Barry HarrisThe method

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

You’re going to have fun with this: the Lady Bird turnback

Episode 130 · 10:50 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris works through the Lady Bird turnback, C major, E flat 7, A flat major, D flat 7, with Barry’s scales of chords in drop 2s. He moves each chord to the nearest voicing of the next, then substitutes the six on the fifth (G6 for C, E flat 6 for A flat) and the minor 6 on the fifth of each dominant, showing how two bars can become months of practice, as they did in Barry’s classes.

Step by step

  1. 0:33The turnback is two beats each of C, E flat 7, A flat and D flat 7; work it with the C6, E flat 7, A flat 6 and D flat 7 diminished scales.
  2. 1:04From each inversion of C6, find the closest E flat 7, then the closest A flat 6, then the closest D flat 7.
  3. 1:37For example, C6 from the third fret of the A string to E flat 7 at the fourth fret, then down or up to A flat 6.
  4. 3:24A C major 7 can come from borrowing a diminished note in C6, or from G6 over C, the six on the fifth; so try G6 to E flat 7 as well.
  5. 4:04Learn the G6 to C6 move in every position.
  6. 4:36Put a diminished between them: G6 becomes C6 by lowering two notes a whole step, and a diminished by lowering the same two a half step.
  7. 5:41Do the same for A flat: E flat 6, its six on the fifth, to A flat 6.
  8. 6:17A dominant’s six on the fifth is a minor 6: for E flat 7 play B flat minor 6, and learn C6 to B flat minor 6 in every inversion.
  9. 7:40For D flat 7 play A flat minor 6, giving C6, B flat minor 6, A flat 6, A flat minor 6.
  10. 9:13Try triads, the elevator and contrary motion too; Barry could turn two bars into months of practice.

Barry’s own words on this

9.2 Two sixth chords for every major chord (6 on the 1, 6 on the 5)9.7 The important minor and the tritone’s minor (minor 6 dim over a dominant)10.3 Moving a chord through its scale into the next chord (6-6-6 instead of ii-V-I)9.3 The major 6th diminished scale (a major scale with one more note)

In the course

Every chord belongs to a scale of chordsSix on the fifth: two sixth chords for a major chordThe minor 6 on the fifth: don’t think C9Least movement: find the closest voicingBorrowingSix chord to six chordLady Bird turnbackLearning togetherSmall things

