In plain words
For Barry the starting point was part of the phrase. A blues phrase on the tonic right on beat one sounded bad to him; take off its first two notes so it starts on beat two and it sounds hipper. Played on the beat and then from the ‘and’ of four, the same phrase sounded better off the beat. A class phrase that began on the ‘and’ of one, he said, could not be played the same way from the ‘and’ of two; that start would need a different phrase.
Practising the blues with the horns, part 123:1423:48Student performances and coaching11:57Feeling the ‘and’29:38
His preference was off the beat. He drilled a two-note phrase with a class until it stopped landing on the beat, and told players to practise starting on the ‘and’ a lot. An entry on the ‘and’ of one comes best out of the ‘and’ of four, so he had the drummer hit that first, a little louder. With singers on Misty he had the first phrase come in on the ‘and’ of four, and said waiting even longer was hipper.
The 1998 workshop, part 337:0044:2645:0255:17Feeling the ‘and’4:425:2020:14Dropping notes to feel every beat5:01
Moving the start also changes how a run must be built to arrive on time. A descending scale started on the beat comes down into place by itself; started on the ‘and’, it needs a triplet slipped in, at the one spot where it is needed, so it still lands on its target. The added-note rules likewise assume an on-the-beat start; from the ‘and’ you use the opposite rule.
Confirmation11:0211:3512:46Half-step rules on the dominant scale, part 25:22
Starting points belong to the form too. In a 1998 class Barry said he might not start on the first beat: when the phrase he wants belongs to bars three and four, you wait for it. His second workshop video solos over the A section of rhythm changes from bar 2 round to bar 1, from bar 3 to bar 2 and from bar 4 to bar 3, as studies in starting phrases in different bars.
The 1998 workshop, part 112:0312:36Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Workshop Video Part 2: product page and 156-page workbook table of contents ¶16
How he said to practise it
Practise starting phrases on the ‘and’, a lot.
The 1998 workshop, part 337:00
Take a phrase that starts on the tonic on beat one, cut its first two notes so it starts on beat two, and compare the two in time.
Take a phrase, such as one on C7, and play it over and over, leaving one more note off the front each time and then adding them back, so its start moves through every beat and every ‘and’. Go slowly, with someone on a second piano if you can, until you can do it in time without counting.
Dropping notes to feel every beat0:000:35Feeling the ‘and’39:2941:11
Before an entry on the ‘and’ of one, feel the ‘and’ of four, or have the drummer hit it a little louder.
Run a descending scale to a target, first from the beat, then from the ‘and’. Find the one spot where a triplet is needed to arrive on time, and play the rest straight.
Solo over an eight-bar section starting in bar 2 and going round to bar 1, then from bar 3, then from bar 4, as the second workshop video does with rhythm changes.
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
It starts on the beat, which makes it bad. It starts on the tonic on the first beat. If you took off the first two notes, it makes it start on the second beat.
If you start on the beat, you come right down... it goes perfect. But if you start on the end of the beat, you’ve got to do a triplet.
If they’re going to start a phrase on the end of the one, you’ve got to hit the end of the four before they hit the end of the one.
We took a phrase and took off one note at a time so that we could learn to feel where to start anywhere.
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.
Practising the blues with the horns, part 1
- 23:14
A phrase on the tonic on beat one sounds bad; drop two notes so it starts on beat two.
Feeling the ‘and’
Student performances and coaching
- 11:57
The same phrase on the beat and from the ‘and’ of four: off the beat sounds better.
Confirmation
The 1998 workshop, part 1
- 12:03
He might not start on the first beat; a phrase for bars three and four means waiting.
The 1998 workshop, part 3
Dropping notes to feel every beat
- 0:35
Drop one note at a time from a phrase to feel where to start anywhere.
From the lessons2 lessons, 11 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Drills for every beat and every ‘and’
- Exercise
Take a phrase and play it over and over, each time leaving one more note off the front (and later adding them back), so the same phrase starts on beat one, then the ‘and’ of one, beat two, the ‘and’ of two, beat three, and so on. Go slowly, have someone play along on a second piano, sing it as well, and keep it in time all the way through. The aim is to feel every beat and every ‘and’ so you can start a phrase anywhere, because the ‘ands’ are just as important as the beats.
- Exercise
Barry ran the same drill with a band on a C7 phrase: leave off the first note, then the first two, and so on, so the start moves through the bar (adding notes moves it back). He called it a phrase worth practising as a habit, done without counting and done perfectly, the way a horn player should be able to, and slowly enough that the singers could do it too.
- Exercise
A group drill: count off, then in the next bar everyone hits only the ‘and’ of one; in the bar after that only the ‘and’ of two; then only the ‘and’ of three; then only the ‘and’ of four. When a class tried it, Barry heard stray echoes on the ‘and’ of four, people playing where they shouldn’t. Aim for one clean hit exactly on the off-beat and nothing else.
Feeling the ‘and’0:00
- Idea
A phrase starting on the ‘and’ of one wants the ‘and’ of four hit just before it, because the ‘and’ of four leads into it; the ‘and’ of one sits better coming off the four than straight behind beat one. So if the horns will enter on the ‘and’ of one, the accompaniment (the drummer, for example) should hit the ‘and’ of four first, and Barry had the band play that set-up louder to make it clear. He complained that drummers don’t practise rhythm enough and mostly hit on one. Starting on beat two feels different again, and all of it needs practice.
