Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 9: Sixth chords and the scales of chords

Where Do I Use Barry’s Minor 6th Diminished Scale?

Episode 92 · 11:02 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris builds runs from the minor 6th diminished scale, small groups of notes repeated over several octaves like Tatum, Bud or Barry. He uses the same runs in three places in Autumn Leaves: on G minor, on the A half-diminished (as C minor 6) and on the D7 (as E flat minor 6, the minor a half step above), which gets more out of the practice time.

Step by step

  1. 0:00Pick the spot in Autumn Leaves (B flat): A half-diminished, D7, G minor.
  2. 0:43Learn the G minor 6 diminished scale: 1, 2, flat 3, 4, 5, flat 6, 6, 7, containing both harmonic and melodic minor.
  3. 1:29Think of the long piano runs of Tatum, Bud and Barry: a few notes repeated across several octaves.
  4. 2:06Run the four notes of G minor 6 (1, flat 3, 5, 6) up three octaves, then other groups like 1-2-3-5 or 7-1-3-5.
  5. 3:20Try a five-note group (3, 2, 1, flat 6, 5) that falls differently on the beat each time.
  6. 4:03On the A half-diminished, think C minor 6 and play the same runs from C.
  7. 4:42Vary them: just two notes, like root and fifth, or each note played twice.
  8. 6:06On D7, use the minor 6 a half step above (E flat minor 6): the minor of D7’s tritone, sharing one diminished.
  9. 7:57Chain them: the run on G minor, then C minor, then E flat minor 6 on D7, resolving to G minor.
  10. 9:49Don’t worry about speed; these runs sound good with ordinary technique.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line0:43
𝄞♭♭♯
C4GACDEB♭E♭G♭
  1. G
  2. A
  3. B♭
  4. C
  5. D
  6. E♭
  7. E
  8. F#
Gm62:06
𝄞♭
C3GC4DEB♭
  1. G
  2. B♭
  3. D
  4. E

Barry’s own words on this

9.5 The minor 6th diminished scale and its diminished partner9.7 The important minor and the tritone’s minor (minor 6 dim over a dominant)9.6 Half-diminished = minor with the sixth in the bass; major -> relative minor -> minor/6

In the course

The tritone’s minorSixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6The minor 6 diminished scaleMinor ii-V-i as three minor 6 chordsThe same few notes across several octaves

