Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 13: Tunes as the curriculum

A beautiful way to play a minor blues

Episode 139 · 11:04 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris harmonises a whole C minor blues with nothing but minor 6 chords: the half-diminished becomes the minor 6 a minor third up, and each dominant becomes a minor 6, mostly the tritone’s minor. He practises the five minor 6 chords in nearby drop 2 inversions, then opens each one out into its full minor 6 diminished scale.

Step by step

  1. 0:00Start from a C minor blues: C minor for four bars, with a quick D half-diminished to G7 and a C7 leading to F minor in bar 5.
  2. 0:38Play C minor 6 rather than C minor 7; D half-diminished is F minor 6, the minor 6 with the 6 in the bass.
  3. 1:20For G7 use the tritone’s minor: G7’s tritone is D flat 7, and the minor 6 on its fifth is A flat minor 6.
  4. 1:58For C7, take F sharp 7’s minor 6 on the fifth: D flat minor 6, a half step above C minor 6.
  5. 2:46First four bars: C-6, F-6, A flat-6, C-6, then D flat-6 into F-6.
  6. 3:26Bars 5 to 8: F minor 6 with A flat minor 6 in place of G7, back to C minor 6.
  7. 4:04Last four bars: E flat minor 6 for A flat 7, A flat minor 6 for G7, C minor 6, and A flat minor 6 to turn around.
  8. 4:49Practise: take one drop 2 inversion of C minor 6 and find each other minor 6 as close by as possible; repeat from the third, sixth and root.
  9. 7:24Each chord stands for its minor 6 diminished scale, so fill each space with thirds, triads, broken drop 2s or contrary motion.
  10. 8:44Borrow notes from the diminished as well, and try drop 3 voicings.

Barry’s own words on this

13.1 The blues the Barry way9.7 The important minor and the tritone’s minor (minor 6 dim over a dominant)9.5 The minor 6th diminished scale and its diminished partner10.5 Drop voicings

In the course

The tritone’s minorSixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6Every chord belongs to a scale of chordsThe elevator: Thomas Eccles’ floorsLeast movement: find the closest voicingBorrowingMinor blues with only minor sixesPractise keys through tunes

