Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 8: Thinking dominant

The Tritone

Episode 77 · 13:38 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris explains Barry’s tritone rule on a B flat blues: Bb7 can be replaced by E7 whenever it resolves up a fourth, whatever the quality of the target chord. The real work, he says, is making the E7 line resolve smoothly into Eb7, so he pairs notes of E7 that surround each note of Eb7 and also replays dominant phrases on the tritone.

Step by step

  1. 0:00Find the tritone: the dominant three whole steps up, so Bb7’s tritone is E7; they share the third and seventh, swapped.
  2. 0:43Use Barry’s rule: play the tritone only when the dominant goes home a fourth higher, to any chord quality.
  3. 1:22Practise E7 every way you practise a dominant: scale, thirds, triads, chords, half-step rules and pivots.
  4. 2:11Focus on the hard part: making the E7 line flow into Eb7 rather than into A.
  5. 2:50Surround the tonic of Eb7 with two notes of E7: E above and D below E flat.
  6. 3:37Surround the second of Eb7 (F) with the tonic and second of E7 (E and F sharp).
  7. 4:16Surround the third of Eb7 (G) with the second and third of E7 (F sharp and G sharp).
  8. 6:07Surround the fifth of Eb7 with E7’s fourth and fifth, and its sixth with E7’s fifth and sixth.
  9. 8:38Play a phrase on the dominant, then the same phrase on the tritone, adjusting it slightly to fit.
  10. 10:26Try a chord up from the fifth of Bb7, then a chord up from the fifth of E7.

Barry’s own words on this

8.5 The tritone6.5 Surrounding notes (approach from above and below)13.1 The blues the Barry way

In the course

The scale every way: up and down, thirds, triads, chordsThe descending half-step rules for the dominantThe important minorPivotsThe tritoneMaking the tritone resolveThe family of dominants

