Chris Parks · Stage 6: Line devices

Barry is still teaching us beautiful triplets

Episode 107 · 11:28 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris opens by remembering Barry, who had just died a week short of 92, and then turns to rhythm. He takes a plain eighth-note phrase down a D7 scale and adds eighth- and sixteenth-note triplets, showing how each kind of triplet changes the half steps Barry’s descending dominant rules call for, and how moving the triplet to different beats gives each version its own character.

Step by step

0:00Chris reflects on Barry’s passing and suggests honouring him by keeping on improving.
2:35On the D7 scale, start a phrase on the second, E, with half steps between E and D and between D and C, coming down to the third.
3:10Place the phrase on the third beat, then play it on G7 and F7.
3:47Put an eighth-note triplet on the first note, between E and F sharp; this takes away one half step, leaving only the one between tonic and seventh.
4:28With a sixteenth-note triplet instead, keep both half steps; count it ‘triplet-and’, like squeezing in four notes.
5:07Combine them: an eighth-note triplet at the start and a sixteenth-note triplet when you reach the flat seven, C.
6:29As Barry did, move the triplet through the beats: on the third beat, then the fourth (on the D natural), then the first and the second.
8:11Put triplets on all four beats, and do the same on G7, C7 and F7.
9:25Pick and choose which beats get a triplet, such as only the first and third or the first and last; each version has its own identity.
10:47On guitar, the triplets make you see two or three positions of the neck instead of one.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

D72:35

Barry’s own words on this

6.9 Triplets in lines (eighth- and sixteenth-note)5.4 Off the beat, pickups and triplets 5.3 Dominant 7th scale descending

In the course

The descending half-step rules for the dominant Eighth- and sixteenth-note triplets in lines Freedom and your own voice

