Barry HarrisThe method

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

Drop 2 with a pretty twist

Episode 136 · 14:28 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris shows an exercise Barry gave the pianists: go up the D minor 6 diminished scale in drop 2, playing each minor 6 chord in full but only the lowest and highest notes of each diminished chord, or the reverse. He then uses it over a ii-V to D minor, over B half-diminished to E7, in place of G7 and its tritone D flat 7, and in a spot in Body and Soul.

Step by step

  1. 0:00Drop 2 means four adjacent strings; Barry names the voicing by its bass note, so D minor 6 can have D, F, A or B as the drop 2.
  2. 1:10The D minor 6 diminished scale is D minor 6 (D, F, A, B) plus E diminished (E, G, B flat, D flat); harmonised, it alternates minor 6 and diminished chords.
  3. 2:22The exercise: play each minor 6 as a full drop 2, but play each diminished as just its lowest and highest notes, on the A and B strings.
  4. 3:30Reverse it: start on the diminished below D, play full diminished chords and only two notes of each minor 6.
  5. 4:51Use it in a ii-V to a real D minor: E minor 7 flat 5 to A7, resolving to D minor 6.
  6. 5:59Right hand: pluck the two outer notes with the pick and a finger while the left hand keeps the drop 2 shape.
  7. 7:12D minor 6 is B half-diminished, so use the same moves on B half-diminished to E7 going to A minor.
  8. 8:39D minor 6 has the notes of G9 without the G, so it can stand in for G7, for example going to F.
  9. 10:11Over D flat 7, G7’s tritone, D minor 6 gives the flat 9, raised 5, seventh and third: the altered sound, from the minor 6 diminished scale.
  10. 11:56Put any new idea into a tune right away, as Barry did; Chris tries it in a passage of Body and Soul.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line1:10
𝄞♭♭
C4DFABC5EGC6B♭D♭
  1. D
  2. F
  3. A
  4. B
  5. E
  6. G
  7. B♭
  8. D♭

Barry’s own words on this

9.5 The minor 6th diminished scale and its diminished partner10.5 Drop voicings9.4 Playing the scale of chords (block chords up and down the 6th dim scale)9.6 Half-diminished = minor with the sixth in the bass; major -> relative minor -> minor/6

In the course

Don’t think altered, think familySixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6The minor 6 diminished scaleThe minor 6 on the fifth: don’t think C9Drop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4Two notes of the diminished

