Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 10: Movement

What is long?

Episode 142 · 12:31 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Following his video on short, Chris explains Barry’s ‘long’ as borrowing from a drop 2: on each chord of the C minor 6 diminished scale the outer notes, a tenth apart, borrow from the neighbouring chord while the two middle notes stay. He walks the scale in longs, combines short with long, uses them on the bridge of All the Things You Are, and shows they work on the major 6 diminished scale too.

Step by step

  1. 0:00Short borrowed notes from a closed voicing; long borrows notes from a drop 2.
  2. 1:11Borrow only the lowest and highest notes, a tenth, from the neighbouring diminished, and keep the two middle notes.
  3. 1:46On C minor 6 voiced C, G, A, E flat: D replaces C and F replaces E flat, giving D, G, A, F, the first long.
  4. 2:53Going down, the diminished B, F, A flat, D borrows two sixth notes: C for B and E flat for D, giving C, F, A flat, E flat.
  5. 4:07Keep going down the scale: each minor 6 borrows two diminished notes and each diminished borrows two sixth notes; some are big stretches.
  6. 6:26Combine short and long: the same two notes move in both, but they swap places between bottom and top.
  7. 7:38Practise short-long pairs through the scale.
  8. 8:20Use short to long, and long to short, on the bridge of All the Things You Are.
  9. 9:51Longs work on the major 6 diminished scale too; try them on G6.
  10. 11:04In G major, play A minor 7 as C6 with short to long, then a long on E flat minor 6 for the D7.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Cm62:19
𝄞𝄢
C3DGAC4F
  1. D
  2. G
  3. A
  4. F
Line2:53
𝄞♭♭
CFC6E♭A♭
  1. C
  2. F
  3. A♭
  4. E♭
Line4:07
𝄞♭
C4BC5DGE♭
  1. B
  2. E♭
  3. G
  4. D

Barry’s own words on this

10.4 Borrowing9.5 The minor 6th diminished scale and its diminished partner9.3 The major 6th diminished scale (a major scale with one more note)9.7 The important minor and the tritone’s minor (minor 6 dim over a dominant)

