Chris Parks · Stage 5: The added-note rules

Half-Step Rules for Harmonic Minor

Episode 29 · 13:58 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris explains how Barry came to apply the dominant-scale half-step rules to the harmonic minor scale, using A harmonic minor. Where the scale has no half step to fill, as between the tonic and the major seventh, the line jumps up to the scale note above and comes back. He goes through every degree, the run-up, third and triad rules and the off-the-beat reversal, and takes away Barry’s point that rules matter more than scales.

Step by step

1:14Learn A harmonic minor in two octaves: a minor 6 diminished scale without the major sixth.
1:55From the tonic, the half step goes between tonic and major seventh; since there is none, go up to the second and come back down to the seventh.
2:31From the second, use no half steps, or two: second to tonic, then the same turn between tonic and seventh.
3:07From the third, use one half step in the same place.
3:38For three half steps from the third, use the fourth between 3 and 2, the note in between 2 and 1, and the second between 1 and 7.
4:14Carry on from the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh, following the dominant-scale rules for each.
6:47Work a few of these until they become your own stock phrases on minor.
7:23If you start on a note and run up, keep the rule of the note you started on.
11:04A triad takes the rule of the note it starts on; starting off the beat reverses the rule.
12:19Barry’s point: the rules matter more than the scales, so try them on any scale.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line1:55

Barry’s own words on this

5.5 Rules from every degree, ascending rules, several added notes, harmonic minor 4.3 Minor 0.3 Rules matter more than scales; everything by logic 5.4 Off the beat, pickups and triplets

In the course

The half-step rules on harmonic minor Which rule applies after a run or a leap No bebop scale: the half step is a placeholder Pivots Make your own vocabulary Freedom and your own voice

