Playing two notes together

ukumic

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Hi,

I'm wondering what the technique is called where you play "two notes that sound good together". For example, in the video where Aldrine teaches Breakdown by Jack Johnson the closing sequence (what do you call that? "closing riff"?) goes something like this:

Code:
3/5-3---7-5-3
3/5-3-3-8-5-3
------4------
-------------

If you replace the numbers with the notes you get:

Code:
C/D-C---E-D-C
G/A-G-G-C-A-G
------E------
-------------

My guess would be that you always pick the 1st and 5th note of the respective scale? If I'm not mistaken that should fit with the above. Is that considered playing a power chord? Or is the above a different concept?

I'd like to know more about this because it sounds so uke'ish :D
 
It's a duad. I just made it up so it must be official. 1 + 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10 and 11 can all sound good.

For quick ref of how they sound: Play your Dog string open while playing your Has string open, 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12. You can also play your Has string this way as a scale droning the Dog string.
 
It's called a Double Stop.

~Michael
 
Those intervals are all 4ths and 3rds. If you picked the 1st and 5th of a scale, 1st on the bottom, it would be a 5th. 4ths are very pop musicky. 3rds were the bread and butter of pretty much every Baroque and Classical composer who ever lived, not to mention lots of folks since.
 
Thanks for your input, guys! Double stop... interesting. I found several sites explaining the concept but none of them seems to describe the exact "rules" which notes fit together and which don't. Anyone knows a good web page?
 
I found several sites explaining the concept but none of them seems to describe the exact "rules" which notes fit together and which don't.
There really aren't any "exact rules." You could sit down with a chord chart and try plucking various combinations of notes from within each chord. Often in music there are "passing tones" that don't fit in with any chords but they make sense in the context of the piece.
 
2nds usually don't sound "pretty". They sound "discordant" or "crunchy". 3rds and 6ths sound "pretty". 4ths and 5ths are often described as sounding "thin" or "hollow". Sevenths often sound dissonant (="not pretty"). All of this is completely context related. What chord is it over? What other notes are sounding? How fast is the music? Bach wrote some things which if played slowly sound horrendous, but at speed are lovely (the opening phrase of Minuet in G is a famous example).

Your ear should always be your guide. Play. Experiment. See what you like.
 
Thanks for your input, guys! Double stop... interesting. I found several sites explaining the concept but none of them seems to describe the exact "rules" which notes fit together and which don't. Anyone knows a good web page?

Just ask the resident Guru:
http://ukuleleunderground.com/2008/12/13/uke-minutes-31-harmony-3rds/

This Uke Minute is about parallel thirds. Each scale has a set. And as mentioned, there are others... I thought there was a Uke Minute on parallel 6ths too, but I can't find it at the moment...
 
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