In plain words
Barry said jazz players should know movements the way classical musicians do: how to get to the II, how to get to the IV, how to make a deceptive cadence. The knowledge, he said, is almost exactly the same. He was dismayed that classical pianists could play a piece well without knowing it went to the relative minor and back; the reason to learn classical pieces is to ask why the composer went here and how he got from here to there.
Rhythm before notes0:000:37Classical pianists should know the changes0:411:13
This was the lesson he took from Coleman Hawkins, who said he played movements, not chords. Barry listed what one should know: how to go to the relative minor, how to come back from the IV to the I, the little things he found young players no longer knew. Playing a tune in every key, he said, comes not from drilling keys but from knowing certain moves so well they are automatic.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle15:20Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶401Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶403Ted Panken, For Barry Harris’ 82nd Birthday ¶24
The IV minor is the move he named most. In a 1998 workshop tune in A♭, he pointed out that the I goes not to a IV dominant seventh but to the IV major seventh and then to the IV minor, and said that to get back to the I he sometimes plays the IV minor; for a line, a D♭ minor arpeggio down to E♭, the fifth of A♭. Elsewhere: at the end of the second eight you play the IV minor and go back to the I.
The 1998 workshop, part 38:098:419:20Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle15:5311 March 2016: Stella by Starlight9:14
Other ways in: in a B♭ blues, the diminished a half step above the II (Barry’s E diminished, after the E♭ chord) takes you to the II and also back to the I, which he found the most thrilling; the one a half step below the II only takes you to the II. On When Sunny Gets Blue the II goes to the IV minor. Barry also heard ii-V-I as IV-V-I: D minor 7 is really F major.
Practising the blues with the horns, part 19:1410:57Bird’s D7 line on Indiana4:034:37The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are6:347:10
Step by step
From the I, go to the IV major seventh (not a IV seventh), then to the IV minor, then back to the I.
I in A♭- A♭
- C
- E♭
IVmaj7: D♭maj7- D♭
- F
- A♭
- C
IV minor: D♭ minor- D♭
- F♭
- A♭
back to I- A♭
- C
- E♭
Over the IV minor, a line can run down the minor triad of the IV and land on the fifth of the I.
The 1998 workshop, part 39:20
Go from the II minor seventh to the IV minor seventh, as in When Sunny Gets Blue.
In E: F♯m7- F♯
- A
- C♯
- E
to Am7 (IV minor)- A
- C
- E
- G
Bird’s D7 line on Indiana4:03Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Vocal Workshop Video: product page and workbook table of contents ¶22
How he said to practise it
Practise dominants into the dominant a minor third above, such as B7 into D7: Barry gave the II to IV minor move in When Sunny Gets Blue as one reason for it.
When you learn a piece, classical or jazz, work out where it goes and how it gets there (to the relative minor and back, to the IV and home) instead of only learning to play it.
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
There are certain things that we should know: how to get to the two, how to get to the four... how to be deceptive. Do the deceptive cadence.
That doesn’t go to the four seven... It goes to the four major... Then it goes to the minor.
The reason to be learning classical pieces would be to be learning the same thing. Improvisation. Why did they go here? How did he go from here to here?
Knowing how to go to the relative minor... all these different little things. That’s what one should know.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it11 moments in 9 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Rhythm before notes
- 0:37
We should know how to get to the II and the IV and make a deceptive cadence, like classical players.
The 1998 workshop, part 3
Classical pianists should know the changes
- 0:41
Classical pianists who don’t know their piece went to the relative minor and back; learn how composers move.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle
- 15:53
Radio interview: young pianists lack automatic moves, like the IV minor back to the I at the end of the second eight.
11 March 2016: Stella by Starlight
Practising the blues with the horns, part 1
- 10:57
Blues: the diminished a half step above the II leads to the II and back to the I.
Bird’s D7 line on Indiana
- 4:03
When Sunny Gets Blue in E: a II then a IV minor, one reason to practise B7 into D7.
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are
- 6:34
Half-diminished as a minor IV with the sixth in the bass: minor IV, V, I rather than II-V.