Transcript

0:00Hello and welcome to episode 107 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today, before we get into the actual lesson, obviously I just want to talk about Barry’s passing and the tremendous void that it leaves in the musical world. but that happens every time one of the masters leaves. Every time one of the masters dies, there’s a tremendous void. Not to be replaced, but we all have to do our best to try to keep improving
0:39because that’s what he spent his life doing, is trying to help us improve. So I think a great way to honor him and his wonderful work and his wonderful music is by just trying to get better and trying to do it in a very organic way, which I really enjoy. a thought which turns into another thought which turns into a beautiful idea which turns into sharing the beautiful idea which turns into other people sharing their beautiful ideas
1:20that’s the thing so that’s what we’re going to keep we’re going to keep doing hopefully here and it’s tough to lose him, but it’s, it’s obviously to be expected. He was in his 90s. It’s almost made, it was a week shy of 92. And, but I would say he lived his life doing exactly what he wanted to do and knowing exactly what he wanted to do and then doing it.
2:00So I think that’s a lesson to all of us really. Onward and upward and certainly we’re going to keep the channel going and hopefully it’ll still be a source of inspiration for a lot of people. I hope so. So let’s talk about something that Barry talked about a lot and showed his level of importance with, which is rhythm. And I thought a nice way to talk about it would be to talk about eighth note triplets and sixteenth note triplets.
2:35So let’s do that by taking a D7 scale, tonic to flat 7. We’re going to do a phrase on it. And we’re going to do all eighth notes. But after we try all eighth notes, we’re going to try to add, taking the same phrase, adding an eighth note triplet, or adding a 16th note triplet. Or maybe adding both, an eighth note triplet and a 16th note triplet. So I’ll show you what I mean. So let’s say we take a phrase starting on D7, starting on the second, which is E. And one of the rules for descending dominance
3:10is you’re going to put two half steps between second and tonic, tonic and flat 7. So you’re going to have a half step between E and D and D and C. So now what we’re going to say is. And maybe we’ll just come down to the third. So there we go. So now what we’re going to do is. That’s a nice phrase. Maybe we’ll put it on the third beat. One, two, three, four, one, two. Maybe we’ll do G7 now. Now F7.
3:47I did the G7 one more. But anyway, so let’s take that. Let’s take that idea. This one. Now what if we put an 8th note triplet on the first note? So it would be like this. 1, 2. And an 8th note triplet would be you have to do a triplet between the E and F sharp. Ba, be, da, de, da. So it would be like triplet, four and one and two and three. Same thing on G7, maybe. Same thing on F7.
4:28It’s pretty. One half step. Because we’re doing it eighth note triplet. But if we do a sixteenth note triplet, we’re going to put that half step back. So we started off, we had two half steps. Then we did an eighth note triplet where now we took away one half step and we just used one half step between tonic and seven. Now if we do a sixteenth note triplet we are going to keep that half step, both half steps actually. And now instead of saying triplet we have to say triplet and, triplet and. So instead of triplet it’s triplet and. It’s almost like you’re squeezing four notes.
5:07So now it would be one, two, triple it, and four, and one, and two, and three. So it’s triplet end, four, and one, and two, and three. So it’s going to be one, two, three, which is really pretty. Same thing for this. Same thing for F7. All beautiful. All those are beautiful. So now, what if we did an eighth note triplet, but then we decided to put a sixteenth note triplet on when we got down to the flat seven, which is the C. So it
5:53would sound like this one that’s a nice phrase same thing here here really pretty but do you hear the difference between the phrases so the The first one was just this. But then we have adding an eighth note triplet. Or adding a 16th note triplet.
6:29They all have their own character. And they’re all not just eighth note-y. The first one is eighth note-y, but when you break it up with triplets, it really makes the phrase even more beautiful, I think. And then if you add eighth note and sixteenth note triplets, then you say. Now, Barry used to do this thing where he would say, okay, let’s start here. And let’s say, so the first triplet, we’ll put it on here. So that’s here. We put it on the third beat.
7:01One, two. Put it on the third beat. Now, what happens if we put it on the fourth beat? So that would be one, two. So now we have to put the triplet on the D natural. And the triplet on the D natural between the D and the E, back to the D and to the C sharp. So it would be 1, 2, 3, and triple it, 1, and 2, and 3, sorry. 1, 2, 3, and triple it, 1, and 2, and 3. That’s hard to say and play at the same time.
7:35Really pretty though. So now let’s try to do it. That’s on the third. This was the third beat we did on. We did it on the fourth beat. Let’s do it on the first beat, which would be on the C natural. That’s pretty too. Let’s do it on the next one, which would be the second beat. So it would be three and four and one and triple and. Right, so, let’s see.
8:11So, one, two. Now, what if we did it on all of them? If we did it on all of them, it would be this. So, let’s see. One, two. Oh, man, how would we do the G7? Oh, no, no. Same thing for C7. Same thing for F7. Wow.
8:44So, but you see how you can take a line that maybe you’re used to, and maybe you’ve even practiced it to the point you’re sick of. You can change it up a little bit with these triplets. And if you listen to the masters, like Bird, Bud Powell, Coleman Hawkins, Barry, Sonny Rollins, all these people, they are going to take some of the simplest phrases, but they’ll put eighth note triplets and 16 note triplets on it and it almost makes it magical. It’s just great. It’s just a way of taking a very eighth note-y phrase and making it into something that’s just even more beautiful than before. Another nice thing that he used to do is let’s say,
9:25okay, so let’s say that’s all four of them. Now you can pick and choose. Let’s say I want to do the first one and the third one. So here’s the first one, here’s the third one. So it’d be one, two. That’s a really nice phrase by itself. Let’s say if we did the first one and the last one. That’s nice too. Let’s say we did the first one and second one and left every one of the other ones out. That’s nice. Let’s say we want to do just the first one and just the last one. Let’s say we wanted to do just the second to last one, the third one and the last one. So we
10:08got also pretty. But do you see how each one of those phrases has its own identity? And it’s just, it’s like another one of these brilliant Barry things that he happens to point out about the music. And now that you’ve heard it, you can’t unhear it. Now you’re going to hear all these phrases and you’re like, oh yeah, that’s right. I hear this over and over again, these triplets. So you have to make a concerted effort in your practice to practice these, to take some of your phrases and really practice them with triplets. I guarantee you, you’ll start, well,
10:47especially for guitar, you start to see the instrument in a different way. Because now, instead of looking at just one position, you can see when you’re adding in triplets, depending where they are, you’re looking at this position or you’re looking at the position below it. So really, you could see three spots of the fretboard, three positions of the fretboard as opposed to one. It really makes you do that. So it’s not only great for the sound of it, but it’s also great for the, um, it’s also great for the, uh, conceptualizing where all the notes are. It’s fantastic. So So, until next time, onward and upward everybody, and we’re going to keep this going.
11:24Have fun practicing your triplets.