Harmonica Harmonies
Hi David,
I was inspired by your "Harmonica Harmonies" videos in Lesson 6 (Accompaniment), and I really like the sound of the harmonies in your "It Takes Three" song. I have a couple local harmonica friends, and I wondered if this approach could be applied to melodies as well. So, I tried an experiment:
I used the "Temperature" backing track in 'E', and I grabbed my 'A' harmonica in 2nd position, and I recorded a melody for two choruses using Audacity. I wanted a pretty simple medody, so I chose the opening melody to Big Walter's "Easy".
Next I recorded the same melody in two additional (overdub) tracks. Since the E-chord is made up of E, Ab, B as its triad, I also recorded the melody using my Db and Low-E harmonicas in 2nd position.
The result was interesting... The harmonies sounded good with respect to each other, but it definitely sounded dissonant versus the backing track at times - at least to my ear anyway.
Should this have worked better? Does this approach not apply to melodies? I noticed that the harmonies in "It Takes Three" are all pretty much playing the same notes as the band's 7th chord. I was not really doing that (for the most part) - when I hang on the 4-draw (while the band is on the I), the harmonicas are playing B, D#, F#. But, the band is playing E, G#, B, D. So, it looks like the D# and F# are clashing with the band...Did I analyze that properly? Thoughts? Is there a (better) way to approach harmonies for playing medodles?
Thank you very much (in advance)! -Dave K.
Thank you David.
Yes, I think I understand where I went wrong.
I will go back to my experiment - I'll keep what I recorded on the A-harp, and I will try to add an overdub track one hole below and another track one hole above (all done on the A-harp), and see how that sounds. I will also pay attention to the notes in the harmonies (particularly notes I hang on) versus the notes in the chords of the backing track. since "Temperature" uses 7th chords, I have four notes to try to "match"...
Thanks! -Dave K.
Perfect. Share your results on the "Share" section of the website.
Yeah, you can hear the odd harmonies there.
I edited the Audacity project to remove the harmony parts where I am hanging on a bent note (2"), and I edited the uploaded MP3 file to the "new" updated file (link above should still work). So, it is a bit easier on the ears. I think my takeaway from this experiment is that this technique works best in short bursts and horn lines - like what you did with "It Takes Three"... Regards, -Dave K.
That sounds much better Dave, well done.
Hey Dave.
Thanks, I'm glad you liked the lesson... I love doing harmonica harmonies.
Your analysis is correct, well done.
What you did by using different keys of harmonica is a Real Sequence instead of Diatonic Sequence. By using a different key harmonica, and playing the same melody, the harmony that you're creating is that of a major third ALL the time, which doesn't happen naturally in a key.
With this in mind, that's why all the parts are commonly played on the same harmonica/position... commonly, simply (but not all the time), just one hole up or down. This way, all of the notes are within the key.
Makes sense? If not, keep asking questions!