Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 6: Line devices

16th Note Triplets Are Pretty

Episode 74 · 10:30 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris adds sixteenth-note triplets to Barry’s descending major-scale rules in F major. He first recites the rhythm with the triplet on each beat, as Barry had the class do, then moves it around one phrase and finally adds triplets to familiar phrases, noting that the half-step rules don’t change when a triplet is added.

Step by step

  1. 0:38Play F major down from the tonic with one half step between 6 and 5; a triplet keeps the rule of the note it starts on.
  2. 1:15Feel the rhythm by saying ‘triplet and two and three and four’, as Barry had the class recite it.
  3. 1:56Recite the triplet on beat 1, then beat 2, beat 3 and beat 4.
  4. 2:35Place the triplet on beat 2, 3 and then 4 of the same descending phrase.
  5. 3:53Combine them: triplets on beats 1 and 3, on 1 and 2, and on 1 and 4.
  6. 5:14Take your favourite phrase and add a sixteenth-note triplet; the rules you know stay the same.
  7. 6:26Try a phrase from the second (no half steps) with a triplet in it.
  8. 7:15Come up a chord from the third of F major, put a half step below it, and add a triplet.
  9. 8:00Listen for these triplets in Bird, Bud Powell, Sonny Rollins, Hawkins and Lester Young.
  10. 9:58Apply them to minor and dominant phrases too, and find where a triplet makes a phrase come alive.

Barry’s own words on this

6.9 Triplets in lines (eighth- and sixteenth-note)5.2 Major scale descending1.4 Triplets and thinking in six

In the course

Know it everywhere on the guitarThe half-step rules for the major scaleTriplets and the half-step rulesBarry’s chromatic scale

