Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 3: Where chords come from

Chord Ideas in C Major

Episode 27 · 9:13 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris adapts a chord exercise Barry plays at the piano: a three-note shape of root, seventh and third on the middle strings, where the seventh releases down to the next scale note, walked up the C major scale. He adds a half step below each release, then follows Barry in making the IV chord minor and hearing it as the II of a new key, which carries the pattern through keys a minor third apart.

Step by step

  1. 0:34Set the shape: C on the A string, B on the G string, E on the B string, then let the B release to A.
  2. 1:12Walk the same idea up C major: D minor 7 (D, C, F, with C releasing to B), E minor 7 and so on.
  3. 3:46Play all seven up and back.
  4. 4:11Variation: after releasing, add a half step below the note you released to, then return.
  5. 5:57Barry also plays I, II, III, then makes the IV chord minor (F minor).
  6. 6:16Hear F minor as the II of E flat and repeat the pattern in E flat, then G flat, then A, and back to C.
  7. 7:34Use it for intros, runs up the scale and endings; for an ending Barry sometimes makes the chords major.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Cmaj70:34
×××Cmaj7
CBC4E
Dm71:12
5fr×××Dm7
C3DCF
Fmaj71:54
8fr×××Fmaj7
C3FC4EA
G72:36
10fr×××G7
C3GC4FB

Barry’s own words on this

3.2 A chord on every degree; how many keys each chord type belongs to2.4 Minor thirds and key families (brothers and sisters)10.8 Endings and introductions

In the course

I to IV minorThe minor 6 diminished scaleThe release-note chord exerciseWhat Barry’s class was like

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 27 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. Today I thought we’d go over another major scale idea but with cording that Barry plays. This is on a bunch of videos and he does it a lot in piano class but it works really nicely for guitar too. So the first thing we’re going to do is I’m basically going to play the exercise on just the middle four strings. The A, D, G, and B strings.
  2. 0:34So we’re going to do primarily just smaller shapes. Not quite drop two, but you’ll see. So the concept is you’re going to take C and E with your second finger in your pinky, which would be the third fret of the A string. your fifth fret of the B string. Then you’re going to put your second finger on the B on the G string. So you’re going to get this. Or. And then your first finger is going to be on the A on the same G string.
  3. 1:12So you’re going to do this. Now that’s the sound. Now we’re just going to walk that shape up the C major scale. So the first three notes we have are C, B, and E, or 3rd fret, 4th fret, 5th fret of the 5th string, 3rd string, and 2nd string. And we’re going to move that when we move into the next chord, which would be D minor 7. It’s going to be the 5th fret, 5th fret, 6th fret, or D, C, and then F. And then the first finger is going to be on the scale note below that C, which is B.
  4. 1:54So that’s the second one. The third one is an E minor 7, and you’re going to play it E, the same shape that you did for the D, but it’s going to be E, D, and G. And it’s going to be 7th fret, 7th fret, 8th fret. And then the D is going to come up, and you’re going to play the C. The next one is identical to the first one. First one was C major 7. This one’s going to be F major 7. So now you’re going to have F, E, and A. And the F is going to come off to the, I’m sorry, the E is going to come off to the D.
  5. 2:36So you’re going to have, or you can say 8th fret, 9th fret, 10th fret. 9th fret comes off to 7th fret. So now you’ve got this one. Next one is going to be G7. which is going to be 10th fret, 10th fret, 12th fret, or the G, the F, and then the B. And the F is going to come off to the E. The next one is A minor 7, which looks just like the E minor 7. So it’s just the same shape.
  6. 3:08So you’re going to have 12th fret, 12th fret, 13th fret, and there’s the first finger is going to be on the 10th fret. So you’re basically going to have the A, the G, and the C, and the G comes off to F. Last one is B minor 7 plus 5, which is going to look identical to the A minor 7, except it’s a whole step up. So now you’re going to have 14th fret, 14th fret, 15th fret. The 14th fret comes off to the 12th fret on the G string. So the notes are going to be B, A, and then D, and then the A comes off to G. And then you back to the first one again.
  7. 3:46So if you were going to do them together it would sound like this. Backwards. Now he practices a few different ways. One of the ways that he does it is he’ll say maybe you do the same thing that you just did, but now you’re going to come a half step below that note that you just released to.
  8. 4:25So in this instance, the B releases to the A. you’re gonna come a half step below the A which is the A flat. Some of these are kind of hard stretches, but they sound really pretty. So if you did it on the next one, off to the B, to the B flat, back to B. Now you have this one, off to C, down to B. Next one. Half step below, that’s the important thing. It’s always a half step below.
  9. 4:57Next one. And last one. So if we did them all. Down. Oh, that’s it. Now just to tell you what a good ear Barry has, like I messed up one of those in either
  10. 5:35the third one or the fourth one. So if I played that back to him, if he asked me to play it back to him or somebody to play it back to him and he heard that, he would say, that was good except for the third one or something like that. That’s how fantastic his ears are. That’s why it’s kind of hard to play in front of him. But anyway, that’s just an aside. So now, that’s just a pretty little exercise, the do in C. Now sometimes what he does is he’ll play the one, one of the one, the two, the three, and instead of the four being major, he’ll make the four like four minor or like F minor. So he’ll do this.
  11. 6:16is really pretty. Just that alone. Now we’ll do it with the half step below too. Really pretty. The next thing that he does, which is even more interesting, is he plays those first four, four minor. But that four minor he thinks of as the four minor of C, but also that F minor is the 2 of E-flat major. So what he’ll do is he’ll say
  12. 6:502 of E-flat major. Now do them in E-flat. 2-chord, 3-chord. The 4-minor in E-flat, which is actually the 2 of G-flat. The 4-minor, which is actually the 2 of A. And then you’re back to C. So if I did them all together, it would be... And coming back, you just hit the first one.
  13. 7:34The two of the new key. to be a really pretty. Now where can you use these? Anywhere. Let’s say we’re playing a song in C and we want to play a pretty intro. So you can say or just messing around like that. Or you can even say
  14. 8:11I just want to run up the scale. Or a nice ending, it’s just pretty, pretty ending and sometimes Barry makes all those majors actually he’ll make this a major another major which is also a pretty ending but there are so many beautiful things to do with it
  15. 8:46I’d be interested to see how you guys come up with it I’ll have a few more videos about what else you can do with these besides just the major scale, because you can also do them with the major six diminished scale and also the minor six diminished scale. So maybe I’ll make a few videos like that too. Okay, I hope you enjoyed it. Enjoy practicing. See you for the next time. Thanks.