- 1). Tune both guitars to the same pitches using a digital tuner. If the two guitars that are attempting to play octaves are not in tune with each other, the resulting effect will not sound right.
- 2). Teach the guitar part you wish to octave to another guitarist. Don't worry about octaves yet. Instead, make sure that the other guitarist has the phrasing and timing down perfectly. Practice the parts simultaneously until you are both playing the same thing.
- 3). Play the same riff 12 frets higher or lower on the guitar neck. If the initial riff started on the third fret, the octave riff should start on the 15th fret or vice versa. You may need to slightly alter the way a riff is played if you used open notes in the original riff.
- 4). Transfer the riff to higher or lower strings if you don't have enough frets on your guitar neck to play the entire riff 12 frets higher or lower. Notes repeat at several places along the guitar neck. Move the already octaved riff to the next highest string and down five frets (four if going from the G to the B string) if playing an octave higher than the original riff, or move the octaved riff to the next lowest string and up five frets (four if going from the B to the G string) if playing an octave lower than the original riff in order to move a riff across strings while playing the same pitches.
- 5). Play the octave parts together and listen to them. If you are playing the octaves correctly, it will sound like one of the guitars is doubling the other, except the actual pitch coming from one of the instruments will be higher than the other. If anything sounds weird, double check the octave part and make sure it is being played correctly.
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