Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 10: Movement

Barry’s beautiful borrowing

Episode 145 · 14:10 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris explores borrowing in the G minor 6 diminished scale: any note of a G minor 6 drop 2 can be swapped for the diminished note below it, and borrowing one, two or three notes makes familiar chords such as E flat major 7, C7, E flat 6, C6 and C minor 6. He then takes every inversion of those chords and moves the borrowed notes back, finding new movements over E half-diminished.

Step by step

  1. 0:00The G minor 6 diminished scale is G minor 6 (G, B flat, D, E) plus A diminished (A, C, E flat, G sharp).
  2. 1:21E half-diminished is G minor 6, and each minor 6 chord has a diminished just below and just above it to borrow from.
  3. 2:41On the drop 2 E, B flat, D, G, borrowing E flat for E gives E flat major 7, C for D gives C7, and F sharp for G gives F sharp 7 with a raised 5.
  4. 3:53Borrow two notes: E flat and C give E flat 6; A and C give C6.
  5. 4:29E flat for E with F sharp for G gives E flat minor-major 7.
  6. 5:07Borrow three notes to get C minor 6 or E flat minor 6.
  7. 5:39Use these as movement, for example going to E half-diminished in F major.
  8. 6:20Turn it around: play every inversion of E flat major 7 and raise its E flat back to E.
  9. 8:12Do the same with drop 3 and drop 2 and 4 voicings.
  10. 9:55Repeat with E flat 6 and C6: find each inversion and move the two notes back to G minor 6.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line0:00
𝄞♭♭♯
C4GC5DEACB♭E♭A♭
  1. G
  2. B♭
  3. D
  4. E
  5. A
  6. C
  7. E♭
  8. G#
Gm62:01
𝄞♭
C3EC4DGB♭
  1. E
  2. B♭
  3. D
  4. G

Barry’s own words on this

10.4 Borrowing9.5 The minor 6th diminished scale and its diminished partner9.9 Chords from the diminished9.6 Half-diminished = minor with the sixth in the bass; major -> relative minor -> minor/6

In the course

Sixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6The minor 6 diminished scaleEvery chord belongs to a scale of chordsDrop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4Borrowing

