Barry HarrisThe method

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

Endless ways to play I-VI-II-V with the scale of chords

Episode 46 · 14:04 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris applies Barry’s scale of chords to comping a I-VI-II-V in G. Because G6 and E minor 7 share the same four notes, the first two chords are one G6 diminished scale, and A minor 7 is the C6 diminished scale. Moving through those scales in drop voicings, thirds, sixths and tenths, starting on diminished chords and borrowing notes, gives far more than four fixed chords.

Step by step

  1. 0:03Use Barry’s scale of chords for harmony: comping behind a soloist or a singer
  2. 0:39The progression: in G, G major 7, E minor 7, A minor 7, D7
  3. 1:49G6 and E minor 7 are the same four notes, so treat the first two chords as one G6 diminished scale
  4. 2:28Play up the G6 diminished scale in drop 2 voicings through the I-VI-II-V; know it in drop 3 too (on guitar: a note, skip a string, then the next three strings)
  5. 3:07Play the scale of chords in thirds (the one from the second is the odd one) and make a I-VI-II-V from them
  6. 4:40Then in sixths, and start a passage on one of the scale’s diminished chords instead of a sixth chord
  7. 5:23Learn the G6 diminished scale in tenths as well and make a line of chords from them
  8. 6:29Hear A minor 7 as the C6 diminished scale and know it in drop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4, in thirds, sixths and tenths
  9. 9:57For D7 choose a D7 diminished, D7 flat 5 diminished or minor 6 diminished scale, or the tritone’s minor a half step above: E flat minor
  10. 11:38Keep starting on diminished notes and borrowing notes so even a short turnaround says something

Barry’s own words on this

9.4 Playing the scale of chords (block chords up and down the 6th dim scale)9.1 Sixth chords rule10.3 Moving a chord through its scale into the next chord (6-6-6 instead of ii-V-I)10.5 Drop voicings

In the course

The tritone’s minorSixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6Barry’s four scales of chordsInfinite ways to play I-VI-II-VDrop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4The intervals inside a drop 2BorrowingFreedom and your own voice

