Chris Parks · Stage 1: Rhythm and time

Barry’s Beautiful Rhythm Exercise

Episode 94 · 10:24 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris teaches Barry’s rhythm exercise on D7: a one-bar phrase is played again and again, each time with one eighth note taken off the front so it starts one eighth later, then built back up. He applies it to the bridge of rhythm changes and explains how it helps him feel every part of the beat, something he hears in Barry’s freedom to start phrases anywhere.

Step by step

0:00Learn the phrase on D7: tonic, sixth, flat 7th, then straight down the scale to the tonic.
0:45Play it in eighth notes so it fills one bar and lands on the next downbeat.
1:21Take off the first note and start on the ‘and’ of 1, then remove another and start on beat 2.
2:07Keep going: start on the ‘and’ of 2, beat 3, the ‘and’ of 3, beat 4 and the ‘and’ of 4.
3:22Count the beats at first, then try to feel each starting point.
4:07Reverse it: add the notes back one at a time until you start on beat 1 again.
5:30Use it on the bridge of rhythm changes: D7, G7, C7, F7, starting each phrase on the same part of the beat.
6:50Mix the starting points, and turn them into lines.
9:18Aim for Barry’s rhythmic freedom: in his There Will Never Be Another You solo, phrases start in different places.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

D70:00

Barry’s own words on this

1.3 Feel the ‘ands’5.8 Rule drills in time 7.5 Rhythmic placement 13.2 Rhythm changes (‘seven songs in one’)

In the course

Feel the ‘and’Take off one note: Barry’s rhythm exercise Rhythm changes Put it in a song

Transcript

0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 94 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would discuss Barry’s beautiful rhythm exercise. It’s pretty simple, but I think what it does for you as a player is immensely helpful. So, we’ll take, it can be in any key, but it’s on a dominant scale, but we’ll take, for this instance, D7. And the phrase is this. Starts on the tonic and plays tonic, 6, flat 7, and then when it gets to the flat 7, it just comes down the rest of the scale. So, it’s D, D, C, D, A, G, F sharp, E, D.
0:45So, here’s what the phrase sounds like. And what’s great is it fills up exactly a measure and then the first beat of the next measure. So it says 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. That’s the exercise. Pretty phrase. Just on its own, that’s a pretty phrase. So that’s on D7. Now what’s nice is he has this way of, or the exercise is you take 1 8th note off. you keep taking 1 8th note off. So the first one is 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. So that means the
1:21next time we do the phrase right away, we’re going to start instead of on the first beat, we’re going to start on the and of 1. So we have to take off one note, which would be the D. So now we’re left with this. And 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. So if the first one was 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 1, next one is and. And 2 and 3 and 4 and 1. So now we started on the B natural. Now we’ll start on the C because we’re starting on the second beat. So it’d be like one, two, three, four, one, two. That’s the second beat. So one. So so far we have two, three, four, one, two, three, four, one.
2:07So we start on the one. We start on the end of the one. We start on the two. Now let’s start on the and a two. So the end of two, we have to take another note off. So that would be the C. So now we’ll start on the B. So we’ll say one, two, that’s the end of the two. So now we have, starting on the one, starting on the end, now starting on two, end of the two. So So now we did the one, and the one, two, and the two, now we’ll do three.
2:43One, two, so that means we’re going to be starting on the A. Then we’ll start on the and of the three, which will be the G. One, two, three, and then we’ll start on the two, one, two, I mean on the four, one, two, three, and then the and of four, one, two, three, four, and then just the one again. 1 2 3 4 So if I were to do it slow and take off all the notes it would be 1 2 3 4 1 2 4
3:22So now that’s going down. And the idea is, okay, you can start by counting the beats in your head. But then you have to just feel it.
4:07And so on. Now, then he also comes back. So you start it here, and now you add one note at a time. So now the first one would be first beat. One, two, three, four, one, two. Now we need the end of four. 1, 2, 3, 4, so now we’re starting on the E because we’re adding one note back. Now we’ll say, start on the end of the 4, 1, 2, 3, now we’re starting on the F sharp. Now we’ll start on the end of the 3, 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 1, 2, now the end of the 2, 1, 2, two, three, now the two, one, now the and to the one, one, two, three, four, three, four,
4:52there you go. So what he does is he takes the note away and then he adds it back. And those are great ways to feel the rhythm. So there’s a couple of things about it to me that make it really special. First of all, the phrase is beautiful and I know it’s just messing around with the scale a little bit, but it’s a beautiful phrase. So what I like to do is say, okay, how can I turn this into something besides just learning this exercise, which is, like I always point out, the one thing about Barry’s stuff is right away you could put it into a song and make it musical.
5:30So if we said, for instance, the bridge of rhythm changes is D7 up and down, G7 up and down, C7 up and down, F7 up and down. So maybe we’ll take some of these and we’ll use them for rhythm changes. Like let’s say if we took that same phrase and we’ll start right on the beat for each one. So we’ll say one, two, three, four, two, three, four, two, three, four, two, three, four. Now let’s say if we started the one on the end of one. So one,
6:15three four one two three four now let’s say we’ll start on the two one two three four one One..Oh one 2 3 4 1 Also pretty let’s start on the end of the two One two three four one two
6:50Two three four Bye 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. And so on. How about if we mix? Maybe we won’t do all of them, but maybe we’ll start on the 2. What’s the 1 on the 2? So we have 1 and 2. So let’s start on the end of 1. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10. I mean, see, to feel the and of the one like that is really nice.
7:30How about the and of the two? One, two, three, four, one, two. Nice. Two. Four, two, three, four, five. But now let’s put it into a line. So let’s say one, two, three. or whatever we want. So, but do you see how you can take these?
8:03The other thing that it makes you do is it makes you feel, I know for myself, I have a lot of weaknesses, which I try to work on. But I think my greatest weakness is my rhythm. And by that I mean, Barry talks about how you have to feel the rhythm. You have to feel it. You have to feel what the and to two feels like. You have to feel what the four feels like. You have to feel what the three feels like, what the and of one feels like, and so on. And I feel like I’m not at that level yet where I can do that. But these exercises really help.
8:36Because if you start to think about it, and if the and of one starts to feel like this to you. One, two, three. Now I changed the phrase a little bit, but at least I know that started on the and of one. How about the and of two? One, two, three. That’s how I started at both places. But what this makes me aware of my lack of rhythm in that I seem to start phrases at similar spots all the time within a bar.
9:18And somebody did this interesting thing I saw where they transcribed Barry’s solo or one of various solos to there will never be another you. And the interesting, one of the many things about it that was beautiful, besides the solo being perfect or just wonderful, is that he started all his phrases in different spots every time. Not just the one or not the and of one. He’s totally free. So in the sense that because he’s practiced all these things single note wise, he’s really free in terms of the notes. But I think the thing that makes it even hipper is that he’s really free
9:58within the rhythm. That’s the part that I’m striving to get. I’m not there, but that’s what I’m, I’ve already become aware at least of that that’s something that I want to be able to accomplish. And I think this exercise really helps. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed this lesson on Barry’s beautiful rhythm exercise. Until next time, thanks.