Isaac Raz
Isaac Raz, who went to Barry Harris’s classes and chorus, explains Barry’s harmony and line ideas in short lessons, viewer Q&As and ‘note dives’ into his class notes.
70 videos in order. The coloured numbers are the ideas of Barry’s method each one covers.A second opinion, not Barry
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1
Quick lesson: improvisation basics with a scale outline
How to use a scale outline to learn to improvise over a song.
2 minno transcript yetYouTube
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2
Connecting chords, part 2: inversions of leading-tone harmonies
How to move between inversions of leading-tone harmonies.
2 minno transcript yetYouTube
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3
Connecting chords: jazz harmony basics
Jazz harmony basics as Barry Harris taught them, under the heading of connecting chords.
1 minno transcript yetYouTube
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4
My 10-chord routine for the sixth-diminished rules
A 10-chord routine for practising the six-diminished and sixth-chord rules in every key.
12 minno transcript yetYouTube
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5
Borrowing on the sixth-diminished scale
How to colour chords by borrowing notes in the sixth-diminished scale.
7 minno transcript yetYouTube
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6
Sixth-chord rules: eight chords out of two
Using sixth chords to get eight chords out of two: a sixth on the fifth, the m7b5, a sixth on top of a dominant.
10 minno transcript yetYouTube
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7
Short and long voicings: movement for stationary chords
Moving a chord’s outer voices up and down the scale so a static chord gets linear motion.
7 minno transcript yetYouTube
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8
Reversible chords: colour and movement in accompaniment
How Barry treats four-note chords in a scale, in tenths and in sixths, applied to ‘Round Midnight’.
5 minno transcript yetYouTube
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9
Up a fifth, down a fifth: connecting two sixth chords
Moving diminished chord tones to make sixth chords and connect them, then a drop 2 drill approaching a key by fifths.
7 minno transcript yetYouTube
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10
Q&A: short-long voicings on ‘Misty’
Answers a viewer’s question on applying Barry’s short-long voicings to ‘Misty’.
10 minno transcript yetYouTube
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11
Drop voicings: drop 2, drop 3, drop 2 and 4, and three-note
Spreading a chord’s notes across the keyboard as drop voicings for depth and variety in comping.
10 minno transcript yetYouTube
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12
Q&A: modulating with diminished chords
Ways to change key using the diminished seventh chord as a master key to any key.
16 minno transcript yetYouTube
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13
Diminished genealogy: where every chord comes from
How chords come from the diminished, what the diminished family means, and how it gives the sixth-diminished scale.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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14
5-4-3-2 melodic patterns
Melodic 5-4-3-2 ‘plug-ins’ to weave into solos, with their shapes, combinations and a turnaround.
9 minno transcript yetYouTube
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15
Pivoting: octave displacement in a line
How pivoting at key points gives endless variety to the same notes of an improvised line.
6 minno transcript yetYouTube
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16
The ‘Ruby My Dear’ move
The counter-line from Monk’s ‘Ruby My Dear’ as an easy way to add counterpoint and movement to comping.
6 minno transcript yetYouTube
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17
Q&A: sixth-diminished moves on ‘Body and Soul’
How to apply sixth-diminished moves, focusing on examples from class on ‘Body and Soul’.
7 minno transcript yetYouTube
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18
The major chromatic and Barry’s move on ‘Like Someone in Love’
Turning a chromatic scale into a major scale, used in lines and harmony on ‘Cherokee’ and ‘Like Someone in Love’.
10 minno transcript yetYouTube
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19
Staying busy: the half-step embellishment
The half-step embellishment and its uses: surrounding a target note, on the sixth-diminished scale and in harmony.
13 minno transcript yetYouTube
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20
Staying busy: ideas on rhythm changes
Barry’s ways into the first 16 bars of rhythm changes: the turnback, bars 5-6, and the G-flat move three ways.
17 minno transcript yetYouTube
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21
Q&A: using the 7b5 diminished scale
Trying the 7b5 diminished scale on ‘Round Midnight’, ‘Epistrophy’, an F blues and ‘Yesterdays’.
14 minno transcript yetYouTube
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22
Q&A: short-long voicings on the minor sixth-diminished scale
Short-long voicings on the minor sixth-diminished scale, which combines them with borrowing.
7 minno transcript yetYouTube
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23
Barry’s move on the end of ‘Stella by Starlight’
An easy move from the end of ‘Stella by Starlight’ that works on any minor II-V.
