Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 3: Where chords come from

Chords in the Major Scale

Episode 26 · 10:22 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris shows an exercise from Barry’s piano class: the seven-chord family of C major in drop 2, moving each chord to the chord a fourth above, with the first chord played from its fifth. That way the outer voices move while the two middle notes stay, the sound Barry wants. He then shows how Barry turns it into music with a tritone substitute on the 2-5 and added half steps.

Step by step

  1. 0:36Know the seven chords of C major in drop 2, both in root position and from the fifth (second inversion).
  2. 1:47Play the III chord from its fifth into the VI chord: the outer notes move and the two middle notes stay.
  3. 2:21Walk it up the scale: 4 to 7, 5 to 1, 6 to 2, 7 to 3, 1 to 4, 2 to 5, back to 3 to 6.
  4. 2:56Play the cycle backwards too, then learn it in every key.
  5. 4:47Barry’s use: play D minor 7 to G7’s tritone, D flat 7, repeating the same little move on D flat 7.
  6. 6:06Vary it with thirds in C, putting a half step below each note, and combine them with the chord moves.
  7. 7:40Use it in tunes on anything that starts on the I chord, or on a 2-5.
  8. 8:24Learn these small things on your instrument before reaching for bigger chords and ideas.

Barry’s own words on this

3.2 A chord on every degree; how many keys each chord type belongs to10.5 Drop voicings8.5 The tritone14.1 Start with the basics; practise slowly, exactly, in time; repeat until it is yours

In the course

Move it in fourthsHalf step belowThe tritoneThree to six from the fifthSmall things

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 26 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. Today I thought we would do this exercise that Barry used to have us do in the piano class. He still has us do it. but it’s a pretty basic idea. It’s just knowing your chords on each degree of the major scale. So in this instance we’ll take the C major scale. So here’s the two things that you have to know. You have to know your chords in C major, which is the
  2. 0:36first one is C major 7, second one is D minor 7, E minor 7, F major 7, G7, A minor 7, B minor 7 flat 5, back to C major 7. Those are the ones you have to know. You also have to know each one of those for the purposes of this exercise from their second inversion or from the 5th. So first inversion would be from the 3rd, second inversion would be from the 5th, and in one case B minor 7 flat 5 is from the flat 5th.
  3. 1:11So you’ll have to know those also. So for instance, we’re going to be starting on E minor 7. You have to know Fmaj7 from the fifth you have to know Fmaj7 from the fifth You have to know G7 from the fifth Am7 from the fifth Bm7 flat five From the fifth You have to know Cmaj7 from the fifth You have to know Dmaj7 from the fifth You have to know Am7 from the fifth There’s all of them So each chord you have to know from root position and from the fifth, which would be second inversion.
  4. 1:47And these are all drop two. Drop two basically means for guitar players, four consecutive strings. So he has us do this exercise. And the first part of the exercise is you play the three chord to the sixth chord. But the three chord you’re going to play from its second inversion, which is from the fifth. And the reason that he has us do this is because, if you notice, to play the three chord to the six chord. Normally it would be this, which is pretty, but when you do it this way, you can really see the two out, the lowest note and the highest note
  5. 2:21that move and the two middle notes stay the same. And that’s the sound that he’s looking for. So there’s the first one, it’s three to six. So now we’re going to go up the scale like that. So we’ve got three, six. The next one is going to be four to seven or F major to B minor 7 flat 5. The next one is going to be G7 to C major 7. The next one is going to be A minor 7 to D minor 7 or 6 to 2. The next one is going to be
  6. 2:56B minor 7 flat 5 to E minor 7 or 7 to 3. The next one is going to be Cmaj7 to Fmaj7 or 1-4. The next one is going to be Dm7 to G7 or 2-5. And the last one is going to be where we started. Em7 to Am7. So if we did them backwards, we would say E minor 7, A minor 7, D minor 7 to G7, C major 7, F major 7, B minor 7 plus 5 to E minor 7, A minor 7 to D minor 7, G7 to C major 7, F major 7 to B minor 7 plus 5, and back to E minor 7 to A minor 7.
  7. 3:57Now these are really cool things to practice and you should forget about just knowing them in C, you should know them in every key. So if you went up the scale, and backwards, which happens to be really pretty. So, one thing that Barry does with it, or a particular thing that he does with it, is on a D-7 chord, he’ll play D-7 going to G7.
  8. 4:47sometimes Barry will play Dm7 going to G7’s tritone which is Db7. So what’s interesting about that is Dm7 takes C major scale, we already know that, or G7 scale, and Db7 is going to be like taking Gb scale or Gb major scale or Db7 scale. So what he does is he does this cool little thing, and this is just one instance of something he does.
  9. 5:22So when we get to D minor 7, he will play. And then he’ll do exactly the same thing in D flat 7. Which is really pretty. So if we were playing a ballad. Just a little tiny thing like that to give you an example of how Barry will take an exercise and turn it into something beautiful that you can actually use in a song.
  10. 6:06So that example you can use in any 2-5 in any key so long as you practice it in that key. Very interesting idea. Also you can change it and let’s go back to the very beginning we play three to six so you might want to say so what if we then just threw in some thirds so if we did something like that we could take that up the scale so here’s what we have. So we’ll do the next one. Basically I’m playing thirds in C, except I’m putting a half step below each one of the notes. So if I did a half step below it would be, next
  11. 6:57third is this so if you combine those with the thing we were just doing which which is B. And then, oh, and the last one is,
  12. 7:40so if we did it backwards, let’s see. Oh, that’s good. And all those are really beautiful. Now, the question is, after you practice them and do them as an exercise, how do you put them in a tune? Or where do you put them in a tune? So, you can think about anything on a major scale, anything that starts off on the I chord,
  13. 8:24pretty to just do. And there’s this little thing on the 2-5 also. But see, so it’s all sorts of little things to practice. And Barry’s emphasis is always, you have to learn how to play these little tiny things on your instrument before you start playing all these bigger chords or these
  14. 9:01bigger ideas. It’s these little things that make a huge difference. It might not sound like much at first, but if you add them to your repertoire of things to practice on chords and on scales, they’re really, really special. So this is why I say his method is so beautiful because just the few things that I did, you know, there’s nothing really, you know, earth-shattering, but you might take it and be able to do something really beautiful that I never thought of, that maybe even Barry never thought of, and that’s the kind of thing that he does at class.
  15. 9:38He’ll say, okay, here’s the idea, and then go home and deal with it and see what you can come up with. I always found that fascinating about his method, is that he could teach 100 different people, and a hundred different people might have a slightly different take on it. But, okay, so that’s what I think. I’ll leave it there. And that’s what I think is a nice little thing to practice. Just a small thing for this episode, but it’s definitely worth checking out. So I hope you enjoyed that one. And hopefully there’ll be an episode pretty soon. Thanks. Enjoy practicing your major scale.