Dropping notes to feel every beat5:015:346:12Feeling the ‘and’20:14
- Exercise
When a band played phrases with gaps between them, the time got shaky, especially on entries on the ‘and’ of one, two or three. Barry told them to feel the spaces as if the drummer were still playing time, then had the drummer drop out so the horns had to keep the pulse and place the off-beat entries themselves. Most players feel the ‘ands’ only when someone tells them where they are; the goal is to feel them unaided.
Feel the ‘ands’
- Idea
Barry noticed that players generally mess up the ‘and’ of beat one and the ‘and’ of beat two, and drummers the ‘and’ of three or the third beat itself. What he wanted was for players to feel a continuous action going on, which is what goes on all the time.
Interview: Bird, Hawkins, Monk and New York0:00Interview: Bud Powell and teaching singers0:00
- Idea
What Barry wanted from drummers was that they stop hammering on beat one. Syncopation is where the music is, so drummers should know the ‘ands’, the off-beats between the beats. Pianists are the same: most comp on the beat because they count only one, two, three, four, when the music should be felt as one-and-two-and-three-and-four-and, with the action on the ‘ands’.
- Exercise
Barry used the words ‘don’t go’ as a sung phrase, asking the class to picture someone they love about to leave town. He insisted it must not start on the beat: the beat, he said, is close to hell and the ‘and’ is close to heaven. Count one, two, three, four, then come in with the phrase off the beat.
- Exercise
In a blues class with the horns, Barry said a phrase that starts on the tonic right on the first beat sounds bad. If you leave off the first two notes so the same phrase starts on the second beat, he said, it sounds hipper, and he had them try it.
- Idea
Bassists and drummers should learn to play on the off-beats more than on the beat; for example, a drummer coming back in should come out on the ‘and’ of four rather than on one. The ‘and’ of four is a strong spot that sets things in motion; many bass players use it only as a pickup, but many songs start their phrases there. Barry had the band compare a phrase begun on the beat with the same phrase begun on the ‘and’ of four, and the off-beat version sounded better.
- Exercise
In writing5 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
The contents of Barry’s second workshop video include soloing over an A section of rhythm changes from bar 2 to bar 1, from bar 3 to bar 2 and from bar 4 to bar 3, with a scale outline for the first, followed by a section on the rhythmic implication of starting a phrase in different bars.
Rees’s worksheet starts C7-scale lines in different rhythmic places, after an eighth rest or after a short figure and rests, and in three of them picks the added-note rule from whichever note falls on beat two.
Howard Rees’ Jazz Workshops, Using the Extra Note Rules to Build Lines ¶3Howard Rees’ Jazz Workshops, Using the Extra Note Rules to Build Lines ¶6Howard Rees’ Jazz Workshops, Using the Extra Note Rules to Build Lines ¶7Howard Rees’ Jazz Workshops, Using the Extra Note Rules to Build Lines ¶8
Jazz School Online names phrases by where they end: a one-bar phrase concludes within one bar, a two-bar phrase within two.
Jazz School Online (Howard Rees), Glossary of Terms ¶3Jazz School Online (Howard Rees), Glossary of Terms ¶22
Charles McPherson, Barry’s student, says the improviser’s attention must be alive on every subdivision of the bar, so that a phrase can start on any of them and still come out right.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Question to Barry Harris Line Building Disciples ¶86jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Question to Barry Harris Line Building Disciples ¶87
Tom Cleary, turning a Shaker hymn tune into a bop line over rhythm changes, lists beginning and ending most phrases on upbeats as part of the bop rhythmic approach, alongside what Barry calls half steps.
Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), Simple Paris Dancers: a bop-style rhythm changes ¶5
How other teachers explain it3 videos, 9 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- Barry Harris Method: Rhythmic Drill ()
A Barry Harris rhythmic drill.
4 min On YouTube
- Extra Note Rules Applications for Line Building
Extra-note rule applications with different rhythmic starts to a line.
9 min, transcript On YouTube
- How to Apply the “Rules” to Build Lines
Starting a chord from a half step below on the ‘and’ after one.
5 min, 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.
Things I’ve Learned From Barry Harris
- Episode 33: Charlie Parker idea no. 3 YouTube
- Episode 35: movement from major to the sixth dominant; creating lines YouTube
- Episode 87: feeling the ‘and’ (Donna Lee) YouTube
- Episode 109: being free when soloing YouTube
- Episode 110: pivots with a twist YouTube
- Episode 161: pivots, pivots and more pivots YouTube
Read further3 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- franselsen.com
— Frans Elsen’s free Hague class videos, including the off-beat and dropped-note drills.
- Frédéric Galliano, Notes on the Method of Barry Harris
— Free half-step tables that assume a start on the downbeat, the baseline that off-beat starts change.
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) — Lessons on soloing over a rhythm-changes A section from bar 2, 3 or 4, and on starting phrases in different bars (paywalled; contents free).