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 74 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would discuss 16th note triplets. Since the previous episode we discussed 8th note triplets, and now I thought maybe we would utilize the 16th note triplet using his descending rules for the half steps with major. And I thought in this episode we would take a look at F major, since we haven’t really played in it much, and then maybe we’ll look at confirmation if we get that far with playing phrases over it, because that’s in the key of F.
  2. 0:38So you have to know your F major. So the first rule, let’s say for half steps, would be starting on a tonic, putting one half step between 6 and 7. So this is F major scale. So starting on tonic. So now the rule for the triplet is whatever rule your whatever note you start on that’s the rule that you use. So you can basically just play normal. So now what we have to do is make that first note a 16th note triplet.
  3. 1:15So we got to feel this. it and so instead of one and two and three and four and one that’s eighth notes one and two and three and four and one we got to say triplet and two and three and four and one two three four triplet and two and three and four and one it’s really beautiful now what’s nice is barry used to do this exercise, he would say, okay, let’s just recite this. So we would say, put the 16th note triplet on the first beat, 16th note triplet on the second beat, 16th note triplet on the third beat, and 16th
  4. 1:56note triplet on the fourth beat. So maybe we could say one, two, three, four, triplet and two and three and four and one. Now we’ll put on two, three, four, one and triplet and three and four and one, 1, 2, 3, 4, 1 and 2 and triplet and 4 and 1, 2, 3 on the 4, 4, 1 and 2 and 3 and triplet and 1. So, okay. So that’s the concept behind it. So now if we took this phrase and we said we’re going to do it on the 1, so we would say here we’ll put the 16 note triplet between the tonic and the major second. So we’ll say 1, 2, 3, 4, 16 note triplet right on the tonic.
  5. 2:35Now, what if we did it on the second beat? So now we’d have, now we need a triplet here. So what we’re going to do is we’re still going to play this, but now we have to play the 16th note triplet and the scale note higher, which would be between 6th and major 7th. So we’re going to say, So now we’ll say 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, and triplet, and 3, and 4, and 4. One more time without me talking. Now maybe we’ll do on the third beat, which would be one and two and...
  6. 3:11Now right here we would need a triplet. Triplet and... So we’ll say... So now we’ll say... And that’s on the third beat. The fourth beat would be one and two and three and triplet and one. So let’s see. So now we got, let’s do the first one again. Two, three, four. Now you can also, that was doing it on the first beat, on the second beat, on the third beat, on the fourth beat.
  7. 3:53Now you can also do it on a bunch of them. You could say, let’s do it on the first one and the third one. So we’ll say. Two, three, four. That’s a pretty phrase. Really pretty. Let’s do it on the first one and the second one and not on the third one. Let’s do it on the first one and the second one and the third one. That’s all of them. Now, I don’t know if you’d necessarily ever play that, but it’s an interesting concept. interesting. How about just the first one and the fourth beat. So the one on the first
  8. 4:34beat and one on the fourth beat. Oh no, so let’s see. That’s a nice one. Very nice phrase. Really beautiful. And all we did was we took this same phrase, which is just a major scale down from tonic to tonic, putting one half step between six and five, and see how many little pretty variations we had of the same phrase. And some people might not see it as a different, but there’s definite difference if you play, or there’s something to that that
  9. 5:14has a different, it’s really beautiful. I love it. Okay, so that’s the concept. So basically Basically what you want to do is take, what I like to think of is whatever your favorite phrase is, and try to throw a 16 note triplet on it. Where you could say, well, and I don’t even have to worry about what the rules are, because if I know what my rules are, it’s whatever that note is, I already know it, so it doesn’t change when I throw a 16 note triplet on it. So let’s say if we said, let’s see.
  10. 5:50Let’s see. There it is right away. So if I say one, two, three. Let me try that again. So if I put this, a 16 note triplet on this, maybe I could say... There it is. And there I could have done the 16 note triplet between the third and the fourth, or the third eighth and the fifth. That’s kind of a nice one too.
  11. 6:26That’s a nice one. Yeah, so you take any of your normal phrases. So here’s a phrase from the, let’s do from the second. So if we did from the second, we would do no half steps. That’s a nice phrase. One, two, three, four. Let’s see. I was just trying to do some more 16-0 triple phrases on the bottom.
  12. 7:15But you see how great this is? you take any one of the phrases that you normally do. Let’s see if we said, let’s try to put in a 16 note triple there. So I came up a chord from the third of F major, put a half step below it. So what if I said, That’s a nice phrase. So, one, two, three. Yeah.
  13. 8:00That’s a nice one. So, I did this. So here’s the phrase. Same thing coming up a chord from the third half step below. And then down to the third vague. But I like... Wow. It’s so... They sound so good. Oh, man. And this is one of those things that Barry always discusses that is now missing from the music. Not only is eighth note triplets missing from the music, but 16th note triplets are really missing from the music.
  14. 8:43And if you listen to Bird and Bud Powell and Sonny Rollins, Coleman Hawkins, all the, you know, all the, Lester Young, all the greatest players, you’re going to hear these triplets over and over again. And somehow, in more modern, what people call modern, you don’t hear it anymore. It’s a lot of eighth note-y things, but it’s not a lot of triplets. And they’re really beautiful things, especially on guitar. For some reason, I don’t know, it’s one of the few things that I found easier, the concept to pick up. A lot of the things that Barry talks about in the horn player class, it took me a very long time to try to get it together.
  15. 9:20The two things I remember that I really, or that I have gotten together pretty quickly for me, was his chromatic scale and these triplets, like learning how to do a triplet. Now, it might have been a little bit longer to have me figure out where the next fingering is, and then it kind of messed up my fingering. But in a way, it helped my fingering because then I was able to see the fretboard much better. Same way with eighth notes. So these are really interesting to practice. So I would suggest you take one, whatever your favorite phrase is, or a couple of phrases that you play, and obviously we’re just doing them on a major, but you
  16. 9:58could do them on anything, on minor, dominant, anything. And liven them up, give them a little something more with these 16th note triplets. See if you can add them. See when and where you can add them. And you might take a phrase that maybe you’ve loved for a long time, and you might even fall in love with it even more when you add a triplet in a certain spot. All right, well, anyway, until next time, I hope you enjoyed checking out some 16-note triplets. Until next time, thanks.