The Best Guitar Harmonies: Magical Riffs with 3rd and 5ths
A duet of guitars working in harmony
5,0 / 5,0 | 
These guitar harmonies come from a bygone era of rock and metal music. Showcasing the beautiful relationship between two guitars, let’s check out these elevated tracks.
List of 3rds and 5ths:
The Best Guitar Harmonies: What are they?
As a musician and guitarist, you’ve probably heard the term harmonies tossed around. Plus, we’ve all heard them in various songs, and we may not have even realised what we were listening to.
Essentially, a musical harmony is how we describe the relationship between two or more notes. If you were to have one layer of notes accompanied by another similar layer of notes, this is our harmony.
Used mostly with vocals, harmonies add extra layers to music and have a wonderful, dreamy effect. We describe each layer based on what relationship it has to the original melody. Such as, if it is a 3rd above, a perfect 5th or even a 7th.
Rock You Like A Hurricane – The Scorpions
Our first look at guitar harmonies comes from German rock group, The Scorpions. Released in 1984, the intro of this track is a perfect place for us to start looking at our harmonies.
If you listen from about eight seconds in, you can hear a repeated note, which a couple of seconds later is then joined by a 5th. This note is 5 half steps away from the original note. It creates a nice blend.
Accompanied by a repeated series of power chords, there is then a solo like riff which is played in harmony throughout. It should be noted that not every note that accompanies the main melody will be the same distance apart. Some will be major 3rds, some will be 2nds, each note will change depending on where it is in the scale.
Do Anything You Want To
When looking at guitar harmonies, Thin Lizzy are one of the bands that do it most frequently. As a result, they’re one of the best. With Garry Moore laying down the bulk of this riff, you know you’re in good hands.
Unlike with Rock You Like A Hurricane, this track returns to the main melody throughout the song. The result of the guitar harmonies is a thick theme that is imbedded in the track. Furthermore, both guitar parts are littered with vibrato, which gives the melody a lot of movement.
Another notable Thin Lizzy track with effortless harmonies is the solo from The Boys Are Back In Town. Although, this rendition features a three part harmony. Whereby there are three guitars playing at once, essentially playing an entire chord together. The result? One massive memorable sound.
Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison
This 1967 hit is slightly different from the other tracks that we’ve looked at so far. Despite the rapid genre change, this example of guitar harmonies can be played by one guitarist.
All of our other examples have required two guitarists to pull off the full sound. This time, the main riff features a series of what we call dyads. Dyads are two notes played simultaneously. In the instance of Brown Eyed Girl, these are a series of major 3rds.
Overall, the melody is simple, and joins an even easier chord progression. However, the challenge arises when you try to play both guitar parts at the same time. It is perfectly achievable, but finger placement is vital for getting it right.
Hotel California – The Eagles
Now, we can’t look at guitar harmonies without paying our respects to this legendary track. One of the most recognisable guitar solos ever, Hotel California features a dreamy and timeless guitar solo. Split in two halves, with a wonderful guitar harmony that joins them together.
Played by Don Felder and Joe Walsh, the solo concludes the track. In the key of Bm, both guitars contribute different ideas and themes to the solo. However, when they play together is when the magic happens.
You’ve probably seen the live performance of this song, but if you haven’t it’s worth noting what happens where. Felder opens the solo on a *double necked Gibson SG, playing the 6 string version. He is soon joined by Walsh on a *Fender Telecaster.
Europe – The Final Countdown
Concluding our look at guitar harmonies, we’re back in the 1980s for this Swedish rock group’s biggest hit.
32 seconds of 80s big hair guitar. The guitar solo for The Final Countdown is fast, energetic and complex. But, if you listen closely, you can hear close harmonies dropping in and out throughout the solo. This is a great example to show the effectiveness of the guitar harmony.
Arguably, if the entire solo had two layers, it’d get a bit much. However, because certain sections are thinner, we appreciate the sections that are in unison more. Despite the 80s being a decade of super strats with fast necks and humbucking pickups, a *1965 Fender Stratocaster was used by John Norum to play this solo.
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One response to “The Best Guitar Harmonies: Magical Riffs with 3rd and 5ths”
With so many memorable guitar harmonies to choose from, it was cool to see Thin Lizzy made the cut.