Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 4: Running scales over tunes

Scales and soloing for A Night in Tunisia

Episode 18 · 14:39 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris maps A Night in Tunisia with Barry’s scales: E flat 7 and D minor 6 for the A sections, and on the bridge F7 down to the third of D for A half-diminished to D7. For soloing he hears E flat 7 as the tritone of A7 resolving to D minor, so pairs of its notes surround D minor’s notes; he adds Barry’s half-step rules, and on A7 plays the diminished from its third and from the third of E7.

Step by step

  1. 0:00A sections: alternate the E flat 7 scale (tonic to 7) with the D minor 6 scale, a minor scale holding both the flat 6 and the major 6, played tonic to major 6
  2. 1:10The last time round, play C7 down from its flat 7, B flat, to C sharp, the third of A, then D minor again; practise with the metronome at 90 on 2 and 4
  3. 1:58Bridge: A half-diminished to D7 is F7 up and down to the third of D, then G minor 6, C7, F major up, and C7 down to the third of A into the last eight; then play all 32 bars
  4. 4:14Soloing: here E flat 7 acts as the tritone of A7 going to D minor, so use pairs of its notes to surround notes of D minor
  5. 4:58Surround A with B flat and A flat, surround B (the 6th of D minor 6) with B flat and C, and surround D with E flat and D flat
  6. 6:35Run E flat 7 into D minor 6 with Barry’s half-step rules: from the tonic one half step between tonic and 7, from the second none or two, from the third one; add triplets
  7. 7:51Don’t stop after every E flat 7 to D minor 6 phrase: sometimes run D minor 6 back into E flat 7 before taking a breath
  8. 8:59On the bridge use the same rules on F7 (one half step from the tonic, none or two from the second) and then play something on G minor 6
  9. 10:24On A7, play the diminished from its third; or think E7 to A7 and play the diminished on G sharp, E7’s third, a half step above A7’s diminished
  10. 11:49Combine them: up one diminished and down the other into D minor 6, slide down a half step from one to the next, or link three diminished notes with Barry’s triplet figures

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line4:58
𝄞♭♭
C4C5A♭B♭
  1. B♭
  2. A♭
Line4:58
𝄞♭
C4CB♭
  1. B♭
  2. C

Barry’s own words on this

4.4 Scale outlines6.5 Surrounding notes (approach from above and below)6.2 The augmented arpeggio and the diminished on the third of the dominant8.5 The tritone

In the course

Up, down, and up and downScale outlinesA half-diminished means the dominant whose third it isThe descending half-step rules for the dominantCome up a diminished from the thirdSoloing with the diminishedRun one chord into the nextNotes in common and notes that surroundThe minor 6 diminished scaleA Night in Tunisia

