In plain words
Barry thought piano teaching had stressed the wrong movement: the little drop of the fingers into the keys. The movement that matters goes sideways, across the keyboard, and the fingers cannot supply it; not even the forearm can. It comes from the arm, from a ‘swivel bone’ he pointed to, and that, he said, is where you play the piano from. The piano is a horizontal instrument, not just chords stacked up.
Not the fingers: playing from the arm0:000:34Believe: a talk to musicians56:03
So aim for one move for many notes. Barry played five notes without moving a finger and asked who would be the greater pianist, the one who plays five notes with one move or the one who needs five. Crossing a passage is one move, not twelve; making twelve is being ‘a finger person’. He learned this from Max Roach’s fast tempos, which forced him to find a way to play five notes at once.
The Spirit of Bebop1:041:38Not the fingers: playing from the arm1:09Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶241Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶243
The shape stays in the hand. Barry formed an A♭ minor sixth chord in the hand and played it in three positions without the shape changing; start thinking in fingers and the shape is gone. The hard part is the move between positions: a little flex keeps the thumb near where it has to go, then the hand drops onto the next position, shape intact. And the body goes too: you get into the body, which the fingers cannot reach.
This is how a run should sound. Barry asked for unprepared actions: a swish, played with reckless abandon, not caring if something comes out wrong, but kept in time and never yanked. There is no time for fingers. Nor did he want fingering planned in advance: not everything has to be fingered, it may feel awkward at first but it will come, and rules such as keeping the thumb off the black keys can be forgotten.
Let the body do it1:121:452:182:51Practising the sixth diminished scales15:3216:06The whole-tone scale, part 11:07
Step by step
Form a chord in the hand as one shape. Barry’s example was an A♭ minor sixth chord.
A♭m6, the shape Barry held in the hand- A♭
- C♭
- E♭
- F
Let the body do it3:25
Sound its notes without moving the fingers one by one: the hand moves, the shape does the playing.
Move the whole shape to the next position and drop onto it with the shape unchanged, a little flex keeping the thumb close to where it has to go. Do it three times.
Let the arm carry the shape sideways, one move per position rather than one per note.
Make a run and take your body along with it, keeping it in time.
How he said to practise it
When you practise a run, let the body decide where it goes: where the body wants to go, the hand goes. Repeat it, and keep it in time.
Don’t stop to work out fingerings. Play the new figure, accept that it feels awkward, and keep going; Barry also took things down chromatically to know them everywhere.
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
You can’t play the piano from the fingers because you cannot get the lateral movement with the fingers.
Now, who’s going to be the greatest pianist? The one who’s going to do five notes with one move, or the one who does five notes with five moves?
Take your body along with it. The body goes along.
Forget that finger business, you better find a way to do something, to play five notes at once.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it12 moments in 7 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Not the fingers: playing from the arm
The Spirit of Bebop
Let the body do it
- 3:25
An A♭m6 shape formed in the hand, played in three positions without the shape changing.
- 4:00
The hard part is moving between positions; a little flex keeps the thumb close.
- 0:37
To a student making a run: take your body along with it.
- 1:12
Unprepared actions: a swish with reckless abandon, kept in time, not yanked.
Practising the sixth diminished scales
- 16:06
Never worry about fingering; not everything has to be fingered, it’s awkward but it’ll get there.
The whole-tone scale, part 1
- 1:07
Forget the nonsense about not putting your thumb on a black key.
Believe: a talk to musicians
- 56:03
Getting over the piano horizontally: the piano is a horizontal instrument, not just chords.
Jazz theory, part 5: the sixth diminished scale
- 9:31
He wouldn’t even tell a young pianist to worry about fingering.
From the lessons2 lessons, 7 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Play from the body and the arm, not the fingers
- Idea
Barry says most people have the wrong picture of what playing the piano involves: you have to get the body into it. He places your spot just below the navel and says the fingers cannot reach the body, nor can they carry you around the keyboard on their own. You have to be able to do this, he says, and he points to Art Tatum’s runs, which can take your breath away.
- Idea
Barry says piano teaching has stressed the small downward drop of the fingers and neglected the movement that really matters, which is sideways across the keyboard. Neither the fingers nor even the lower arm can give you that lateral movement. It comes from a swivel bone he points to on the arm, which lets you get over the piano, and that, he says, is where you play from.
- Exercise
Aim for one motion, many notes. Barry plays five notes without moving a finger and asks who will be the better pianist: the one who plays five notes with one move, or the one who needs five moves. Getting from one place to another should be one move, not twelve separate ones; making it twelve moves is what he calls being a finger person. The real skill is knowing how to get from one point to the next.
The Spirit of Bebop1:04Not the fingers: playing from the arm1:09
- Exercise
Keep the chord shape in the hand and move the whole shape. Barry shows an A flat minor six shape (A flat, C flat, E flat, F) formed in the hand and played in three positions without the shape ever changing; start thinking in fingers and the shape disappears. The hardest thing to learn is the move from one position to the same shape in the next. You need a little flex (which he exaggerates when demonstrating) so the thumb stays close to where it has to go, then drop onto the next position with the shape intact, sounding the notes without moving individual fingers.
- Exercise
When you make a run, take your body along with it. Barry tells a student that the body, not the fingers, decides where the line goes. He warns against what he calls unprepared actions, where you just swish through something without caring what comes out, and he asks that the run be kept in time.
- Idea
In writing4 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Barry told the Smithsonian that when he auditioned for a new classical teacher and said he had been strengthening his fingers, the teacher replied that he did not believe in fingers. Barry laughed: he didn’t either.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶239Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶241
That teacher had him make letter shapes such as M and O with his elbows, movements Barry said you end up making most of the time, so that you learn to play five notes in one go.
From his classical teachers Barry learned to play with such ease that you never feel anything in your fingers. Many pianists end up with hand pain and carpal tunnel, he said; he never had any, until late thumb trouble.
Barry went on from that teacher to Sophia Rosoff, who had learned from the same source and continued the same approach. At 85 he was still taking lessons with her, then 95: a real jazz musician, he said, practises and learns every day, and lessons kept him sharp.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶247Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶249Victor L. Schermer (interviewer); Barry Harris, Barry Harris: Iconic Jazz Pianist and Keeper of the Flame ¶31
Where the accounts differ1 point
Barry dismissed fingers and fingering, yet he admitted catching himself working on finger strength before an audition with a new teacher. In a Spanish clinic he also said he could not play F7 as well as B♭7 or C7: musicians who play in all those keys know how to finger, he said, while he did not, and would have to play carefully.
Around Giant Steps, part 23:414:16Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶239Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶241
Read further2 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program
— Barry’s Smithsonian oral history: his piano teachers, ‘I didn’t believe in fingers’, and Max Roach’s five notes at once.
Books and paid courses
- Checkerboard Films, Barry Harris: Spirit of Bebop (documentary; also in archive as j6kxFcDyCAk)
documentary — The documentary Spirit of Bebop, where Barry plays five notes with one move (film sold).