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

What can I do from the 3rd?

Episode 114 · 11:46 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris brings last episode’s question, what can I do from one degree, to Barry’s scales of chords. Keeping E, the third of C, as the top note, he harmonises it on the C major 6 diminished scale at every level of Thomas Eccles’s ‘elevator’ (thirds, triads, shells, octave chords, drops). He then applies parallel, contrary and oblique motion and borrowed diminished notes over two bars of C major in All the Things You Are.

Step by step

0:00Choose a degree to end on, here the third (E) of C, and ask what you can build under it with the scales of chords.
0:35The C major 6 diminished scale is a major scale with an added flat six; in drop 2 it alternates C6 and D diminished chords.
1:22Thomas Eccles’s elevator system: single notes, thirds, triads, shells (‘broken drop 2s’), octave chords, drop 2, drop 3, drop 2 and 4.
2:27Run the scale down from E and harmonise E on top on each floor of the elevator.
3:07Try it in All the Things You Are, two bars of C major running into C minor, first with plain drop 2s.
3:42Then use parallel thirds, triads, broken drop 2s, octave chords and drop 3s, each running into C minor.
5:26Contrary motion: one note moves up as another moves down, going from thirds to triads to broken drop 2s.
6:44Oblique motion: keep the E on top and move the notes underneath it.
9:57Borrow notes from the diminished, above or below, while keeping E on top.
11:07Do the same from every degree and with all four of Barry’s scales of chords.

Barry’s own words on this

9.3 The major 6th diminished scale (a major scale with one more note)9.4 Playing the scale of chords (block chords up and down the 6th dim scale)10.4 Borrowing 11.3 Mirror image and contrary motion between the hands

In the course

Half step below What can I do from each degree?The major 6 diminished scale Every chord belongs to a scale of chords The elevator: Thomas Eccles’ floors Broken drop 2 Parallel, oblique and contrary motion Borrowing Chord melody with the scales of chords