In the course

Long

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 142 of Things I Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would continue with this short long idea and we’re going to talk about what Barry used to refer to as long. So the short video that I made, it was kind of talking about borrowing notes from closed voicing. And this one, the way that I was thinking about it is, and the way I was talking to Thomas about it, and that he was agreeing to is, this is like borrowing notes from a drop two. So I’ll show you what I mean.
  2. 0:37If we take the same C minor six diminished scale that we’ve been looking at, we should know our drop twos at this point and if you don’t work on them that’s okay the concept of long though is that you’re going to borrow so you know this is what one of the beautiful things about knowing an eight note scale you have these four notes and then you have a diminished above it and a diminished below it so in this case though we’re going to think about the diminished above it
  3. 1:11And we’re not going to think about all four notes. We’re just going to think about the lowest note and the highest note, which actually make up a tenth. So it’s almost like long is going to be borrowing a tenth and then giving it back. But what’s interesting is the middle two notes are not going to change. So on this C minor six, we have four C minor six notes. When we start the long, we’re going to borrow the lower note and the higher note, which is the 10th, from the diminished. So we’re going to borrow two notes from the diminished.
  4. 1:46But we’re going to keep the two notes in the middle, which in this, well in this voicing, so let’s take our voicing that we’re doing exactly. We’re doing C, G, A, E flat. So what happens is we’re going to borrow the D for the C and we’re going to borrow the F for the E flat. Now, the D and the F are two diminished notes. Because remember, C minor 6 diminished consists of four notes of C minor 6, C, E flat, G, A. And four notes of D diminished, D, F, A, flat, B.
  5. 2:19So we’re going to borrow from this C minor 6, which we had. Here was our voicing, our drop 2 was C, G, A, E flat. Now we’re going to borrow, instead of the C, we’re going to borrow a D, and instead of the E flat, we’re going to borrow an F. So now we’re going to have our chord is going to be F, G, A, no, no, I’m sorry, not F, sorry, D, D, G, A, F. That’s our first, what Barry would call, long.
  6. 2:53So the way that I see this on guitar is just that here’s our drop two, here’s our next drop two, but we’re just going to borrow the two higher notes on the drop two. So if I were going down the scale, this is the first one. Now here’s our next chord down. Is this diminished? Now from the diminished, I have to borrow two sixth notes. So for instance, our diminished here in drop two would be starting on the B. It would be B, F, A flat, D. But remember, for the B I have to borrow a sixth note, which is going to be the C.
  7. 3:30And for the D, I’m going to borrow E flat. So now our chord is going to be, and still we’ll keep the two middle notes of the diminished. So now our chord is going to be, it’s going to almost look like an A flat sixth. So it’s going to be C, F, A flat, E flat. And then we’re going to resolve it. So we’re going to take those two notes again and borrow it. Because remember, if I said just intense, this is what it’s going to sound like. That’s C minor 6th and 10th.
  8. 4:07So all we’re doing is borrowing intense. So the first one was this. The second one is this. The third one, which would be this C minor 6, we now have to borrow two diminished notes. So here’s our normal 6 would be, let’s see, A, E flat, G, C. But now instead of the A, we’re going to borrow the B, and instead of the C, we’re going to borrow the D. But we’re still going to keep the E flat and G on top. You see how pretty this is?
  9. 4:40So now here is three of the longs in a row. So now let’s do the next one, which would be a diminished from here. So we have to now, from our four-note diminished, we have to borrow two notes from the six, which is going to be... This one’s going to look like an F6. Really pretty. So wait, let’s just say... Next one. That’s a pretty one.
  10. 5:15That’s a really pretty one. And that was going to a minor six, so we have to borrow two diminished notes. Next one. So we’re going to borrow the two six notes. Really pretty. That’s the minor six, so we have to borrow two diminished notes. Next one is the diminished, so we have to borrow two six notes. This one’s pretty. Watch this one. I love that one.
  11. 5:48And then you’re back to the first one. Now, granted, some of these are a big stretch, but I think when you get used to playing them, there’s something you could... They’re extremely useful, all of these. So let’s do all of these. Oh, jeez, this one was... Oh. So that would be long.
  12. 6:26So what’s nice is, if we think about it, just short would be this, and then this is long. So what Barry used to do sometimes is combine short with long. And what’s kind of slick about short and long is, let’s say if I did this short, the two notes that I’m moving, that are going to move for this short, would be F moves to E-flat, and the D is going to move to C.
  13. 7:06And then what happens is, so the F is on the bottom, moving to the E-flat, and the D is on the top. F is here, and the D is here. Now when you do long, it reverses. Now the D is on the bottom, and then the F is on the top. Isn’t that pretty? So first it’s F on the bottom, D on the top, moving down to E flat and C. Now it’s D on the bottom, F on the top. So that’s pretty.
  14. 7:38So we say short, long. Or we could say long. I love all those. Those are so pretty. So let’s do a couple short, long. So let’s do short. Let’s do the next one. Short, long. Let’s see if I can do the next one. Short, long. The next one. Short, long. So you see all these are so pretty. So again, you want to be able
  15. 8:20to do these in something. So we took for our example, for our last example, we took the bridge to all the things you are. And we could say short. Let me do that for you. That was short to long. But what if I do long to short? So let’s say, here’s short. That was short to long. That’s pretty. But let me do long to short. So here’s long, here’s short.
  16. 9:13Here’s short to long. Maybe I’ll do this short to long. But you see how many pretty things there are with this short, long stuff. I can’t even tell you that I’ve been really looking at them. And you know, Isaac Raz’s video on this was so super helpful. I’m not sure who else, I’m sure other people have talked about it,
  17. 9:51but his video was helpful really to me, and talking about it with Thomas, of course, was helpful. But I’m finding, well, at least for me, see, because Barry did these a lot with just diatonic scales, 7-0 scale, but I find that seeing them in the minor 6 or major 6 dimension, That’s the other thing, major 6 diminished is beautiful too. This is major 6. So these all work too for major 6. Listen how pretty these are for major 6. Oh, sorry.
  18. 10:26That’s major 6. So I could say... That’s a really pretty... So here’s G major. I might say... That is pretty stuff. I love these. So that would be longs. But I should also be able to do shorts. Let’s see if I can do shorts fast. Let’s say here’s G6.
  19. 11:04Maybe. That’s a pretty one. That’s short. to long. To a long tritone of the D7, which is E flat 6, E flat minor 6, but that’s pretty too. So let me do let’s see, G major. Now here’s A minor 7, which is C6. So let me do a short to long. And now maybe I’ll do
  20. 11:39long to short for the tritone. All right, let me do it for real now. Let’s see. I mean, that is really pretty stuff. I love it. I love it. I’m going to be practicing this some more. so that’s my understanding of short and long any pianist who uh work with barry or who knows maybe i’m not explaining it 100 correctly but that’s how i see it for my instrument
  21. 12:18and hopefully other guitar players find it uh interesting and worth practicing anyway until next time have fun practicing long