Chris Parks · Stage 14: Practising
Transcribing with a Purpose
Chris takes one short Coleman Hawkins phrase on G major, breaks it into its pieces and practises each piece from every degree of the scale, the way Barry builds everything from small parts. The aim is not to copy the phrase into the same spot but to absorb how Hawkins thought and make new lines of your own from it.
Step by step
- 0:00Learn the Hawkins phrase: up the G major arpeggio, playing each chord tone, a half step below it, back to it, then a scale note up.
- 0:47Repeat the move on the third and the fifth, then jump to the tonic and back to the fifth.
- 1:20Don’t just reuse the phrase where Hawkins did; break it into smaller ideas.
- 1:58Take the first piece alone (a note, the half step below, back, a scale note) and run it up and down the scale.
- 2:34Play the full triad version from the tonic, then from the second degree (A minor).
- 3:14Continue the pattern from the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh degrees.
- 5:06Pull out single pieces, such as just the thirds, and mix them with other material or use them in minor.
- 6:23Make your own phrase from the parts, e.g. going up a chord and coming back down.
- 8:54Treat note-for-note transcription as the first step; the second is breaking it down and playing it on every degree.
Barry’s own words on this
In the course
Transcript
- 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 75 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would take a look at something that Coleman Hawkins played that I thought we could all get a lot of enjoyment out of. It’s a basic line on a major. So in this case it would be G major. And he played something like... So if we were going to take that apart, we would say he went up the major arpeggio. But he started with the first note, hit the first note of the arpeggio, played a half step below, back up.
- 0:47Then he went up a scale note. Then he did the same thing for the third. So third, half step below the third, back to the third, then up a scale note. Did the same thing for the fifth. Then he went up to the tonic right from there. Then back to the fifth. So the phrase is... So it’s a beautiful phrase that he plays on a major. But I think there’s a lot that we can learn from just that one little phrase. And that we could break it apart into smaller things.
- 1:20So this is kind of the way that my mind works around it. It’s not necessarily the right way, but this is how I really work on music for myself, is I’ll take that phrase. And like if we’re playing a song like How High the Moon or something that’s in G or Out of Nowhere or, you know, anything else that’s in the key of G, I don’t want to just duplicate that phrase because that’s Coleman Hawkins’ phrase. And he might have gotten it from somebody else, but the source that I got it from was from Coleman Hawkins. but the thing that I like to do with it is I’ll say okay well let’s take a look at what he did let’s just do that much so that means if we go we’re going up
- 1:58three notes we start on a note play a half step below it then go back up so I might do that up the scale And the same thing down. Let’s see what it sounds like down. Really pretty. The next one, let’s do the full triad. That’s a nice one.
- 2:34So let’s do the next one. So that’s just to play the first note of the triad, half step below, then a scale note, then the next note of the triad, half step below and back to it, then another scale note up, and then the last note of the triad, so G major triad. Now we’ll do it on the second degree of the scale, the same thing. our triad so we’ll say that’s a nice phrase so now I might be thinking to myself if we’re playing let’s say something in major I might say oh wait
- 3:14if I was playing how high the moon or something like that but then I might also say this one when we get to A minor I might use the second one which is the next one. Let’s do the one from the third, from the fourth, from the fifth, sixth, 7th.
- 3:52And then back to the tonic. So that’s a nice phrase. Let’s see. Beautiful phrase. But now he finishes out, he says... So the last one he ends on the next one. So that’s G major. Sorry, G major. So the next one will be A minor, which is beautiful. Now he does it for B minor.
- 4:31Next he does it for C major. Next one starting on the 5th. Next one starting on the 6th. Next one starting on the seventh. Next one starting on the root again. These are all beautiful things that you can practice on the scale. So many beautiful things.
- 5:06So even though transcribing a Coleman Hawkins solo is wonderful to hear all those sounds on your instrument, What I like to do is even take one little thing and then see if I can utilize it, see if I can use it. So, for instance, now we’ve got a few different things that we can do. We could just do thirds, which is really pretty. And you throw it in with something else. Or, let’s see. Or you can use it from the point of view of the minor.
- 5:46I mean, so one little excerpt or little phrase of it leads to something else. So let’s maybe let’s create something. That’s nice. What would the next one be? I don’t even know if I can do it.
- 6:23Let’s see. That’s a nice phrase. I just went up a chord. And then I came down. That’s a nice phrase. One, two, three, go. Man. So that’s what I like to do since I’m not particularly good at transcribing. But what I like to do is, like I said, take some of these little ideas and try to use it on every degree of the scale.
- 7:05Really nice. So let’s see if we’re doing something in, what if we did it in minor? That’s beautiful. So if we’re playing High High the Moon. That’s a nice one.
- 7:40So it... Wow. So, I guess the point of this is to show you that don’t be satisfied with just taking somebody’s phrase and then saying, okay, I’m going to use it here on this spot. Every time there’s a major, I’m going to use it.
- 8:12I might never use it where it’s a major. I might only use it on a minor, maybe. Not that I’m going to disguise it as being Coleman Hawkins’ phrase, but in a sense, it’s 100% influenced by Coleman Hawkins, but it’s a creation using his his brain and how his brain work that I tried to take and copy without copying his phrase which is actually I think a nice way to look at it because then if I come up with a phrase it’s still I feel like it’s 100 percent influenced by Coleman Hawkins but it’s still my phrase and I think everybody can do that too with their own with whatever they come up with
- 8:54whoever they’re transcribing. Same idea. It doesn’t matter what kind of music you’re into, who you’re transcribing. I think transcribing something note for note is great, but that’s like the first step at using language. So for instance, if we’re talking about how we all learn language, we just repeat what everybody else is saying around us until we start to figure it out. But then we have to put our own thoughts together. We don’t just keep repeating everybody else’s thoughts. So first step, if you want to transcribe, totally fine. Second step, though, would be, I would say, break it down into smaller things and then try to do it on different
- 9:32degrees of the scale to see what kind of musical ideas you can come up with, with using Coleman Hawkins, what Coleman Hawkins, who is a genius, who is obviously a genius, has already come up with. So just that little major phrase, we’ve come up with all sorts of things for it, which I think is really is really what uh moving the music forward should be about is not saying well i’m not going to play something like coleman hawkins or i’m going to play this coleman hawkins phrase but it’s let me see what i can do with his idea and then let me see if i can expound on it and not pretentious enough
- 10:08to think like i’m going to make it better i mean who’s going to make a who’s going to make a beautiful phrase better than coleman hawkins but you can make it so that at least it’s your own so anyway that’s today’s little lesson on transcribing with a purpose. So until next time, thanks.