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 136 of Things I Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we could talk about this exercise that Barry used to have us do, utilizing things on drop 2, which are really pretty. So first of all, for drop 2, it’s four consecutive strings of your guitar. It’s the majority of chords that most guitar players play. So for instance, we’re going to be doing, as an example today, D minor 6. So that would be, there’s our first fingering of it. And Barry would say D is the drop 2.
  2. 0:36So whatever’s in the bass, he would call it the drop 2. So then if he said, you know, obviously if he said, I want you to play D-6, F is the drop 2. That would be it. I want you to play D-6, A is the drop 2. I want you to play D-6, B is the drop 2. Or all those. So that’s drop 2s. Four consecutive strings. You’re not skipping any strings. Drop 3 would be play a string, skip a string, play three strings. Drop 2, drop 4 would be play 2 strings, skip a string, play 2 strings. That’s drop 2, drop 4. Anyway, but let’s talk about drop 2s for a second. So when we practice drop 2s, we generally go up the scale,
  3. 1:10which, for those of you that don’t know, a D-minus 6 diminished scale is composed of two things. A D-minus 6, D, F, A, B, and an E-diminished, E, G, B-flat, D-flat. E, G, B-flat, D-flat, right. So you got those six, those four notes, and the four notes of D minor six, which is going to give you this beautiful scale, eight note scale. So now when you harmonize it, you’re going to have either a D minor six or a diminished. And the diminished is either going to be E, G, B flat, and D flat. And as we know as guitar players, it’s the same exact diminished, right?
  4. 1:48It’s just an inversion of those diminished. So now we got a D minor six, an E diminished, a D minor six with the F and the bass, another Another E diminished, but this time it’s G diminished. A D minor 6 with the A in the bass. Another diminished. This one, this time it’s B flat. A D minor 6 with a B in the bass. And then another diminished, this time it’s from D flat. And then back to the first one, which is pretty. So usually how we practice is, we practice it all the way up with drop twos, which is beautiful.
  5. 2:22And back down. But what Barry used to have the piano players practice is this. He would practice, he would take those, and instead of playing this, the diminished, the second one as a full drop two, he would just say, play two notes. And the two notes he would want to hear is the lowest note of the drop two and the highest note. So the note that’s on, in this case, that’s on the A string and the B string. So it’s taking this D diminished shape, and it’s leaving out these two notes in the middle, and it’s just playing these two notes.
  6. 2:55So it would be E, F, N, G. So in other words, then we have... And you’re going to do just the two notes on every one of the diminishes. So here’s one diminished, diminished, diminished. Oh, sorry. Oh, sorry. Here’s a diminished. Here’s a diminished. The diminished here, and then the diminished here. Those two notes every time. So now our scale is going to sound like this. See how pretty that is with just the two notes?
  7. 3:30And I’m telling you, it sounds so pretty on piano too. So that’s our little exercise. So now, obviously, if we can do that starting from the 6 and just play two notes of the diminished, we have to reverse it. So let’s start maybe on the diminished below the D. And now we’re going to play full diminished. Now just two notes of the minor 6 once. same thing. Two notes of the minor six, two notes of the minor six, two notes of the minor six. And then, so let’s do that one again. Let’s do it up to there. So that’s pretty.
  8. 4:16So here’s our first one where we’re going to do full drop twos on the minor six. Now, full drop twos on the D diminished, not the D diminished, but the C sharp diminished. D flat diminished. Aren’t those beautiful? So you say to yourself, okay, now after I practice these, and also I’m kind of exaggerating, I think the idea behind it is you just want to be smooth about it.
  9. 4:51You know, so you got to get these. You got to get them smooth. so that it sounds just effortless. So let’s talk about where we could use these, okay? So D minor 6 can be used in a lot of different places. Let’s say we’re doing a 2-5 to a real D minor. So the 2-5 would be E minor 7-5-5 to A7, let’s say. Now here’s your D minor 6. Isn’t that beautiful?
  10. 5:23Or I could have gone down. I love that sound. Or I could have started on that. Let’s see. Here’s a. Do you have diminished again? I could start on diminished. That’s a pretty one too. I just played the last two to make it complete. Which is really nice. Those are great. And to just be able to throw them in. what’s genius about them is if you already know your drop two shape you got it you already got it
  11. 5:59you just have to learn to do a thing maybe with the right hand where you’re plucking to so i’ll just get this right hand thing together so this is what i do with the right hand sometimes let me just adjust this i’m not saying this is the greatest technique i’m just saying this is what i’ve come up with to do it so here’s the d minor six now i’m just gonna just pluck those two with the pick and And then I guess the third finger. So I said. Very nice, right? Doesn’t require that much technique to do it.
  12. 6:36So anyway, so that’s what you get with the right hand, right? And the left hand is obviously can just use the shapes of the drop too, which is really pretty. So we did an example of it going to D minor when it’s a real minor. Like if it’s a 2-5 and then it goes to D minor. Now a couple of other places we use D minor. D minor, obviously, as Barry talks about it often, is also B minor 7-5-5. So Barry said, Monk said, B minor 7-5-5 is the minor 6 with the 6 in the bass.
  13. 7:12So D minor 6 is B minor 7-5-5, and B minor 7-5-5 is D minor 6. synonymous. So anytime you see a half diminished, you know that comes from a minor 6 scale, a minor 3rd higher. So if we see B-7-5-5, we got D-minus 6 diminished scale, is where it comes from. So let’s talk about if we had a 2-5, B-7-5-5 going to E7, going to A minor. So now we’re going to say that same exercise we did, which is this one, But maybe we’ll end on E7, which is pretty.
  14. 7:59So let’s try those eight. Very pretty stuff. Let’s start right on the D minor six. beautiful. Let’s start it on the third, the one from the third. How beautiful is that? With just that little thing in between. It’s so pretty. Now, what’s a third place we can
  15. 8:39use the D minor 6? How about if we use the D minor 6, which is really, this one I like, you could use it, well, a third place can be in replace of a G7, okay, because if you play D minor 6, if you notice, the D minor 6 are the same notes of a G9, but without the G. So you got, there’s the third, now, this is compared to G now, there’s the third, flat 7, there’s the 9th, or the 2nd, and there’s the 5th. So that’s a place where we could use it. So let’s say I’m doing something in F, I say. Now watch this if I say G7. That’s
  16. 9:30really pretty stuff. So let’s say we have a song that says one, six to two dominant. So both say one for a little longer. Now watch. That’s really pretty. D-do-d-do-da. Really pretty. So that’s the third place you can use D minor 6. That’s a minor 6 on the fifth of a dominant. of beautiful places. We’re still going to think of this as G7, but G7 is the tritone of D-flat-7.
  17. 10:11So let’s say we’re doing something to D-flat-7 going to, let’s say, G-flat-major, which happens. That happens. It’s not, you know, not as a common key, but you do do that. So now on D-flat-7, I can play D minor 6 because compared to the D flat you got a flat 9 a raise 5 a 7th and a 3rd so it would be what some people would consider the altered sound which is beautiful but that’s why I always say altered sound
  18. 10:43is not just playing melodic minor it’s playing minor 6 diminished only because it comes from the same diminished but that’s another story entirely But let’s just say, let’s just do our example of D-minus-6 going on against the D-flat-7. So here’s 2-5. And then it’s going to end on, um... Yep.
  19. 11:19Oh no, I’m sorry, I did that wrong, so to say. That’s a pretty sound. Listen to that sound. I love that sound. That’s against the tritone. So let’s say we’re doing the two chord, which is Ab-7, which would be B6. Oh, let’s do it on B. And now let’s do it on D-6.
  20. 11:56I love that sound. But it’s just an example. The idea is, anytime you come up with one of these little pretty things to practice, you should practice it on the scale, true. But you should also then try to put it into a tune right away. And that’s the thing that Barry was just unbelievable at. he would come up with these ideas, but then he would right away put them in a tune. So even if we said this part of Body and Soul.
  21. 12:47Here, right here. Right here. This part. Oh, let’s see. Right there would be a nice spot. So let’s try to do that. So right here. That’s a beautiful spot to put. I started that one on the diminishing.
  22. 13:22And that’s why I’m always thinking E flat minor six. So again. I mean, that’s beautiful. I’ll try it on the minor six though now. Let’s see. Yeah, you got to squeeze it in.
  23. 14:04Oh, so pretty. Anyway, I tried to make a quick video, but you get carried away sometimes. So enjoy this looking at the drop twos, but just using two notes of whatever second chord you play. So if you start on a minor six, you do two notes of the diminished. If you start on the diminished, you do two notes of the minor 6. Anyway, enjoy your practicing. Till next time.