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 139 of Things I Learned from Bear Harris. And today I thought we would discuss practicing minor six chords, just the harmony now, on a minor blues. We started doing this over at Open Studio, and we really had fun with it, so I thought I’d share it. It’s taken a C minor blues, which if you know the progression for a C minor blues, let’s say the first four bars are C minor, and then some places have a quick 2-5 turnaround for C minor.
  2. 0:38D half diminished to G7, back to C minor, and then a quick C7 to take you to the four-chord F minor, which is the fifth bar. So what we were saying was, let’s take the whole minor blues and let’s play minor sixes on everything. So how would we do that? So let’s see. So the first part, instead of, you know, some books have a C minor 7. Barry liked that C minor 6 sound, so we have a C minor 6 for the first part. Then a turnaround in C minor 6 would be D half diminished to G7. So, as Barry people, we know a Dm7b5 is a minor 6 with a 6 in the bass, which means Dm7b5 really comes from Fm6.
  3. 1:20So now we have Cm6 going to Fm6, and then instead of G7, sometimes what we play, if we want to play a minor 6, six. There’s two kinds of minor sixes we could play, but I’m going to choose the one that’s on the tritones minor. So instead of G7, we have G7’s tritone, which is Db7. But then Db7 has a minor six on the fifth of it, which is Abb minor six, which gives you this really pretty, like, flat nine
  4. 1:58raised 5 sound if you compare it to G. It’s really pretty, but that’s the scale it comes from. So it’s not just this one sound of a G7 with a flat 9 and a raised 5. It actually comes from a scale, and the scale is A flat minor 6. So now, so far, we have C minor 6, F minor 6 to A flat minor 6, then back to C minor 6, and then instead of C7, let’s do that same thing again. Let’s play the tritone’s minor. So C7’s tritone is F sharp 7. F sharp 7 or yeah let’s call it F sharp 7. F sharp 7’s minor 6 on the 5th is this well let’s say C sharp or we call it D flat minor 6. So that’s a
  5. 2:46half step above the C minor 6. So now watch this. Our first four bars of a minor blues we could say 1, 2, 3, 4, C minor 6, then F minor 6, A flat minor 6, C minor 6, and then to D flat minor 6, going back to F minor 6, which is really pretty. That’s just the first four bars. Now, the next four bars is usually like F minor for two measures, then C minor for two measures. But a lot of times what people will play is F minor and then a quick G7 to take you back to C minor for two measures.
  6. 3:26So in that case, we’ll play F minor again. And instead of G7, we’ll play that A flat minor 6 again. And back to C minor. So now that’s the next four bars. The next four bars is going to be the four chord. F minor. And then F minor, A flat minor. Back to C minor. Now, the last four bars are usually something like A-flat 7 for a measure, G7 for a measure, C-minor for a measure, then back to G7 for a measure, which takes you back to the beginning.
  7. 4:04So for the A-flat 7, let’s do the minor 6 on the 5th A-flat 7, which is E-flat-minor 6. And then the G7, let’s do the A-flat-minor 6 again. C-minor 6 is going to be the same. and then a quick A flat minor 6 to take us back to the beginning. So we basically have to learn in just this little minor blues we got C minor 6, we have to learn F minor 6, we have to learn A flat minor 6, we have to learn D flat minor 6 because that replaces the C7. We have to learn Eb minor 6 because that replaces the Ab7. And the one earlier, the
  8. 4:49Ab minor 6 replaces the G7. So if we were going to practice it, the way that I like to practice it and the way we were trying to do it is take any inversion of drop 2. So let’s say we’ll take the one where the 5th is the drop 2. There’s our C minor 6. Now we want to find every one of those other four minor sixes closest. So for instance, there’s C minor six, there’s F minor six, A flat minor six, C minor six, up and half step to D flat minor six, back to F minor six, F minor six to A flat minor six, back to C minor six. Now we need E flat
  9. 5:33minor six then F minor six to A flat minor six back to C minor six now I’ll do to the next let’s do from the third C minor six F minor six a flat minor six C minor six move it up a half step D flat minor six back to F minor six a A-flip-minor-six, stay on C-minor-six. Now we need E-flip-minor-six, and then F-minor-six to A-flip-minor-six. I’ll do another one.
  10. 6:13Let’s do it from here. C-minor-six, F-minor-six, A-flip-minor-six, C-minor-six, D-flip-minor-six, back to F-minor-six. back to C minor 6. Now we need E flat minor 6, F minor 6 to A flat minor 6, back to C minor 6. Now, oh, one last one.
  11. 6:46So let’s do C minor 6, F minor 6, A flat minor 6, back to C minor 6, back to D flat minor 6 now to F minor 6 again F minor 6 A flat minor 6 C minor 6 then we need E flat minor 6 and then F minor 6 A flat minor 6 back really pretty now, that’s all the drop 2’s
  12. 7:24Just, you know, starting from the, well, we started from the fifth, we went to the third, then we went to the sixth, then we went to the root. All those are really super pretty. But if you remember, the beautiful thing about Barry’s harmonic system is that all of those chords belong to those particular scales. So, for instance, the C minor six belongs to C minor six diminished scale, which means anything you know how to do in the C minor 6 diminished scale you can put in that space. Same thing with F minor 6, that’s the scale. Now what do I mean by
  13. 8:04everything you can do with it? Well we did drop twos. You could do thirds, you can do You can do triads. You can do broken drop twos. You can take all the floors of Thomas’ elevator. You can do some contrary motion. that’s just running through a couple of things using F-minor 6 and A-flat 6. So you see the
  14. 8:44brilliance of Barry’s harmonic system where now I’m just thinking I’m running this scale into this scale. I’m not thinking about anything else. I’m not thinking about, oh, this is making the G7. This has a sharp 9 or a flat 5 or a raised 5 or whatever. It doesn’t even matter. another thing that you should also keep in mind is part of knowing your scales of chords is you also have to know how to borrow so borrowing so there’s C minor six I’m borrowing the D or maybe I’ll start off by borrowing two notes
  15. 9:22and then maybe that was a drop three Really pretty. Drop threes are beautiful too. So that’s another thing you’d have to be able to do. Drop threes. But think about it. The entire minor blues playing just minor six diminished over the whole thing. You got five different ones. So thinking about reasons to practice minor sixes. In the open studio, Adam brings up all the time how we should practice in all 12 keys,
  16. 10:02which I completely agree with. Now, the rub is you have to have the discipline to do that. And a person like myself, I’m not particularly disciplined unless I have a reason to do it. Now, if you take a look at just saying, oh, I really want to learn how to play a minor blues, that’s something important. Well now it’s forcing me to see five different scales of chords. C minor 6, F minor 6, A flat minor 6, D flat minor 6, E flat minor 6, that whole thing. It’s really special, I’m telling you. And it’s a nice thing for you to be able to do. Again,
  17. 10:43not that these are the only chords that you’re going to play for that, but it is pretty interesting that you don’t have to play any other kind of chord. So, with that, enjoy practicing your minor six diminished in five keys so that you can play a minor blues. Until next time.