Guitar Essentials: How to Create Guitar Harmonies

Creating harmonies is all about mixing and matching intervals against each other to form the sound you hear in your head.

No matter which genre you prefer, the concept of constructing harmonies on guitar will remain the same. My Guitar Super System course will provide a solid foundation for understanding intervals, but you also can depend on your ear to build any harmony you want.

The best way to think about harmonies is to consider the fact that they are essentially small chords. The style and genre will be dictated by the intervals you stack up, as well as the guitar tone you use and the chords you play over.

Are you looking for a particularly brutal metal harmony? Check out tri-tones and flat second intervals. Would you rather try a jam-band sound? Major thirds and sixths are where you should start.

Of course, any interval will work in any situation. It’s all about experimentation with melodic rhythm, as some of the most beautiful harmonies often contain some of the most dissonant clashes as they unfold.

Tyler Larson is the founder of the guitar-centric brand Music is Win. His insightful, uncomplicated guitar lessons and gear demonstrations along with entertaining, satirical content about life as a musician receive tens of millions of video views per month across social media. Tyler is also the creator of the extremely popular online guitar learning platform, Guitar Super System. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, Tyler has been teaching guitar for over a decade and operates a production studio in Nashville, TN.