Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 5: The added-note rules

Barry’s Beautiful Half-Step Rules Continued

Episode 83 · 14:41 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris goes deeper into Barry’s descending half-step rules for a dominant, using D7. He covers the rules for running up from a note, for leaps of a third, fourth or fifth, and for triads and chords, practises the phrases on the bridge of rhythm changes, and ends with Barry’s point that starting on an ‘and’ reverses the rules.

Step by step

  1. 0:34On D7, remember the odd degrees share rules and so do the even ones; from the tonic, one half step between tonic and 7th.
  2. 1:15Run up the scale from the tonic to any note and come back down using the tonic’s rule.
  3. 2:29From the second, run up and come back with no half steps, or two (second to tonic, tonic to flat 7th).
  4. 3:39From the third, use one half step, or three (3 to 2, 2 to 1, tonic to 7th).
  5. 4:25When you leap up a third, use the rule of the next note you hit coming down.
  6. 5:57Leaps of a fourth or a fifth work the same way: the next note down sets the rule.
  7. 6:32For a triad up, use the rule of its top note, e.g. a triad from the root takes the fifth’s rule.
  8. 8:23For a chord up, use the rule of the next note coming down, e.g. a chord from the 5th of D7 takes the third’s rule.
  9. 10:15Practise each phrase on the bridge of rhythm changes: D7, G7, C7 and F7, two bars each.
  10. 11:51Start phrases on an ‘and’, and reverse the rules, as Barry taught.

Barry’s own words on this

5.3 Dominant 7th scale descending5.4 Off the beat, pickups and triplets5.5 Rules from every degree, ascending rules, several added notes, harmonic minor13.2 Rhythm changes (‘seven songs in one’)

In the course

The scale every way: up and down, thirds, triads, chordsThe descending half-step rules for the dominantWhich rule applies after a run or a leapStart on the ‘and’ and the rules reverseRhythm changes

