Barry HarrisThe method

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

Must-know minor ii-V’s in drop 2

Episode 159 · 13:59 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris voices a minor ii-V in D minor in drop 2: E minor 7 flat 5 is G minor 6, from the G minor sixth diminished scale, and lowering every note but the G a half step gives A7 flat 5. Using Barry’s borrowing he then decorates the voicings with the diminished above, half steps below and scale tones above, moving only some of the voices, so that no two ii-Vs need sound the same.

Step by step

  1. 1:21Take the minor ii-V in D minor: E minor 7 flat 5 to A7; E minor 7 flat 5 has the same notes as G minor 6, from the G minor 6 diminished scale
  2. 2:16Learn every drop 2 inversion of G minor 6 on all three four-string sets, knowing which chord tone is on top
  3. 3:24To reach A7, keep the G where it is and lower the other three notes a half step: you get A7 flat 5 (in his first voicing, with the flat 5 in the bass), going to D minor
  4. 4:29Do the move from every inversion, then try it in Alone Together
  5. 6:11Borrow: in the scale, G minor 6 sits between diminished chords, so play G minor 6, the diminished above, then G minor 6 again
  6. 7:19In a drop 2 the outer notes form a tenth and the middle two a third; move just the middle third up to the diminished above
  7. 8:32Or play the chord, put a half step below the two middle notes, return, then play the dominant
  8. 10:16Borrow on the top note only: the scale tone above, or a half step below
  9. 11:57On the inner strings, two of the notes form a sixth; borrow just that sixth
  10. 13:00Or put a half step below just the bottom note of the chord and back

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Gm67:19
𝄞♭
C3C4DB♭
  1. B♭
  2. D
Line9:07
𝄞
C4DEC5
  1. D
  2. E

Barry’s own words on this

9.1 Sixth chords rule9.5 The minor 6th diminished scale and its diminished partner10.5 Drop voicings10.4 Borrowing

In the course

The minor 6 diminished scaleDrop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4BorrowingMoving the inner or outer notes of a drop 2Minor ii-V: keep the root of the minor 6, lower the restFreedom and your own voice

