In plain words
Wherever he went, Barry said, players turned out nothing but eighth notes; many could not manage triplets, not even quarter-note triplets. Most young players, he thought, could not even picture a sixteenth-note triplet, because they do not think in rhythm. A line needs triplets and has to deal with space, not just run eighths, and he pressed Freddie Hubbard on this so often that he nicknamed him ‘Trip’.
Believe: a talk to musicians1:44Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York12:2412:56
Triplets rule the world, he told one class. He described a film of African drummers: once a three came in against the two, everyone started jumping. He also pointed out that English is a triplet language: everyday questions such as ‘where have you been?’ or ‘what did you do?’ fall into three notes and land on the next one.
Beyond the ‘ands’, he said, you have to know the six. In Almería he kept a count of one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and going and laid groups of 1-2-3 over it: six against the four. Even while saying four you should be thinking six, even on ballads and above all when soloing, and he told singers the same. Once you think in six you become another drummer, going with the six instead of the drummer’s four.
Believe: a talk to musicians31:1131:4832:55Student performances and coaching13:4416:4319:17
For Barry the six is what set Bird apart. At one master class he said he was not even sure Bird knew it, but thought he dealt in six, which is why nobody could imitate his ballads; in Almería he said plainly that Bird knew the six. Sonny Stitt could make you think of Bird at fast tempos, he said, but on a ballad the feeling was missing, because Stitt did not have the six.
Student performances and coaching13:44Believe: a talk to musicians32:22Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶877
How he said to practise it
Practise sixteenth-note triplets. Barry told two tenor players to practise them always, and later in the same class noted that neither soloist had played one, calling it the most beautiful triplet of all.
Slip triplets into your eighth-note lines. When a student slipped one in during class, Barry said that is how a player is supposed to play, and joked that if you counted the triplets in your favourite stars’ solos he could pay you a nickel for each and hardly spend a dime.
Try the entry Barry said he likes most for an eighth-note triplet: start on the ‘and’ of four and tie that eighth note over to the first note of the triplet.
Feeling the ‘and’16:06
Count a ballad in six instead of four, as Barry counted one off 1-2-3-4-5-6 at a master class, and feel where your phrases fall against it.
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
It can’t be just eighth notes. It’s got to be triplets, it’s got to be dealing with space.
Triplets rule the world. The world is based on triplets.
As you’re playing everything, you’ve got to think of that six. Even while you’re saying one and two and three and four.
Once you start thinking the six, you become another drummer.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it12 moments in 5 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Believe: a talk to musicians
Student performances and coaching
- 13:44
Think six even on a ballad; nobody can imitate Bird’s ballads because he dealt in six.
- 16:43
Counts a ballad off in six; thinking six makes you another drummer.
- 12:32
Practise sixteenth-note triplets; triplets rule the world; African drummers’ three against two.
- 16:08
English is a triplet language: everyday questions fall into threes.
- 25:18
Neither soloist played a sixteenth-note triplet, the most beautiful of all.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York
- 12:24
Young players can’t imagine a sixteenth-note triplet; he called Freddie Hubbard ‘Trip’.
Feeling the ‘and’
Giant Steps in the piano class
- 10:20
On Giant Steps: wants some triplets stuck in, not just eighth notes.
From the lessons2 lessons, 10 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Think in six
- Idea
- Exercise
Beyond the ‘ands’, Barry said you have to know the six. He counted one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and and then counted 1-2-3, 1-2-3 over it, showing six even pulses against the four beats. Even while you are saying one-and-two-and, you should be thinking 1-2-3-4-5-6. He admitted that might be difficult, and said drummers in particular should know it.
- Exercise
On a ballad such as What’s New or You Don’t Know What Love Is, count 1-2-3-4-5-6 instead of a plain four and start accenting the third and sixth pulses. Then you become another drummer, moving with the six rather than with the drummer’s 4/4. Barry said soloing is mostly when you should think in six rather than four, and he gives the same advice to singers.
- Idea
For Barry the six is what set Charlie Parker apart from his imitators. Sonny Stitt, he said, could make you think he was Bird at fast tempos, but on a ballad he lacked the feeling because he didn’t know the six. Barry heard the six in Bird’s ballads, and thought that is why nobody could imitate Bird’s ballad playing.
