Expert: James Michael Anderson - 1/5/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello James, how are you?

What does it mean when someone says, being in the recording studio: He put a HARMONY GUITAR PART on 11 O'Clock Tick Tock and made it sound otherworldly.

--- Does it mean that he added some guitar sounds to this song? Does "harmony" mean that they (guitar sounds) were very much in tune to this song?

Thanks James

ANSWER: Could you provide some additional context?  For example, I am aware of what a harmony guitar part is but not necessarily what 11 o'clock tick tock is?

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hi James

11 O'Clock Tick Tock is a title of a song :)

So, James?

Answer
I am not familiar with the song however,  the combination of notes with their specific intervals—a chord—creates harmony. For example, in a C chord, there are three notes: C, E, and G. The note "C" is the root tone, with the notes "E" and "G" providing harmony.

In the musical scale, there are twelve pitches. Each pitch is referred to as a "degree" of the scale. In actuality, there are no names for each degree—there is no real "C" or "E-flat" or "A". Nature did not name the pitches. The only inherent quality that these degrees have is their harmonic relationship to each other.

So there are many different harmonies that could be played along with a single melody.  I would suggest that the harmony guitar part was a harmony which really helped the song sound better.