In plain words
Barry told a class that the little spaces between phrases are for imagining that you are making up the next one, and that this is something to practise: seeing the phrase before you play it. You may not see the whole phrase, but seeing its beginning is enough to start it, and you carry it through as if you had planned it. He asked for this even with the phrases the class was learning from him: try to see them a little ahead.
Those rests are not dead time. Barry told a student band to leave empty spaces in their music, as speech has pauses, but not to think of space as emptiness. In the Hague class he had the band play without the drummer and feel the spaces as if the time were still being played. Through an interpreter he said a pause is occupied by a thought, and that he has singers silently make up the next line during it.
Student performances and coaching9:4010:13Feeling the ‘and’27:2430:12Interview: tap dance and bebop34:5135:57
Seeing ahead is how the mind leads the hands. Barry said the hardest thing to tell is whether the mind is leading or the hands are doing what they are used to; left alone, the hands fall into grooves they like. He came closest to being original when he thought of a rhythm first, without notes, then made notes fit it, thinking a little ahead of what he was playing.
On melody, the recorded evidence is thinner. Barry wanted lines to sound melodic, not like strings of eighth notes, and told players to learn melodies and to be able to sing solos. He said musicians play melodies better when they know the song, and that horn players should know the words, especially to ballads, because knowing them changes how a phrase comes out. His own way into phrasing went through singers.
Giant Steps in the piano class8:5910:20On Bill Evans and other pianists4:45Feeling the ‘and’34:46Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers18:54Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶289
How he said to practise it
Play a phrase, leave a rest, and in the rest imagine you are making up the next phrase. Try to see at least its beginning before you play it.
Do the same with phrases you already know: look a little ahead as if you were inventing them.
Feeling the ‘and’32:34
Rehearse phrases without the drummer and feel the rests as if the time were still being played.
To get away from what your hands are used to, think of a rhythm first, with no notes, and then make notes fit it.
Rhythm before notes2:52
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
In these little spaces, you imagine that you’re making up this next phrase.
We might not be able to see the whole phrase, but we can see the beginning, and that’ll make us [start it].
Just think of the rhythm. Don’t think of notes to go with the rhythm, just think of the rhythm.
I think cats play the melodies the better, if you know the song.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it13 moments in 6 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Feeling the ‘and’
- 31:26
In the spaces, imagine making up the next phrase; practise seeing a phrase before you play it.
- 32:01
You may see only the beginning of a phrase; that is enough to start it.
- 32:34
Even with a made-up class phrase, try to see it a little ahead.
- 27:24
Without the drummer, feel the spaces as if the time were still being played.
- 34:46
Learned phrasing by singing phrases to a horn player and teaching singers songs in several keys.
Student performances and coaching
- 9:40
Leave empty spaces, as speech has pauses; space is not emptiness, so don’t gulp and rush back in.
Rhythm before notes
Interview: tap dance and bebop
Giant Steps in the piano class
- 8:59
On Giant Steps: he wants to hear it melodic, with triplets, not just eighth notes.
Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers
From the lessons1 lesson, 3 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Practising like an improviser
- Exercise
In the rests between phrases, imagine you are making up the phrase about to come. Practise seeing a phrase before you play it: you may not see the whole thing, but seeing its beginning gets you started and you carry it through. Even when playing set class phrases, try to look a little ahead as if you were inventing them.
- Idea
Barry explained that he doesn’t especially want students to play his class phrases. He is showing how to put musical things together and making them conscious of rhythm, and he hopes they learn to put things together like that when they solo. He praised the nice legato touch of two of the players, telling one he was doing it well and with power.
Feeling the ‘and’33:08
- Idea
Rules give you many ways to play something, and the player who knows the most ways will be the best. You cannot practise every way; that’s impossible. Instead you carry rules in your head and let them govern your playing.
The 1998 workshop, part 2: breaking the habit33:38
In writing4 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
The contents of Barry’s second workshop video include a section called ‘Feel the Shape of the Melody’, placed next to an excerpt of Parker’s Scrapple from the Apple and a section on phrase building over rhythm changes.
Barry faulted horn players who find two chords at the piano and put a melody on them: they melodize harmonies instead of harmonizing melodies, as the old songwriters did. Melodies are what get remembered; what those players play is hard for anyone to hum.
Charles McPherson, a student of Barry’s, in an interview with Ethan Iverson quoted on a guitar forum: the gap between one beat and the next is where the thinking and the creative possibility happen, so the improviser has to stay alive in that space, not only on the beat.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Question to Barry Harris Line Building Disciples ¶81jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Question to Barry Harris Line Building Disciples ¶82jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Question to Barry Harris Line Building Disciples ¶83
Reporting on one of Barry’s Tuesday workshops, Allen Morrison quotes him: most young musicians do not know the songs or their words, and if you are going to play a song you should know the words.
Read further2 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- franselsen.com
— Frans Elsen’s free Hague class videos, the source of the class where Barry talks about seeing the next phrase.
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) — The workshop video with Barry’s section ‘Feel the Shape of the Melody’ (paywalled; contents free).