O nice...I like this one...

This is great!

I've been toying with some stuff in this space for a while now, and learning a lot about melodic harmonies lately.

Watch out Brian May!

whoa whoa whoa... confussed.

"create a piece of music with a strong melody line" for beginners... which means just a melody line... am i correct?

And the added harmony is just the second guitar part... correct?

Hopefully I am in on this one! The home recording is almost ready!

reason i'm confused is cos the melody alone is harder to make into something catchy with nothing backing it...

and the harmony is what we do on our tracks mostly to get a melody going... my opinion though... i think I'm really understanding this incorrectly

evolucian wrote: reason i'm confused is cos the melody alone is harder to make into something catchy with nothing backing it...

and the harmony is what we do on our tracks mostly to get a melody going... my opinion though... i think I'm really understanding this incorrectly

I understand it to be a lead guitar playing a strong melody line to a backing which might include a rhythm guitar and/or bass, and/or drums for beginners and for advanced, the same, except that a second guitar would play a harmony line to the lead guitar.

The way I read it is that for beginners you write a single melody line but advance you write a double melody line like a two part invention ,cannon or fugue. Maybe Alan can help us out here with an example.

holy crap... contrapuntal lines are difficult

I'm in on this one - nice challenge.

PeteM wrote: I understand it to be a lead guitar playing a strong melody line to a backing which might include a rhythm guitar and/or bass, and/or drums for beginners and for advanced, the same, except that a second guitar would play a harmony line to the lead guitar.

That's the ticket - that's how I envisaged it, with the melody over backing. Advanced could be baroque counterpoint if you want (although I don't think a minute will allow you to develop a fugue properly ?), but Thin Lizzy/Iron Maiden twin guitar parts will also do nicely.

The main thing is a strong melody - which is something I find that even good guitar players often miss out on when soloing, taking more of a scalar approach than a melodic one. These days most players can play pretty fast and accurately, but what sets the good ones apart is - as always - a good sense of melody.

Alan Ratcliffe wrote:
That's the ticket - that's how I envisaged it, with the melody over backing. Advanced could be baroque counterpoint if you want (although I don't think a minute will allow you to develop a fugue properly ?), but Thin Lizzy/Iron Maiden twin guitar parts will also do nicely.

The main thing is a strong melody - which is something I find that even good guitar players often miss out on when soloing, taking more of a scalar approach than a melodic one. These days most players can play pretty fast and accurately, but what sets the good ones apart is - as always - a good sense of melody.

Oh ok... then i totally misinterpreted it, lol...

PS: Agree very much on good guitarists missing melody completely.

So in essence... the challenge you want... is a hook... plain and simple. And a harmonised line is preferable. Ok, now that makes it easier... my guitar jock brain couldn't understand... no anglais

...of course, a strong melody with accompaniment can also describe what a single classic or fingerstyle player often does...

Question: If I play a melody, let's say 2 bars in length, and I start the same melody on a second guitar as the first guitar enters bar 2, is that still considered to be a harmony? Or is this a different principle on it's own?

dee wrote: Question: If I play a melody, let's say 2 bars in length, and I start the same melody on a second guitar as the first guitar enters bar 2, is that still considered to be a harmony? Or is this a different principle on it's own?

It is still a harmony, although it might not be as interesting as you'd like initially.

If you played exactly the same notes on guitar 2, you'd be playing "perfect unison" intervals (or pseudo-interval, according to some). One way of making this sound interesting is to play the notes on guitar 2 somewhere else on the neck, which changes the timbre of the note, though the pitch stays the same.

Alternatively, you could play the melody an octave higher or lower, on guitar 2.

In between all of that, you have all the other intervals, each of which have their own characteristics.

Maybe try playing unisons for 2 bars, then switch to octaves for 2 bars, then switch to say, fourths for 2 bars etc. Check out how it changes the character and fills out the sound.

Then, try mixing it up a little in those 2 bars: a few unisons, some octaves, something dissonant like seconds, something "sweet" like fourths etc.

PS: please correct me if I'm wrong anywhere guys. My theory is pretty basic.

dee wrote: Question: If I play a melody, let's say 2 bars in length, and I start the same melody on a second guitar as the first guitar enters bar 2, is that still considered to be a harmony? Or is this a different principle on it's own?

If I'm not mistaken... this will be a canon.... Good luck ?

Mines in. This is going to another one of those weeks for me, so if i didn't do it tonight i wouldn't have gotten around to it. I reckon it could be better and the recording isn't the best, but aagh well, such is life. You do the best you can with what you've got. :-[

@ Warren I think you misread what dee was getting at.
@ Dee I concur with Evo you would be writing a canon or a fugue - go for it I would love to hear how that works out.

Goodness..now that I understand what we should do..I am afraid to enter...very few ppl can write decent contrapuntal music and I am not one of them.
I will see what I can come up with if home studio ready. Wife might be better at this.

evolucia wrote: If I'm not mistaken... this will be a canon.... Good luck ?

Renesongs wrote:@ Dee I concur with Evo you would be writing a canon or a fugue - go for it I would love to hear how that works out.

Excellent, thanks. I will be trying this....