Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 6: Line devices

Pivots, pivots and more pivots

Episode 161 · 13:03 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris goes back over Barry’s pivot (what others call octave displacement) on an F7 scale and treats it as a puzzle piece to join to other things. He plays it on the beat and on the ‘and’, after scale runs, in chains down the scale, and with half steps below and ‘nap backs’, showing how much more there is in an idea you think you already know.

Step by step

  1. 0:34On F7, know the scale up and down, in thirds, triads and chords (Barry’s word for arpeggios), from every degree
  2. 1:40Pivot the chord from F: hit F where it is, then play A, C and E flat an octave down
  3. 2:14Or think of it as: from the note, drop a sixth (major or minor in the scale), then go up a triad
  4. 2:47Barry’s drill: chord up, then the pivot, from F, then E flat, then D, on down the scale
  5. 3:24Start pivots on the ‘and’ as well as on the beat
  6. 5:38Join it to scale runs: go up three notes, then pivot; then from the 7th, 6th and 5th
  7. 6:11Go up four notes so the pivot falls on the ‘and’, then add a scale note down after it
  8. 7:17Chain them: pivot, down a scale note, pivot, down a scale note; try two or three in a row, then finish with half-step rules
  9. 9:20Put a half step below the second note, or the top note, of the pivot
  10. 10:39Add a ‘nap back’ (note, half step below, back) on the first, second or last note of the pivot

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

F71:06
𝄞♭
C3FACE♭
  1. F
  2. A
  3. C
  4. E♭

Barry’s own words on this

6.7 Pivoting7.2 Building phrases from small pieces (class phrases)7.5 Rhythmic placement

In the course

Scale-wise runs of any lengthChord up: Barry’s ‘chord’Feel the ‘and’PivotsHalf step belowNap backLearning togetherPractise pieces connected to other piecesThere is no ‘having it together’

