Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 4: Running scales over tunes

Soloing on Dominants

Episode 22 · 15:58 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris uses the bridge of I Got Rhythm in B flat (D7, G7, C7, F7) to practise soloing on dominants. Following Barry’s class routine, he takes one phrase built from the half-step rules and pivoting and plays it on all four dominants, then runs phrases through the chords, brings in the tritone and Barry’s chromatic scale.

Step by step

  1. 0:40Run each bridge dominant, D7, G7, C7 and F7, up and down, tonic to seventh, two bars each.
  2. 1:55Take one phrase and play it on all four dominants, e.g. start on the third and come down with one half step between tonic and seventh.
  3. 2:28Pivot a chord: play the first note of the chord, then the next three notes an octave lower.
  4. 4:19Try another phrase: 6 chromatic to 5, pivot a chord from 5, with a triplet between the third and fourth.
  5. 5:35Play phrases on the important minor on the fifth of each dominant, such as A minor for D7.
  6. 6:14Run phrases: play the full phrase on some chords and only a few notes on others.
  7. 6:59Bring in each dominant’s tritone (A flat 7 for D7) and know its thirds, triads and chords too.
  8. 9:54Use Barry’s chromatic scale, starting on the fifth of D7 on beat one.
  9. 11:41Try the device D7, up a half step to E flat 7, back to D7, then A flat 7, and repeat it on G7, C7 and F7.
  10. 14:16Any dominant can also take a whole-tone scale.

Barry’s own words on this

4.2 Every dominant 7th scale is a major scale6.7 Pivoting8.5 The tritone6.10 Barry’s chromatic scale (chromatic runs with chord tones on the beat)

In the course

The scale every way: up and down, thirds, triads, chordsThe descending half-step rules for the dominantBarry’s chromatic scaleThe important minorPivotsThe tritoneDominant, half step up, back, tritoneThe whole-tone scaleRhythm changesOne phrase on all four dominants