11 minno transcript yetYouTube
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24
Scale outline on ‘Cherokee’
Practising the scales of ‘Cherokee’ and improvising with them, with options for bars 7-8 and the Ab7.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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25
More 7b5 diminished moves: two keys from one chord
A class move, inspired by Bud Powell’s ‘Dusk in Sandi’, that modulates to two keys from the same chord.
14 minno transcript yetYouTube
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26
Double the diminished
Ways to break up the usual diminished seventh lick over a dominant, applied to the end of ‘Indiana’.
12 minno transcript yetYouTube
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27
The 21st Psalm move
A II-V-I move from Barry’s choral arrangement of the 21st Psalm, found in Isaac’s notes from his chorus.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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28
Applying the diminished family
What Barry’s diminished family means and how to apply it, in modulation and in harmony.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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29
Q&A: a scale outline on ‘Bouncing with Bud’
A patron’s question on applying Barry’s scale outline to Bud Powell’s ‘Bouncing with Bud’.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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30
Staying busy: making connections across the method
How to organise Barry’s method into manageable chunks and connect them with a mind map.
13 minno transcript yetYouTube
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31
Approaches to ‘Giant Steps’
Barry’s strategies for the harmony of ‘Giant Steps’: half steps, 4s, diminished chords and permutations.
16 minno transcript yetYouTube
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32
Dominant seventh half-step rules (part 1 of 3)
All the half-step rules on the C7 scale: from the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th, and from the 2nd, 4th and 6th.
14 minno transcript yetYouTube
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33
Major half-step rules (part 2 of 3)
Major-scale half-step rules from the root, 3rd, 5th, 2nd and 6th that make scale lines work out rhythmically.
17 minno transcript yetYouTube
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34
Minor half-step rules (part 3 of 3)
The minor half-step rules from the root, 3rd and 5th and from the 2nd, 4th and 6th, played through examples.
17 minno transcript yetYouTube
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35
More on the major chromatic
Using the major chromatic scale to make half-step approaches to any chord.
10 minno transcript yetYouTube
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36
My 10-chord routine: three-note version
The 10-chord routine in three-note voicings over a tonic pedal, to hear the tonic against the diminished.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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37
Q&A: 5-4-3-2 in minor and dominant, and on tunes
Applying the 5-4-3-2 patterns in minor and on the dominant, and how to use them in tunes.
13 minno transcript yetYouTube
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38
Q&A: applying my 10-chord routine to songs
Using the 10-chord routine in real songs: two-fives, a cycle progression and appoggiaturas.
14 minno transcript yetYouTube
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39
Practising II-V-I in Barry’s style
Which scale to use on a II-V-I, breaking it into patterns, using the tritone, and chaining II-V-Is to modulate.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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40
Note dive: body glove, ‘Hallucinations’ and mixing sixth-diminished
From a 2015 class: making exercises from songs like ‘Hallucinations’, and mixing minor 6 dim on a II-V-I.
18 minno transcript yetYouTube
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41
The ‘échappé’: a II-V-I move
A sixth-diminished line embellished by a note that escapes upward as the line descends, used on II-V-Is.
16 minno transcript yetYouTube
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42
Whole-tone ideas
An easy, logical whole-tone idea for many songs that also builds technique across black and white keys.
17 minno transcript yetYouTube
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43
Everything’s close: Barry’s thinking applied to modern styles
A technical exercise and way of thinking that applies Barry’s bebop method to modern styles.
14 minno transcript yetYouTube
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44
My sixth-chord rules étude on a V-I
An étude for voice-leading a V-I cadence with sixth-chord rules, with tritone and altered sounds, round the cycle.
16 minno transcript yetYouTube
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45
Building a scale outline on ‘After You’ve Gone’
A principled rather than rote scale outline on ‘After You’ve Gone’, with rhythm and melodic devices.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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46
Note dive: three chords over a G7
From an April 2014 class: three chords that fit on a G7, and a chromatic move over it.
16 minno transcript yetYouTube
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47
Approaches to the ‘Lady Bird’ turnaround
How to practise the ‘Lady Bird’ turnaround the way Barry uses it, and where to use it in standards.
16 minno transcript yetYouTube
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48
Note dive: a run on ‘Round Midnight’
A run on the pair of II-Vs in bar 4 of ‘Round Midnight’, looked at through the diminished scale and the family.
