Twin lead guitar harmonies

OK, this is something that's been holding me back for a while. When two guitarists play twin lead guitar harmonies, how do they work out what intervals to use and what intervals are they? Is there a certain formula/method/etc to do it? For example, the twin guitar riff on Thin Lizzy's 'Waiting for an alibi' - one guitar plays the riff in a minor-type key, while the other plays a major-type riff. Any knowledge or help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks muchly.

the main harmonies that are used are the octave and the thirds so with octaves ones plays a note and the other guitar plays it an octave higher at the same time , the other one is that one plays a note and the other plays the third of the scale starting from the note the first guitar plays
so for example first plays C (cmajor) then the other must play E and this gives a nice harmony , you can also make it E and G in c major etc just as long as you take the third note in the scale starting from the note.
an example of this harmony is in the interlude of master of puppets where james and kirk play a little melodie that is harmonized with those thirds , you could

also do this with other notes off course , this will just give another sound, but the main used are those i mentioned

and the song you mentioned , they play in the same key , i think it's c#minor and the song uses the thirds i just explained

i'll explain it using the song
first of all c# minor is C#-D#-E-F#-G#-A-B-C#
i'll do only a small part of the twin harmony thing (since it's all the same idea)
(donno how this is gonna look like when posted)
it's all on the highest string

Guitar 1:

1:|---12---11----9--------9---9-9---11----9---

2:|------------------------------------------12

------E----D#---C#--------C#---C#---D#----C#-B

let's say you got this part and you want it harmonized , then you can either have your other part higher or lower then this one , in the song the other one is lower


remember the notes you got in the previous
and notes of c# minor C#-D#-E-F#-G#-A-B-C#
(i'll explain later what the * means, why it is E and not A (still third difference though)
------E----D#---C#--------C#---C#---D#----C#-B
the notes of the second guitar are :
------G#---F#----E*--------E*---E*--F#----E*-G#
they get there to take from the first guitar the third so E passes to F# and then to G# , normally this is all the difference between the harmonies but here they lowered the harmony note an octave so they combine the third with the octave harmony

in tab this is

Guitar 2:

1:|--------------------------------------------------

2:|----9----7----------------------------------------

3:|---------------9-----------9---9-9---11---9----8--



-------G#---F#-----E*---------E*----E*---B--E*---G#

if we would put those two guitars together we get

1:|---12---11-----9--------9---9-9---11---9----------

2:|----9----7----------------------------------12--

3:|---------------9--------9---9-9---11---9----8--

------G#----F#----C#--------C#---C#---D#--C#----B

------C#---B-----E-----------E---E----B---E*----G#

again resumed :
*so with C# they went up to the third starting from c# that makes the E and then lowered this E an octave , this used a combination of both harmonies i mentioned

so if you want to create a harmony for an existing melody just take the scale take the third note int he scale starting from the note in the melody higher or lower (you can choose) and to this for all the notes in the melody et voila you have made yourself some harmony

ps: i don't know the song from thin lizzy , i just searched for some tab so don't know if the tabs are correct or something

hope something of this makes sense to you
if there are faults in this let me know , it's getting kinda late

mmh my post looks like shit when posted well if you want a decent explanation you can always add me on messenger

Wait, I'm a bit confused. So what you're saying is that whatever note one guitar plays you have to count either two scale notes up or two scale notes down for what the other guitar plays and that's it? So using the C# minor scale if one plays an F# the other plays an A or a D#? Or if one plays a G# then the other plays an E or a B? Is that right? Keep going mightydave, I think I'm gettin there! Cheers

yes that's it , if you play those two notes together you get the harmony you are looking for ! i think you get it , but still this is only one type of harmony but 95% of the times you hear harmony leads it's with this or octaves , i think you should just try this out just write some kind of melody in a scale and record it and then later try to play together with the recorded melody and try to play it all two scale notes up

and then later try to play it with all the notes an octave up or down

I wonder if you could help me, I have a similar interest but using a TC G Major 2 The G Major lets me set the type of scale and the key,
I'm thinking in similar lines as the thread but I'd like to experiment to see if I can work out some Thin Lizzy type twin lead.
My musical theory is not good, how do I establish what key I'm playing in? I expect the scales used are mainly combinbations of the blues & pentatonic Maj/min.
Hope you can guide me to twin guitar heaven!

holy crap!!! this thread ended and was brought back from the "dead" 3 years ago to the day!

I knew this 30 years ago,but that doesnt mean someone else doesnt need to know it! WTF is your problem case211

first, Im not sure if this helps you at all, its possible that I understand something really wrong, but do not care about that :)

If you dont know what key the song goes, I think its just experimenting and using ears. First learn basic notes on fretboard or atleast few, like E, F, G and A forexample, then play those as some call Root notes, to figure out the root note, when you got the "right" or that sound right root note, then learn what 3rd note of that determine is it minor or major, then try both of it and listen which one sound "better" I think you can hear it, if you play "major note" to minor, it dont sound so good than "minor note" to minor... Im not so good at theory or explaining things, but hope this helps...

And take it easy Blazer eh?, theres no harm done :)
Emp

really? seriously? did you not read my post? I was surprised that this post was exactly 3 years old when it was brought back up. Honestly man, read it a little better next time, ok?

Dude seriously? case posted that almost two years ago! U need to be sking yourself that question.

Haha, we all posted at the same time.

Epic haha

now its been brought up again, I was like OH HAI AFRO IS BACK... looked at the date. 2006? seriously?

Evidently I read into it wrong!Sorry case 211

Just in case anyone is interested in the original subject, check this out..
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/lesson.php?id=228