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 22 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. Today I thought we would talk about soloing over dominance and I thought we would use the bridge of I Got Rhythm in B-flat to go over some ideas. Now there’s an episode that I made, I think it’s episode 5, that has half-step rules, various half-step rules for dominance, and it would probably be a good thing for you to check out if you haven’t already before we start working on these.
  2. 0:40This way you can understand it a little bit better. So the scales for I Got Rhythm, well the chords are D7 for two measures, G7 for two measures, C7 for two measures, and then F7 for two measures. So when Barry has us play the scales for it, he says, okay, we’re going to play the scale up and down for each one. So let’s try that. We’ll do it for D7, up and down, and remember his scales only go to the 7th, So you run it to the seventh and run back down.
  3. 1:13So it’ll be D7 up and down, G7 up and down, C7 up and down, F7 up and down. So let’s try it. One, two, three, and... G7. C. F. Okay, then we’ll be back to the beginning, or the last eight, I guess that would be. So, some concepts to try. What he will do is, Barry usually in the class will take a phrase, and then we’ll try to do it on all four dominants. Now, whatever that phrase is, it’s irrelevant for
  4. 1:55the time being, because we just want to try to see if we can do it on D7, on G7, on C7, and on F7. So now, let’s take just any phrase. Maybe we’ll start on the third of D7. We’re on third, second, down to one. And because we started on third, we’re allowed to use one half step between tonic and seven. And then maybe after that, we’ll pivot a chord.
  5. 2:28So that’s something we haven’t talked about, pivoting. And this is what Barry talks about when he discusses his concept of pivoting. So let’s say we’re going to do a chord up, which is four notes up, from, let’s say, the seventh of D7. It would be this. Now what pivoting means is you play the first note, and then you play the next three notes an octave lower. So instead of this, you have this.
  6. 3:05So you really should be able to do all of your chords like that. So in other words, that would be pivoting all your chords. So anyway, so we did, starting from the third, down, put one half step. And then we went down to the third, so we say... Now we should be able to do that on G7. So let’s find the third on G7 and do the same thing.
  7. 3:43We pivoted a chord and then we came down to the third. Same thing for C7. And then the same thing again for F7. So let’s try it. Okay. So now, let’s try a different phrase. Maybe we’ll do, hmm, let’s try, let’s use some triplets.
  8. 4:19Or maybe let’s continue with the idea of pivoting. Let’s do... We’ll do 6 chromatic to 5. Then when we get to 5, we will pivot a chord. So we’ll say... So let’s see how that will sound. And we’ll still put one half step. So let’s see what that sounds like. And we’ll put a triplet. between the third and the fourth.
  9. 4:52So let’s say... And then maybe the same... Oh, and then... And the same thing here. So let’s try that. So there’s our bridge, but just using one phrase and trying to do them on all four of the chords. D7, G7, C7, and F7.
  10. 5:35There’s a million of these that you could do, but just try, you know, take any particular rule that Barry uses, or we can do the important minor that’s found on the fifth degree of each dominant. So on the key of D7 chord, it would be A minor. So let’s do some things on the minor. Let’s say... So... And then the same thing for...
  11. 6:14Same thing here. So trying to do these little things on all four chords is super important. Then what you want to also get used to doing is running, just playing one of those phrases, then maybe not doing it for the next phrase. So let’s try that. So, that was, I just did it for G7.
  12. 6:59I didn’t do it for G7. I have a few notes for G7, and then I did it for C7, and I didn’t do it for F7. I had a few notes for F7. The other thing you can do is you can start to learn how to run, and I think we’ve talked about this before because a dominant chord whenever you have a dominant it brings it in its tritone so its tritone is three whole steps away so three whole steps from D would be A flat or G sharp so it brings in that scale also and all of the things that you could do for D7 you can also do
  13. 7:41for Ab7. But instead of just mimicking exactly what we do for D7 into Ab7, maybe we’ll just run a phrase, one thing into the next thing. So, why don’t we try, let’s see, let me just... So, let’s see what I did for D7. Well, I don’t remember exactly what I did, but I came down and once I got down to the
  14. 8:21sixth of the D7, I came down a half step and I came down a chord from the second of the Ab7. So again, if we were going to think about the scales for this now, instead of thinking this, maybe we should think of D7, Ab7. So again, all the things you need to know for A7, D7, I’m sorry, thirds, triads, chords, which is four notes. Now you have to know the same thing for A-flat-7.
  15. 9:00That was thirds, triads. You have to know chords. And so on. So I’m just picking little random spots. For that case, I came down. Let’s see. That’s the dry tone. That’s just coming down a triad from the second of the A-flat. And then I surrounded the fifth of the G7.
  16. 9:54So there’s a million different things that you can practice on those. running one thing to the next thing and then using the tritone, which is super important also. Also, we can do maybe something on Barry’s other chromatic scale that he did. So maybe we’ll try to start on, let’s say, the fifth of D7. Let’s try that. Let’s see, one, two, right on the first beat. One, two, three, four. That’s one of his chromatic, and I think that’s in one of the earlier episodes also, his chromatic scale.
  17. 10:56which is super cool also to use. So, running D7 into G7, playing the same little phrase on D7 and G7, or maybe running D7 into A-flat-7, or maybe just running D7 into G7 and not playing a whole lot. But what was the... There was one he used to do like... What was it? Oh, yes. So he would do... sometimes guitar players will play something like this. Now what that is, is
  18. 11:41D7, a half step up to E flat 7, back down to D7, and then D7’s tritone, which is A flat 7. Then you’re going to do exactly the same thing for G7, which would be G7, A-flat-7, G7, D-flat-7, then C7, D-flat-7, C7, F-sharp-7, F7, F-sharp-7, F7, B7. So if you’re going to do that, he might take something like...
  19. 12:21Or you might do all of them. So all that was, was I went up a chord for the D7 from the third. Then when I got to D7, I came down that same chord from the second, which is the same chord going up. And then I did the tritone coming down from the second. So I should probably do all of them.
  20. 12:55Let me see if I can do it so it would be... Well, that was it, but it would have to be really fast. Oh, man. But you see, just being able to practice those, and again, that’s just doing them on all of them, which you probably wouldn’t do.
  21. 13:44You might do a few like that. So you might do a few. And again, if we’re doing it up from the third, you could also do it up from the fifth. That’s nice too.
  22. 14:16So, all these little things, all these little ways to practice your dominance and the bridge of I Got Rhythm. Really important. Again, I hope you’re enjoying these. I’m loving them. If you have any suggestions as to what else you can practice on the bridge of I Got Rhythm, or with dominance, I’d love to hear them. One thing we haven’t talked about, and I think I’ll make a video about it eventually, is the whole tone scale which goes along with the dominant. Anytime you have a dominant you can play a whole tone scale which is basically a one two three four
  23. 14:52five six a six note scale that consists of only whole steps. So, it’s an interesting scale. And it’s very useful. Let me just see if I can throw it in. So you just, you can throw it in. Nice scale. But I can have an entire, we can have an entire several episodes about it actually, old ways to practice it and so on. But anyway, I think for this, for what we discussed today, that’s quite a lot to practice.
  24. 15:34So I hope you’ve enjoyed the rest of these videos. And keep the comments coming. And make sure you share with your musician friends. And let’s spread the word of Barry Harris. It’s really important. So anyway, have fun practicing your dominant skills. Thanks again.