In plain words
Barry described his teaching as sung. He stood in front of the class and sang licks, and the players had to play them straight back: whatever he did, they had to do. That, he said, showed them what improvisation is. He said other jazz teachers could not teach this way because they could not sing, and that he could sing things to you and then go to the piano and play them.
The last train to Monk: an interview29:33Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award2:55
He was not a born singer. He said he could never hold a tune, and at first could not even hum phrases well enough for his students to pick them up. Dealing with singers (lyrics, phrasing) changed that. Two or three years into his classes at the Jazz Cultural Theater he began singing phrases to one trumpet player with a good ear, Bobby Rogovin, who played each one straight back; that told Barry his singing was getting across.
Feeling the ‘and’34:46Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶285
Singers were part of one continuous class: pianists first, then singers accompanied by the class pianists, then the horns. Barry wanted singers to stay for the improvisation class so they would not be scared to venture when singing a song. With the horns he had them sing along with the scales as soon as they had the pitch and call out the changes: if you want to scat, you have to know the changes. By 1987 he was beginning to think all the horn players should come and sing.
Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers18:1818:54Practising the blues with the horns, part 10:379:50Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶521
The singing went beyond the class. Barry gave about twenty concerts with a large chorus, strings, a big band and a children’s choir, and reckoned that 2,000 to 3,000 New York singers and about 3,000 children had sung in them. He rehearsed the singers himself every week and brought in the conductor only near the end, to pass on his own spirit first.
The Spirit of Bebop37:2838:38Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶314
How he said to practise it
Sing what you play. Singers sing along with the scales the horns run as soon as they have the pitch; instrumentalists play a phrase and sing it too, and sing along when a drill is taken slowly.
Practising the blues with the horns, part 10:37Feeling the ‘and’16:06Dropping notes to feel every beat3:05
Sing the triads cleanly: major, minor, diminished. Hit each note squarely; in a workshop rehearsal in The Hague Barry called out the singers who slid up or down into the note.
Hum it, sing it, then play it. In one class Barry hummed a short line of white notes over G7 (A, E, F, G), told the class to sing it and then play it, and kept asking the trumpet player for more legato.
Repeat after me. Barry sings or hums a short numbered phrase (the ‘five’, the ‘four’, the ‘three’) and the class plays it back on their instruments at once.
Learn melodies, and learn to sing solos.
Learn the melodies, sing the solos0:52On Bill Evans and other pianists4:44
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
I get in front of my class and I just sang licks and they play it back at me... and I show them that this is improvisation
I never could hold a tune to save my life... Every time I sang the phrase, he just blew it right back at me. And then I knew I was singing all right
All the singers should be trying to sing this, too, as they’re playing it. As soon as you get the pitch, you sing it.
What y’all need to do is start learning some melodies and learn how to sing...
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it12 moments in 9 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
The last train to Monk: an interview
- 29:33
Says he sings licks to the class, they play them back, and that shows them what improvisation is.
Feeling the ‘and’
Practising the blues with the horns, part 1
Rehearsing April in Paris with the singers
- 0:00
Hague workshop singers’ warm-up: major, minor and diminished triads; calls out singers who slide into notes.
Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers
- 18:18
Explains why singers stay for the improvisation class: so they are not scared to venture.
The 5-4-3-2-1 phrase
- 1:10
Repeat after me: sings the ‘five’ and ‘four’ phrases and the class plays them straight back.
Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award
- 2:55
Says he can sing things to you and then go to the piano and play them.
The Spirit of Bebop
- 37:28
On his choral concerts: thousands of adult singers and children; rehearses the singers himself first.
Learn the melodies, sing the solos
- 0:52
Tells players to start learning melodies and learn to sing solos.
From the lessons2 lessons, 5 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Singing as a way into improvisation
- Exercise
Barry’s classroom method: he stands in front of the class and sings licks, and the students play them back; whatever he does, they have to do. He says this shows them what improvisation is, and that many teachers cannot teach this way because they cannot sing.
The last train to Monk: an interview29:33
- Exercise
- Exercise
Make a tune from numbers. In a performance Barry had an audience member pick numbers from one to eight, treated them as scale degrees and made a tune from them (2-6-4-7, then 1-8-5-3), remarking that he usually makes people sing such tunes. His point: with just the numbers one to eight, anybody can make up a song.
Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Performance1:041:405:5738:31
Barry’s choruses
- Idea
Barry estimated that about 2,000 to 3,000 singers in New York City had sung in the choruses of his concerts, plus perhaps 3,000 children in the children’s chorus. He told of a mother whose son stopped stuttering after singing in one of the concerts, and said that if we do right by the little children, they will turn out all right.
- Idea
In writing8 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Asked about his choirs, Barry told the Smithsonian they grew out of the Jazz Cultural Theater, where he ran singing classes alongside horn classes. Dealing with singers, teaching them lyrics and phrasing, is how he says he taught himself.
His concerts grew from ten singers and ten strings to as many as eighty-four singers with strings and a big band. A high-school class that refused to sing took to jazz tunes with lyrics. With 500 children in Toronto, Barry sang them the first song, had them join in, and made them learn every song.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶314Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶315
In 2000 the nearly three dozen singers in the class learned lyrics and basic phrasing by rote. In the horn class that followed, Barry sang melodic phrases and the players answered in unison.
Barry’s vocal workshop video opens with a section titled ‘Singers are Rhythm Instruments First’ (upbeats and ‘6’), then warm-ups: the B♭ major arpeggio, intervals on the B♭ major scale, the B♭ minor arpeggio, harmonic minor and whole-tone scales, and B♭ major, augmented, minor and diminished triads and arpeggios.
Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Vocal Workshop Video: product page and workbook table of contents ¶13Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Vocal Workshop Video: product page and workbook table of contents ¶14Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Vocal Workshop Video: product page and workbook table of contents ¶16
Students remember the class as sung: Barry sang the lines, and the players worked them out and played them back on the spot. One adds his own moral: if you cannot sing a line, you cannot really play it.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Excellent study of Barry Harris’ chord system ¶13923 Reddit users (handles kept per comment), Reddit: first-hand recollections of Barry Harris’s classes ¶130jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶943
On the four-DVD workshop set Barry sings nearly everything and hardly touches the piano, introducing each sung idea with a phrase such as ‘and you say...’.
A 1990s student recalls the evening opening with the singers learning a standard such as Honeysuckle Rose, then a bebop line on the same changes (Marmaduke), before the instrumentalists played lines built from chord tones Barry gave them.
A student who tried to slip out as a group piano class flowed into the vocal session was stopped by Barry, told they had a nice voice, and made to sing first.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Tom Jobim - Wave Analysis using Barry Harris Method ¶396
How other teachers explain it3 videos
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- My Chat With Chris Parks From Things I Learned From Barry Harris
Recalls the singers’ class: Barry picked a standard and lined the singers up by key.
62 min, transcript On YouTube
- Jazz GUITAR Reflections on BARRY HARRIS
Chris Parks on the singers’ class: one standard sung in about six keys, singers queued by key.
1.7 h, transcript On YouTube
- Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Introduction by Gary Giddins
Says many New York singers started in Barry’s classes; describes his yearly concerts with choirs, big band and dancers.
13 min, transcript On YouTube
Read further5 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- checkerboardfilms.org
— The Spirit of Bebop documentary shows Barry rehearsing his chorus and talks about his concerts (film sold).
- franselsen.com
— Free videos of Barry’s Hague workshops, where you can watch him sing lines for the class to play.
Books and paid courses
- The Barry Harris Vocal Workshop, 85-minute DVD + workbook (Howard Rees)
Barry himself — Barry teaching a vocal class on video: rhythm, warm-ups, triads and scales sung, with a workbook (paid).
- The Barry Harris Workshop Video (Part 1), Howard Rees / Jazz Workshop Productions: 4+ hours, 5 clinic segments + 102-112 page workbook (ABCs, scales on song forms, movable chords, rhythm section, vocalizing)
Barry himself (produced and transcribed by Howard Rees) — The workshop video includes a vocalizing segment alongside the instrumental clinics (paid).
- Barry Harris Institute of Jazz: revived NYC workshops, Barry Harris Jazz Choir, members’ courses (Barry’s Classes on Improvisation, Harmony Primer, Guide to Harmonic Movement for Piano) and a searchable Digital Archive of Barry’s footage
Barry’s institute — Barry’s institute keeps a Barry Harris Jazz Choir and the workshops going (members).