Barry HarrisThe method

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

A Minor 7 Is Beautiful

Episode 82 · 12:49 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris applies Barry’s rule that every minor 7 is a major 6: A minor 7 is C6, a member of the C6 diminished scale. Wherever Am7 appears, in a I-VI-II-V in C or as the II of G, he moves through that scale in parallel, oblique and contrary motion and with borrowed notes, sounds he says he would never have found thinking of a single Am7 chord.

Step by step

  1. 0:00Apply Barry’s rule: every minor 7 is a major 6, so A minor 7 is C6.
  2. 0:38Build the C6 diminished scale (C major plus a flat 6) in drop 2: C6 and diminished chords alternate up the scale.
  3. 1:14Use it on the A minor 7 of a I-VI-II-V in C, landing on Dm7 heard as F6.
  4. 2:25Use it again where Am7 is the II chord of G, going to D7 and G.
  5. 3:36Test yourself in drop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4, and also in thirds, sixths and triads.
  6. 4:40Add oblique motion: hold one note while the other notes move around it.
  7. 5:42Add contrary motion: one voice goes up the scale while another comes down.
  8. 7:08Start the contrary motion from other degrees, and stretch it from three notes to five.
  9. 10:59Hear ‘A minor 9’ as C6 with a note borrowed from the diminished above, then borrow two or three notes.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line0:38
𝄞♭
CDEFGABC6A♭
  1. C
  2. D
  3. E
  4. F
  5. G
  6. A♭
  7. A
  8. B

Barry’s own words on this

9.1 Sixth chords rule9.3 The major 6th diminished scale (a major scale with one more note)9.4 Playing the scale of chords (block chords up and down the 6th dim scale)10.4 Borrowing

In the course

Sixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6The major 6 diminished scaleEvery chord belongs to a scale of chordsDrop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4Parallel, oblique and contrary motionBorrowingPut it in a song

