Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 15: History and philosophy

Finding Your Own Voice (Darn That Dream)

Episode 103 · 11:19 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris uses the first bar of Darn That Dream to push guitarists past the chord-melody voicings everyone plays. Hearing the G major as the G6 diminished scale and the next chord as the E flat 7 diminished scale, he harmonises the melody in thirds, triads, drop 2s and contrary and oblique motion, using Barry’s scales of chords to find a personal sound.

Step by step

  1. 0:47Take the first bar of Darn That Dream: G major, then B flat minor to E flat 7 (or just E flat 7).
  2. 1:42Notice the stock chord melody almost everyone plays here, and decide to find something else.
  3. 2:22Know the G6 diminished scale every way: thirds, triads, drop 2, drop 3, drop 2 and 4, contrary motion.
  4. 2:56Know the E flat 7 diminished scale the same way: E flat 7 plus F diminished.
  5. 3:33Harmonise the melody notes with thirds from each scale.
  6. 4:48Try it all in triads, then in drop 2s, then mix single notes with drop 2s up the scale.
  7. 6:13Practise the scales in thirds from every degree, so you can move into the B flat 7 that follows.
  8. 8:08Mix the textures: triads up, then contrary motion, then oblique motion with one note held.
  9. 9:41Aim to be different: a fresh chord melody inspires others to look for their own.

Barry’s own words on this

15.3 Music is like math; finding your own voice; the teacher’s job13.3 Standards worked in class9.3 The major 6th diminished scale (a major scale with one more note)9.8 The 7th diminished and 7th flat 5 diminished scales

In the course

The major 6 diminished scaleThe dominant 7 diminished scaleThe elevator: Thomas Eccles’ floorsParallel, oblique and contrary motionChord melody with the scales of chords