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 18 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. Today we’re going to be discussing the scales and maybe some other ideas for Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie’s tune called Night in Tunisia. So let’s jump right in to the first eight bars. The first eight bars you’re going to need to know E flat 7 scale, then a D minor 6 scale. So let’s just talk about those. E flat 7, it’s going to be tonic to 7 because when Barry plays up or up and down, he only
  2. 0:37plays up to the 7. Now in this case though, for the D minor 6, D minor 6 is kind of that special scale which we’ve talked about in previous episodes, but it’s going to basically be the minor scale, but it’s got a flat 6 and a major 6 in it. So we’re going to play tonic to major 6 on that case. Then E flat 7 scale up again, then D minor 6 up again, E flat 7 scale up again, D minor 6 scale up again.
  3. 1:10Now this last time around you’re going to play C7 down, which means you’re going to start on the flat 7 of C7, which is the B flat, down to the third of the A, and then back up D So let’s try those first eight bars. I have the metronome set for 90. And again, I like to pat on one and three, and I like that to be on two and four. So let’s try one, two, one, two, three, four. Okay, now that’s the first 8, that’s the second 8, and that’s also the last 8.
  4. 1:58Now the bridge, which starts on A half diminished, Barry doesn’t see that as to D7, Barry sees that as playing an F7 scale down to the third of D. Okay, so that’s F7 scale up and down, but then ends on the third of D. And then after that, you’re going to play a G minor 6 scale up. And the same way we did D minor 6, it’s going to be tonic to major 6. Up and down. So the bridge is going to start with F7 scale up and down to the 3rd of D. G minor 6 scale up and down.
  5. 2:33Then it’s going to play a C7 scale up and down. Then an F major scale up. Then C7 down to the 3rd of A again. Which takes us into the last 8 of the song. which is going to be exactly the same as the first two eighths. So if we just did the bridge, let’s do the bridge. One, two, one, two, three, four. Okay.
  6. 3:14Okay, so now let’s see if we can put the whole 32 bars together. 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, and... Okay, I messed up a little bit on the bridge on the F major.
  7. 4:14back down but you get the idea. So now things to practice on soloing. So obviously you have an E flat 7 scale and all the things that are important to E flat 7 like all the half steps that he uses which are in previous episodes and then you have to remember that now instead of usually we’re used to Eb7 resolving to something in Ab, like Ab major. In this case, Eb7 is kind of acting as the tritone of A7 to end up to D minor. So we should start thinking about those surrounding notes like I think we’ve talked about previously.
  8. 4:58So for instance, if we start on the 5th of Eb, which is the Bb, the two notes of Eb 7, that surround a note on D minor would be B-flat, A-flat, surrounds the A. So we have to figure out cool little ways to play but so that was the first one was surrounding the a which is a good one to do another nice one is is B flat and C surround the B of D-minus-6.
  9. 5:48So let’s see what that one sounds like. That sounded good too. Let’s see. That’s a nice one too. Let’s try the tonic. And the flat 7 surround the tonic of D minor. So... Okay, so those are all little ideas. Also using some of Barry’s half-step rules.
  10. 6:35So if we did the rule for the dominant for the tonic, it’s one half-step between tonic and 7. Here’s the tonic and 7. So let’s try that. Let’s try that one again. Two, three, four. There it is. Now, maybe from the second, no half steps. Two, three, four. Now maybe from the second with two half steps.
  11. 7:15That one sounds good with two half steps. That’s nice. Down to six. That’s nice. That’s a nice one. How about three with one half step? That’s a nice one. Maybe we’ll put some triplets in. Let’s see one, two, three.
  12. 7:51Now, anyway, those are just little ideas for Eb7 to D minor 6. Another thing is, sometimes when you’re soloing on this tune, you start to play a lot of phrases like Eb7 into D minor 6. break. E flat 7 into D minor 6, then you take a break.
  13. 8:26E flat 7, D minor 6, then you take a break. So what you might want to do is the first one, maybe do something in E flat. Then So the idea I was trying to convey though was one time you play E flat 7 to D minor 6 and then maybe run D minor 6 into E flat 7 and take a break. Take a little breath. So you want to try to be free within those just two changes,
  14. 8:59E flat 7 to D minor 6. Now the bridge is going to be F7, all the things you know for F7 scale, running it into D minor 6 and then playing something on G minor 6. So if we take F7 and we do one half step between tonic and 7, And then maybe we’ll come up with a diminution. So let’s try that. Anyway, but let’s try that one again.
  15. 9:40Let’s do maybe two, no half steps. That’s a nice one. Two, maybe two half steps. Anyway, little ideas for the bridge too, which is kind of interesting.
  16. 10:24Now, another nice thing that Barry plays sometimes is, okay, we know on A7, going back to the 8s, the first two 8s maybe again, or the first two 8s and the last 8. What Barry likes to play on A7 sometimes is the diminished. So the diminished, that’s from the 3rd. which is really pretty. Those work really nicely. But what he likes to do sometimes also is he plays almost like you’re playing either Bb7 to A7
  17. 11:00or if you could think of it as E7 to A7 to D-mino6. So he will play the third of E, the diminished on the third of E, which is A-flat. Now, the diminished that goes with A7 happens to be a half step below that. So that’s a nice little thing that they do sometimes that Barry teaches. from the No, from, oh yeah.
  18. 11:49That’s a nice one. Now you could do maybe, you could try all different sorts of ideas with that. If you do the first one up, do the second one down. That’s a nice one. Ending on the minor six, which is pretty. Oh, I’m sorry, yeah, minor six. Another one that you could do is you could go up one, or maybe down one. And then down one and then up the other one which is pretty. And then maybe, let’s see, which is nice.
  19. 12:30another nice thing that you can do is maybe go up one and then go down the half step to the next diminishing and come up that one which is kind of nice Maybe the next one. The next one would be... It’s really pretty. Another thing he likes to do sometimes from the diminished
  20. 13:06is he likes to play these little triplet things and connects, say, these three diminished notes. So Barry will say... Or... which is really pretty all of them and sometimes he’ll run them back and forth so I’ll say it’s just really nice so where would you put it something like that but he he likes to throw those in so there’s all sorts of little things you could
  21. 14:00do with diminishes all sorts of things you could do with the tritone and again we’re just scratching the surface but i think we’ll stay with night in tunisia for the next couple of episodes just to take a look at maybe also chording what you can play on it and more ideas because we’re just really scratching the surface but I’m trying to keep it relatively short so again I’m really enjoying these and if you have any questions or comments please leave them down below and yeah enjoy practicing your scales and some ideas for 90 Tunisia until next time thanks