Chris Parks · Talks, news and answers
What 5-4-3-2 really means: a reply
Replying to another YouTuber, Chris explains that Barry’s 5-4-3-2 (not 5-4-3-2-1) were shorthand names for small phrases, used to call out solo lines quickly and always meant to connect with other things. He adds that teachers should understand the material before teaching it.
Step by step
- 0:00It is 5-4-3-2, not 5-4-3-2-1: Barry’s shorthand for calling out solo lines, which the class practised through the keys.
- 1:53The names are not arbitrary: when a line reaches the fifth or the fourth, the number tells you which small phrase to play from there.
- 3:13Context matters, and teachers should hold themselves to a higher standard.
Barry’s own words on this
In the course
Take it up every degree of the scalePuzzle piecesThe descending half-step rules for the dominant5-4-3-2Barry dictating linesTeach Barry’s material accurately
Transcript
- 0:00Chase Maddox. This is for you, brother. Just wanted to show you something. So 5-4-3-2. Well, first of all, it’s 5-4-3-2, not 5-4-3-2-1. There’s no one involved at all. 5-4-3-2 was just a kind of shorthand that Barry would use if he was, let’s say we were working on I Got Rhythm and he was doing a solo. and he said okay I want you to start on the five run up to the tonic come back down put a half step
- 0:34between six and five when you get to five do five so it was like a shorthand way of explaining certain licks see and the thing is they were always connected to other things but when he had us practice them as a class we would practice them just five four three two and then we would moved to other keys so if we started in C we moved to F moved to B flat and so on but it was always meant as something that’s connected to other things so I don’t know why you didn’t see any of those I mean there’s videos of Barry going over them I think you even showed it in your video of Barry
- 1:14going over 5 4 3 2 where right away he’s putting it with other things so so let me just be clear look so like I said before 5 4 3 2 not 5 4 3 2 1 because it should have occurred to you that there was no one in your example no one there’s no one so five you did correctly you did it perfectly four you did perfectly three you did fine two you did fine and then of course we put them all together. Now you almost never put them together as a phrase it’s just something
- 1:53that he had the class do. But now here’s the real beautiful thing is that you use them as connecting pieces. And by the way the reason why they’re called 5 4 3 2 is not arbitrary at all. Not at all. What it means is 5 can trigger you to do something so after you hit five you play five major seven tonic four three so sometimes barry would say start on the top start on the five run up to the tonic or maybe run up to the second and then when you get to the five do five so
- 2:29so that’s that’s the way he would call it out shorthand so that we could play the phrase fast you see same thing is true of four four is not arbitrary it means when you get to four from whatever note you’re on you do four and then two chromatic to three you see not arbitrary at all so in other words let’s say if I started on the major seven I put two half steps between seven six six and five came down to the four and did four see how pretty that is so he was just doing it shorthand. See, the thing is, context is everything. See, context is everything. If you
- 3:13miss the context, then you miss what’s really special about it. And the whole point is to be able to take some of this information and share it. Now, to put your own thing on top of it is the purpose of it. The purpose is these are little specific phrases that then you add your own thing too that’s 100 true but the material itself you should have a grasp of and you don’t have a grasp of it you didn’t even know what it was called so it’s not it you shouldn’t get so bent out of shape if somebody says this particular video that you made about this topic is ignorant it was
- 3:55it’s clearly by definition you didn’t know the name of it you got the name wrong and and you didn’t even know why it was named what it was named i i don’t know why but you didn’t know that and even after that you thought let me make a video teaching this thing that i don’t know the name of and that that i think the name is arbitrary anyway not a good idea not a good idea as teachers because you’re a teacher too as teachers we should hold ourselves to a higher standard
- 4:39because you know there’s a lot of people that are going to listen to you and take everything you say to heart and say this must be right and just because you’re teaching something doesn’t mean you’re teaching something of value or something correctly now you’re in a teacher position so you should know better you should know better and don’t get all bent out of shape if somebody says hey this information is wrong that’s not gatekeeping or it’s anything it’s just pointing out it’s incorrect if you said I’m going to do a video about Einstein’s theory of relativity
- 5:16and you talked about it incorrectly if somebody corrects you that doesn’t make them gatekeeping for Einstein it’s just trying to correct misinformation so don’t get all bent out of shape the stuff is fun and the thing about Barry’s stuff that was so beautiful is you can put it into your own playing but first you should at least have gone through the process of understanding what it was because it’s brilliant i mean we’re not just talking about like some common person here this
- 5:52was a master level musician very rare very rare so i hope you got a little bit of a better idea about what 5 4 3 2 is next time don’t get so upset about it brother