harmonizing with thirds

[Synth]

In the December issue of Guitar World, Trivium gives a lesson on harmonizing with thirds and they use their song "A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation" an as example since it uses harmonized thirds.

And I'm a little confused about it.

First off, the scale is D harmonic minor(D E F G A A# C#)

A few notes of the melody goes like this D,D,C#,E,F. And I know that the harmony in thirds goes like this F,F,E,G,A. Thats when its raised thirds correct? But what about if I want to have lower thirds? Would I just count 3 backwords like I did upwards in the scale? And the lesson also mentioned sixths are related to thirds, but in what way? Anything else I should know about as well?

[Blake]

And the lesson also mentioned sixths are related to thirds, but in what way?


I've never taken music theory class, so excuse my ignorance. Take a minor chord, call it I. Now lower the root a perfect third and make a chord with that, a major scale. Take any I chord down three steps and you get a VI. My favorite epic progression is just that progression, a VI chord up to a minor I, like a lot of Kingdom Hearts songs. But I can't stand I VII VI VII looping, like crappy techno.

[Fishy]

6ths are related to thirds in that that can be a major 6th or a minor 6th. Some intervals like 5ths, whilst they can be varied (augmented, perfect or diminished), they won't tell you whether or not a chord is major or minor.

Essentially, when you have 3rds below your melody, what you're really doing is playing 6ths above it, but an octave lower. I guess you could just count down like you did when they were above. Don't expect it to work everytime, sometimes higher 3rds work, sometimes lower ones do. Just do whatever sounds the best to your ears.

[Chavous]

Yes, that works when raising the thirds. It does work the same when lowering. The only way it would be any different is if you were using a melodic minor scale, but that's a rare case.

As for the sixths thing...drop the raised thirds an octave. Instant sixths. haha