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 159 of things I learned from Barry Harris. And today, I thought we would talk about uh this really interesting beautiful 2-5 in minor that I’m really enjoying looking at. But before we get started, I just wanted to remind everybody that I have uh my school 7-day free trial is going to be ending on June 1st. So, you have a little more time to get to it.
  2. 0:32But uh I’m over at school, and we started a beautiful community where we share ideas, we have uh classes twice twice a month. We have Zoom classes you can participate in or just watch the replays. Then once a month, we have a get-together with Thomas Echols, which is fantastic. And every week, I also upload little mini lessons, sometimes even really they’re really bite-size pieces that you can really get into. And we have a whole community board. It’s really beautiful space. So, uh the 7-day trial is still going on. I
  3. 1:08highly recommend it just to check it out, you know, it doesn’t cost you anything to come check it out. And see what’s happening over there. We’re having a lot of fun. So, and it ends June 1st. So, you have a little more time. So, uh anyway, on to the lesson. Let’s say minor 2-5. Now, what distinguishes something between a major 2-5 and a minor 2-5 to me is the two, right? So, a normal 2-5 in the key of D would be E minor 7 to A7. Now, we’re going to change the E minor 7 to E
  4. 1:42minor 7 flat 5, okay? Going to A7. Now, as Barry people, we know E minor 7 flat 5 is not just this stagnant chord that doesn’t belong to a scale. This E minor 7 flat 5 belongs to the G minor 6 diminished scale. So that’s interesting to know. That means that’s your scale that consists of the four notes of G minor 6 and the four notes of a diminished. So there’s our scale. So we have this beautiful eight note scale, which also gives you
  5. 2:16uh the melodic minor and the harmonic minor, but that’s beside the point for now. So let’s just talk about this a second. Now, as a guitarist we should know if this is E minor 7 flat 5, which is the same exact notes as G minor 6 as we just talked about, synonymous. We should know every inversion of this E minor 7 flat 5 or G minor 6 in drop twos. So drop twos for us guitar players is just four consecutive strings. So here’s there’s the first one and then we should know our second or the one starting with the G in the bass,
  6. 2:48the one with B flat in the bass, and the one with the fifth in the bass. Now, you should know them any which way. You should know that this is the root on the top, this is the third on the top, this is the fifth on the top, this is the sixth on the top. Any which way you want to look at that or this is also the same one, which is really pretty. Now, for drop twos, we have three sets of four strings. So starting with the E string, so you should know your G minor 6 is here. See all these, sorry, all these that’s on the lowest four strings. Then you
  7. 3:24should know your middle four strings. You should know those. Then you should know your high highest four strings. Um you should know all those. Now again, you should also really know the full scale on each one of those strings. Okay. So but a really nice way to play E minor 7 flat 5 going to A7 is if you take a look at this chord, you find like we said this is a G minor 6. So you find the G in this chord whatever
  8. 3:57inversion you’re in. And that’s the only note that doesn’t move. The other three notes are going to move down a half step. So if we take this the G, I’m going to take these three notes and move them down a half step. And when you do that, you’re going to notice you get this beautiful either E flat 7 flat 5 or A 7 flat 5. But since we’re thinking about it as a 2 5 like E minor 7 flat 5 to A 7, let’s think of this as E minor 7 flat 5 going to A 7 flat 5 with the flat 5 in the bass going to D minor.
  9. 4:29That’s a really pretty minor 2 5. So here we go again. Same thing, lower all the notes but the G and you get that beautiful sound. So we’ll do this one with the with the fifth in the bass. Again, we got to find the G which happens to be on the D string and you lower the other three. That’s a beautiful move. Let’s take this one with the third in the bass. Again, you got to find where the G is. So it’s still on the D string. Lower all three or
  10. 5:05That’s a gorgeous one. Now let’s do the root. So now you got the G on the bottom. We’re going to take these three notes and lower them. That’s a beautiful sound. So you see how you have to know all these? So if for instance if I was playing a lone together. You see how pretty that is? Doo doo See? See how pretty that is? That’s the
  11. 5:38different inversion. So we’ll do it again. Doo doo See how pretty that is? It’s a pretty one. Let’s do this one. So again, here’s Alone Together. It ah. Great 2 5. It’s perfect. And a quick way to to think about it is to say, I’m just going to play my G minor 6, which is the two.
  12. 6:11And I’m going to lower every note a half step but the G. It’s just a a quick way to think about it. Now, some of these shapes are a little funny and you have to be able to really you know, get them in your hands. But once you do, you got them. It’s just It’s It’s like any other shape you’re memorizing. So Now, that’s the first step. Now, here’s the second step. Barry used to talk about this all the time. See, Barry was also, besides being um understanding about chords as coming from scales, he also knew how to borrow, what he would call borrow. And he had
  13. 6:45this concept where if this is E minor 7 flat 5, he knew that it was surrounded by a diminished above and a diminished below, because that’s part of the scale. So, that’s a nice one. So, you could just say that. Say, “Okay, I’m going to play the G minor 6, the diminished above it, back to the G minor 6.” So, if I say it, do do do do That’s a perfect example or you could say Any of those is fine. But you don’t have to necessarily go to all four notes
  14. 7:19change. Sometimes you could borrow things. So, in a drop two, look at how beautiful this is. Something that’s special about a drop two, the lowest note and the highest note are a tenth. That’s very interesting. The two middle notes for this particular example are B flat and D. That’s a third. So, now you have a tenth on the outside notes, a third on the inside notes, the middle notes. So watch what I might do. Instead of doing the whole chord up, I might just do the thirds in the middle up. I might say
  15. 7:54You see how pretty that move is? So watch. That’s beautiful. I could do it here, too. Here’s the diminished above, but I’m not going to take all four notes. I’m just going to take the two middle notes. See how great that is? How about this one? Now I see my diminished is above, so I’m going to take the two middle notes above that. It’s perfect. This one, too.
  16. 8:32Great. So that’s borrowing. Now he also used to do this thing where he would borrow He liked to borrow scale tone above, scale tone below, or half step below. So let’s take a look at all these drop twos again. And we said what’s in common is the middle two notes are thirds. So what if I hit the chord and then the two middle notes, which would be flat and D in this instance, I’m going to come a half step below it back to it. So watch. What if I said uh
  17. 9:07That’s a pretty move. Listen to that. Here another two middle notes in this one are going to be the G and the B flat, so I might say That’s a pretty one. Now the middle two notes in this one is that weird second, but we know why that is cuz you just cuz you have a a note in between. So the two notes in the middle of this one with the G as the drop two is D and E, so you you might move a half step below those two. That’s a good one. How about this one?
  18. 9:41Or this one? We’ll do it from here. So, this one, the middle two notes are the E and the G. So, now you have this chord, go a half step below those middle notes. And then play the dominant. You see how pretty that is? This is a great So, this one. But, this changes everything. That means none of us should play 2-5 exactly the same way.
  19. 10:16None of us, cuz there’s too many things you could do. What if I said You know, before I said we got the scale tone above, right? Of just Su- Suppose I do just the top note. I borrow the scale tone above, I’ll say Now, we probably do those as guitar players, but this one you might not do. Listen. That one’s a pretty one. Listen to the one with G as the drop two. That one we do, probably. And now this one. I love that one.
  20. 10:52That’s a nice one. Now, if you could do just the the top note, what if I just did a half step below just the top note? If I said Same thing here. Top note here. Same thing here. I mean, those are great. So, don’t just be satisfied with your just, “Okay, I’m going to just do this every time.”
  21. 11:24You know, that’s nice, but there’s no reason why you can’t There’s no reason why you can’t make it into something else that’s more personal, that’s yours. And the way that you do it is if you see these chords as belonging to scales, not just being stagnant chords. See? And then you have a reason. Then you could try all sorts of ones. Watch. Suppose I did a We said earlier that the that we had a tenth, and then we had a third. But we also have If I take a look
  22. 11:57at these two notes, that’s a sixth. So now I’m taking a look. I’m playing the drop twos in the middle four strings. I’m leaving out the A string. I’m thinking the D string, leaving out the G string, playing and then the B string. That is a sixth. So I could just borrow a sixth. See how pretty that is? Same thing here. If I take this G minor sixth, this this inversion, those two notes are a sixth. So I can say And they all have great sounds. Listen to this one.
  23. 12:29Sorry. I messed that one up, but That’s a great sound. These You see? I mean, there’s so many really nice things. And suppose I decide to say All of this All of those musical ideas just come from the concept of thinking about scale. You see? Suppose I did this. Um
  24. 13:00That was just coming up the full scale. But But see how many different things you could do if you’re thinking about them as scales. You see? So that’s a half step below any one of these notes. Now I’m just going to do a half step below the bottom note. Watch. Half step below the bottom note. Uh Half step below the bottom note. But you created a little movement. It’s just it it’s so many ways. So, the
  25. 13:34moral of the story is do not be satisfied with just playing your same old drop two plain two-fives. Add something to them. And the way you add them to them is think about them as scales as opposed to chords. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this minor two-five concept and hopefully I’ll see you over at my school. Until next time.