Chris Parks · Stage 5: The added-note rules
Do you know your half-step rules?
Chris reviews Barry’s descending half-step rules on F7 and the rule for jumping up a third first, then adds a twist from a classmate: a half-step pickup before the first note. Played on the ‘and’ the pickup changes nothing, but played on the beat it reverses the rules, as starting on the ‘and’ does. He credits Barry with teaching a way of thinking rather than lines to copy.
Step by step
- 0:00Review Barry’s descending half-step rules on the F7 scale.
- 0:33Odd degrees (root, third, fifth, seventh) take one or three half steps; even degrees (second, fourth, sixth) take none or two.
- 1:09From the second, the two half steps go between second and tonic and between tonic and flat seven; from the third, one goes between tonic and seven, or three run chromatically from the third.
- 1:51After jumping up a third (F to A), follow the rule for the next note down, G: none or two half steps. A classmate, Bryce, adds a half step before the first note, on the ‘and’.
- 2:33Go up a third from G to B flat and use the rule for the third, one half step, then try it with the half step below.
- 3:07From the third up to the fifth, the next note down is the fourth: none or two half steps, with or without the pickup.
- 4:19Put the half-step pickup on the beat and the rule reverses: now the top note of the third decides.
- 5:39For a triad up (1-3-5) the top note falls on a beat, so use the rule for the top note, here the fifth.
- 6:11With the pickup on the ‘and’ nothing changes; with it on the beat, the next note down (the fourth) decides: no half steps.
- 7:19Starting on the ‘and’ or with a pickup on the beat both reverse the rules; Barry taught a way of thinking, not phrases to copy.
Barry’s own words on this
In the course
ThirdsThe descending half-step rules for the dominantWhich rule applies after a run or a leapStart on the ‘and’ and the rules reverseLearning togetherBarry gives you the why
Transcript
- 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 133 of Things I Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would discuss just adding on to some of Barry’s beautiful things that he gave us to practice. So today I thought we would look at Barry’s descending half step rules, which if you haven’t seen, I’ve posted them on the site. And I forget which episode it is, but you can check it out. It’s in the title. But let’s just talk about, for example, F7 scale. And one of the things for F7 for descending half-step rules
- 0:33was the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh, or the odd notes all have the same number of half-steps, either one or three. The second, fourth, and the sixth, or the even number all have the same number of half-steps, which is either zero or two. So for instance, let’s say from the second, we’re going to do no half-steps. or two half steps. From the third, we’re going to do one half step or three half steps. And the half steps for the second are between,
- 1:09when you do the two, are between second and tonic, tonic and flat seven. The half steps for the three are going to be either between tonic and seven or between three and two, two and one, tonic and seven. Now this is for the dominant scale. okay the second rule though which is very interesting is if you start on a note and you jump up a third to another note like a third so if we start f and we jumped up to a you’re gonna follow the rule for the next note descending so for instance if we said f a the next note descending would be G so that would be since it’s the second it would be either no half steps or
- 1:51two half steps. So listen what we have. That’s two half steps or here’s no half steps. Now these are really beautiful. But somebody, actually the somebody was Bryce at class, guitar player, very good guitar player. He likes to practice those but he does them with a half step before the third. So in other words if we have the F A, he starts on the and and he puts a half step before that F so he’ll say, which is really pretty. So now instead of this, you have this one, two, three, four, ah.
- 2:33That is such a pretty thing. And just with that slight variation, it just shows you, we will never run out of things to practice. And everybody has their own individual way of taking a concept and being able to practice it and making it musical for them. But this is... So let’s do the next one, which would be the third up from the G, which would be G, B-flat, and then we’re going to say, we’re going to use the rule for the three, because that’s the next note descending. So let’s do one half step.
- 3:07That’s really pretty. But now let’s do the thing where we put the half step below. That is so pretty. And I know it’s a slight variation, but these little slight variations make such a difference. Okay, let’s do three to five, which means the next note descending is going to be four. No half steps. Let’s do that. Now let’s do two half steps. Or let’s put the half step before it.
