Chris Parks · Stage 7: Building phrases over changes

Barry’s secret to soloing: puzzle pieces

Episode 156 · 15:28 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris explains his name for the small things Barry had students practise on a scale: ‘puzzle pieces’ such as runs of any length, intervals, triads, chords, pivots, half step below, important arpeggios, half-step rules and the chromatic scale. Barry dictated whole choruses as chains of these pieces, and Chris builds a D7 line from a triad on the ‘and’, a half-step rule and a pivot, then adds nap backs and sixteenth-note triplets.

Step by step

1:55On a D7 scale, the drills are not busywork: run the scale step-wise in any length, seven, six, five or three notes.
3:12Thirds, and every interval in the scale: fourths, fifths and sixths, up and down.
4:26Chords up the scale (D, F sharp, A, C) and pivots: the first note, then the next three an octave lower.
5:37Half step below the first note of thirds, triads and chords, also as triplets.
6:10The important arpeggios, half-step rules and chromatic scale are pieces too, even the ones that take months.
7:07Barry dictated solos on tunes like Cherokee as chains of pieces: run up, two half steps, pivot a chord.
9:03Combine pieces: a triad up from the flat seventh starting on the ‘and’, then down a scale note to the third.
10:26From the third, use a half-step rule (three half steps to the flat seventh, or just one), then a pivot.
11:38Add a nap back (a note, the half step below, back to the note) and a sixteenth-note triplet to the line.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

D74:26

Barry’s own words on this

7.2 Building phrases from small pieces (class phrases)6.7 Pivoting 5.3 Dominant 7th scale descending 6.9 Triplets in lines (eighth- and sixteenth-note)

In the course

Scale-wise runs of any length Thirds Triads up and down the scale Chord up: Barry’s ‘chord’Puzzle pieces The descending half-step rules for the dominant Feel the ‘and’Eighth- and sixteenth-note triplets in lines The three important arpeggios of a dominant Pivots Half step below Nap back Barry dictating lines Freedom and your own voice