Transcript

0:00Hello and welcome to episode 114 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would discuss this idea of being able to start on any degree and it triggers you to do something like we were doing with the single notes for the last episode. But I thought instead we could push it over to the idea of playing it with Barry’s scales of chords. So we’re going to take a degree of the scale, we’ll say that’ll be the degree that we want to end it on, but what can we build out from that to harmonize it?
0:35So for instance, we’ll take C major 6 diminished. Here’s our drop 2s. Okay, so our scale, for those of you that are new, is a major 6 diminished scale is going to be a major 6, a major scale but with an added flat saxo. There’s our scale. And then when you harmonize it, you’re going to get, the first one’s going to be a C major 6, the second one’s going to be a D diminished, and then from there on out, it’s just going to be inversions of those two.
1:11Then you have another C6, another D diminished, another C6, another diminished, another C6, another diminished, back to C6 again. So what’s interesting about these are Thomas of Labyrinth of Limitation has this beautiful method of trying to see all the different ways to harmonize it. And he came up with what he calls this elevator system, which is so helpful for the guitar. It’s really helped me out a lot. And basically what it is, is each note can be harmonized in different ways, and then you have to figure them out. So the first floor would just be
1:47single notes. The second floor would be thirds. The third floor would be triads. The fourth floor would be what he calls shell voicing. So I call them broken drop two because they look like either the highest three notes or the lowest three notes of the drop two. Then the next one is going to be octave chord. The next one’s going to be drop two. The next one’s going to be drop three. Next one’s going to be drop two, drop four. And what’s beautiful about it is those are a lot of the different ways that we can harmonize with that E on top. So if we take the E and we just play the scale backwards from E. So here’s the third, second, root, seventh, sixth,
2:27flat, sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second, root, seventh, sixth, flat, sixth, fifth. So there we are. So each one of these can be harmonized with this note. There’s a third, there’s a triad there’s a broken drop two or there’s a broken drop two and then there’s an octave chord there’s a drop two drop three and the last one drop two drop four really pretty now it goes on again to like double octaves but we’ll just keep it at that since we’re doing e uh but those are all pretty so let’s say okay how am i supposed to use that well most of the
3:07time we usually play drop twos for everything because we’re like we’re guitar players are very drop too heavy but those little ones are so special so for instance let’s say where would we use a C major so I was thinking to put it in all the things you are here it comes so we got there was just using drop twos but I could have done a bunch of stuff
3:42parallel so I could have said just thirds so I could have said I said now C minor so I ran it into C minor but see that’s just thirds I could have done a little thing on thirds maybe I can do triads so let’s try it Now I’m back to C minor again. So I just did a little thing in triads.
4:18I put a half step below the top note. Now maybe I’ll do broken drop twos. Same thing. Really pretty. The broken drop twos are pretty. How about octave chords? So if I said... Works beautifully.
4:51Those octave chords, so pretty. Totally staying away from drop twos. How about, well, drop threes are going to sound funny because you’re going to have the A in the bass, but it’ll be okay. So if we said... Really pretty. I’m just running each one of them into C minor because that’s the next chord. So you see how many different ways we can approach that? We got two measures of C major, and I’m just doing different things parallel from different points. I’m doing it from thirds, from triads, from...
5:26You know, I’m not saying it’s the best thing in the world, but it gives you different ideas. Now, other ways you could use movement, still starting on the third would be if we did... if we did a contrary motion where one note moves up and one note moves down. So if we did contrary motion, let’s say with thirds. So wait, thirds goes to triads, goes to broken drum tunes. Really pretty. So maybe we’ll end like that. So we’ll say something that’s at least moving around. We could have gone even further.
6:10But you see how pretty that is? Now I’m doing contrary motion. Maybe I’ll start with triads. So I’ll move from triads. I’m sorry. I’ll move from triads to broken drop twos to octave chords, which is really pretty. So let’s try that one. Oh, sorry. I couldn’t really go on this one, which is really pretty. But you see, it gives you a little bit of movement.
6:44Now, Barry has like a million different things that he does. One of the ones that he does is... Back to C minor, something like that. That’s also a pretty one. But it just shows you. And this is all with having the E on top. So that is our note that we say we want to end on that note, but all the different ways to harmonize it Then there’s also, we did parallel motion, we did contrary motion And then there’s oblique motion where you keep the E, but then you maybe move the notes around Underneath the E, but keep the E constant
7:20So we can do that, so we’ll say But, I mean, you see how many pretty things there are? That’s with oblique motion. Maybe instead of moving one note, maybe we’ll move third. Which is really pretty, so maybe I’ll try that one. Perfect.
8:01All those work really nicely. And that’s basically two measures of C major. It’s so nice. So you see all those different ones. And the only thing that concerned me was I said I wanted to stop on E. I want E to really be the one. E to be the note that I’m harmonizing everything around. I mean, it’s just so, there are so many beautiful things to think about. And also you think about the length of time you have. Like some songs, the C major, maybe it only goes for a measure. So you don’t have so much time to do all that stuff. But do you see how many different things you can do?
8:34It’s limitless. I like these triads. I like these triads where you take a triad and then you take the bottom note and you put a half step below. Maybe we’ll do that one. I mean, there’s so many nice things to do with it. It just gives you a different way maybe to approach chording.
9:22It gives you a chance to say, let me think a step ahead. Okay, so I’m playing this pretty chord melody, or I’m accompanying somebody, and I’m kind of comping the melody a little bit, and I end on that third of that C. What stuff that I can do from there? Physically, what can I do? What am I used to doing from there? I mean, most people are used to playing C major, seven, in just the regular root position, drop two, which are really pretty. But now, look, if you have all these other little things you can do. And we haven’t even gotten into borrowing notes. When you borrow some notes, that’s nice. Now I borrowed, instead of using any of the six notes,
9:57I started to use some diminished notes. So maybe I can do that. Maybe I can borrow some diminished notes. So like for instance there, there’s a triad. So maybe I’ll do something like that. Which is pretty. That’s pretty. Aren’t those pretty? Just borrowing some notes. Or maybe I’ll borrow this one and this one. All these are pretty. That time I borrowed this note above and this note above. But if I wanted to keep the E on top
10:33and maybe borrow this from the one below too, which is pretty. That’s pretty too. Also pretty, but I like also the top note. Yes. So many nice things so many nice things so be sure because Thomas just made a video about this be sure to check out his I’ll leave the link in the description for his
11:07But so this is just as this is just to show you you should be able to do all the things that I was talking about You should think about what if I could do that from every degree of the scale Every degree and thinking about it from barriers from the point of view of Barry’s scales of chords So either the major six diminished minor six diminished dominant seven diminished or dominant seven plus five diminished It gives you quite a few options that will make you sound completely unique to you. And you’re not going to sound like anybody else. So just something to keep in mind. Until next time, enjoy practicing harmonizing from the third.