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 77 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would discuss tritone. So a tritone, for those of you who don’t know, is a chord, a dominant chord, that’s basically, when Barry refers to it as, is that’s basically three whole steps higher than the chord that you’re on, the dominant chord that you’re on. So in this instance, we’ll be using B-flat-7, like if we’re playing a blues in B-flat. So B-flat-7’s tritone is E7. Now there’s a lot of reasons why that works. One of them is it’s part of the family of dominants that connects together. One of them is it happens to have the third and the seventh are in common.
  2. 0:43They just flip-flop. But you can use it when you’re soloing. Barry’s rule is you can use a tritone when you’re going home from a dominant, a fourth higher. So in this case, B-flat 7 is going home to E flat 7. So it’s a fourth higher. But the B flat 7 could have gone to E flat major or could have gone to E flat minor and we could still use the E7 because it’s still going home a fourth higher. So the quality of the chord that you’re going to doesn’t have any relevance. But for instance, there are periods of time where we would use B flat 7 where you’re going back to C major or something like that. In that instance, you don’t use the tritone. At least that’s what Barry talks
  3. 1:22about. So let’s just discuss a few things about it. So what would you play on a tritone? So one of the things that we do is when we practice the dominant scale, we say scale up and down. I’m doing E7 now. Scale in thirds. Scale in triads. Scale in chords. Scale with the half-step rules. you know, putting a half step below notes, all these things that you know, pivots, all these things, they’re all useful when you’re doing this. The trick is, how do you play a pretty
  4. 2:11E7 phrase? And E7, that dominant is normally resolving to something in A. So whether it be A major, A7, or A minor, it still is resolving to something in A. But in this instance, especially for the blues that we’re talking about, E7 is resolving to something E flat 7. So this is the tricky part, and this is the part that deserves a lot more attention than it gets. And that is, okay, how do I make my E7 line, which is a tritone, which is already by its nature going to sound a outside or played a little out, but how do I make it flow nicely into the E flat 7?
  5. 2:50This is where I think Barry has it over everybody, is that he’s really checked this out. So for instance, he’ll say something like, there are notes in E flat 7 that surround notes of E flat 7. So notes of E7 that surround notes of E flat 7. Now the reason why you need to know those surrounding things is so that you could do things like, so that was just the E and the D which surround the E flat, which is the tonic of the E flat seven. So if we said, so there’s the two notes of surround the E flat, then he’ll do something like what two notes
  6. 3:37surround the second of E flat well you got the tonic and the second of the E7 so let’s do that one so so there it was I just came down to try it once I got to it so now you got maybe I’ll do two half steps when I get to E flat 7 considering that I’m on the second So I mean, one, two, three. So there’s two more notes of the tri-tone.
  7. 4:16Now, what if we surrounded the two notes of E7, surrounded the third of E flat 7. So it’d be the third of E and the second of E, surround the third of the E flat 7. So then you have to think to yourself, okay, so let’s try that one. Not bad. How about... That’s a nicer phrase. So it was a...
  8. 4:47So that’s the third. Now we’ll do the fourth, which is nice. So the 4th and the 5th, let’s see, what would be nice? Well, the 4th and the 3rd of the E7, this is a tricky spot because the 3rd of the E7 is actually the 4th of the Eb7. So now we have to come up with something interesting for that.
  9. 5:29So maybe if we said... So maybe we’ll play the 4th and the 5th of the E7. And then we’ll play the 4th of the E-flats. Let’s see. That was nice. Let me see if I can do it right, though. That’s nice, 4th and 5th.
  10. 6:07So now we’ll do the 4th and 5th of the E7 also surround the 5th of the E-flat. So let’s try that. So that’s nice too. So that’s the 4th and the 5th. Now we’ll do the 5th and the 6th, which surround the 6th of the E-flat. So we’ll say...
  11. 6:47That wasn’t a nice phrase. That wasn’t bad. I pivoted. Oh, that was nice. I just came down the important minor. For the E flat 7, which is B flat minor. So, so... And then we have the last one, which is the 7th. Maybe we’ll do, like, the 7th.
  12. 7:24Let’s see. Again, you have that problem with the half step. But we go back to 7 and tonic. But maybe we could just do... Okay, so let’s try that. Let’s see. I like that. I like those. Those are nice. But this is what I mean about Barry getting into the very nitty-gritty of all this stuff. it’s one thing to tell a person well here’s a rule you can play a tritone so if you’re playing a b
  13. 8:02flat 7 you can play an e7 and run it into e flat it’s another thing to practice all these different angles to do it to make it sound and flow really nicely almost like the tritone is not really that out because you’re resolving in such a nice way i was talking to somebody yesterday about this we were talking on a lesson and he was saying how beautiful it was that he was transcribing Sonny Rollins and all these other people, especially Sonny Rollins, and he was seeing it like, oh wow, there’s a tritone right there. Look, he’s starting off the tritone right there. He’s
  14. 8:38playing the tritone right there. And it’s really something because it sounds out, but it doesn’t sound so out that it’s dramatic. It sounds out and it’s giving you a little dissonance, but then it resolves itself really nicely. That’s a very hard thing to do. do, and that’s the thing that requires the most practice. Something else that people do sometimes, and Barry does it once in a while, is whatever phrase you play on a dominant, like you then play it on the tritone. So let’s say if we were taking, let’s say, let’s say if we were taking the third and
  15. 9:14fourth bar of the blues where we say right here right there that B flat maybe I might say something in B flat 7 I’ll use a thing let’s say I take a I start on the three maybe I’ll start on three and run up to the four run back down I’ll still use the rule for the hat for the note that I started on which is three so I’ll put one half step. So there’s our thing. So here we go. See, then I used it exactly for the tritone.
  16. 9:53But I might change it a little for the tritone to make it a little nicer. So let’s see. So you change it a little bit just to make it fit. But maybe if I don’t run up to the 4, maybe if I just leave it playing. That’s a nice one. So let’s see. Yeah, that’s a nice one.
  17. 10:26So that’s another concept where you take a thing. So like suppose I did a chord up from the 5th. and then I did a chord up from the fifth of the E7. So if I said... That’s a nice little thing that you can do too. Whatever you use on the tritone, I mean, whatever you use on the dominant, you do it again on the tritone. And it can work really nicely. You can start a nice... Let’s see if I started on three.
  18. 11:01Let’s see. Yeah, maybe that’s right. Let’s see. Let’s see if I start on four. Yeah, let’s try on three, one half step. And then the same thing here. Let’s see. Very pretty. Chord up.
  19. 11:32Also pretty. Wait. That was, I used a half step, but when I got down to the second, I came down a chord. So I’m going to do the same thing. Start on the third, go put a half step. So let’s try that one. I mean, they’re really beautiful.
  20. 12:05So, remember, the most important thing to remember from this, I think, is the rule for the tritone is just you can use it when you’re going a fourth higher. When you’re resolving a fourth higher. But now it’s up to all of us to really make that connection between the E7 and the E-flat7. And how slick we can make that connection. connection. And that’s the thing that Barry has I feel like over everybody. He’s really checked this out. And if you look at any of his phrases, if you listen to any of his music,
  21. 12:39when he plays tritone, it’s so special. It’s like it really puts you into a special place because he plays it, it’s out, but the resolution is always so effortless that it just makes the out even better. So that’s something for us to keep in mind. Too many people, I feel like, have a lot of rules and they say, well, you can use a tritone or you can do this. And all those are true, but you have to be able to use it in a practical sense when you’re playing and it has to mean something and it has to be musical because otherwise there’s no, if you play everything tritone
  22. 13:16and everything’s out and you never resolve it right, then that means you’re just playing everything out. If you’re playing everything out, then it’s not really out anymore if you’re playing out all the time. Anyway, I hope this was helpful in discussing the tritone. And yeah, until next time, enjoy practicing your tritone. Thanks.