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 83 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would discuss more within more detail Barry’s half-step rules for dominance. So he has some basic rules for half-steps, which I’ll link in the description, which I’ve already done a video on. But this is kind of like, and I think I might have talked about it in this last video, but we’ll discuss it in further detail today. So let’s take a look at his descending half-step rules.
  2. 0:34And we’ll use D7 as the example. So what Barry likes to do is he has different rules for different degrees. Remember this, the even numbers go together and the odd numbers go together. So if you’re starting on the root, the third, the fifth, and the seventh, the rules will be the same. If you start on the second, the fourth, or the sixth, which are the even numbers, the rules will be the same for those two. So they each have two sets of rules. Let’s just start on the tonic, which most people know this one is just one half step between tonic and seven. Now, some other cool things that I don’t know if we’ve really discussed is another part of these rules.
  3. 1:15The next step is, after you learn those, you say to yourself, okay, he’s got another rule that says, okay, if you start on a note and run up scale-wise to any other note, you use the rule for the note you started on, which would be, let’s say if we’re starting on tonic. So the rule for tonic is one half step. Now, here’s a nice way to practice this. You could say, here’s one half step, we’ll put the metronome on. Two, three, four. Now, this is nice, too. So I’m going to start on the tonic and we’re going to run up to the second. And then when I come back down, I’m still going to use the rule for the note I started on, which is the tonic.
  4. 1:55Pretty. I’ll do the same thing, but I’ll run up to the third. And I’ll still use the rule for the note I started on, which is the tonic. So I’ll do one half step. Now I’ll start on tonic and I’ll run up to the fourth. Maybe up to the fifth. Sixth. Isn’t that a pretty phrase? Beautiful phrase.
  5. 2:29So that’s if you start on any note, run up to any note, scale-wise, you use the rule for the note you started on. Now let’s start on the second. We’ll do the same thing. So the first rule for the second is no half steps. or two half steps between second and tonic, tonic and flat 7. So let’s start on second and let’s run up to 3 and we’ll use no half steps. Or we can use two half steps between second and tonic, tonic and 7. Really pretty. Beautiful.
  6. 3:05Let’s start on the second, run up to the 4. That’s a beautiful one too. Let’s run up to the four and use no half steps. Also pretty. Let’s start on second, run up to the five, come back down. Maybe we’ll do the two half steps first. Also nice. Let’s do no half steps. Also pretty.
  7. 3:39Okay, let’s start on the third. So the rule for the third is the same as the tonic. We didn’t do the three half steps for the tonic, but we’ll do it here. So the first one is one half step. So we’ll do one half step. We’ll end on the third. So now let’s do three half steps, which would be between three and two, two and one, tonic and seven. Now let’s run up to four and put in one half step. pretty phrase. Let’s start on three and run up to five and put in one half step. Also pretty. Let’s do three half steps.
  8. 4:25Really pretty. Okay, so you get the idea. If you start on a note, run up to any other note, you can use the rule for the note you started on. Now how about this one where you start on a note and you go up a third. So now when you start on a note and go up a third you’re going to use the rule for whatever note you hit next and it’s usually descending. So let’s say we’re descending. So if we go up a third from the tonic we got tonic three that means the next note we’re going to hit going down is descending is the second. So we’ll use no half steps. It’s beautiful. Or we can use two half steps because that’s the second rule for the odd numbers.
  9. 5:08Two half steps, one between second and tonic, one between tonic and seven. So now you got this. Really beautiful. Let’s start on second. We’ll go up a third. So the second goes up a third to the fourth and then the next note descending would be the third. So we’ll use the rule for the third. The first one is between tonic and seven. That’s a pretty phrase too. All these are beautiful phrases. How about if we start on the second and we go up a third and then we’re going to use three half steps now from the third. That’s a nice one. I went to tritone after that. That’s
  10. 5:57pretty. Okay, so that’s if you go up a third. But that also includes if you go up a fourth, it’s whatever the next note is when you’re descending. So if we go up a fourth, the next note descending would be the three. So it would be one half step. which is something my student taught me yesterday. I’m very appreciative of it. But he went up a fourth and then he went up a fifth. But then it’s always the very next note that you hit after that that holds the rule. So it would be the fourth if we went up a fifth. We’d play tonic, fifth, and then the next note would be the fourth.
  11. 6:32So we’d use the rule for the fourth. The first rule is no half steps. Or two half steps. really nice. Now let’s do triad. So if we start using a triad, the rule for the triad is whatever note is the top of the triad. So we’ll say one, two, three, four, that’s a triad. Ends on the fifth. Rule for the fifth, it’s one of the odd ones, so it’s going to have two rules. One is between tonic and seven. The second rule is three half steps between three
  12. 7:10two, two and one tonic and seven. So let’s do the one half step. I like that. Let’s see. Very pretty. Let’s do a triad from the second. So now we’ve got, the triad from the second would be two four and six so now we’re going to use the rule for the six which we know half steps let’s see one one two three
  13. 7:44i like that let’s do two half steps one two three four that’s nice too let’s do um let’s skip around let’s do the triad from the fifth So it ends on the second. So now you got this. One, two, three, four. So I used a rule for the second, which was no half steps. But now I’ll use two half steps.
  14. 8:23That’s pretty. Really beautiful. The next one, we’ll do a chord up. And the chord is going to have the same type of rules as the third, which is whatever the next note is descending, you’re going to use that rule. So let’s say we come up a chord, and a chord is play a note, skip a note, play a note, skip a note, play a note, skip a note, play a note.
  15. 8:55So it would be, let’s say I came up from the fifth of the D7. There’s a chord up from the D7. So if I start and I go up a chord, the next note that I come to descending is the third. So we’ll use the rule for the third, which is the first rule is one half step. That’s a nice phrase. Really beautiful. Let’s do the one from the sixth. Let’s do the one from the seventh.
  16. 9:33So now the last note of the chord would be the sixth, but we’re going to use whatever the next note is, which would be the five. So after we descend, now we’ll use the rule for the five, which would be one half step. Beautiful. Let’s do three half steps. Also beautiful. So just in this short period of time, all these different phrases came from just those few rules, descending rules. So a nice way to practice it sometimes that I do is if I take the bridge for rhythm changes,
  17. 10:15which is D7 for two measures, G7 for two measures, C7 for two measures, and then F7 for two measures. So you got a little bit of time for each thing. So you take any one of those phrases and say, okay, can I do it on the bridge of rhythm changes? This is something that Barry does often, which is great. So let’s take the one that we did, the triad from the fifth, where you end it on the second and let’s put in two half steps.
  18. 10:51we’ll do something like that. So we’ll say, and then we’ll have to do it on each degree. So I’m sorry, not on each degree, on each chord. So if we did it for D7, one, two, three. And then. And the same thing for C7. Same thing for F. So, instead of playing the scales for I Got Rhythm, G7, C7, F7, we’ll say...
  19. 11:51But do you see how interesting these can be? Another thing that’s really great is we have all these rules, and all these rules consist of starting on a beat. So then Barry said one day, well, if you want to start on an and, then all of the rules reverse. So when he said that, it was like a whole other new world opened up. Because what I realized was, for myself at least, I start so many of my phrases on a beat as opposed to on the end. So now
  20. 12:30if we took this same thing, that’s starting on the first beat. One and two and three and four and one and two and three and. So now what if we started, and remember the rule for the triad is, whatever the highest note is that’s what we will use descending but now if we reverse it now you’re going to reverse the rules because we’re starting on an and which means it’s going to be whatever the very next note is that i hit so if i start on an and it would be one so it’s one two three four one one half step that’s also pretty but that’s feeling the end of the one which is really nice one two
  21. 13:09three. You hear the difference instead of this one one two three four. This one is one two three four one. Every one of them. Next. So, you take one of Barry’s little things, and it can make you play a million different
  22. 13:49phrases. This is, again, the thing I always talk about in these lessons that is so fantastic and unbelievably valuable, is that you can watch these videos at home. You’ll come up with a thousand different phrases that I’ve never played, that Barry has never played, because it’s impossible to look at everything. It’s like an infinite amount of things. So with just those little rules, with just those little dominant half-step rules, think about what we can do. And obviously he has some rules for major scale too. And this is not including his chromatic scale,
  23. 14:24which I talked about in the last video. But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this little more in-depth look at some of Barry’s dominant half-step rules. And until next time. Thanks.