Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 7: Building phrases over changes

How to create lines from scales

Episode 60 · 9:41 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

The first of Chris’s short daily videos on turning practice material into lines. On the D7 scale he takes just two things Barry has students practise, triads with a half step below the first note and pivoted chords, and combines them in different orders into D7 phrases. As with Barry, everything you practise should go straight into music.

Step by step

  1. 0:00Pick two things you practise on the D7 scale: triads with a half step below the first note, and pivots
  2. 0:35Play triads up and down the D7 scale: a note, skip a note, a note, skip a note, a note
  3. 1:10On guitar learn it from several fingers and positions: second finger on the fifth fret, the pinky, the first finger
  4. 1:44Put a half step below the first note of each triad, all the way up the scale
  5. 2:17Then put the half step below the top note and come down each triad
  6. 3:28Play four-note chords up the scale, then pivot each: first note in place, the next three an octave lower
  7. 4:37Combine: the triad from D with its half step below, then pivot a chord on the next note
  8. 5:12Try two triads with half steps below, come down the scale, then pivot a chord
  9. 6:52Reverse the order: pivot a chord first, then a triad with its half step
  10. 8:34Aim for phrases you can use whenever D7 comes up; Barry puts everything he has you practise into a song straight away

Barry’s own words on this

7.2 Building phrases from small pieces (class phrases)6.7 Pivoting3.1 The raw materials6.6 Chromatic pickups and the well-placed half step

In the course

The scale every way: up and down, thirds, triads, chordsKnow it everywhere on the guitarPivotsHalf step belowPut it in a song

Transcript

  1. 0:00hello and welcome to episode 60 of things i’ve learned from barry harris and today i thought we would start a thing where i just made a few short videos talking about how to create lines using some of the things you’ve been practicing so for instance today we’ll talk about d7 and d7 scale and all the things you’re supposed to practice on d7 scale but we’ll focus on two primary things at practice which would be triads with a half step below the first note
  2. 0:35and pivots so i’ll demonstrate a couple of them here’s a d made d7 scale and here are the triads in d7 scale and for those who don’t know how to do a triad it’s starting on a note going up the scale skipping the second note playing the third note skipping another note playing the fifth note so now you got this is the first one then you have to do the same thing
  3. 1:10coming down now already if that’s if that gives you some problems stop it stop the video right there and really try to get that together so i’m happy to doing it i know there’s no fret markers but i happen to be doing it starting with the second finger on the fifth fret if you’re a guitar player you should also know how to do it starting with the you pinky also know how to do it starting with the first finger on the d
  4. 1:44same thing with the pinky on the tenth fret of the sixth string anything that we work on you should know how to do it in all these different positions on the guitar so let’s again we’ll focus on just the uh triads which we’re going to put a half step below the each first note so the first triad we’re going to put a half step below that second triad third triad fourth one half step below
  5. 2:17fifth triad sixth [Music] seventh back to the first one and we’ll start and we’ll do a half step now uh below the top note and come down so maybe we’ll do this um let’s see uh [Music]
  6. 2:55next one next one next one next one next one next one oh so back to the first one again so now we got if we were going to do uh starting from here [Music] it’s pretty exercise now that’s the first thing i want us to think of
  7. 3:28the second thing i want us to think of is what barry calls a pivot so d7 scale let’s do chords up now the chord will be uh like a triad except you’re skipping another note and adding the last note so here would be the first chord skip the next note skip the next note skip the next one so here’s the here’s the chord [Music] that’s what barry calls a chord so now what a pivot is is we’re going to take
  8. 4:00the first note play where it normally is and instead of playing the next three notes we’re going to play those next three notes an octave lower so now we got this [Music] so instead of this we have this and we’re going to do that all the way up to scale so if we say [Music] last one so
  9. 4:37thinking about just those two things if you don’t have those together practice them stop the tape here and practice them but now let’s try to put some of these together so if we said the first thing let’s say um half step below the first triad starting on d but we’re gonna put a half step below and we’ll say one two three four so there’s the first one so now maybe we’ll add a um a pivot on after the next note so we’ll say
  10. 5:12so there’s a there’s our pivoted chord so if we said one two three pretty d7 phrase [Music] and then add something else to it but see this is already something that you’re working on to create a phrase maybe we’ll do two of them that’s pretty so we’ll do two uh of the triads at the half step below and then we’ll do one of the pivots so we’ll say
  11. 5:46come down the scale now here’s where we’ll pivot a chord instead of saying we say so now we’ll say one two three four pretty d7 phrase one two three really beautiful but this is the concept behind practicing these things um is taking um well let’s take
  12. 6:20let’s take another one let’s do down from here that’s pretty one two three four [Music] that’s a beautiful d7 phrase one two three see all these things work so nicely i’m not even gonna mess with resolving it to g major or g7 or you could also resolve it to d flat major or d flat minor i’m not even messing with it
  13. 6:52just figure out pretty ways to play d7 you know just anything that you normally practice and in this particular instance we’re taking just those two things which is the half step below the triads and the pivoting chords and see how many little combinations you can come up with what happens if we pivoted a chord first and then we did the um and then we did the uh
  14. 7:24triad so what if we said [Music] that’s nice that’s a beautiful one [Music] that’s really pretty so what if we did let’s see let’s see [Music] now what do we want to do let’s see [Music] where do we want to pivot
  15. 7:58wait that’s nice let’s see that’s beautiful i’ve never played that before let’s see [Music] let’s see one more time yeah that’s a pretty phrase [Music] that’s a beautiful phrase i can even put a half step maybe i’ll see [Music] i mean this is the concept though i’m
  16. 8:34going to make one of these every day and the idea behind it is let’s take the things that we were taught to practice that barry shows us how to practice and let’s really actively try to come up with phrasing that’s pretty that we can play on any time you see a d7 chord that’s going to be our goal i’m going to make a couple of these the next couple of days and we’ll just keep working on it and the concept is take one or two things that you’ve been practicing and really try to create phrases with them it’s really nice it’s really nice it’s the way to
  17. 9:06actually start implementing some of this stuff because the thing i love about barry is nothing uh that he has you practice uh is it are things that you’re not going to use you use everything use everything he has you practice he immediately takes something that he’s telling you to practice and puts it in a song right away puts it in a change puts it in a chord change something so that’s what we have to be better at consistently doing so hope this was helpful i’m gonna make a couple more of these in the next couple of days so
  18. 9:38see you then until next time