Transcript

0:00Hello and welcome to episode 156 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would talk about this really interesting concept that Barry used to break down soloing ideas with these what I call little puzzle pieces. He never called them that, but I started to refer to them as that because it helped me to remember them. But before we jump into that, I just want to let everybody know I started my own school, SKOOL, and it’s going great. We have this great community that started there. It’s really fantastic. I highly recommend anybody who’s been interested in my videos over the years or studying or joining Open Studio or any of those things should check out my school.
0:45Because right now we’re doing a seven-day free trial. so starting now you check it out you could sign up it’s free for seven days no no obligation to do anything else but you can check out the community and see what’s happening there we have all sorts of stuff we have um conversations about different movements we have uh mini lessons we have uh we get together three times a month for uh zoom collaborations all of us which is really fun We have a great time.
1:21One of them is with Thomas Eccles on the last Sunday of every month. So we’re having a blast there. So definitely do yourself a favor and check it out and see if it’s something you’re interested in. So that’s over at school. Seven days free. Now the thing I wanted to talk about today are these little puzzle pieces. Now what’s a puzzle piece? What am I referring to? So let’s take a D7 scale. the dominant scale. So Barry used to have us practice a bunch of things on these.
1:55You know, like a thing to get us familiar with the scale. But it was much more than that. These were not busy exercises. These were things that you were going to use when you were soloing. So for instance, the very first thing is play the scale up and down. Now that was also telling us you should be able to play the scale, scale-wise. No jumps. okay so that that’s not just seven notes what if you want to do six notes you have to know six notes what if you have to know five notes so five notes same thing down
2:35okay so that these are all puzzle pieces running up or down the scale five notes running up or down the scale six notes. How about three notes? So there’s three notes. So you have to know how to run up the scale three notes. See, same thing down. Those are all puzzle pieces, not busy work. It’s puzzle pieces that you’re going to use. Okay. So then the very next thing that he used to say to us was play the scale up in thirds, which is play a note, skip a note, play a note. So obviously
3:12You have to know your scale in thirds, which is great. Up and down. But it wasn’t just that. It was you should be able to jump any interval within the scale. You see? See how pretty that is? So now you say to yourself, okay, that’s thirds. But what about fourths? I should know fourths. I should know fourths down. I should know fifths. Down.
3:50Sixth. See, all those intervals you’re supposed to know. Up and down. Those are puzzle pieces. Okay? Think of it like that. That’s a puzzle piece. Okay. Next thing. You should know your triads. Which is play a note, skip a note, play a note, skip a note, play a note. So you should know these up to scale. Same thing down.
4:26You should know your chords. Which in Barry’s world is play a note, skip a note, play a note, skip a note, play a note, skip a note, play a note. Most other people refer to these as arpeggios. But Barry called these chords. So the first chord from D7 would be D, F sharp, A, C. And you have to be able to do that up the scale. All Bs. Then you have to be able to do what he used to refer to as a pivot. Which is instead of playing up all four notes, D, F sharp, A, C, you hit the very first note.
5:02and then the next three notes you play down an octave below that D. So instead of playing D, F sharp, A, C, you say D, F sharp, A, C. So you have to know every single pivot. So if I say here’s a chord up, I have to be able to pivot it. Here’s a chord up from C, chord up from B, every place. That’s another puzzle piece. You see? So all these things are puzzle pieces. Then you learn, oh wait, he used to say, Go back to thirds, put a half step below the first note of each third.
5:37So these are all things you have to practice. And the same thing coming down. If I say put a half step below the first note of a third, you should be able to put a half step below the first note of a triad. Same thing down. Those are pretty too. Half step below the first note of a chord.
6:10Just as eighth notes, starting on the first beat. Those are really pretty. Or you could do it like where Barry used to have us practice it, where you start it and make it into a triplet. So you say one. Which you hear Bird, Bud Powell, all of them play that type of stuff. Anyway, these are small puzzle pieces, okay? You have the three important arpeggios, the D major arpeggio, the A minor arpeggio, and also the C major arpeggio. Those are all things, those are puzzle pieces, you see? You have to know your half-step rules, descending half-step rules, that’s a puzzle piece. You have to know your chromatic scale, also a puzzle piece. Now, what’s interesting about the idea of thinking about it as a puzzle piece is playing up D7 scale in thirds is a puzzle piece, which should take you not that long to get together in your hand.
7:07But saying D7 scale as a chromatic scale, that might take you two months to get that together. I mean, that took me a long time to get together, but it still acts as a puzzle piece. You know what I mean? like I’ll show you like so putting it together so this is where I thought of the idea of calling it a puzzle piece because when you’re in class with Barry he would sometimes when we first when I first started going he would call out just yell out like okay this is what I want you to do I want you to do such and such run up the scale put two half steps in come down pivot a chord blah blah blah he would