Transcript

  1. 0:03hello and welcome to episode 46 of things I’ve learned from Barry Harris today I thought we would discuss applying Barry’s scale of chords to harmony or to just playing chords say if you’re comping for another instrumentalists or if you’re comping for a singer and how important it is so I thought today we would take a look at g6 we take a look at the key of G primarily and one of the most important
  2. 0:39progressions that starts things off for most people is one six two five in a given key so most people will play the one chord six chord which is E minor seven the one chord being G major seventh chord which is a minor seven the five chord which is D seven so one six two five and the key of G now if we want to really take a look at that the to scale Accords I would suggest you work on to really accomplish trying to be
  3. 1:15comfortable with just playing those four chords rg6 diminished [Music] now the reason why I’m picking on just those two things is as follows you’ll see the first two chords in a one six two five our G major - E minor seven now
  4. 1:49G major and E minor seven in Barre six diminished are the same chord just a different inversion so this G six and as he minor seven is the same exact four notes just a different place so that’s one thing that you have to know how to do so let’s just take a look at a few things from g 6 to another G 6 or to E minor 7 so let’s just maybe play up the scale that was pretty just playing up the
  5. 2:28scale also one six two five and then I ended on a c6 but now that’s just playing up drop twos obviously if you have to know g6 you also have to know your drop greens we just start on a note skip a string play the next three strings [Music] another little idea you also should know
  6. 3:07your scale in g6 in let’s say thirds so here’s this g6 and thirds [Music] there’s the weird one which is the second so you’d have to be able to do something in thirds so let’s say if we said [Music] it’s pretty just one six two five let’s
  7. 3:49say if we did another thing over let’s do another one in thirds let’s say let’s see [Music] [Applause] [Music] that’s pretty - let’s do another thing you have to know in the scale Accords is six three six and six pretty I’ll try to do something in 6th
  8. 4:40so let’s say just going up the scale was pretty now maybe let’s start on a diminished one [Music] really pretty another one six let’s try another one let’s say [Music] the thing I’m doing on c6 is tense so
  9. 5:23perhaps we should learn g6 intents is another one in g6 the intense the scale intense [Music] so maybe let’s do something intense let’s come up with something nice and tense
  10. 5:54[Music] those are all night those a little pretty ideas let’s do another one let’s see also nice okay so that’s g6 to E minor
  11. 6:29seven and then I was adding the things now let’s take a look at some of the things for a minor seven the same idea c6 diminished scale so you have to know your c6 diminish scale you drop two you have to know to drop three drop to drop for you have to know it in thirds [Music] there it is in third you have to know it in sixths you have to know it in tents
  12. 7:13[Music] that’s a nice one tents I just recently saw a video of Barry doing something like six [Music] so they’ll be the two-five so maybe
  13. 7:46let’s do something G six seven that’s a nice one how about if we do six so let’s try what we’ll do those are pretty - that was just the you
  14. 8:26know I started off with the g6 diminished and then I went into a minor 7 or thinking of it as c6 diminished mmm let’s do let’s do - well the tenths we did already let’s try thirds or actually you know what he does with thirds sometimes which is beautiful is he’ll take this the C major arpeggio [Music] [Music]
  15. 9:23so look just look at how many different ways now some of those I’ve obviously played before a lot of them I haven’t to be perfectly honest that’s why I’m kind of stumbling through it a little bit but it’s just to show you if you focus on it in a different way than you have before which is just to take a piece of sheet music and it says okay G major - E minor seven - a minor seven to d7 and instead you think of it as your scale of chords like this the whole first part G major
  16. 9:57to E minor seven is just G six diminished scale that a minor seven is just C six diminished scale now I didn’t even talk about what you could play for D seven and there’s a lot of things you could play for D seven there’s just regular D seven diminished scale which is something that he talks about there’s D seven flat five diminished scale which he also talks about one of Barry’s four scale chords there is you could look at it as a minor six diminished which is one a better scale chords you could look
  17. 10:29at it as if you wanted to look at the tritones minor which is a half step above the dominant so a half step above D seven would be e flat minor that’s a pretty one let’s just look at that for a second [Music] there was a flat - six [Music] could have done that too so maybe let me try to do something like that
  18. 11:01[Music] so it just goes to show you there’s a lot of different things but knowing the scale of Courts knowing the scale of chords and drop to drop three drop to drop for knowing the scale in thirds in sixes intense just being able to do all
  19. 11:38different little things with them starting on diminished notes instead of instead of six notes you can start on diminished notes like I did sometimes so here’s to g6 but instead I started on this six I love that sound of starting diminished I mean there are so many things to do it and all these videos especially the videos in Holland or actually any video of Barry teaching you’re going to hear
  20. 12:12these sounds and it 100% comes from these scale chords so to really get the scale of chords on your instrument is super important and borrowing notes obviously like it like I just pointed out you know things like this I mean just all sorts of things but it’s knowing the scale of chords and it also lets you know that even in a little
  21. 12:46intro or a little turnaround of one six two five you can be so musical and so imaginative that you can really make something special out of what the average person will just play some four chords there you know which is fine - there’s nothing wrong with that but this really gives you the ability to come up with different things and as I tell a lot of my students and as you’ve seen Barry say I’m sure what’s beautiful about this is the ones that I come up with will be great you know and not not
  22. 13:20saying that what I’m coming up with great but I mean will be beautiful in their own way but then the ones that everybody else comes with will be equally beautiful and maybe I’ve never thought of them and sometimes Barry hasn’t thought of them so people will come in with something on the six diminished scale and they’ll say oh what is that and this is a man that’s been looking at that scale for I don’t know 80 years almost 90 years so it’s pretty incredible but alright anyway I think I’ll leave it there for episode 46 hopefully this makes the wheels start to
  23. 13:53turn a little bit in thinking about the importance of Barry’s scale Accords thanks until next time