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Topic: First, Third, Fifth or what? |
Bryant Aycock
From:
Pikeville, North Carolina
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Posted 19 May 2013 10:29 pm |
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| When learning harmony parts, is there a part that better for the steel. Our band uses steel, lead and fiddle. We are playing some triplets. Is there a part better for one or the other? |
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Lane Gray
From:
Topeka, KS
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Posted 20 May 2013 4:20 am
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I like claiming the more interesting part. In vocals, that's the baritone (or 5, when melody's on 1).
Are you going for close or wide harmonies?
I don't think any instrument of the three is any better suited for one slot: I'd play around with different voicings.
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2 pedal steels, a lapStrat, and an 8-string Dobro (and 3 ukes)
More amps than guitars, and not many effects |
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Carl Mesrobian
From:
Salem, Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 20 May 2013 5:47 am Re: First, Third, Fifth or what?
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| Bryant Aycock wrote: |
| When learning harmony parts, is there a part that better for the steel. Our band uses steel, lead and fiddle. We are playing some triplets. Is there a part better for one or the other? |
Do you mean 3 part harmonies? I'd take what someone else hasn't if you're harmonizing, and not step on the toes of the lead player or singer. Unrefined lead guitar players seem to have an urge to play more than listen and to crush pedal steel players - if that happens I simply do stuff he can't  Players underestimate the listening aspect of playing.
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--carl
"The better it gets, the fewer of us know it." Ray Brown |
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Michael Hummel
From:
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Posted 20 May 2013 6:05 am
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I can't say I've ever tried playing harmony parts. Most of our tunes are arranged so that only one instrument has the spotlight at a time. I'm very lucky to be playing with a lead guitarist that is extremely sensitive as to when to not stomp on something else. Although, as the "new guy", it has been my job to learn when not to stomp on him.
I would say you just have to listen to hear which note of the 3-part harmony is missing and try to fill it in. Easier said than done, but you'll get it after trying for a while. We've auditioned plenty of other fellows (mostly singers) that absolutely cannot find a harmony note to save their lives (one guy insisted he was singing harmony, when all he was doing was singing the melody line one octave lower) so I guess not everyone can do it. But it is something you can learn with practice.
Mike
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MSA Classic 5+4
Too many 6-strings and amps to list |
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Jerome Hawkes
From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 20 May 2013 6:18 am
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usually, it would be based on the range of the instrument - ie, the fiddle being the highest timbre and less low range than guitar or steel takes the high part.
the guitar would usualy play the lead, if only due to its the most up front and guitar players, in general, cant "hear" harmony parts, although they can parrot them. on the steel, the harmony part is usually what we play anyway in some form...ie 6ths / 3rds.
you can stack intervals all kinds of ways though - (lo-hi) 1-3-5 or as in vocal harmony 5-1-3, or 3-5-1 with lead line on top
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'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II |
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