Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 9: Sixth chords and the scales of chords

Practicing the G Minor 6th Diminished Scale

Episode 45 · 10:57 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Working from an exercise Barry once ran through quickly in class, Chris maps the G minor 6 diminished scale onto the guitar: a drop-2 chord on each scale note of the sixth string, then each chord opened out as an arpeggio across all six strings. He practises chord-then-triplets with a metronome and moves the pattern through keys by fourths.

Step by step

  1. 0:38The scale is G minor 6 (G, B flat, D, E) plus A diminished (A, C, E flat, F sharp): eight notes.
  2. 1:13Find every note of the scale on the sixth string, from the 3rd fret to the 15th.
  3. 1:53Build a drop 2 chord on each, alternating G minor 6 and diminished up the neck.
  4. 3:43Open the first chord into a ten-note G minor 6 arpeggio across all six strings, starting at the 3rd fret.
  5. 4:36Do the same with the diminished up from the 5th fret; on guitar every diminished uses the same fingering.
  6. 5:24Continue with the minor 6 from the third, the fifth and the sixth, with diminished between them.
  7. 7:20Play the chord, then from beat two run its arpeggio up and down in triplets, with a metronome (start slow, around 50).
  8. 9:14Stay in the same area and repeat in C minor 6, then F minor 6, until you see it everywhere and in all keys.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line0:38
𝄞♭♭♯
C4GACDEB♭E♭G♭
  1. G
  2. A
  3. B♭
  4. C
  5. D
  6. E♭
  7. E
  8. F#
G minor 61:53
××G minor 6
C2GC3DEB♭
A diminished1:53
4fr××A diminished
C2AC3CE♭G♭
G minor 6 from the third1:53
5fr××G minor 6 from the third
C2C3EGC4DB♭
diminished from the 8th fret2:31
7fr××diminished from the 8th fret
CAC4G♭E♭
G minor 6 from the fifth2:31
8fr××G minor 6 from the fifth
C3DGC4EB♭
diminished from the flat 62:31
10fr××diminished from the flat 6
C3ACE♭G♭
G minor 6 from the sixth = E minor 7 flat 52:31
12fr××G minor 6 from the sixth = E minor 7 flat 5
C3EC4DGB♭

Barry’s own words on this

9.5 The minor 6th diminished scale and its diminished partner9.4 Playing the scale of chords (block chords up and down the 6th dim scale)14.2 Every key, every degree, every way

In the course

Know it everywhere on the guitarSixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6The minor 6 diminished scaleDrop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4Small things