7:45say it like that that’s how he would dictate a line to us and when I first started going he would dictate like two choruses of something so sometimes like we’d be working on Cherokee and he would dictate literally a chorus and a half or two choruses of like the most fantastic solo you ever heard but and he would tell it to us by using these smaller puzzle pieces to explain it to us so a couple of things happened from that the first thing was it made me aware of I have to know these smaller things because otherwise I can’t keep up with the class it’s just too fast it’s going by
8:20too fast the second thing was I don’t know whether he’s thinking about that and how he’s soloing but to to tell us how he’s doing it this is how he’s reverse engineering it in his mind to explain it to us so I thought what a brilliant way to do I mean it’s another Barry Harris brilliant thing but it’s so effective it’s so effective the other reason why thinking about these as puzzle pieces is so brilliant is normally i’ve said this before but normally if you have a puzzle you have one piece you have to search through the however many other pieces to find the exact match what’s great
9:03about these are they all go together and that’s what makes you you so putting together the puzzle pieces even though you and i can all know the same we all can know the same puzzle pieces will never sound the same because we’ll put them together entirely differently that’s what’s so hip about it so for instance i said one of the puzzle pieces is a triad right so what if i said um let’s come up a triad from the seventh. Except I want to start on the and. So that’s the other thing. Everything we learn on the beat, we also have to learn on the and. So if I say
9:45here’s our triads up, okay, we also have to learn them on the and. So one, two, three, four ah four ah and and and and and and and same thing down see that’s on the end so let’s say we came up a triad from the flat seven to the d7 but I want to start on the end so and then I’ll come down a scale note. Isn’t that pretty? One, two, three. Now I’m on the third and I might say, okay,
10:26I know my half step rules for the third. Here’s another puzzle piece where I’ll say, starting from the third, I have two rules that I can follow. Either three half steps to get to the flat seventh, or maybe I’ll just do one half step. So one, two, three, four. That’s a pretty one, but let’s, let’s use the three half steps one two three four and then i put a pivot at the end now let’s let’s do the same line but let’s just do the one half step instead so one two three four
11:00that’s really beautiful you see how pretty that is that’s three puzzle pieces a triad his half step rules a pivot is that great so now i may not i may have never played that phrase before or not i have no idea but the point is if i can see it in those smaller puzzle pieces it gives me a reason to practice those smaller puzzle pieces and it gives me a way of putting it together that perhaps it hasn’t been put together before now granted you’re going to put some things together where as you do them you’re like I don’t love the sound of that so then you
11:38don’t have to do those puzzle pieces like that flip them around change them but listen how pretty that is ah now let’s add one more puzzle piece at the end we we call these these at open studio nap back now watch what a nap back is Barry never referred to it like this but this is he used them all the time when you start on a note and you hit a note and you go a half step below that note and then back to that note. So watch, if I did that up the scale, that’s a nap back on each note of the scale. Or if I did it where I didn’t stop the rhythm and kept it going, one of
12:14them is going to be on the beat, one of them is going to be on the end. Watch. Really pretty, right? So let’s put a nap back on the last note of this. So if I say one, two, three. now you have a phrase you see that now if i use another puzzle piece which you should be able to use which is really important in our music a 16th note triplet so what if i put a 16th note triplet on the third so if i say ah that’s a pretty phrase i may never play that if i’m not thinking about puzzle pieces maybe i’ll put a 16th note triplet on the tonic instead so if i say
12:57Really nice. Or both of the places. Or maybe I’ll put a gnat back instead of on the last note of the pivot. I’ll put it right on the E as I start the pivot. So if I say, ah. That’s pretty too. Ah. what if I put a nap back on both the E and the B that’s a great phrase I mean I’m not saying it’s it’s great like I just made a great phrase I’m
13:38saying those pieces together which exist in the universe are great so why don’t we take advantage of them we should so I really feel like there’s a couple of things that Barry doesn’t get credit for that he really should and that is one of the most important things is certainly with his soloing concepts he used to call them out as puzzle pieces which is such a brilliant way because so many times a student will say or even myself I always come across this which is all right well great I’m practicing all these things to do on a scale and I’ve seen this several times on YouTube where
14:18people are saying well there’s a lot of things you can do on a scale but you know eventually you just have to just solo yes that’s true but you want to sound good when you solo so you don’t just want to like do anything so these are ways to put things together and then you start to put these puzzle pieces together all of a sudden excuse me all of a sudden you start to sound like you you don’t sound like charlie parker you don’t sound like you’re stealing from sonny rollins you don’t sound like you’re stealing from West Montgomery or something you sound like you it is truly I this is what I really feel this Barry was the greatest at teaching improvisation
15:00And I mean true improvisation. True improvisation. So anyway, I hope this was helpful to you to find ideas with these little puzzle pieces. And just a reminder, seven days free over at my school. Just go check it out. I’ll put the link in the description. I guarantee it’ll be something that you’re interested in if you like these classes. Anyway, until next time, talk soon.