Chris Parks · Stage 7: Building phrases over changes
How to create lines from V to I
After separate episodes on D7 lines and G major lines, Chris works on the harder part: joining them so a phrase moves from the dominant into the I chord. In a turnaround with two beats per chord, he notes which note of G major a D7 phrase lands on (the fifth, the third, even the second) and builds the continuation from there with 5-4-3-2 figures, Barry’s chromatic scale, G6 and surrounding notes. Barry calls this playing movement.
Step by step
- 0:00The goal: join lines for D7 to lines for G major, the part that is hardest to get smooth
- 1:38Set up a turnaround with two beats per chord (B minor, E7, A minor, D7 to G) and start the D7 phrase on beat two
- 2:10Phrase: on D7 a chord up from the fifth, then down the scale to D, which is also the fifth of G as the G chord arrives
- 2:44Make more of G major from its fifth: come down the scale, play a 5-4-3-2 figure, or come down a G6
- 3:26Or go up Barry’s chromatic scale from the fifth to the major seventh and come down a chord; or play the fifth, a half step below, and back
- 4:40Start differently: a chord up from the third of D7, landing on the third of G, then up the scale and back to the tonic
- 5:19From the third, take Barry’s chromatic scale up to the fifth and come down a G6, or come down chromatically to the tonic
- 7:05When you land on an awkward note like the second, surround the tonic from the second above and the half step below, or go up a diminished
- 8:09This is what Barry calls movement: he hears ii-V-I as V-I; practise two beats then four beats of each, in every key
Barry’s own words on this
In the course
Think the dominant: put the ii awayBarry’s chromatic scaleNap backSurrounds5-4-3-2Come up a diminished from the thirdBe a movement playerRun one chord into the next
Transcript
- 0:00hello and welcome to episode 64 of things i’ve learned from bear harris today i thought we would continue on the idea of creating lines from scales so today we’ll actually do we’ve been doing five we did lines to do over the v chord or in this particular key d7 to the one chord g major and we were doing that now we should really start thinking about how to connect those two things because this also is a is a source of a problem even for me also so i i usually have uh lines that i have for a dominant
- 0:33and then lines that i have for a major but it’s the connecting those two parts that seem to be a little bit of a struggle but we’re getting there so but before i start uh i just want to point out there is a fantastic youtube channel called labyrinth of limitations by this fantastic guitar player named thomas eckles or eccles and if you aren’t subscribed to him or haven’t checked him out you really should uh it’s the most wonderful channel for looking at barry scales accords in
- 1:06courting and he’s just really doing wonderful things and people like this channel i’m sure will really enjoy it so that’s just labyrinth of limit limitations thomas eckles so but back to the d7 to g major maybe what we could do is let’s take two beats of a minor two b to d seven going to g major so now we need to do is start creating things that would last for beats so maybe we’ll do like we’re
- 1:38doing a turnaround then this gets one two three four going one so that would be three chord b minor to the sixth chord e seven a minor d seven to g major we’ll do it kind of in that tempo but we’ll we’ll start to come up with phrases using from the a minor d7 we only have four beats maybe we’ll start on the second beat of this so we’ll say one two three four one and we’ll play a phrase so i was thinking a nice one to start off with would might be just
- 2:10thinking d7 a chord up from the fifth which is nice now i might just come down the scale and then we’re going to end on the tonic of the d7 but on that point we’re going to be on g major again so it’d be this so that’s the last note of the phrase also happens to be the tonic i mean the fifth of the g major so now that’s a nice phrase really pretty phrase but we want to do
- 2:44something to that phrase we probably don’t want to just run d7 into g major maybe we’ll want to make a bigger deal out of g major so let’s think about things you could do from the five of g major you come down the scale so let’s try that pretty phrase uh we could do some of the five four three two things so maybe we’ll say that was four but maybe we’ll do five that’s a nice one maybe we’ll do um
- 3:26maybe let’s do three that’s nice maybe we’ll come down um we’ll come down a g6 one two three four pretty maybe let’s go up maybe let’s go up barry’s chromatic scale from the fifth we’ll go back up to the major seven so we’ll say it’s a pretty phrase one two three four
- 4:03two maybe we’ll come down a chord from that major seven two pretty let’s maybe put a half step let’s play that five put a half step below and go back up to it so say [Music] it’s nice let’s add to it though oh baby that’s nice [Music]
- 4:40i came down g6 from the six so i did very schematic up to the six so let’s try that [Music] pretty now let’s do a different phrase to start off maybe we’ll do a chord up from the three now we’ll end on the third so now we have to think of all the things we know for g major when we’re starting on the third so let’s think of that one so let’s say same idea too with the same amount of timing that was nice i just went up the scale
- 5:19and then back down to the tonic so pretty or maybe i’ll do barry’s chromatic up a minor third to so three to five so [Music] nice or maybe when i get to the fifth i’ll come down a g6 [Music] nice
- 5:53[Music] it’s pretty finally got that one right but let’s say um uh um let’s do something else with the three let’s just come down chromatically to one so let’s say that’s a pretty phrase nice maybe we’ll do the we’ll do that
- 6:27little things that’s hitting the note going down a half step going back up to it maybe we’ll come up a chord like that [Music] that’s nice i came up a chord that’s nice wait that’s a nice one that’s a nice one too dude
- 7:05nice pretty pretty things sometimes though you’re not always going to land on like the five or the three sometimes you might end up on so like we said [Music] so now you’re ending on that one you’re ending on the second so let’s see how to come out of that [Music] there’s our surrounding remember when we did the surrounding of the uh
- 7:37major from a scale tone above to to the actual note to this to the half step below so the second of the g is also a whole step above the g natural so which is pretty oh [Music] pretty stuff pretty pretty let’s see how would we end on and sometimes you come down to diminish like let’s see you people go up the
- 8:09diminished that’s a nice one too all these are so pretty but these are just again a few small examples to show you how you should start to be thinking so we had the episode where you were thinking about uh phrases for d7 which are great you had episode where you’re thinking of phrases for g major that you’re coming up with that’s great practice your g major but then you have to get to the point where now you’re playing what barry refers to as a
- 8:43movement so this is a five to a one or two five to one but barry just thinks five so you gotta have all these things in the bag because these are coming up these are going to come up in songs all the time every single song and not just obviously for the key of g but all the keys you got to be comfortable with all the keys and we’re right now we’re just practicing doing two beats of each but it could be four full beats of each two three four one two three four see it could be four beats and then you
- 9:16have to practice just longer d7 phrases running them into g major so there’s a lot to this but you have to start somewhere and the this is the best that i can come up with to thinking about how i’m trying to navigate through a lot of these changes because that’s a question that people have is like okay well once i get some of these phrases together where do i put them in this is how you have to start piecing it together and it takes a while but it’s really it’s for me it’s super fun to start to really discover like oh what happens if i land on the three what what can i do from there what happens if i
- 9:48land on the fifth what happens when i land on the second that’s a weird note to land on what can i do from there so anyway i hope this has been helpful and uh enjoy practicing your five to one phrases until next time thanks