You can continue building the harmony by adding a fifth above the original melody (this will be a third above the third). This produces close harmonies a third above the original scale tones, with a nice mixture of major and minor thirds within the seven tones. Finally, I recorded both scales together.

Then I played it again, this time going from the third note (E) up to the E an octave higher. I started by recording one octave of the C major scale. To hear how this works, take a listen to the audio clip below. Playing them as separate tones within the context of a melody will add texture and dynamic expression, as well as subtle pitch and phrasing variation between the four performances. We can play these four tones together as a Cmaj7 chord, or as separate tones played or sung by four musicians. Root Major Third Perfect Fifth Major Seventh We build the first chord of this scale by stacking every other tone, as follows: To illustrate, let’s harmonize a C major scale, which consists of the following series of seven notes: The process of adding a harmony to a guitar solo is very much the same as adding one to a vocal line. This is also a great way to build a solo towards a natural crescendo.

I often enhance those phrases with a close harmony part or two on top of the melody - the “twin lead” approach taken by so many great bands from the ’70s like the Allman Brothers, Boston and Thin Lizzy - to make the lines really stand out. When I work with a client or producer, I defer to them for choosing the final take, and when they’re happy, I lift the brush off the canvas and move on.Īs many of you know, one of my favorite melodic devices is to create simple motifs (short melodic phrases) and develop them into a complete solo section. When recording solos for my own projects, I tend to spend way too much time perfecting the nuances and second-guessing my decisions … that is, unless I have a deadline.

Making a decision on what to play comes down to experience, taste and making sure we are honoring the song - and not ourselves - first. The blessing and curse for guitar players is that we have so many techniques and improvisational tools to choose from.

How to play spooky guitar solo