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 161 of things I learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would take another look. We’ve done this before, but at pivots. So, in Barry’s way of talking about uh soloing, there’s this thing that we use all the time and that you’re going to hear Charlie Parker use, Bud Powell use, all the masters, Sonny Rollins use it, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young. And he calls it a pivot. Some people call this uh other people refer to it as octave displacement, but it’s the same thing. So, just when you see a video of
  2. 0:34Barry talking about a pivot, this is what he’s referring to. So, let’s take F7 scale. There’s our F7 scale, okay? Now, the concept of a pivot is this. The first thing you have to know about a scale is you have to know how to play the scale up and down, scale in thirds. So, thirds is just the measurement is play a note, skip a note, play a note. So, that’s thirds. Then you have triads, which is do the same thing as thirds, but skip another note and add another note. So, now we have three notes. Play a note, skip a note, play a note, skip a note, play a note. That’s thirds. Now, this next part is what a lot of
  3. 1:06people refer to as arpeggios, but Barry never called this an arpeggio. This to Barry is a chord. And this is going to be play a note, skip a note, play a note, skip a note, play a note, skip a note, play a note. So, >> [cough] >> four. >> [clears throat] >> So, if we do it, we say F, skip a note, A, skip a note, C, skip a note, E flat. That’s our chord. Now, you have to be able to take that exact measurement and move it up the scale. So, we have to learn how to do that. From every degree. Same thing, you know, with going down.
  4. 1:40All them same thing going down. And so on. Now, what a pivot is is if I take this first one, this F A And if you see I’m starting on the G string, so a little bit higher up. I got F A C E flat. Now, he used to say play the same four notes, but hit the first note where it is, and now the next [music] three notes, which in this case would be A C E flat, hit down an octave. So, if I’m here, there’s my down an octave. So, now instead of the chord sounding like this,
  5. 2:14it sounds like this. Now, a couple of interesting things about that. You could look at it several ways. You could look at it and say, “Okay, it’s the same three notes going down.” Now, also, we’ve discussed this at Open Studio uh and on my school all the time. Another way to see it is, and I think Lee brought this up at um at Open Studio, is you say, “I’m going to think from this [music] note down a sixth.” Whatever that sixth is in the scale, whether it’s major or minor, down a sixth and then up a triad, which is
  6. 2:47pretty. That’s another way to think about it if you if you can’t if you can’t get it that way, think of it as jumping down a sixth. Now, uh you should be able to do this from every degree. So, the way that Barry used to have us practice it, he would say like, “Okay, let me I’m going to do the chords down starting from F, then the next one I’ll do E flat. Watch.” So, here’s the chord up, here’s the pivot. Here’s the chord up from E flat, pivot. Here’s the chord up from D, that’s a good one.
  7. 3:19So, you have to know all those, okay? That’s a nice way to practice it. But, there’s a couple of other ways that you can practice it because, remember, this pivot is a puzzle piece. A puzzle piece meaning you’re not just going to do um a whole solo of pivots, you’re going to be able to connect pivots to other things. So, whatever that other thing is, you have to be able to then say, “When I get to that note, I have to be able to do a pivot.” Now, another interesting thing about pivots is, for years, I thought pivots are always on
  8. 3:52the beat. Totally wrong. Totally wrong. Pivots are on both, starting on the beat or on the end. Uh You see that? That sounds pretty. Listen. Uh from third. So, if I said, watch. >> [music] [music] >> That’s a pretty phrase, starting with a pivot. Right? So, pivots on the end are also so important. So, if I said, 1 2 3 4 1. Uh
  9. 4:27chord up, starting on the end. >> [music] >> Chord up. Uh and so on. So, you have to know those. Now, um a nice way to practice them connecting to things is Uh you know, when we first learn how to play the scale, we say, let’s go up the scale seven notes. Now, that’s not just telling us that we need to know how to go up a scale seven notes. That’s also telling us we need to know how to go up scale wise as many notes or as few notes as we want, but
  10. 5:01scale wise, no jumps. So, if we said, here’s our seven notes up up and down, we have to know how to do three notes up. >> [music] >> See, that’s just three notes up the scale. Down three notes. We have to know how to go the scale up uh do the scale up four notes. We have to know how to do the scale down four notes. That’s four notes, right? Then we have to know five notes.
  11. 5:38So, what if we do the scale up three notes and then pivot a chord? So, what if we say, 1 2 3 4. So, we’ll we’ll do that. We’ll start on the F and we’ll go up three notes and then we’ll pivot a chord. 1 2 3 4. That’s pretty. So, now I’m not just seeing the pivot by itself. Because sometimes if you just see the pivot by itself, you think you got it. Like, okay, I understand pivots now. But once you try to connect it with something else you used to solo, like another puzzle piece, that’s when you discover
  12. 6:11like, oh man, I got to work on I don’t really know that that well. So, here we go. We got We’re going to play three notes up and then a pivot. Same thing from the seventh. 1 2 3 4. Same thing from the sixth. 3 4. >> [music] >> Same thing from the fifth. 3 4. >> [music] >> So, that’s nice. Or you could say, let’s go up four notes and then we’re going to have the pivot on the end, which is pretty. 1 2 3 4. That’s a pretty one. What if I came down
  13. 6:45a scale note of the after that? Watch. >> [music] >> 3 4. That’s a pretty one. Start on the sixth. >> [music] >> Start on the fifth. See how pretty those are? These are all different ways to practice the same thing, same pivot. Okay? That’s practicing on the beat and off the beat, which are both important. Then I think it was either Luis or Dom came up. I I mean, I had done these before with
  14. 7:17pivots, but then they did it all down the scale. Watch. They did uh If we start on the tonic, we’re just going to keep going pivot. We’ll We’ll do the first pivot. That’s the first pivot, right? Starting from the F. And then you’re going to go down a scale note. That’s our That’s our pattern. So, we’re going to say pivot down a scale note, but then you have to pivot down a scale note, pivot down a scale note, pivot down a scale [music]
  15. 7:52note. So, listen what it sounds like if you put it all together if you say Now, you start on the seven, then you do the same thing. Now, you start on the six and do the same thing. The fifth, you do the same thing. >> [music] >> Sorry, I messed that one up. Wait, let me go. >> [music]
  16. 8:25>> Now, from the fourth. Let’s see. And so on, but those are great. Those are not only great to see a few of them in a row cuz sometimes you might do two in a row. Sometimes you might say That’s a pretty one. That was the one from the seventh to the fifth. And then I just did some half-step rules. So, one, two, three That’s a nice phrase. So, you might do
  17. 8:58two in a row. Let’s see what three in a row would sound like. That’s a nice one. Three in a row is pretty. That’s pretty. >> [music] >> So, that’s three in a row. But, you see that’s a nice way to practice it, too. Another nice way to practice pivots is mess around with um either half-step below something or doing what we refer to as a nap back,
  18. 9:33which is playing a note, going a half-step below that note, then back to that note. So, look, if we do the one from F, watch. Here’s F. That’s our pivot from F. Now, watch, if I do a half step below the second note of the pivot. So, instead of saying F and then going right to A, I’m going to do a half step below A. That’s That’s a nice sound. What if I do um Now, you should be able to do that on all of them. You see, you could say this one. >> [music] >> Those are totally change it up. See, that’s totally different. What if I did the half step below the top note of the
  19. 10:07pivot? So, this one. >> [music] >> But, we’re going to do a half step. Now, that turns out to be a scale note, but that’s not always going to be a scale note. So, watch next one. That’s a nice one. That’s a really pretty one. How about from the sixth? Interesting. [music] Totally different sound. From the fifth? That’s a nice one. Let’s see. >> [music]
  20. 10:39>> That’s a really pretty one. Uh and then also to do uh what we refer to as napbacks. >> [music] >> So, if I’m going to do instead of this, I’m going to start on F and I’m going to put a napback on the first note. >> [music] >> No, sorry. >> [music] >> Oh, sorry. And so on. You see how pretty those are? What if I did a napback not on the first note, but the second note? >> [music]
  21. 11:12>> Those are great. Uh what if I did a napback on the last note? So, instead of this one, this one, I’ll do it on the E flat. Watch. >> [music] >> And so on. Those are great. Let’s see. >> [music] >> Wait. No. See how many ways there are to practice this one idea? So, that shows you
  22. 11:47even ideas or puzzle pieces that you feel like you really got together. There’s a million other ways to approach it. You should say, “Okay, I love the fact that I’m able to do that.” But, remember there’s more that you can get from it. And that’s always the thing I found fascinating about Barry’s classes. After a while, the language starts to repeat. Like, “Oh, yeah, he’s he said this before. I understand this.” But, then you realize he went a little bit deeper into this idea that you thought you had a total full grasp on and you realize, “Oh, I have a grasp on it, but
  23. 12:20just a little bit of it. There’s much more I can do with it.” And that’s what’s great about improvisation. It’s never-ending. You just keep going. So, uh hope you enjoyed that lesson on pivots. And if you think of it, come join me over at my school. I’ll leave a link in the description. We’re having a blast there. We have all sorts of mini lessons. We do um two Zoom classes a month. And one Zoom class, so a third one with Thomas Echols every month. So, we’re
  24. 12:54having a blast. So, come join me over there. Uh until next time, enjoy practicing your pivots.