Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 4: Running scales over tunes

Scales for Donna Lee

Episode 9 · 10:44 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris outlines Donna Lee, the Indiana changes in A flat, with Barry’s scales section by section, ending runs on the third of the next chord, and plays them through in time. He then takes the first two bars, a full bar of A flat and one of F7, to show Barry’s habit of seeing movements rather than chords: I to the VI dominant, I to that dominant’s tritone (B7), or I straight to the II dominant.

Step by step

  1. 0:00Bars 1 and 2: A flat major up and down, ending on A natural, the third of F7; then B flat 7 up and down
  2. 0:46E flat 7 up and down, then A flat major up and A flat 7 up
  3. 1:21D flat major up and G flat 7 up, then A flat major to the third of F, B flat 7 and E flat 7 to close the first half
  4. 2:01Second half: start the same, then E flat 7 up and down to E natural, the third of C7, heading for F minor
  5. 2:39F minor 6 up and E flat 7 down to the third of C, twice; then B flat 7 down and E flat 7, A flat major and E flat 7 up to finish
  6. 4:02Play the whole tune’s scales with the metronome at 90 on 2 and 4
  7. 5:14Look at bars 1 and 2: a full bar of A flat into a full bar of F7; run the A flat scale from anywhere down to the third of F
  8. 6:24Bring in the tritone: F7’s tritone is B7, and A, the third of F7, is also the seventh of B7, so run A flat major into B7
  9. 8:11Or skip the VI dominant entirely and run A flat major straight into B flat 7, the II dominant
  10. 9:29Practise these movements, I to VI7, I to flat III7 and I to II7, since Barry thinks in movements, not scale after scale

Barry’s own words on this

4.4 Scale outlines13.3 Standards worked in class8.5 The tritone10.1 Be a movement player

In the course

Scale outlinesUp and down to the third ofFeel how long each chord lastsThe tritoneBe a movement playerI to the VI dominantDonna Lee / Indiana

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 9 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. Today I thought we would tackle the scales to Indiana, or Donnelly. Anyway, it’s an A-flat, and we haven’t done anything in A-flat, so I thought it would be a good idea. So anyway, the song starts off, we’re going to play A flat major up and down to the third of F, which in this case would be A. So it would sound like this. And then we’re going to play B flat 7 up and down.
  2. 0:46And then we’re going to play E flat 7 up and down. Then we’re going to play Ab major up, Ab7 up. So let’s try to put all that together. So now we’ve got... Okay, that’s what we got so far. Now we’ll play D-flat major up and down.
  3. 1:21Oh, sorry, just up. D-flat major up. Then we’ll play G-flat 7 up. So now we got... Then we’ll go back to playing A flat major up and down. To the third of F, and then B flat 7 up and down. And then E flat 7 up and down. Okay, and that’s the first half of the song. It’s in A-B form. So now let’s try to put all that together. One, two, three, and...
  4. 2:01Okay, now we’re on the second half of the song, the B section. The first part is going to be the same. A-flat-maj up and down to the third of F. B-flat-7 up and down. But the next part we’re going to play Eb7 up and down to the third of C because we’re going into F minor and playing C7 there.
  5. 2:39So the third of C is actually E natural so it’s going to be. Then we’re going to play F minor 6 up. And then we’re going to play E flat 7 down to the third of C. So let’s play that how much we have now for the second part. Okay, now the next part we’re going to start with those same two phrases again. F minor 6 up, E flat 7 down to the third of C, again F minor 6 up.
  6. 3:26But now this time we’re going to play B flat 7 down to the third of G. Because now it takes us back to A flat and A drop, E flat 7 up, A flat major up, E flat 7 up. So the last part of that is, let’s see, one, two, three, and... Okay, so let’s try the scales for Donnelly. I put it on 90.
  7. 4:08Again, I like that on two and four. One, two, one, two, three, and... Okay, one more time. Sorry. One, two, one, two, three, four. ok
  8. 5:07So that’s the scales. Not a few mistakes, but that’s the scales for Indiana or Donnelly. Now, what’s interesting about that, there’s a lot of interesting things about it, but sometimes Barry will say, okay, let’s take a look at, let’s say, the first four bars or the first eight bars. But let’s just take a look at the first, for us, let’s just take a look at the first two bars. And the first two bars are basically A-flat major, to F7. Now there’s a lot of different ways to approach that. Unlike rhythm
  9. 5:48changes which is kind of two beats a piece of Ab to F7, if we’re playing an Ab, in this case it’s longer so it’s a full measure of Ab and then a full measure of F7. So there’s a lot of different ways to approach it. We can just play Barry’s type of phrases which would be well not his exact but something like which was just running up the A-flat major scale and then running down to the third of
  10. 6:24of the F, we could have started anywhere and ended anywhere. Or Any one of those things going down to the third of F. But what’s interesting about that too, it brings in the tritone. And by that I mean any dominant that’s going home, a fifth higher, you can play its tritone substitute.
  11. 6:58So in this case, which is another dominant scale, three whole step difference. So in this case we have F7, its tritone is going to be B7. So even though I came down to the third of F7, the third of F is also the flat seventh of B. So let’s see what that sounds like. So there’s another example of running A-flat major, but this time you’re running A-flat major into B7.
  12. 7:36It wasn’t the best example in the world, but you get the idea. Let’s see. That’s all B7. or that’s another example anyway but that’s another example of just running A flat major into F7 or A flat major into B7 which is something that we have to learn how to play
  13. 8:11now then it’s learning how to play F7 into, in this case, Bb7, which is the two dominant. You can, sometimes I’ve heard Barry play just Ab major into Bb7, where you just entirely skip the six. So now your change in your head, or the movement that you’re playing over is just to this, this, to this. So let’s see. I mean, it wasn’t much, but it gets the job done.
  14. 8:55Not the nicest phrase in the world, but you get the idea. It’s running the I chord straight into the II dominant. So just in that little instance, you have the I chord running into the VI dominant. or the one chord running into the tritone of the 6th dominant, which would be like the flat 3-7. Then you have just skipping that change entirely and just running 1 into the 2-dominant. So anyway, those are just little examples
  15. 9:29of how you would start to dissect the song. Remember, Barry doesn’t look at things as, well, this scale into this scale, necessarily. he really looks at this movement into this movement. So this song has all these pretty little movements, and we didn’t even get to the four major to the four minor, which we’ve done before, but we haven’t even gotten to that. Anyway, it’s just a way to think about soloing over Indiana or any other song. So again, play the scales up and down, enjoy that, and then start to maybe dissect where the song goes.
  16. 10:04So you have to learn how to play one to six dominant, but a longer one, so one for a full measure and six dominant for a full measure. And then you have to learn how to play one to flat three dominant, which is also another thing that happens because you’re thinking of the tritone of the six dominant. And then you can think of just running one into the two dominant. Let the instrumentalist play the six dominant and just leave it alone, and you just run one into two dominant. Anyway, I hope that was helpful, and have fun practicing the scales. and again any comments or suggestions leave them down below appreciate it thanks