Transcript

0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 29 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. Today I thought we could talk about half-step rules for the harmonic minor scale. Now what’s interesting about this is Barry had spoken about for years and years about his rules for dominant scale, his half-step rules for major scale. And by half-step I’m just referring to descending lines. And I’ve made previous episodes about the descending half-step rules for the dominant
0:38scale and then the descending half-step rules for the major scale I recently made a video about. People have been asking about minor, and to my recollection, he never had any particular specifics about practicing harmonic minor, for instance. But through the years, I guess, of working on it, he started bringing things up that I thought were really interesting, which was using the rules for the dominant scale, let’s say, just for instance, on the harmonic minor scale. Now how would we do that?
1:14Well first, let’s take a look at it. We’ll take A minor, so we’ll do A harmonic minor scale. And A harmonic minor is basically, you could say it’s a minor 6 diminished scale without the major 6. Or you can say it’s a regular minor scale with a root, major 2nd, minor 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, flat 6th, but then major 7th again. So that’s the scale. And you should probably know it for this exercise, so if these exercises are in two octaves. Just so that you have it comfortable in this particular finger, for a guitar player, that
1:55is. So let’s take a look at, let’s say a descending line from the tonic, which is the root. Now the rule on the dominance is if you take a descending line from the tonic, you put one one half step between tonic and 7, which on a dominant scale is easy because you have that half step. But on a harmonic minor scale, there is no half step between tonic goes directly to major 7. So what Barry does is fill that in with a scale note higher. So instead of being a half step, obviously, between tonic and major 7, which you can’t do, he puts tonic Second.
2:31And then comes back to seven. So it would sound like this. One half step for a harmonic minor scale would be this. Now, if we said, starting on the second, no half steps. half steps. The second, there’s a second rule for the second, and the second rule for the second would be two half steps between second and tonic, and tonic and seven. So between second and tonic
3:07we have one. Between tonic and seven we’re still going to use that second. So now you get a phrase that sounds like this. So that’s two half steps. Now we’ll start on the third. Third will be one half step. Same place again between tonic and major seven, which we’re going to use the second for. And we’ll stop on the third this time. We could go down the tonic though. If we wanted.
3:38Now the second rule for three for the dominant scale is three half steps between three and two, two and one, and tonic and seven. On a dominant scale you have those natural half steps. They already exist there. In this scale the third like the tonic there is no half step between. So again like the tonic we’re going to use for the third we’re going to use the scale note higher than the which is the fourth. So that’ll be the half step in between three and two. And then we’ll continue doing our... the second half step will be between second and tonic.
4:14When we get to tonic we still have to put another half step between tonic and seven, which we’re going to go back to second. So it would be this. So now you have this. Sorry about that. So now that’s three half steps. So then we’ll do four half, I’m sorry, we’ll do starting from the four, no half steps. Again. Now we’ll start on the four and we’ll do the second rule for the dominant which is two half steps between
4:52second and tonic and tonic and seven. And they’re in the same places between the the second tonic is already there, and the tonic, between the tonic and the major seven, we jump back up to the second. So now we got this. Pretty phrase. Now we’ll do the fifth, one half step, we’ll still make it between the tonic and the seven. That’s second again. Now we’ll do three half steps. Again, between the three and two, two and one, tonic and seven,
5:25and the three and two is the four. Between the three and the two is the four, between the two and the one is the note that’s actually in between, and between the tonic and major seven is the second. We’ll see. Now we’ll do the six no half steps. Now we’ll do six two half steps between second and tonic. Tonic and seven. Now we’ll do seven. We’ll do one half step between tonic and seven.
6:11Again. Or three half steps. Now these are all beautiful, and these are all ways that you can play your harmonic minor scale using some of these half-step rules. And they’re really nice. And the whole purpose of practicing any of these half-step rules is to be able to land on a beat or in the right place at the right time. My suggestion, well, the thing that helped me,
6:47is that you take a few of these and you really work on them, and then they become some of your own stock riffs, or riffs that you use a lot on a minor, for instance. So that’s how you become comfortable with them. But you take a few, you know, you practice all these and then slowly but surely you start to add on to your own repertoire of riffs that you play on a minor. Now another thing that we do is we have another rule for the half-step rule which is if you start on a note and run up to any other note you still use the rule for the note you started on.
7:23So if we started on tonic, and we ran up to 2nd, we still have to use the rule of the note we started on, which is the tonic, which would be one half step between tonic and major 7, which we said we’re putting the 2nd. So interestingly enough, if I take tonic, run up to 2nd, now when I go back down to tonic, I still want to put a half step between tonic and 7, so I have to do that same thing again. So now you get this. Pretty phrase.
7:55Now let’s say I run up to the third. Let’s say I run up to the fourth. Let’s say I run up to the fifth. Nice, all pretty things that you have to learn how to do. Let’s say I do a triad from the root. So the rule for the triad is, it’s whatever the next note is that you hit.
8:33So if you say, no, it’s, I’m sorry, a rule for the, I’m sorry, let’s do a third first. And the third would be, the rule for the third would be one half step, or I’m sorry, half half step, using the half step rule between the note that you land on after the third. So if we say tonic to the third, now we’re going to start the rule from the second, which would be no half step. So let’s see what that sounds like. Pretty phrase. Pretty.
9:09Now let’s do two half steps. So that would be, play the third, and now we’re going to use the rule for the second. So it would be, another pretty phrase. And you start to try to say, I’m going to put all sorts of little triplets in. So maybe, try that again. Nice little phrase. Now, I have to tell you, I can’t remember playing that phrase before, but there it is. It’s right there.
9:43So you see, you start to get some of these in your fingers, and now you’re building your own sound, your own style, your own phrases. And this is the thing that’s extremely important. Barry’s method, I believe, is not a method for learning how to play bebop. Barry’s method is a method for learning how to improvise. So that’s whatever kind of music you’re playing, whatever style jazz you’re playing, if you want to play rock, whatever it is. Just imagine if a rock player played some phrases like that.
10:25I mean, that phrase is going to sound great if you use distortion, if you have flanger, whatever you’re into. That phrase itself is beautiful. Beautiful phrase. And it’s not something that you’re going to hear. And this is the thing, his methodology gives you the tools to come up with things that are really truly unique and yours. And that’s why I’ve never felt the need to go any place else to study anything else because I’m still, I mean I feel like I’m just scratching the surface of some of this. But anyway, let’s take, we just did a triad, or we just did a third, now let’s do a triad.
11:04So the rule for the triad is, we’ll use the rule for the note you started on. So it’s going to be, in this one, the first triad, it will be root, minor, third, fifth, and then we’ll use the rule for the tonic, which is one half step. That’s a pretty phrase. Well, let’s try three half steps. Now you know what else is nice? If you start on the end of a beat, instead of a beat, the rule reverses.
11:41So instead of being the rule for the tonic, it’ll be the rule for the second. So for the tonic, it’s one half step or three half steps, but if we do the rule for the second, or for the rule for the note that you’re going to end up on after starting off the beat, it would be four, which would be no half steps. So let’s see what that sounds like. One, two, three, four, one. Which is pretty. I just pivoted.
12:19So once I did... I didn’t play the flat six here. I came up to it. Nice phrase. Now let’s do two half steps. So two half steps would be between second and tonic, and tonic and seven. Let’s see what that sounds like. Pretty phrase. Oh. But this is just to show you, Barry started saying this, that the rules are more important than the scales. So the rules are more important than the scales.
13:07And what I took from that is that you can apply these rules to any scale. So I’m just showing you for instance for a harmonic minor, I’m sure it applies to melodic minor. I’m sure it applies to any scale that you want to really attack. But it definitely opens up a lot of avenues to creating lines or phrases that nobody else has played before. And they’re not just up and down phrases. You see there’s all sorts of jumps, there’s triplets you end up, you can pivot. there’s all sorts of things that really can give you a unique sound or a sound that’s your own.
13:42But anyway, I hope you enjoyed this lesson on half steps for harmonic minor, and we’ll talk soon. Thanks!