12 minno transcript yetYouTube
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49
My 10-chord routine: drop 3 version with borrowing
The 10-chord sixth-diminished routine in drop 3 voicings, experimenting with borrowed notes.
21 minno transcript yetYouTube
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50
Two ways of inverting chords, and the drop 2+3
Barry’s two ways of inverting a chord in drop 2, drop 3 and drop 2+4 voicings, which reveal a drop 2+3.
7 minno transcript yetYouTube
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51
Playing with diminished and augmented runs
Filling the half steps between chord tones of a diminished and an augmented chord, then using the runs in songs.
17 minno transcript yetYouTube
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52
Relative minor to minor with the sixth in the bass
Barry’s view of this common move and the sixth-diminished scale on it, in ‘Stella by Starlight’ and other tunes.
13 minno transcript yetYouTube
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53
The tritone double sus
Isaac’s name for a simple way to colour any dominant seventh, used in ‘I Should Care’ and other standards.
12 minno transcript yetYouTube
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54
Approaches to ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’
Applying the diminished scale and sixth-chord rules to ‘Smoke Gets in Your Eyes’, including the bridge.
20 minno transcript yetYouTube
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55
A minor sixth-diminished move
A minor sixth-diminished move for minor situations in a tune, broken down and applied to songs.
11 minno transcript yetYouTube
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56
The ‘Everything Happens Round Midnight’ move
Moving any dominant seventh through a suspension and a passing diminished, as Barry does at the end of ‘Round Midnight’.
12 minno transcript yetYouTube
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57
Q&A: how to break up lines
Making solos less scale-like with chords, arpeggios, 5-4-3-2, pivots and triplets, worked on ‘Indiana’.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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58
Triads are the hippest
A move Barry shows in a class clip shared by themidger1, under the title ‘Triads are the hippest’.
14 minno transcript yetYouTube
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59
Barry’s ideas on ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’
Dominants, half-step rules, related keys and the minor sixth scale applied to ‘What Is This Thing Called Love’.
15 minno transcript yetYouTube
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60
Barry’s ideas on ‘There Will Never Be Another You’
Bud Powell’s and Barry’s approaches to ‘There Will Never Be Another You’ as alternatives to usual jam playing.
14 minno transcript yetYouTube
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61
Omit eighths: a rhythmic exercise
A rhythm and phrasing drill: play an eighth-note scale or phrase, drop one note at a time, then add them back.
10 minno transcript yetYouTube
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62
Approaches to “April in Paris”
Ideas on April in Paris from Barry’s workshops: sixth chord rules, a ten-chord routine, linear movement, the tritone.
23 minno transcript yetYouTube
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63
Approaches to Bud Powell’s “Dance of the Infidels”
Bud Powell’s blues as a model: making a scale outline, comping over the changes and playing over the blues.
23 minno transcript yetYouTube
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64
Major chromatic redux: the move on “Like Someone in Love”
Barry’s major chromatic move from Like Someone in Love, in harmony, on a 2-5-1 and from another scale position.
16 minno transcript yetYouTube
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65
Approaches to “Woody ‘n You”: borrowing on a minor ii-V
A usable minor ii-V progression on Woody ‘n You using the borrowing concept, which some call suspensions.
11 minno transcript yetYouTube
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66
5-4-3-2 melodic patterns redux
A deeper look at 5-4-3-2 melodic patterns across chord qualities, on the dominant seventh and in other uses.
18 minno transcript yetYouTube
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67
Build-a-Barry: building a line on “All the Things You Are”
Building a solo line on All the Things You Are from its scale, then using the tritone, including Charlie Parker’s.
20 minno transcript yetYouTube
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68
Harmony hang: applying the principles to “On Green Dolphin Street”
Fitting his ten-chord routine, sixth chord rules, the Stella move and up a fifth/down a fifth to Green Dolphin Street.
21 minno transcript yetYouTube
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69
Build-a-Barry workshop: lines on the A section of “Lover”
Simple ways to turn scales into melodies on Lover’s A section: scale outline, half-step rules, suspensions, patterns.
17 minno transcript yetYouTube
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70
“The Unthinkable”: applying the method to “Inner Urge”
Applying Barry’s harmony and improvisation to Inner Urge: simplifying via dominants, a chord-scale outline, the coda.
24 minno transcript yetYouTube