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 45 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. Today I thought we would practice a minor six diminished scale. And the way I thought to choose to look at it this time is there’s an exercise that Barry did one time in class really fast and I couldn’t quite get it. So what I remembered from it, I got I came home and took it upon myself to think about what it would look like on guitar. So this is what I took from it.
  2. 0:38So let’s say we’re dealing with G minor 6 diminished. Now, G minor 6 diminished scale consists of two things. G minor 6, which is a G, B flat, D, and an E, and A diminished. Let’s say it’s A diminished, it would be A, C, E-flat, F-sharp, or G-flat, whichever one you want to look at. I like to say F-sharp. So those are your eight notes in the scale. And it gives you this scale. G-minus-six diminished.
  3. 1:13So it consists of those two things. Now, a million different ways to practice it, but I came up with this, or Barry came up with this way, that he just did really fast at class, which I thought was good. And I could help you for guitar or whatever instrument, but primarily this one for guitar. So let’s say we’ll start, the one thing you have to know is where your G minor six notes are on your sixth string. So let’s start third fret, fifth fret, sixth fret, eighth fret, tenth fret, eleventh fret, 12th fret, 14th fret, 15th fret. So there’s everything. Now from each one of those degrees
  4. 1:53we can build a chord. And for this exercise we’ll do a drop two chord, which is G minor six. So G would be the first one, and the chord would be third fret. If I was doing frets, third fret, fifth fret, second fret, third fret. That’s G minor six. The next one’s going which would be 5th fret, 6th fret, 4th fret, 5th fret. The next one is going to be a minor 6th from the 3rd, which would be 6th fret, 7th fret, 5th fret, 7th fret. The next one is going to be a diminished from the 8th fret,
  5. 2:31which would be 8th fret, 9th fret, 7th fret, 8th fret. The next one is a minor 6 from the 5th, which is going to be 10th fret, 10th fret, 8th fret, 9th fret. The next one is diminished from the 11th fret, it’s from the flat 6. That one’s going to be 11th fret, 12th fret, 10th fret, 11th fret. Next one, a G minor 6 from the 6, which is actually E minor 7 flat 5, So which is 12th fret, 13th fret, 12th fret, 12th fret.
  6. 3:07The next one is a diminished from the major 7, which looks like this. 14th fret, 15th fret, 13th fret, 14th fret. And then you’re back to G-6 again. Which would be 15th fret, 17th fret, 14th fret, 15th fret. So there’s all your drop 2 chords. So if we were going to do it, minor six, diminished. Minor six, diminished. Minor six again.
  7. 3:43Now, if we’re going to play and know what those look like single notes, I try to break them apart into each one of those. So for the first one, I want to see just the minor six notes. And for this exercise, I want to make sure we cover all six strings. So I’m going to play actually ten notes up. It’s the same four notes that are going to be repeated, but it’s ten notes all together. So it’s going to start on the third fret. You’re going to play third fret, sixth fret. The fifth string, you’re going to play fifth fret. Fourth string. Second fret, fifth fret.
  8. 4:16The third string, third fret. The second string, third fret, fifth fret. And the first string, you’re going to play third fret, sixth fret. So these are the notes. Only G minor 6 notes. There’s no other notes in that. But it’s just a couple of octaves and then an extra two notes. The next one I’m going to play is a diminished up from the 5th fret. And the diminishes are all going to look the same, at least on guitar. They’re all going to look exactly the same. Exactly the same fingering, exactly the same shapes. Let’s try this one with the A diminished.
  9. 4:48So it’s going to be 5th fret, 8th fret. And then 6th fret. and then I’m going to say 4th fret, 7th fret on the 4th string, 3rd string is going to play 5th fret, 8th fret, 7th fret on the 2nd string, and 5th fret, 8th fret on the 1st string. So there’s our diminished. Then we’re going to do the next one, from the 3rd is G minor 6. And that one’s going to start off, and there’s a lot of different ways to play this, but
  10. 5:24this is the way I play it for this exercise. Sixth fret, next string, which is the fifth string, fifth fret, seventh fret. Next string, which is the fourth string, fifth fret, eighth fret. Third string is just going to be seventh fret. Then the second string is going to be fifth fret, eighth fret. And then you’re going to have two notes on the first string, which is going to be sixth fret and tenth fret. So now you get this. Now the next one’s going to be diminished, which is going to look exactly the same way as the other one did.
  11. 6:01Now I’ll give you the next minor six, which is going to be 10th fret, 12th fret. Now the next string is going to be 10th fret, 13th fret, 12th fret. Next string, 9th fret, 12th fret. Second string, 11th fret, 1st string. 10th fret, 12th fret. So this is it. G minor 6 from the 5th. Now we have our diminished, which is going to look exactly the same as the first one did. And the second one did.
  12. 6:37The next one is G minor 6 from the 6th. So it looks like E-7-5-5, it’s going to be 12th fret, 15th fret. Next string, 14th fret. Next string, 12th fret, 14th fret. Third string, 12th fret, 15th fret. Next string, 15th fret. Next string, which is the first string, 12th fret, 15th fret. So it’s this. And the very last one is the diminished again. And then you’re back to the minor six, which is going to look the same as the first one. So now the way that I like to practice it is we’ll do them up and down and you give it like
  13. 7:20a triplet feel. Now I’m going to try to do this with the chords and the scales. I’m going to put a metronome at 100. And let’s see if I can handle this. So we’ll start. I’ll play a chord. And then on the second beat I’ll start the triplets up and down. So this is the way that you should try to practice it. One, two, three, four. So, something like that, you get comfortable with it, but first get comfortable with just
  14. 8:39working out each fingering in each position. Maybe start with the metronome on half of that, maybe start on 50, and start to feel what that feels like. Now there’s a lot of reasons to know how to play these like that. It comes in very handy when soloing, first of all. Second of all, even if you’re comping, you get to throw in little runs. Very important. But see, how I would take something like this is, for me, I would think, okay, that’s G minor six, so we just did it. Now, I would want to stay in the same part of the guitar, and let’s say, let’s go up a
  15. 9:14fourth. So the next one would be C minor six. So now I would do the same exact exercise in C minor six. Diminished. And back to the fifth. So then after that I would do it maybe in F minor, starting from the third.
  16. 10:12And so on. Until I really started to see it in this part of the instrument, this part, this part, every place. And in all the keys. So you could practice it in fourths, in fifths, it doesn’t matter to me. You can practice it down half steps, even though for guitar it’s kind of easier to see that way. So I would just practice it, break it up a little bit. But that’s the way I practice it. So hopefully that idea helps you to practice your minor six. I’m going to make a video right quick, right after this, that shows you how to practice the major sixes in the same way. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed episode 45 of practicing your minor six diminished.
  17. 10:50And let me know how your practicing is coming. Thanks again. Till next time.