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 145 of Things I Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we could talk about Barry’s beautiful concept of borrowing. And I thought as an example we could use one of his beautiful scales, which is the G minor 6 diminished scale, which for those of you that don’t know, is this beautiful 8-note scale that consists of two things, the four notes of G minor 6, G, B flat, D, E, and the four notes of A diminished. A, C, E flat, G sharp. See how pretty that is? And when you play those notes together in succession, you have this beautiful eight note scale.
  2. 0:46So we’re going to take that and use the concept of playing drop twos. So drop twos would be four notes, four consecutive strings for guitar players. And so being able to do these is really important. But if you notice, because the scale is composed of what it is, every other one is a diminished. So if I start here, that’s a six. There’s one that diminishes. That’s a six. There’s a diminished six. It’s a succession of those two things. But what’s interesting about borrowing is Barry says,
  3. 1:21if you take any one of those, no matter which chord I’m looking at, so let’s say, because as Barry people, we also know that E half diminished, or E minor 7 flat 5, is also a minor 6, it’s G minor 6. And Barry said, Monk said, no such thing as a half diminished, that’s just a minor 6 with a 6 in the bass. So that’s what it would be. So E half diminished comes from G minor 6 diminished scale. So if you notice, well in guitar you can kind of really see it, I’m sure you can see it on piano too, there’s a diminished chord right below it, and there’s a diminished chord above it. But let’s talk about the diminished chord below it. So the
  4. 2:01version I’m using, or the inversion I’m using, is the one with the E as the drop to. And then right below that, the E flat diminished. So the concept of borrowing is this. Anytime I’m on a six chord or one of the minor sixes, I can borrow a note either above or below. So from the diminished below or from the diminished above. But let’s just talk about the diminished below for a second. So we have our four notes of the G minor six are E, B flat, in this order for the drop to E, B-flat, D, and G.
  5. 2:41Now, below the E is the E-flat, so let’s say we can borrow the E-flat. Below the B-flat is the A, so we can borrow the A. Below the D is the C, so we can borrow the C. Below the G is the F-sharp, and we can borrow that. Now what’s interesting is, just for those, each one of those is a chord. So what I mean by that is, if I take the E and lower it, borrow the E-flat for the E, that’s an E-flat major 7 chord.
  6. 3:18So isn’t that pretty to think of it that way too? Same thing if I take, let’s say if I take the C for the D, that happens to be a C7. So that’s pretty. then we have the G on top if we take the F sharp for the G that’s like F sharp 7 with a raise 5 or G flat 7 with a raise 5 isn’t that pretty so knowing all these things is really important and then if you start to think about well if I could borrow one note I could borrow two notes so when you start thinking about borrowing two notes
  7. 3:53you get all sorts of pretty things like for instance you can get it if you borrow let’s say for the E you borrow E flat and for the D you borrow C now you have E flat 6 so E flat major 6, that’s really pretty very nice then you have, if I borrow, let’s say for the B flat I borrow A and then for the D I borrow C now I have a C6 it’s just, there’s so many really pretty things How about if I borrow three notes?
  8. 4:29So one of the three note ones I can borrow, let’s say for the E, I borrow E-flat. Let’s say I keep the B-flat. Let’s say, well, actually, let’s still stay with two notes, because this is still two notes. This is E-flat minor major 7. That’s a real pretty one, too. That’s where I borrow the E-flat for the E, and I borrow the F-sharp for the G. That’s really pretty. Then if I wanted to do three notes, now I could do something like For the E, if I lower it to E flat The B flat, I lower it to A
  9. 5:07And the D, I lower it to C But also, just keep the G on top Now I have C minor 6 See how pretty this is? All these are beautiful I also have, if I keep the B flat I lower the D to C, I lower the G to F sharp, I lower the E to E flat, I have E flat minor six. Look at all these pretty things. So you say to yourself, okay, well what can I do with these? Well, it’s a movement.
  10. 5:39So now I know if I can go from let’s say C minor six to that, E half diminished. So let’s say I’m playing a song, F major. And I say. That was just trying to put it in a movement. So I, which is a really pretty sound. Or I could have done the E flat minor major 7. So I could have said, let’s see, start in F major again. That’s a pretty sound too.
  11. 6:20But what I started thinking about was, look at all those different chords. So normally we think about the G minor 6 diminished scale as really being composed of two chords, which is a G minor 6 and an A diminished. Yes, that’s 100% true. But that’s not the only chords that are in them, as we just discovered. Look at all these beautiful chords. E flat major 7 is in it. So what’s nice is also another way to think about borrowing is if I said that lowering that E to E flat gives you that E flat major 7. That means every one of my
  12. 7:01G minor 6 inversions I just have to find the E and lower to E flat. You see so every E-flat major 7 inversion. And see how pretty these are, so... See, that’s a pretty move, watch. That’s a really pretty move. Now, when in life would you ever think to do this? That is such a nice move.
  13. 7:34Now, the one in the bass is really pretty, too, so let’s see. That’s a pretty move. Or I could have done it here. I like that one with the flat 5. That’s a pretty one. But see, this is the power of knowing that E minor 7 flat 5 is not just a stagnant chord. It’s a chord that belongs to a scale. And in Barry’s world, every chord belongs to a scale, one or more scales.
  14. 8:12So think about that. Times that by all the chords that you know how to play and think that that really comes from something. That comes from a scale, which means I can do all sorts of pretty things. So like, let’s just take another. Here’s E-flat major 7. And so far we’ve been sticking with just drop 2s. But what if I do a drop 3? That’s an E-flat major 7 drop 3. So for those of you that don’t know, for guitar, a drop three is just play a string. I’m talking about the lowest now. Play a string, skip a string, play three strings. So that’s now, we know that that’s E flat major seven.
  15. 8:48But now I have to raise that E flat to E again. That’s really pretty. So what if I said, look, here’s drop three F six. That is such a pretty sound. Listen to that. That’s a very pretty sound. What if I did a drop two, drop four, which is play two strings, skip a string, play two strings. That’s an E flat major.
  16. 9:20Listen to how pretty that is. That’s a really pretty one. So let’s try drop two, drop four. I mean, that is some beautiful stuff. And that’s just thinking of that one chord. That was E-flat major 7. Now, suppose I started thinking about just all the different... What was another one?
  17. 9:55E-flat 6. E-flat 6 is a nice one. So that means instead of just lowering the E to E-flat, I’m also lowering the D to C. Now I have to learn all the ways to see that. So here’s E flat 6. There’s the G minor 6. So here’s another E flat 6. That’s a nice one right there. That’s a pretty one. Wait, let’s see. What did we say it was?
  18. 10:29Oh, this. You see? That’s a pretty move. Wait, let’s try it again. I mean, that is a pretty move. I would never in life think to play this. But see how pretty that is? That works perfectly. That’s an E flat 6. And then just moving those two notes back. So I’ll start on the E flat 6. Here’s an E flat 6.
  19. 11:03That’s a nice move. So wait, let’s do it from here. You see how pretty all that stuff is? Oh, man. C6. So every C6, you turn into a G minor 6. Every C6. What’s the C6 on the 6? Oh, this one. I like that one a lot. It’s just another way to look at borrowing.
  20. 11:43So you take, you say, when I lower a note, or lower two notes, or lower three notes, what chord does it make? And then let me take every inversion of that chord, and then see me move that one note, or that two notes, or that three notes, back to minor six notes. It’s just a nice way to look at it. I never quite looked at it that way. Now, I’m sure there’s a way of checking out and saying we’ll see every chord that comes from this. So we just said this G minor 6 diminished scale has an E flat major 7. It has an E flat 6.
  21. 12:17It has an E flat minor 6. It has a C minor 6. It has a C7. It has a F sharp 7 with a raised 5. So that’s a pretty one too. Boy, that is a really nice one. That just means every time you have the G on top, or the G, wherever the G is, wherever it falls in the drop 2, you find the F sharp and you put it in. So here’s the next inversion. We have to find the G. It’s the bass. I like that move. Listen to that one. That’s a really pretty move.
  22. 12:52So let’s find it. That’s the next G minor 6. So now you have to find the G. So there it is, this one. So now. I love that sound. And I might not think to play it there, but it’s really pretty sound. So let’s try it. And then. I mean that.
  23. 13:25I mean, that is just such a pretty thing. So borrowing is extremely important. And it’s something we should check out. And it’s yet another powerful thing that Barry gave us to really help us understand harmony in a way that’s totally unique to him. and that gives you more and more power to create movement within your playing so that we don’t always have to all play the same chords all the time.
  24. 13:59So anyway, until next time, enjoy discovering your different chords in your minor six diminished scale through borrowing.