- 3:41One, two, three, four. I mean that stuff is so pretty. I love that. So now if you want to take it a step further you can even look at it this way you can say okay let’s take the half step let’s still do this concept except let’s do the thing where we started on an and. So now if we start so we were doing it on an and we started with the half step on an and right so now let’s flip it so I shouldn’t have said it started on an end, let’s start on a beat. So now instead of this, one, two, three, four, one,
- 4:19which is really hip. What if we started with the half step starts on the beat? That means that the rule is going to reverse, which means the top note of the third is going to be the note that gets whatever rule we decide. So in other words, instead of this, that’s how we started before, but now let’s put a half step before the first note, and let’s say one, two, three, four. That means this note is on the beat. One, two, three, four. That’s the second beat. And now the third is on the beat. So now we’ll do either one half step or three half steps. So one, two, three,
- 5:03four. I love that. Or three half steps. I love that. Let’s do the second. Remember the second is normally ending on the third, which means we’re going to do one half step. Or three. So now let’s do the half step below, but starting on a beat. One, two, three, four. That was two half steps because I used the rule for the four, the top note.
- 5:39Or none. Now, if that’s true of doing a half step before, let’s go back and let’s do the half step for a triad. So if we started with a, here’s our triad. The normal rule for the triad is, since we’re thinking about the beats, one and two, the top note is going to be on a beat. So we’ll use the rule for the top note. So in this case, I’m playing 1-3-5. The 5 is the top note. So we’re going to say 1-2-3-4. That’s a pretty one.
- 6:11That’s one half step. All those are pretty. Now let’s take the rule for the 5, and let’s do that thing where we put a half step before the first note. But we’re going to do it on an and, so everything stays the same. So we’ll say 1-2-3-4. I like that. But now let’s do it with the half step on the beat. So now the top note is not going to be what decides. It’s going to be the next note descending, which will be the four. So we’ll do no half steps.
- 6:44One, two, three, four. I love that. Let’s do no half steps, though. I love that. But to feel that. One, two, three, four. Or the other way, which is on the end. One, two, three, four. I mean, these are all great. So it even shows you, you think you’ve practiced something. You think you’ve got it together.
- 7:19You say, okay, I got Barry’s descending half-step rules totally together. And then, like I think I’ve talked about before within Barry one time in a class, I said, oh, you know, if you start on an and, all the rules reverse, which means that, you know, everything that I had practiced up until that point was starting on a beat. And then, like, this light bulb went off, like, oh, my goodness, that’s only half of the things I should be practicing. But then you have this other thing where now I’m saying, well, let’s put a half step before, or the thing that Bryce did, which is put a half step before, but still starting on the and,
- 7:55so you’re not going to change anything. But I like that half step before, that little pickup. That’s beautiful. But then if you use the half step before starting on a beat, now it reverses everything too. Like starting on an end reverses everything. It’s just there’s so many ways to shape your phrase conception. It’s just there are so many different things to practice. And it just, so sometimes it can become very overwhelming. So over at Open Studio, where we talk about this stuff all the time,
- 8:30and I highly recommend checking it out over at OpenStudioJazz.com for all the beautiful classes that they have there. And I’m teaching there five days a week. But this is the kind of stuff we talk about. We’ll just spend time, all of us together, on a Zoom class. And we’ll talk about these things. And we’ll each get a chance to practice them. But that’s how these ideas blossom, you know. But it just shows you that this is really the way that we’re supposed to get better. This is really the way. It’s not one person’s way of thinking.
- 9:05I give Barry the credit for all this stuff because yeah, he’s the one that taught a lot of us how to think like this. But I think I rightly give him credit for this because even though there’s some of these things that maybe he didn’t practice, he taught us the way in which you should think about it, which then leads to all these beautiful ways of putting a half step below, starting on this note, changing, it’s just, it’s completely freeing to think about it, you know, and it’s not just, let’s take this beautiful Charlie Parker phrase and let’s play it in all the keys.
- 9:41It’s the furthest thing from that. So anyway, I hope this was helpful and enjoy practicing some of the things you normally do, but with a slight twist with half steps. Until next time.