In plain words
Barry called himself a phrase person and said phrasing is what he really taught singers. Most singers, he said, start singing the moment they open their mouths; that is their first mistake, because the first job is to phrase. A sung line should sound as natural as speech. Nobody makes a big thing of the last word of an everyday sentence such as ‘I went to the show’, so don’t inflate the last word of a lyric; sing My Funny Valentine the way you would say it.
Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers15:2416:0216:3517:08
Speech has pauses, and so should a line. Barry compared players who never stop to someone who talks without a break, then takes a big gulping breath and starts again. When we talk we pause and breathe, he said, and the pauses carry emphasis; space is not emptiness, and pianists have to breathe too. A singer from his class remembered him teaching that a pause, singing or playing, could be your greatest asset.
Student performances and coaching9:4010:1310:48Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York12:56Barry Harris Funeral1:07:39Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶14Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶15Brian 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
Where a phrase starts is part of how it sounds. While the bass walks one-two-three-four, Barry said, a singer should be able to come in on an ‘and’. He showed it on Misty, marking an entry on the and of four, and had all the singers sing the bridge feeling the ands, stopping himself when he slid into quarter-note triplets. In a Tokyo vocal class he brought one phrase in at different points and told the singer to learn all those spots, and to think of other songs too.
Feeling the ‘and’3:304:427:058:16Vocal workshop: swing it yourself9:3710:13
Ballads put the words first. Barry wanted horn players to know a ballad’s lyrics and phrase it naturally, keeping the words together instead of stretching them out the way some singers do. Even in a ballad he said to think of six rather than four, and he told singers the same. Rehearsing April in Paris with singers at a Hague workshop, he asked them to sing as if reliving the most beautiful experience of their lives, and bet they could not carry one line into the next on one breath.
Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers19:26Student performances and coaching13:4419:17Rehearsing April in Paris with the singers27:1127:4628:23
How he said to practise it
Check a line against speech: sing it with the stresses you would give it in conversation, and leave the last word plain.
Drill entries on each ‘and’. Over a looping I-VI-II-V Barry had singers practise hitting the ands, first the and of one, then the and of two and so on. In a Hague class he had the entry move one beat later each bar: the and of one, then of two, three and four.
Vocal workshop: swing it yourself7:027:378:13Feeling the ‘and’0:00
Learn every spot where a phrase can begin: bring the same phrase in after a full count of four, then after only two beats, listening to the band each time.
Breathe between phrases. Do not play on and on, gulp air and rush back in; leave space, and let breathing become part of the line.
Student performances and coaching10:1320:45Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York12:56
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
What I do, really I teach phrasing. I’m a phrase person... I think the first thing you’re supposed to begin to do is phrase.
The whole thing is to really make it as natural as possible
A singer should know how to come in on the and
We’re talking. We’re pausing. These pauses aren’t necessarily silence. These pauses are for emphasis.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it12 moments in 6 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers
Feeling the ‘and’
Vocal workshop: swing it yourself
Student performances and coaching
Rehearsing April in Paris with the singers
- 27:11
Hague singers on April in Paris: sing as if reliving it; carry one line into the next on a breath.
Sing it softly: Freddie Cole drops in
- 1:47
Praises a singer for singing softly, as if falling in love: that is how you get the audience.
From the lessons2 lessons, 6 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Phrase first: sing it the way you would say it
- Idea
- Exercise
Phrase a line so it sounds as natural as speech. Don’t make a big production out of the last word of a line, any more than you would when saying an everyday sentence like I went to the show. Sing a title like My Funny Valentine the way it is spoken.
- Idea
The same goes for horn players: they have to phrase a ballad naturally, keeping the words’ natural grouping rather than stretching them out oddly the way some singers do. The whole aim, Barry says, is to make it as natural as possible and get to the point.
- Idea
Barry said that working with singers is what helped him become able to sing lines himself. He says he could never hold a pitch, but he started singing phrases to a horn player who played each one straight back to him, which told him his singing was getting across.
Feeling the ‘and’34:46
Finding your place in time
- Exercise
While the bass walks one-two-three-four, a singer should be able to come in on an off-beat. Barry demonstrates with Misty, counting through the phrases and showing where the entries fall on the and of the four, then has the whole class, not only the singers, sing the bridge phrases while feeling those ands. He also catches himself drifting into quarter-note triplets (three against two beats) instead of placing the ands, and stops to fix it.
- Exercise
Learn all the spots where a phrase can start. Working on a song with a singer, Barry counts off and has her bring in the same phrase at different points, after a full count or after only two beats. He tells her to listen to the band, to learn all those spots, and to look for the same possibilities in other songs.
In writing4 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Barry likened nonstop playing to a talker who never pauses and only stops to gulp a breath. Players who cannot pause, he said, are like writers who cannot manage a short poem yet try for a novel.
Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶14Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶15
Players who run eighth notes or triplets without a break, Barry told an interviewer, either leave no gaps or treat a gap as mere silence, and they shouldn’t: a line should pause and breathe the way talk does.
In his Almería talk Barry said Bird knew the six and you could hear it in his ballads; Sonny Stitt could pass for Bird at speed, but not on a ballad, because he lacked that feeling. Think six over the 4/4.
Barry’s vocal workshop video starts from rhythm (‘Singers are Rhythm Instruments First’: upbeats and the six, applied to two standards), has a section on rubato using the verse of Lush Life, and offers rhythmic tools that make a singer sound as if making the song up while singing it.
Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Vocal Workshop Video: product page and workbook table of contents ¶9Barry 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 ¶19Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Vocal Workshop Video: product page and workbook table of contents ¶20
Read further2 links
These open on the web.
Books and paid courses
- The Barry Harris Vocal Workshop, 85-minute DVD + workbook (Howard Rees)
Barry himself — Barry’s vocal class on video: upbeats and the six for singers, phrasing exercises, rubato (paid, with workbook).
- 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).