RAPIDLY switch between major and minor
intervals with the expression pedal.
iarwain
Those old Eventide Harmonizers cost a frigging mint.
Reasonably priced technology to effectively detect a note and pitch
shift according to scale is probably a relatively new thing for us old
fogies.
Anyway, it's a cool pedal. I like to play some rhythm and flip it on
while doing a quick fill. Gives you that "whoa what was that" effect.
Check out some YouTube videos of it to see what it can do.
I've got a pretty cool vocal pedal by TC Helicon that harmonizes
also. Voicelive 2.
It'll do harmonies for you in female or male voices plus a gazillion
other things.
TheChris
news:5121b4b1-29a4-424f...@k18g2000vbq.googlegroups.com:
Honestly, I don't trust those things that *detect* pitch. I don't know about you
guys, but, if I'm playing in the key of A - and I can get away with it - I'll have
'C's and 'C#'s in there..
I'm not saying I don't trust it but, what I like about my Zoom 509 is that I can
set my key - major or minor - and then just take my lumps if I have to.
iarwain
All I meant when I said "detects" pitch was that it has to know what
note you're playing to harmonize with it.
Just like your Zoom 509, you can set the key - major or minor - and
play. That's what I do.
I think what you are talking about is the Digitech's (and TC
Helicon's) ability to "detect" the KEY you're in from the notes you're
strumming.
WIth the Digitech I prefer to set the key myself.
With the TC Helicon (the vocal harmonizer), it varies from song to
song. Usually I've used this when playing my acoustic and singing
with it.
On some songs I need to set the key, but on others it picks up on the
key quite nicely. It depends on how complicated the chord progression
is I guess.
Once you've played a song you can predict what it will do pretty
reliably, and can decide whether you need to set the key or not.
On some songs it's nice to have it jumping around in different keys on
its own for different parts of the song. For others, not.
TheChris
news:b6954339-2284-4e9a...@n11g2000vbm.googlegroups.com:
Lately, I've been interested in one of those vocal ones - I think it's the
Digitech. I saw a demo of some guy doing "Nowhere Man" by himself, and was blown
away by the 3 or 4 part harmony.
iarwain
When I bought mine it was between the Digitech and the TC Helicon, it
was back and forth for awhile.
I don't remember what it was that eventually made me decide to get the
TC Helicon.
They really are amazing though.
One thing I like about it is you can use it to double your voice, even
if you don't want to mess with the harmonies, autotune, or any of that
stuff.
And of course there's the reverb, delay, etc. It also has effects for
the guitar.
JrSamples
rct
> An Outlaw fan ? Wow. My 2nd favorite band of the 70's after ABB .
> I think their guitar work was steps above LS too with much
> better song(s) and writing. Too bad being a Outlaw was a deadly
> as being in LS .. Harvey (bass),Billy, Hughey .. dead .
I think if you mean Harvey Dalton Arnold, he's still kickin. At
least, in 05 he was I should say. He was more than a little miffed
that they didn't even ask him to tour.
rct