Music Production Software and Songwriting

Trivium play in thirds - guitar tips, guitar advice

Playing in thirds is an interesting musical effect especially when there are two guitar players in the band. Thirds are musical intervals that normally change from major to minor depending on the scale used. In other words whatever part of the tune the harmony guitar plays it must also follow the scale to sound right. With thirds this interval can change from major to minor and back. The beautiful effect of playing in thirds brings a rich sound to the music.

With a band like Trivium using distortion and playing in thirds sounds great. But thirds and distortion on one guitar doesn’t work very well. You can easily lose that smooth melodic quality and have it replaced by harsh distortion. Making this sound work on solos lines with distortion on two separate guitars just sounds fantastic!

It’s wise not to use the playing in thirds effect all the time otherwise your music can sound boring. Try different intervals in different parts of your song or just plain unison. Bands who have used this double lead harmony playing are numerous. One of the most famous tunes of course is the instrumental Jessica now used as the the BBC’s Top Gear theme and originally played by the Allman brothers in the 1970’s. The Allman brothers also use string bending for extra effect on Jessica.

Wishbone Ash from that period made the playing in thirds effect their trademark and I don’t think any of their famous tunes are without it.

Brian May of Queen also uses the playing in thirds effect. He often superimposes another guitar playing in thirds on top of the main melody guitar in the recording studio. Queen’s Brian May though took it a stage further on many of Queen’s famous tracks by making an orchestra of solo distorted guitars playing in harmony to make an orchestral backdrop to Queen’s commercial Rock sound.

Playing live Brian May has used an electric guitar fitted with a hexaphonic pickup. With this system each guitar string is picked up separately and sent down its own distortion channel. This way playing in thirds can work with distortion on one electric guitar.

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