Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 6: Line devices

How to create lines from scales, part 2

Episode 61 · 8:04 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Still on one D7 chord, Chris builds lines from Barry’s ‘chords up’ (four-note chords up the scale). He adds a triplet on the first chord, a half step below each chord’s first note, and Barry’s chromatic scale coming down by thirds, then strings these together from every degree. The aim is pretty phrases on a single chord before connecting chords as movement.

Step by step

  1. 0:00Play chords up the D7 scale: start on a note and skip every other note for four notes, up and down
  2. 0:33From A, the fifth below: up a chord, down a scale step, up the next chord, and so on up the scale in time
  3. 1:40Make the first chord of each pair a triplet
  4. 2:14Put a half step below the first note of each chord, going up and coming down
  5. 3:21Combine: a triplet chord, down a step, then the next chord with a half step below its first note; play it from every degree
  6. 4:28Barry’s chromatic scale coming down a third: from the third to the tonic with every half step
  7. 5:00From the fourth there is no half step between 4 and 3, so go through the next scale note up, the fifth, every time
  8. 5:35Put it together: two chords up (a triplet, then a half step below), then down a third on Barry’s chromatic scale, from each degree
  9. 7:22Turn what you discover into your own stock phrases; practise pretty things on one chord before connecting chords

Barry’s own words on this

6.3 Chords as lines6.9 Triplets in lines (eighth- and sixteenth-note)6.10 Barry’s chromatic scale (chromatic runs with chord tones on the beat)6.6 Chromatic pickups and the well-placed half step

In the course

The scale every way: up and down, thirds, triads, chordsChord up, scale downBarry’s chromatic scaleHalf step belowBe a movement playerSmall thingsFreedom and your own voice

Transcript

  1. 0:00hello and welcome to episode 61 of things i’ve learned from barry harris in keeping with the theme of creating lines using scales i thought we would stay with d7 which is what we were working on for episode 60. and let’s talk about a couple other things that we’re supposed to know on the scale uh one of the things that barry likes you to practice is chords up so chords up simply means start on a note and we’re going to start on a note skip a note play the next note skip the next note play the next don’t skip the next don’t play the next note so it’s four notes
  2. 0:33again it’s four note chord so we’re going to take that up the scale and down so now what would be a nice thing to do with this is and sometimes you hear players do this is uh i’m going to start on the a the fifth below just to do this exercise and what it’s going to be is you’re
  3. 1:05going up a chord then you’re going to go down a scale note and then come up another chord so it’s going to be this [Music] okay so let’s practice that one two three four two three four 2 3 4 2 3 4 2 3 4 where was i two three four
  4. 1:40[Music] two three four two three four so that’s pretty already sometimes you can make the first chord into like a triplet so you would play uh one two three four two three four ah two three four ah two three four ah
  5. 2:14two three four ah oh wait two three four uh two three four ah [Music] two three four m that’s pretty now sometimes what barry has you do is he says put a half step below the first note of the chord so if we if we practice that it would be uh let’s try on just starting from the d [Music]
  6. 2:47half step below the first one and then we’ll do coming down we’ll say half step below the first note coming down so now maybe what we can do is we’ll do the one that we did before which is the
  7. 3:21triplet start with the triplet and then go down a half step and come up the chord except this time before we come up the second chord let’s put a half step below the first note of the second chord so we’ll say [Music] so what would the second one be that’s a nice one the third one let’s see that’s a really pretty one [Music] nice really pretty let’s do the one from
  8. 3:56the root do the one from the second one two three four [Music] that’s a pretty one really beautiful okay let’s do the one from the third do the one from the fourth [Music] and do one from the fifth again beautiful
  9. 4:28beautiful beautiful now if we’re going to add something else let’s add one more thing to it let’s put barry’s barry’s chromatic scale rules so his half step rules descending and we’ll put two half steps his rules are this if we’re going to go up descending on the d7 scale we’ll start on the third and we’re going to do uh um third down so so the third down to the tonic so it would be this so that’s his chromatic scale now we start on the fourth
  10. 5:00we do not have a half step between uh four and three so we have to create one so we he does it by going to the next higher scale note scale tone so which should be five so the first one from three to one would be this from four to two would be [Music] and now from five to three would be this see we keep using that five in between four and three every time now that’s easy that’s just a chromatic there’s that same idea of using that uh
  11. 5:35skeleton above and then then this one and the last one so now let’s try to we’ll do two chords up again the first one being a triplet the second one being a half step below and then we get to the highest note we’re gonna come down a third but with barry’s chromatic scale so we’ll say oh man do the second one starting from the b
  12. 6:12so say [Music] that’s a nice one again do the one from the c that’s a nice one oh wait the one from the d do the one from the e [Music] that’s a really pretty one
  13. 6:50wow let’s do the one from the third [Music] and then we’ll do the one from the fourth that’s it too and then you back to the first one again so it’s just to show you if you start to put some of these things together to create your own phrases it’s really something and you’ll come up
  14. 7:22with things that nobody else has come up with and then you make those things your stock riffs so we’ve been really primarily focused on just staying on one chord like stagnant on a d7 or a minor to d7 we haven’t even really resolved anything yet but i think it’s important to practice just pretty things to play on just one chord and then we’ll get to we’ll eventually get to connecting it to another chord to another chord which is what barry talks about when he discusses playing movement so anyway hope you enjoyed episode 61
  15. 7:57however brief it might be and uh see you next time enjoy practicing