Believe: a talk to musicians31:4832:22Student performances and coaching13:2714:07
Beyond straight eighth notes: triplets
- Exercise
Jazz is played in eighth notes, not quarter notes. When horn players run a scale exercise, play it in eighths against the count; when Barry’s band switched from quarters to eighths, it sounded better right away.
Practising the blues with the horns, part 10:37
- Idea
Barry complained that players all over the world only play eighth notes. Many cannot play eighth-note triplets or even quarter-note triplets, and most young players, he said, could not even imagine a sixteenth-note triplet because they don’t think rhythmically. A line can’t be just eighth notes: it has to include triplets.
Believe: a talk to musicians1:44Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York12:2412:56
- Idea
Barry used to keep after Freddie Hubbard to play some triplets, and even called him ‘Trip’ to make him do it.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York12:24
- Exercise
Practise sixteenth-note triplets. In a master class Barry told the two tenor players to always practise them. Later in the same class he pointed out to two players that neither had played one while soloing; he called it the most beautiful triplet of all, and said learning everything you can about improvising means knowing how to use these triplets.
- Exercise
- Idea
To show how natural triplets are, Barry pointed out that everyday English questions, like asking where someone has been or what they did, fall into groups of three. Even the opening words of a ballad title can make a triplet. Hearing the triplet in speech helps you phrase in triplets when you play.
In writing5 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Asked in 2006 to define bebop, Barry called it mostly syncopation and said he was now beginning to feel that you have to feel six against four, as well as the ‘ands’.
Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶11
In an interview Barry agreed that the triplet is a tool for variation: throw one into a run of straight eighths and it changes how those eighths sit. He wanted triplets brought back, and added that players run on continuously instead of pausing and breathing as we do when we talk.
Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶883Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶885
De Lima describes Barry demonstrating the six in Almería by counting quarter-note triplets against a student’s 4/4 count, and notes that Howard Rees’s workbook shows it as six quarter-note triplets in a 4/4 bar. When students pressed for more, he says, Barry would only answer that Parker thinks in six over four.
Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶877Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶1503Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶1517
Brad Mehldau recalled a master class in which Barry scolded the students for endless chains of eighth notes: to Barry, triplets mixed among the eighths were necessary for real bebop. Mehldau adds that many hard-bop players from the 1950s on lacked them too.
Forum members describe an eighth note on an upbeat leading into an eighth-note triplet as a typical bebop way to begin a phrase, and compare its rhythm to the sung opening of Blues in the Night.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Quick start guide to Barry Harris line building ¶62jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶215
How other teachers explain it6 videos, 1 series episode
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- TILF Barry Harris Episode 24 Practicing Triplets Jazz Guitar
Things I’ve Learned From Barry Harris, episode 24: practising triplets.
16 min, transcript On YouTube
- Eighth Note Triplets in Autumn Leaves and Donna Lee EP73 TILF Barry Harris
Episode 73: eighth-note triplets in Autumn Leaves and Donna Lee.
13 min, transcript On YouTube
- 16th Note Triplets are Pretty EP 74 TILF Barry Harris
Episode 74: sixteenth-note triplets.
10 min, transcript On YouTube
- Barry is still teaching us beautiful triplets EP 107 TILF Barry Harris
Episode 107: triplets Barry taught.
11 min, transcript On YouTube
- Jazz Mandolin Instruction Barry Harris Eighth Note Triplets Pete Martin
Mandolin lesson 45 in his Barry Harris series: eighth-note triplets.
7 min On YouTube
- THIS Is How You Play Bebop Like the Masters | Barry Harris Half-Steps and Triplets
Bebop lines with Barry’s half steps and triplets, by its title.
11 min On YouTube
In the teaching series
Episodes on this idea in the long series by other teachers. Each name opens that whole series in order.
Read further3 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- openstudiojazz.com
— Chris Parks’s course on Barry’s soloing has a lesson on triplets (paid).
- Howard Rees, Jazz Workshops
— The vocal workshop’s opening part on rhythm includes a section on ‘6’ (paid).
Books and paid courses
- The Barry Harris Workshop Video Part Two, Howard Rees: ~4h15, 156-page workbook; chapters Improvisation (49 sections), Rhythm Section (17), Harmony (41)
Barry himself (produced and transcribed by Howard Rees) — Its rhythm-section chapter covers feeling 6 while playing in 4/4 and phrasing a melody in 6 over 4 (paid).