Bud Powell’s sudden change of key
- 0:49
Asks why Bud Powell, in B♭, suddenly plays in F and then C, switching keys mid-stream.
From the lessons1 lesson, 6 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
First progressions to know
- Exercise
- Exercise
Another one Barry counts among the first progressions to know: put B in the bass, play the chord over it, then move a note down, and you arrive at E major.
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes3:58
- Exercise
Barry worked through a chain of dominants with a student: where you need A7, he says to play E minor 6; for G7, D minor 6; and for F, C minor 6 (he first said B-flat minor 6, then corrected himself). Notice that each minor sixth sits on the fifth of the chord being aimed for.
- Exercise
Working on a blues, Barry had the pianist take the F7 and change it to an F-sharp diminished chord, which moves right to C major, with the fifth on top or something similar. Learning to make small chord changes like this is, he says, the kind of thing you should be doing.
- Idea
In the tune Barry was studying, the I goes to the IV, but not to a IV dominant seventh: it goes to the IV major seventh and then to the IV minor. Barry says that sometimes, to get back to the I, he plays the IV minor. In A-flat he offered a line for this: a D-flat minor arpeggio played downward, landing on the fifth of A-flat.
- Idea
In writing6 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Barry, in a 1999 radio interview, tied this to Coleman Hawkins: it isn’t chords but movements, how you go from one place to another, with a chord dropping in along the way. He named going to the relative minor and coming back from the IV to the I as what one should know.
In the DownBeat version Barry adds that music is movement, that you have to play a chord that moves, and that once you know more about movement you can venture away from it.
The workbooks for Barry’s videos give these moves their own sections: ‘Going from IV – I’ in the improvisation chapter of Workshop Video Part 2, and the II minor 7 moving to the IV minor 7 in When Sunny Gets Blue in the Vocal Workshop.
Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Workshop Video Part 2: product page and 156-page workbook table of contents ¶16Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Vocal Workshop Video: product page and workbook table of contents ¶22
Tomasz Białowolski’s chord-by-chord transcription of the 2016 Rome class shows a passage in B♭ running F minor 7, B♭7, E half-diminished, E♭ minor 7, B♭6: the ii-V of the IV, then, by way of the raised IV, a IV minor back to the tonic.
Tomasz Białowolski, Barry Harris, Rome 11/03/2016 (transcription of a class video) ¶15
Jazz School Online’s glossary gives the stock way from a major chord to its relative minor and on: C major, B diminished, A minor, A♭ diminished, C over G, then the minor over F♯ (the sixth in the bass).
Guillermo García-Valdecasas points to sixth chords used as subdominants in Chopin’s Nocturne op. 48 no. 1: an F minor 6 in a cadence in C minor, and an A♭6 when the music is in the relative major, E♭.
Guillermo García-Valdecasas Vaticón (Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid), The Barry Harris harmonic theory in Chopin’s work ¶158Guillermo García-Valdecasas Vaticón (Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid), The Barry Harris harmonic theory in Chopin’s work ¶159Guillermo García-Valdecasas Vaticón (Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid), The Barry Harris harmonic theory in Chopin’s work ¶161
How other teachers explain it4 videos, 6 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- (ADV) Barry Harris’ Advanced Movement from the I - IV by Dapo Olanipekun
Barry Harris’s advanced movement from the I to the IV (from the title).
9 min On YouTube
- Little Lab 24: Concert Announcement + Moving From I to IV + Playing on Moon River
Moving from I to IV, applied to Moon River (from the title).
18 min On YouTube
- The BEAUTIFUL Minor iv 🎄 for
The minor iv, for guitar (from the title).
under 1 min On YouTube
- Jazz GUITAR Reflections on BARRY HARRIS
Among the minor sixths from a diminished chord, the ‘minor four’ (C minor 6 pulling to G).
1.7 h, transcript 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 further2 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- Howard Rees, Jazz Workshops
— Barry’s vocal workshop works through II minor 7 to IV minor 7 in When Sunny Gets Blue (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) — Barry’s clinic includes a section on going from IV to I (paid; contents free).