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 130 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would talk about the end of Lady Bird, which Barry refers to as Lady Bird Turnback. I’ve been discussing it with all the classes over at OpenStudio Pro and we’ve been having a blast looking at both the single note concepts, but we’ve also been looking at the harmonic concepts that are just chording, and we were looking at it through the lens of Barry’s scales of chords. So for those of you that don’t know,
  2. 0:33the Lady Bird term back is C major to E flat 7 to A flat major to D flat 7. That’s the term round. It’s 2 beats of C major, 2 beats of E flat 7, 2 beats of A flat major, 2 beats of D flat 7. So when we were looking at it, We said, let’s take a look at all the scales of chords that you should probably work on to just know this turnaround. So the first scale of chords was C major 6 diminished. That’s one of them.
  3. 1:04The second one was E flat 7 diminished. The third one would be A flat 6 diminished. Sorry. And the last one would be D flat 7 diminished. So those would be like the four little scales of chords. So what we first started off doing was the C major 6 diminished. Every inversion, where’s the closest E flat 7?
  4. 1:37And then where’s the closest A flat 6? And then where’s the closest D flat 7? So we just said, for instance, here’s C6, starting on the 3rd fret of the A string. And we said, where’s the closest E flat 7? Well, there it is on the 4th fret, which is from the flat 7. So then we got C major 6. There’s the E flat 7. Now you have two different places you can go. You can go down to get that A flat 6, or you can go up with the 5th and the bass to get that A flat 6. Both of those are pretty, so you got... And then the last one is going to be another D flat 7.
  5. 2:12Or you could have gone up for the D flat 7, so let’s see what that sounds like. All those are pretty. Let’s try it. A-flat-six here, and then maybe that’s pretty too. So we got, now let’s try the next one. C-six to E-flat-seven. A-flat-six, maybe, to E-flat-seven. That’s a pretty one. So we got two, three, four, ah, two. All these are pretty.
  6. 2:47Let’s try the C-six from here. So now we got... And the last one would be D-flat 7. All these are so pretty. Let’s try the one from here. All those are pretty. Now, where it gets interesting is if we say, let’s do some different things with, like for instance, the C major. The first chord that it says in the book is, I think, C major 7. Now, we as Barry people know the major 7 can be gotten in two different ways.
  7. 3:24You can borrow a note from the C6 from the diminished, there’s the major 7. Or you could say G6 over the C, which gives you the 6th on the 5th, what Barry calls the 6th on the 5th. So now that’s pretty, too. So now you should know all your G6s to the E flat 7s, which is really pretty. So then we’ll say G6 to E to E flat 7 to A flat 6 to D flat 7. Those are all pretty. Now then there’s that move of G6 to C6, which is really pretty. So we got G6 to C6.
  8. 4:04That’s a really pretty move. So we should know that move every place. G6 to C6. This one. So now you should know all these little tricks. So like one, two, three. Oh, sorry. But see how that G6 to C6 is pretty. One, two, three, four. Oh, sorry. These are really pretty.
  9. 4:36Wait, G6 again. All those are pretty. So now we did G6 to C6, which is really pretty. Now if you did G6 to C6 with the diminished in between, which is pretty. So you got G6, and then we turn it into C6 by lowering two notes a whole step. But if you lower those same two notes a half step, you have a diminished. So now you have this little movement. I love this sound.
  10. 5:09You should be able to do this with every inversion. And this one. So now we’ll say maybe... That’s a pretty one. Let’s try that again. D. Okay, so now that’s G6 to C6. But if we do G6 to C6, that’s fine. We could also do the same thing for A-flat. Because A-flat’s a major chord.
  11. 5:41The 6 on the 5th of the Ab is Eb6. So we should get used to doing that too. So for instance, here’s G6 to C6. Here’s Eb7. Now here’s Eb6 to Ab6. And then Db7. That’s a pretty move. So if we said, watch, D, D, D, D. Really pretty. Now, let’s talk about the dominance for a second. So what if we decided to do this, those are the six on the fifth of the majors.
  12. 6:17The six on the fifth of the dominants are minor sixes. So for instance, for the E flat seven, we have a six on the fifth of the E flat seven, which is B flat minor six. So now, instead of thinking C six going to E flat seven, or this to this, maybe we’ll think C six to B flat minor six. So maybe we could say, which is really pretty. That’s a nice move. So now you have to learn all your C6s to Bbm6s. Every inversion of C6 to Bbm6, every single one.
  13. 7:00C6 to Bbm6, every one. So pretty. So now you might say, but again, if we’re saying the 6 on the 5th of E flat 7, why don’t we also say the 6 on the 5th of the D flat 7? So now we have C6 or G6 to C6. And then we have B flat minor 6 because that’s the 6 on the 5th of the E flat 7. And then we have E flat 6 to A flat 6.
  14. 7:40And now instead of D flat 7, let’s do on the 6 on the 5th of D flat 7, which is A flat minor 6. So that little last part is like A flat 6 to A flat minor 6. So that’s a nice move. So now we got, let’s say, C6 to B flat minor 6, A flat 6, A flat minor 6. I like that sound. So now we got, let’s see. That’s pretty. Let’s do all the inversions of that. C6, Bbm6, Ab6, Ab6.
  15. 8:18Love that. C6, Bbm6, Ab6. No, did I do that right? No. Ab6, Abbm6. all these are so pretty let’s see oh let’s do the next a flat six and then a flat uh minor six why can’t i see this fast enough that’s right so let’s do that one again so look at what we started off with we started off with c to e flat seven to a flat to d flat And then by the time we ended, we were doing things like G6 to C6 to Bbm6 to Abm6 or Eb6 to Abm6 to Abm6.
  16. 9:13Look at all the different ways that we’re talking about it. And what’s interesting is I’m only looking at drop twos. This is all just drop two stuff. What if we just did triads or if we took Thomas’s elevator and we started moving around in contrary motion with all these different things. Now, it’s a little bit hard because you only have two beats for each thing. But there are ways to work it out where it’ll just sound beautiful. So the first things first, take a look at all these different drop-tube little movements. And there are so many. So what we’re doing over at Open Studio is, on the Open Studio website, everybody’s posting their different version of their Lady Bird Turnback. And to me, their Lady Bird Turnbacks that they’re doing are beautiful.
  17. 9:56Beautiful. And ones I never thought of. So that’s what’s fun about getting together. And to me, that was probably one of the great things about getting together at Barry’s classes. It’s a whole bunch of people who were there for the same reason. And you can really hyper-focus on one particular thing. Like this ending. It’s only two bars. Most people just breeze through this. They learn one way to play it, and that’s the end of it. But if you ever studied with Barry for even a minute, you know he could take something that was two bars and turn it into something that you could practice for months. And that’s what’s so beautiful about the music. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed this
  18. 10:33little window into the kind of things that we’ve been working on over at Open Studio Pro. And I highly suggest you go over there. I’ll leave a link in the description and check it out. Anyway, until next time.