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 82 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would talk about how beautiful A minor 7 is. So for people who are new to the channel, A minor 7, in Barry’s world, Barry sees every minor 7 as a major 6. So A minor 7 is A minor 7, but it is also C6. Same exact chord.
  2. 0:38So Barry sees A minor 7 as C6, but he sees it coming from the C6 diminished scale, which is the... it’s like a C major scale, but with a flat 6 also. So here’s the scale, which means when we build a chord from each degree, we’re going to get a C6, a diminished, another C6, another inversion of that first diminished, another C6, another inversion of that diminished, another C6, another inversion of the diminished, another C6.
  3. 1:14So that’s it in drop two. So now what we have to do as people who are trying to get interested in Barry’s system and his logic in looking at harmony, we have to say, okay, well, where can I use this? So you say, okay, well, let’s see, there’s a couple of places where A minor 7 happens. Let’s say we’re playing a 1-6-2-5 in C major. So you’ve got the I chord, which is, most people look at it as C major 7, A minor 7, there it is right there. then we got a D minor 7 and a G7. So let’s do some things in C major
  4. 1:52and then so there’s an example of using the C6 diminished to end up on D minor 7 or since we’re Barry people we don’t think of that as D minor 7 and we think of that as F6. So now this is just knowing the C6 scale. And I could have done anything. So we could have said...
  5. 2:25I could have just done the sixes. Which is pretty too. I could have done some of these... These are all beautiful things to do and like drop two type of things, which is the four consecutive strings. another place where there’s an A minor 7 is let’s say in the key of G so it’s the two chord of G so let’s say we’re going to go to the two chord of G and let’s say after the A minor 7 it goes to D7 back to G so let’s say here’s our E7, here’s our A-7
  6. 3:02we’ll do the same thing there was our C6 diminished and I’m just moving around the scale in drop twos. So now we’ve changed our way of looking at A minor 7 as just this one stagnant chord that we can basically do the same things that we normally do, play the same one all the time, to the D7, go to G major. But why do we have to do that? Why can’t we do something creative and beautiful every time that A minor 7 comes?
  7. 3:36And that’s a great test to see how well you know the C6 diminished scale. To say, okay, if a C major comes up, I can do these things. If an F major comes up, I can do these things. If that A minor 7 comes up, I can do these things. But what can I do? Okay, well, what things do I practice? So these type of things that I’m looking at are all drop 2. But that means you should also know drop 3, which for guitar players is. So drop two is you’re playing four consecutive strings. Drop three is you play a string, skip a string, play three strings.
  8. 4:12Drop two, drop four is play two strings, skip a string, play two strings. So here’s our basic, those are our three bigger chords that we can do. But we also have to know it in thirds, we have to know it in sixths, we have to know it in triads, we have to know a bunch of different ways. Now, primarily what we’re talking about here is just parallel motion, meaning all the notes are moving in the same direction at the same time. Then there’s another kind of motion, which is oblique motion, where one note stays, and maybe two or three, or maybe even just one note moves around it.
  9. 4:56That’s beautiful. Next one. So where would we use something like that? So let’s say again in the example of A minor 7, we say his G major. There it was. now I would never in my life have thought to play that if I just thought of that chord as an A minor seven never it’s only because I know that that A minor seven is not just A minor seven it’s actually
  10. 5:42four notes that belong to this scale of chords which is the C6 diminished scale never would I ever thought to play that now another way we so we did parallel we did oblique and now we have to do contrary. And by the way, for more of these kind of movements and ways to look at this, there’s a channel called, I’ve brought up a lot called Labyrinth of Limitations, and Thomas Eccles has really checked all these things out, and you should really look into his channel because it’s really fantastic for breaking this stuff apart. So again, A minor 7, we did parallel motion, which is moving all the notes in the same direction. Then we did oblique
  11. 6:22motion, which is keeping one note still and moving the notes around it. Then you have contrary motion, which is one note moving in one direction, the other note moving in the other direction, either this way or this way. They’re moving contrary to each other. So then we have things like, here’s three notes of our scale, or here’s three more notes going down. So we have to do them at the same time. So we say for one note, at least the thirds, at least the triads. So now where would we use something like that? Again, every time there’s an A minor 7. So here’s G major.
  12. 7:08There it was. but you see i would have never in a million years thought to play that if i didn’t think of that a minor seven that’s coming from a c6 diminished scale never it would just still be the same thing same a minor seven or even if i wanted to do like little inversions of it that’s fine but i would never think to do something like that let’s take this contrary motion a little bit further because you could do it on any degree. Let’s start it on the... That’s pretty. Let’s do that one.
  13. 7:59That’s beautiful. Or maybe let’s play more. So instead of playing three notes, let’s do five notes. So down would be this. So if I did it contrary, let’s see. So never, ever would I ever think to play something like this. This whole thing, this is so beautiful.
  14. 8:36but it’s because I know that that A minor 7 is part of the C6 diminished scale. And that is, I think, the most important thing to get from this lesson. Every minor 7 is a major 6. So sometimes people say, well, what’s the purpose of learning Barry’s harmonically now, his 6 diminished scale, or his minor 6 diminished scale, or is Dominant 7 diminished scale or is Dominant 7 flat 5 diminished scale. And the only reason you should learn it is to use it.
  15. 9:12If you’re not going to use it, there’s no point in learning it. But I think the most important thing is when you start to see the application of it. So if you say to yourself, wait a second, every time I see an A minor 7, I can think this C6 diminished scale. Just imagine all the beautiful things you can do with it. just imagine all the beautiful things you can do with it anything that you can do on the scale that you practice you then try to put into a song that’s the whole point of it there’s no point in doing anything else except trying to put this stuff in a song so we can have a million exercises that we
  16. 9:48practice but unless and until you see it in an application of a song it’s not going to be that helpful. The thing that I love about Barry’s teaching and Barry’s method is I’ve never experienced when he’s shown us something where he hasn’t immediately put it into a song, immediately. So he’ll do this whole elaborate thing on a six diminished or something really beautiful. What was this one? He did like a really something like that. So that’s a nice one to do, but that’s more parallel emotion.
  17. 10:25With tense. Really beautiful stuff. But that’s the name of the game. You practice these things so that you can really use them in a song. That’s the whole point. If you can’t use them in a song, then one of two things are true. Either you haven’t practiced it enough or maybe you don’t believe in it. But see, Barry has made me a believer that A minor 7 is not as important
  18. 10:59as saying that that A minor 7 is C6. And then you start to get into things like we did parallel, we did oblique, and then we did contrary motion. Then there’s also borrowing. So for instance, a lot of people play, let’s say we’re still in G. They’ll play this chord, which is nice. And most people would call this A minor 9, but Barry would not. Barry would call this C6, and the note that I’m playing the B on top is borrowed from the diminished chord that’s right above it. So as most people would play
  19. 11:38this, it’s pretty. But they would call this A minor to A minor 9, back to A minor, and then through D7 with a flat 5 or flat 9 or whatever. Meanwhile, Barry would say this is C6. All these little things I can do on C6. Look, this is just borrowing one note. I could borrow two notes. I could borrow three notes. That’s actually a pretty one. So let’s start. Here’s G6. Three notes.
  20. 12:15So the point of the lesson is C6 diminished scale is greater than A minor 7. So just keep that in mind. C6 diminished scale is greater than A minor 7. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that lesson and of practicing to learn how to really love A minor 7 by seeing it as a chord that’s in the C6 diminished scale. Anyway, until next time, thanks.