Chris Parks · Stage 14: Practising

Stealing from Bud Powell, on every degree

Episode 144 · 10:46 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris takes a pure-scale Bud Powell phrase on a D7 scale (four notes down in a triplet, up a third, back a step, then a pivot) and shows the scale work it rests on. Then, as Barry taught, he plays the same pattern from every degree, so the stolen phrase turns into new material of your own rather than a lick to drop in.

Step by step

0:36On a D7 scale, get the basics up and down: the scale, thirds, triads and four-note chords
1:09Learn the pivot from every degree: play D, then F sharp, A and C an octave below it
1:42Practise plain scale figures: up three, four, five notes; up three notes then up a third
2:21Reverse the direction: go up three notes while the starting note moves down the scale, then try down three while moving up
2:55Bud’s piece: come down four scale notes as a triplet, e.g. from G on D7
4:06From the note you land on, jump up a third, then play the scale note you skipped
4:39Finish with a pivot; Bud’s version starts on the 2nd of the scale
6:21Play the same pattern starting on every degree, root to 7th, and keep the ones you like (Chris likes the 5th and 7th)
8:38Instead of collecting licks for every ii-V, take the masters’ ideas apart and make them into something of your own

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line4:06

Barry’s own words on this

14.3 Learn from the masters by ear; study the small things 14.2 Every key, every degree, every way 6.7 Pivoting 7.2 Building phrases from small pieces (class phrases)

In the course

Eighth- and sixteenth-note triplets in lines Dissect the masters’ phrases Bud Powell’s pure-scale phrase

Transcript

0:00hello and welcome to episode 144 of things I learned from Barry Harris and today I thought we would talk about something we were talking about over at Open studio which is stealing a bud pal phrase but stealing it in a way that also we’re going to try it from every degree of the scale and we’re going to see if we can make something out of it that’s not just taking his exact riff so Bud pal played this beautiful phrase but first let’s walk through um how we got to it or how you can get to it so
0:36the first thing is if we take let’s say D7 scale we have to know how to play the scale up and down we have to know how to play the scale of thirds we have to know how to play the scale in Triads up and down we have to know how to play the scaling chords [Music] up and down same thing then we have to know what Barett refers to as a pivot which is taking let’s say this chord
1:09which is four notes d f a and c and you’re going to play the D exactly where it was but instead of continuing to go up with f a c you’re going to play those three nodes down an octave below that original D so instead of this you have to be able to do this and you have to do that from every degree so here’s from the second from the [Music] third and so on so that’s a pivot so you’re going to need to know a pivot the other thing that’s pretty that
1:42you should know about uh a scale is just some basic things like going up three notes so starting on the D playing up three notes down three notes see this just scale uh going up for notes all these guitar players practice these kind of things all the time uh five notes six notes all those things I also like um going up three notes and then going up a third those are really pretty um so all
2:21these kind of things are really pretty but besides doing these up see now we’re doing these I had a video about this before we where we’re doing them up and we continue to go up the scale so that’s up and up but sometimes we have to reverse it like sometimes we have to go up and down so in other words here’s going up three notes but now I want to go down the scale so now I started on D now I’ll start on C now B so you say so that’s up and down so the same thing if we’re going we should be able
2:55to go down and up so let’s start on the FP now now we’re going three notes up those are really pretty all those things are great to practice and what I love about them is it’s pure scale pure scale so what bud pal did was Bud pal did down four notes so you start let’s say let’s go down let’s start here’s D7 let’s start on the fourth let’s start on G and let’s come down four notes I love
3:32[Music] those so that’s just down four notes but he did it as a triplet so he said one two B two two one two so it would be like one two one two one two one two and keep going in triplets [Music] and then triplet again those are all
4:06really pretty then he did he added to it so he did uh down four notes and then from the note that you were at you go up a third which is pretty and then you add the scale note that you skipped over to jump the third so for instance if we come down four notes from that [Music] g we jumped up from D to FP and then the note that we skipped in between D and F is is e so you could also say you come
4:39down a note you could say from the F you come down a note uh [Music] so now after that he did a pivot so it would be really nice but now he did it from the second so he did listen to that phrase starting on the second we’ll go down four notes using the triplet come up a third go down a scale note and then come up a
5:13pivot so he said listen how pretty that is [Music] I mean that’s a pretty phrase da and the thing that I really love about it is as much as we practice chromatics and half steps half steps below chromatic rules all those different things this is
5:47pure scale I love it and we were talking about even if you listen to a lot of the original Charlie Parker stuff even the original um Charlie Parker on dial or a lot of the early bird stuff you’re going to hear a lot of just scale phrases and I happen to love those and I’m not saying that I don’t also love adding chromatics too of course that’s beautiful but just playing Just scale notes is really beautiful so anyway so this is Bud Pal’s phrase so now we could just take that
6:21and steal it if we want but if we want to be slick about our thievery we should learn how to do it on every degree of the scale and this is one thing that Barry was so focused on um having people look at try it on every degree of the scale maybe some of them you’ll like maybe some of them you won’t okay but let’s try them out so that was starting on the third so let’s start on the on the I’m sorry that was starting on the second let’s start on the root just to be just to start so if we start on the root we’ll say that’s
6:55nice that’s a nice one but let’s start on the second this is Bud Pals which I love start on the third remember it’s the same pattern every time coming down four notes using a triplet then going up a third coming down a scaled note and then pivoting from this note so I love that here from the fourth from the fifth I like from the fifth wait so
7:35I like that one from the fifth let’s I mean I like all of them but that one just caught me for some reason now here’s from the six that’s a nice [Music] one I like him like all those let’s try from the seventh let’s see I like that that’s a nice
8:09one let’s see [Music] C I like that so one two three [Music] I love that one from the seventh so you see how you take an idea and then you say okay I don’t just
8:44want to um say here’s a bud pal phrase that he played on a dominant or on a two5 so now every time I have a two5 I can insert this Bud pal phrase and then I stole this Charlie Parker phrase and then every time I have a um uh a 25 I have this Bud pal phrase and then now I have this Charlie Parker phrase and this sunny Rollins phrase and now I’m going to do combinations of those that’s great there’s nothing wrong with that but I think the thing that um Barry really focused on and taught us is that you
9:18could take from the Masters and you could really make it into something else because he used to say Barry said one time I mean he said it more than one time but he said you know thought at a certain point he thought Charlie Parker was everything and then he worked with Coleman Hawkins and he’s like no Charlie Parker wasn’t everything because it’s impossible to be everything and same thing Coleman Hawkins Coleman Hawkins wasn’t everything Bud pal is in everything they’re they’re all incredible but obviously you they can’t do everything Sunny Rollins is in
9:52everything but they are completely unique and they are definitely worth checking out to see like how can I phrase in this way or what were they possibly thinking so this is like a nice little hack to see like how can I try to take a beautiful Bud pal freas and move it into my own playing my repertoire so those are beautiful things to practice and what is also wonderful about them is it’s just scale so think about those two things stealing
10:26phrases but in a in a uh in a Slicker way and using just scale which is really wonderful so anyway I hope that was helpful and uh enjoy practicing um your stealing of phrases until next time