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

Thirds in pairs: an idea I didn’t think of

Episode 150 · 10:20 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris shares a way of practising thirds on the D minor 6 diminished scale that came from a Patreon member, David: play two thirds together, so the minor 6 notes and the diminished notes move as pairs. He adds a half step below, uses it over B half-diminished to E7 and in Confirmation, and ends with borrowing a scale tone instead.

Step by step

0:00The D minor 6 diminished scale is the four notes of D minor 6 plus the four of E diminished.
0:33Thirds up the scale pair two minor 6 notes, then two diminished notes; practise them, and chords, up and down.
1:45David’s way: play two thirds at once, D and F with A and B, then the next two diminished notes, all the way up.
2:29Add a half step below a note of each third and come back up: the bottom note, the top note or both.
3:09Apply the half step below to David’s paired thirds, first on the bottom note, then on the top note.
4:30B half-diminished is D minor 6, so over B half-diminished to E7 to A minor use anything from the D minor 6 diminished scale.
5:02Play the paired thirds with the half step below over B half-diminished to E7, starting from different degrees.
7:28In Confirmation, E half-diminished to A7 becomes G minor 6, so the same idea fits there.
8:04Borrow a scale tone above or below instead of the half step below.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line0:33

Barry’s own words on this

9.5 The minor 6th diminished scale and its diminished partner 9.6 Half-diminished = minor with the sixth in the bass; major -> relative minor -> minor/6 10.4 Borrowing 6.6 Chromatic pickups and the well-placed half step

In the course

Thirds Sixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6 The minor 6 diminished scale Borrowing Learning together There is no ‘having it together’

Transcript

0:00Hello and welcome to episode 150 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would talk about this really pretty idea that I got from one of my Patreon members, David, who had a really interesting way to practice, I guess, his chords or you could say his thirds. So I’ll show you on D minor 6 diminished scale. So D minor 6 diminished scale for those that you that don’t know is the four notes of D minor 6 and the four notes of E diminished
0:33you put those four notes together with these four notes and you have this beautiful eight note scale now if you choose to play thirds with it which you should do because that’s what we should know on scales. A third is measured by playing a note, skipping a note, playing a note. So if you have the first one, it’s D and F, so those are two minor six notes. And you have two diminished notes. Two minor six, two diminished notes. Now, that’s an interesting thing because that’s a second, but obviously we’re going to refer to that as a third because we’re playing the A, we’re skipping the B flat, and we’re playing the B, which is really pretty.
1:12That’s thirds. So I would practice these of course all different ways... Up and down. Now then there’s practicing a chord which is playing a note, skipping a note, playing a note, skipping a note, playing a note, skipping a note, political Something hits You could hit those charts up there but also takes down new chords... Those are really pretty. But what David did was,
1:45he liked to play them as two-thirds in a row. So he played, instead of D and F, he played those together. And the next two notes are A and B. So he played those together. So if I were going to do that, it would sound like this. That’s the first one. Now the diminished. Now two-sixths again. Now two diminishes. Sorry. and then two sixes and then two diminishes, two sixes, two diminishes. So isn’t that a pretty way to practice? That’s a really nice way. I never thought of that way to practice.
2:29Those are really nice. Now, of course, part of it is also now that we learned how to do, One of the things that we did with thirds was we also said, well, we can also learn how to... Barry used to do this thing where he would go a half step below a note. So if we take thirds just up the scale normal, and we take the D, we play the D, we go a half step below it, and then back up. So we’ll do something like this. now we can do that to the bottom note or we could do it to the top note of the third
3:09all those are pretty or we could do both notes which is nice Now, but if I did that thinking about David’s way of practicing, that would be like, let’s do the first one where I do the bottom note. Listen to this. It’s pretty. That’s really pretty. Oh, sorry.
3:56Those are really pretty. Suppose I did the top note. That is really beautiful stuff. So all these different ideas just from practicing it that way. So now let’s talk about the functionality of D minor 6.
4:30Let’s say D minor 6 is pretty, but if you put the 6 in the bass you realize it’s B half diminished. So now every time I have a B half diminished, I know that that comes from the D minor 6 diminished scale. Which is why if I’m playing let’s say B minor 7 flat 5 to E7 going to A minor, I can do all my anything I know for D-6. Go some contrary. Suppose I just want to go parallel. Any of these ideas is fine.
5:02But now let’s use this idea. So let’s say here’s B half diminished, and let’s say I do... That’s pretty... That’s what the half step below thing. Suppose I do it on the next one. Let’s do it from the third. Let’s see. That’s such a pretty way to play a B half diminished to E7. And it’s really simple. It’s stuff that you already practiced. What a beautiful way to think of that.
5:40I mean, that’s fantastic. How about if I do it from... Let’s do two of them. So let’s say... That is really pretty. So here’s B half diminished, I suppose I say. What a beautiful way to play a B half diminished. I mean, that’s great. I mean, that stuff is so good.
6:12This is what I mean about, I mean, I talk about this often, but. when we share these ideas with each other we get something back from everybody so that’s the beautiful thing about music that’s that was one of the things I I loved about Barry’s class was in the class inevitably a piano player or a horn player would come up with something that maybe Barry hadn’t thought of and he got so excited from it and then he’d had everybody try this particular idea or maybe he would change it slightly but it was still the idea of we have this little simple concept but now everybody uses their own musicality to make something different
6:52out of it that’s what made it so fantastic so this to me was one of those ideas so David I thank you for that because it’s just beautiful what a beautiful way to so now I have a couple of things already worked out in the bag for myself that I use all these like I like this one I love this one. So I’ll try to find a place that has a half diminished, and I’ll try to use one of these. So if I said, let’s say we’re playing confirmation. We’ve got F major.
7:28But D, D, D, D, E half diminished to A7. Right? Right there. So E half diminished is G minor 6, so maybe I’ll do it on G minor 6. I’ll say. That’s pretty. Just like I said. Instead of playing this chord to this chord, I just said. Great idea. Completely stolen from David’s concept. Now, let’s go back to D minor first. Again, one last thing before we wrap it up. I would say another thing that we should think of is borrowing.
8:04So right now, we were borrowing the half step below, which I love. That’s one of Barry’s borrowing. But then there’s also, you can borrow a scale tone below. I’m sorry, half step below. You can also borrow a scale tone below, but you can also borrow a scale tone above. So if I said, here’s the third, here’s the third. If I borrow the note above D, that’s going to be, listen to how pretty this is. And now look, that’s normally, so I got to borrow the B flat. So if I do. Oh, man. Listen how pretty that idea is. That’s a good one.
8:46That is a really good one. Suppose I did it from the 6th and the, let’s see. That’s the 5th. Let’s do it from the 5th and the 6th here. No, I did that one already. Let’s do it from, I got it. Let’s do it from, so now I’m doing the 6th and the root and the third and the fifth. So sixth root. So that’s the one I’m doing. So let’s say... Oh, that’s a good one. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute.
9:18Let me do that right. Oh, that’s a really good one. What if I did... Oh. Next one. Oh, that’s nice. How beautiful is that? Anyway, it just shows you that you can know something for a while, and somebody takes that something that you know
9:55and turns it slightly to the left or slightly to the right or upside down, and now you have a whole new thing that brings about a whole million new ideas. So that’s what makes, I don’t know, that’s what makes music so wonderful. So I hope you enjoyed that and have fun practicing different ways to play your thirds going up in chords. Thanks again, David. Until next time.