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 103 of Things I Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought I would talk about just giving a slightly different perspective on creating chord melodies. So for instance, as guitar players, we know chord melodies usually just filling in the harmony underneath the melody on top. And what we generally tend to do is, as guitar players, is we have one particular way of doing it, and that’s it, and we’re satisfied, and we move on from that. But what I think I wanted to focus on today was not to be satisfied with just doing like everybody else does, and maybe using these chords.
  2. 0:47In the same way we’re creative with our single note lines, we have to be creative with our chording, too. I’m including myself in this because I have a tendency to play very similar things that everybody else plays and I’m really trying to get out of that habit so maybe this will be helpful to some of those people too who are in that spot the song I thought I’d use for an example is Darn That Dream and specifically just the first two bars of Darn That Dream which are G major and then it says in the book it goes to Bb minor to Eb7 So, let’s just say, actually it’s the first bar, it’s not even the first two bars, but let’s just say, and the melody is going to be, so the first two notes are for the G major, and the last note is for the Bb minor to Eb7, or some people just play Eb7.
  3. 1:42So I would say of the 10,000, and obviously I haven’t watched them all, but the 10,000, I could probably guess, the 10,000 chord melodies of Darn That Dream, you’re going to see something very similar to this. So there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s a pretty chord melody. That’s fine. It’s just that everybody does that. Everybody, including myself. I’m guilty of it also. So the things I’m telling you are I don’t hold myself above it. I realize I do it myself also. But we got to break out of that.
  4. 2:22We have to figure out a way to break out of that. So we have to say to ourselves, the first chord is G major. So we have to know our G6 diminished scale. And we have to know it all sorts of ways. We have to know everything about it. Thirds, triads, drop twos, drop threes, drop two, drop four. All the elevator, as Thomas would say. We have to know it. We have to know all that. Contrary motion, we have to know everything like that. We also have to know the same thing for the second note,
  5. 2:56which I like to play E flat 7. I go directly to E flat 7. But instead of playing... Which everybody plays, and like I said, there’s not anything wrong with that. It’s just that the fact that everybody plays that should make you not want to play that. Everybody else plays that, but let everybody else play it that way. You should play it a different way. So let’s talk about it for a second. G6 diminished scale. There’s our G6 diminished scale. So we have the 5th and the tonic.
  6. 3:33So now we can harmonize that any way we want. We can harmonize it with 3rds. And the same thing with the E-flat 7. There’s 3rds for E-flat 7. because Eb7 diminished scale is, which would be a combination of Eb7 and F diminished 8 note scale. So in the same way Gmaj6 diminished is a G6 and then an A diminished, this is an Eb7 diminished scale, which is an Eb7, but also an F diminished. And there’s your 8 note scale, which is really beautiful.
  7. 4:13which means when you’re playing thirds you get this which is a second so it’s really pretty so now suppose we started this song and we said watch with the seconds are really pretty so isn’t that pretty already you have a different a different thing now it comes it’s in that chord but we’re going to go someplace else with it you’ll see so now let’s do triads Which is really pretty too.
  8. 4:48If we did everything in triads. What if we did everything in just drop twos? Also pretty. You know, what if we did just some single notes and maybe then a drop twos? So we’ll say Now I did drop twos up the diminished scale. So maybe I’ll do drop twos up the six diminished scales. That’s really beautiful too.
  9. 5:31So not only are we adding to the harmony, but we’re also adding to the melody. And again, I’m not saying any of these ideas are fantastic, but just at least now you’re dealing with a different thing. You’re not just dealing with that same set of sounds. Here’s this drop three G major seven to this drop three B flat minor seven sus or whatever, the same chords we play all the time. It’s important to see all these. So as a creative person, we should be interested in how do I squeeze the most out of this lemon. And this is the way I would suggest to do it. So you should know for the very first part of that tune,
  10. 6:13your G6 diminished scale, and you should also know your E flat 7 diminished scale. Now, if you don’t know those scales, then you should practice them from every degree in terms of doing thirds. So you have to know your G6 in thirds. Which is really pretty. So watch. What if I just did these in thirds? Let’s see. That was pretty. So that was thirds in G6 diminished, and then thirds in flat 7.
  11. 6:50Wait, I’m going to try that. That’s it. And then B5. Oh boy, I messed that one up. That’s Bb7 diminished. That’s it, so. Also Bb7 diminished, which comes after that. But it just shows you. Now I have a different thing.
  12. 7:32Now I’ve never heard anybody play that and I’m not saying that it’s the greatest thing in the world but at least it’s different and it’s musical. How about if we did triads? I mean, that’s beautiful also. And you know, you don’t have to do just the drop two to a drop two or a triad to a triad,
  13. 8:08but let’s try drop twos. Let’s see drop two. Let’s see. That was also pretty. We did those before. But what about just changing it up, maybe doing some contrary motion on the second thing. So let’s do, we’ll do triads up. Let’s see. Now I did some triads up and then contrary motion. I mean, we didn’t even do like, how would we do oblique motion where we keep this note the
  14. 8:58same. So we’ll do some thirds. Let’s see. Let’s do it. That was pretty. But see, this is what I mean. So you work a couple of things out. Maybe some of them aren’t the greatest sounding in the world, but at least you’re trying. So if there’s any point to this, it’s just that as an, as an improviser and as a musician, you should want to try to just play something different than the other person is playing.
  15. 9:41And then you know what happens, it has this domino effect. Because if people start seeing videos of guitar players making a chord melody of Don That Dream, and now you don’t see this beginning where people do this, if you don’t see that, and you start to see something different, it will inspire you to not play that also. And to say, you know what, let me see who I am on this G major to E flat 7. Let me see who I am as a musician, as a guitar player, to create a chord melody.
  16. 10:19Let me just see who I am, where I lie on this level. You know, where am I? Am I just going to copycat the last person? Or am I going to try to make something else of it? And again, as I point out, this is a video for myself also. This is to try to motivate myself from just taking the easy way out and always playing the same type of chord melody things that everybody else does. We have to really push ourselves to be individual. And I think that that’s what Barry’s system, especially his scales of chords, besides his single note ideas, his scales of chords really allow us to be.
  17. 11:00We really can find ourselves within those scales. So, anyway, just a little short video about maybe motivating all of us to really work on our chord melodies and not just copy. So, until next time, thanks.