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 92 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would discuss how beautiful Barry’s minor six diminished scale is, and the importance of knowing it, and the application of some of the spots. So let’s take, let’s say Autumn Leaves and the key of Bb. And we’ll use it in this little specific spot. So we have Cm, going to F7, going to Bbm, going to Ebm, then we have A half diminished, going to D7, going to Gm. So that’s the little spot where we’ll use a few different applications of the minor 6.
  2. 0:43So for instance, the A minor, well let’s start on the G minor. So obviously on the G minor, we can use G minor 6 diminished scale. What makes this scale beautiful is that it’s got a flat 6 in it and a major 6 in it, plus the major 7. So it’s kind of like a combination of the melodic minor and the harmonic minor. So it’s both of those things. So that’s why I always say that it’s greater than the harmonic minor or the melodic minor, because both of those are found in this scale. So the idea is it’s a root and we’ll do it in G. It’s the root, major second, flat third, fourth, fifth, flat sixth, major sixth, major seventh.
  3. 1:29It’s a really pretty scale. So that’s a nice spot to put in. Now what the other thing I wanted to combine this with, besides how beautiful that scale is, is sometimes if you hear like a beautiful Art Tatum run or a beautiful Bud Powell run or a Barry run, where they just do something, let’s say four octaves or something like that, whatever. A lot of times if you transcribe it, it’s the same couple of notes, but they just do in such a run across the piano that it’s just the same couple of notes across the whole piano, a couple of octaves or many octaves. So guitar players can do
  4. 2:06that too. I mean, saxophone players can do that, but guitar players can do that. And I don’t know if we necessarily practice it enough and we probably should, but let’s take a look at, let’s say this G minor six. The idea is, well, we can just take the four notes of the G minor six, which is the root, flat third, fifth, sixth. So that’s a really nice run. Or we can take, let’s say, we just grab any one of those notes. So this one was root, third, fifth, sixth. What if we did one, two, three, five?
  5. 2:44That’s a really pretty one. Three octaves. What if we did, um, Major 7, 1, 3, 5. That’s a pretty one. What if we did, um, Oh, 2nd, Major 7, root, 5th. That’s a nice one.
  6. 3:20If I could get it right. Really pretty run. Suppose we did, so you see it’s any of these. Suppose we did three, two, one. Oh, I know. Let’s make it a five note run. So. That’s a pretty thing. Because it’s kind of like falls on the beat different every time you go. So you got three, two, one, flat six, five. three octave thing really pretty okay so that’s for G minor now that’s one of the spots to use it on a half diminished we can use it for a C minor because as Barry people we know that
  7. 4:03a half diminished a minor 7 plus 5 is really a C minor 6 with a 6 in the bass C minor with a 6 in the bass so we know that it comes from the C minor 6 diminished scale so there’s another spot where we can use it. So when it gets to A half diminished we can do all the same things we did here for G minor. We could do it for C minor. Which is really pretty. So let’s say we got up to that point in the song where there’s B flat, E flat. Now here’s the A half diminished. It’s a pretty part of the song right there where we just did a octave, three octave
  8. 4:42run of the same exact couple of notes. So these are really nice things that you can work out beforehand so that when you’re soloing, when time comes to play these things, you have them totally worked out. And they’re really interesting things and you can come up with a million variations of them that other people haven’t come up with because it’s just a series of notes where whether it be three, whether I like sometimes just two. That’s pretty root fifth. So when we get to the G minor, or if we get to the A half diminished, you do the same thing for C.
  9. 5:20That’s a nice one. So let’s do that. There’s B flat, E flat, A half diminished. Nice idea, just doing the same thing three octaves. Really beautiful. I like doing those twice. So hit each note twice. That’s a nice one. So. Oh.
  10. 6:06I mean, these are really great to use. Now, the third place where you can use it is on a D7 or any dominant chord, Barry likes to use the minor 6 diminished, which is a half step above the dominant, which gives you like E flat minor 6 over D7. What it does is it gives you what some people call the alt-scale sound or the melodic minor. But this has both the flat 6 and the major 6 and the major 7 in it.
  11. 6:43So it has a really beautiful sound to it. And it comes from really Barry’s theory. It says the D7’s tritone is Ab and the tritone’s minor is Eb-6. Or if you want to go even further, they all share the same diminished anyway. D7, Ab7, Eb minor 6, Am6, all shares the same diminished anyway. So anyway, you want to look at it, the Eb minor 6 works nicely. But that’s a perfect example. What we did for G minor, or for C minor, you can also do for Eb minor. All this stuff.
  12. 7:25So you see, not only are you working out lines for one particular thing, you have to learn how to apply it in many places. So that, let’s say, okay, I spent an hour practicing this G minor 6 run, or this minor 6 run, whatever key it’s in. Well, you should know, look at all these little places you could use it in application. This way, for the amount of time you’re practicing, the results that you can get are great. Because look at all these little places that you put in.
  13. 7:57Now, the question is how you resolve it after that is another thing. But let’s say we did this one. And then we did it for C minor. So let’s do it twice. And then for the D7. Isn’t that pretty? On a D7, listen to how pretty that is. Who would ever think to play this? And all we’re thinking about is, well, the D7 is, we’re thinking E flat minor 6, which is the half step above D7. And we’re just grabbing a couple of notes from there.
  14. 8:36We could have played a fuller thing. We could have played a... That’s pretty too. Or... Also pretty. Or any of these. Those are really, all those are so nice. and then you have to resolve then to G minor. So all these are so beautiful. It’s just something to keep in mind. Sometimes practicing can be overwhelming
  15. 9:09and we all don’t have a lot of time to practice or most of us don’t. So the time that we use, we want to be efficient with it. But just so you know that if you practice your minor six diminished scale, just look in that little spot how many little applications, how many little spots you could put it in, and how beautiful they’re all going to sound. Obviously, you’re not going to do it in all of them, but, you know, to pull a run like... So when A half diminished comes, we all have our minor 2-5 things worked out, but maybe you never thought to do that. I mean, that’s such a nice idea of just doing something 3 octaves.
  16. 9:49I mean, I never really thought to do it except for when you hear like these beautiful runs. And what I also like about it is, for instance, you don’t have to necessarily, you know, these runs are beautiful. Even if you have average technique, like I consider myself average technique. You know, like you might hear like for guitar, you’ll hear Pasquale. Pasquale Grasso will play like all these wonderful lines but his technique is so unbelievable and he pulls it off so clean that it sounds remarkable but the
  17. 10:25idea the rest of us who have just normal person technique not Pasquale technique but normal like normal human being technique we can actually pull those runs off too it’s not going to be as fast it’s not going to be as technically brilliant, but this sound is still going to be wonderful. That’s what I like about these ideas, especially with the minor six. Anyway, I hope that was helpful. And until next time, enjoy practicing your minor six diminished runs. Thanks.