Chris Parks · Stage 6: Line devices
A very important arpeggio
Chris explains what Barry means by an arpeggio (a triad with its bottom note repeated on top) and the three important arpeggios of a dominant, on the root, fifth and seventh. He focuses on the one on the seventh of D7, a C major arpeggio, and makes phrases with it over A minor 7, D7 to G, approaching it with Barry’s chromatic scale, then uses it on the tritone ii-V to D flat.
Step by step
- 0:03To Barry an arpeggio is a triad with the bottom note repeated on top: C E G C, not just C E G
- 0:42A dominant has three important arpeggios, on the root, the fifth and the seventh; on D7 the one on the seventh is C major
- 1:19Play the C major arpeggio, then its inversions from E and from G
- 2:30Over A minor 7, D7 to G major, think only D7, as Barry does
- 3:07Phrase: run the scale, then come down the C major arpeggio from C into G major
- 4:56Make phrases that come down the arpeggio from G, its fifth
- 5:48Ascend to the arpeggio with Barry’s chromatic scale: there is no half step between B and C, so jump up to D first
- 8:07D7 is also the tritone of A flat 7: play the same arpeggio over the ii-V to D flat major and find a pretty note to resolve to
- 10:00Over the whole change think D7: run up to E and come down the arpeggio from E, then resolve to D flat
- 11:21Using the principles to build your own lines, not copying licks, is what separates Barry’s method
Chords and notes in this video
Tap a time to jump to it in the video.
- C
- E
- G
- C
Barry’s own words on this
In the course
Think the dominant: put the ii awayBarry’s chromatic scaleBarry’s arpeggio and its inversionsThe three important arpeggios of a dominantThe tritoneFreedom and your own voice
Transcript
- 0:03hello and welcome to episode 52 of things I’ve learned from Barry Harris today I thought we would discuss a very important arpeggio and by arpeggio Barry means a triad with the bottom note repeated on top so for instance in this case we’re going to be looking at an important arpeggio that we can find in d7 now he has three important arpeggios
- 0:42the first important arpeggio is found on the root the second important arpeggio is found on the fifth and last important arpeggio is found on the seventh so in this case D seven we’re gonna just look at the one found on the seventh we’re just gonna focus on that one today so let’s first talk about what arpeggio that is so the triad that’s found on the seventh of D seven would be AC major triad but as an arpeggio Berry likes to hear that top
- 1:19note otherwise it’s just a triad so you guys [Music] and then we’ll do it inverted so we’ll start on e and say invert it again and we’ll say [Music] so now we’ll try to use that immediately
- 1:54because this is the point of all this stuff is to say okay well what is what is the point of this knowledge what is the point of understanding this okay let’s do it let’s let’s show you the point the point would be let’s try to create some phrases on d7 with the understanding of oh there’s an important arpeggio on the 7th of d7 which gives you this pretty C major arpeggio so let’s start building phrases so let’s say we have a 2 5 in the key of G so a minor let’s just for the sake of
- 2:30argument for this particular video let’s do a minor 7 d7 for a run against G major so a 2 5 in the key of G major and if you’ve been following the lessons you know that berry doesn’t look at 2/5 as 2/5 he looks as that purely as just 5 so when you see a minor d7 all you have to think of as a soloist is d7 and you’ll be fine so let’s take a look at some of the things you could do with the arpeggio let’s say let’s start on major arpeggio
- 3:07from the sea so there’s a there’s an arpeggio down so let’s create a phrase maybe we’ll do maybe we’ll do we’ll start on the scale [Music] [Music]
- 3:53[Music] [Music] [Music]
- 4:56so see already I’m using that going a minor d7 and all I’m doing after that is big G major to kind of be seven to turn it back around to a minor so now let’s try it from the from the G yeah so let’s try from the G or from the fifth one two three now that’s if we came down we went up to a scale mode and then we just came
- 5:48down what if we so we descended a scale a scale using one half-step what if we ascended to get to the note so let’s use berries let’s start on this one let’s start on the G and let’s say Oh actually let’s start the step here so now we have we have to do a scale we want to do a chromatic so we have to use bearish chromatic scale so in between the B and the C we don’t have a chromatic so we have to put the D
- 6:21so we say [Music] really pretty phrase let’s try it from the from the fifth the same idea so again [Music]
- 7:33[Music] that’s a nice let’s do so if you take any idea any idea that you have and you
- 8:07say okay I want to use some of these interesting arpeggios and this particular one is found on the seventh do you see how many different ways you can practice it and in this instance I’m practicing an a minor to D seven resolving to G major but in the same right we can say well d7 is d seven going to G major but D seven is also the tritone of a flat seven so we have to be able to figure out how to play sometimes
- 8:52we have to figure out a way to play the 2/5 and the key of D flat would be [Music] to D flat major but we should still be able to do all the little things we just did except we have to figure out a way to resolve it to a pretty note on D flat as opposed to it on G so let’s see so
- 10:00I’m just running now I’m thinking over this whole change I’m thinking d7 and I’m thinking more important let me get to that important arpeggio that’s found on the seventh and I’ll descend so I no matter how I decide to get to that to one of the important notes I can do it I can maybe just run up the e or the second and I came down that important arpeggio that important
- 10:45now Pedro is still C major and I came down the important arpeggio from the e is the third and then I just did a few things to try to resolve it to D flat major so this is the difference as far as I’m concerned between all of the other methods and Berry’s method and I know I talk about this all the time but I see that there’s still there are still people that don’t believe it or that don’t think that it’s anything that important but I would argue that any of these other methods you can’t do this
- 11:21kind of thing with now obviously the lines that I come up with are just my lines and they’re you know they’re they’re fine they’re good but everybody else could come up with their own lines and when Barry does these examples in class his lines are fantastic they’re beautiful they’re pure but what’s special about them is they’re his they’re not blood paused and not charlie parker’s they’re not Dizzy Gillespie’s they’re his so that’s the difference in between playing licks and playing lines and understanding enough to create your
- 11:55own that’s the difference this is not classical music this is based on classical harmony and classical theory but this is not classical music this is improvisational music Barry makes that argument all the time he always talks about how if Bach were still alive in Chopin they’d be at some corner our playing but they wouldn’t be playing prepared pieces they’d be improvising because that’s what they did they improvise and then people wrote their things down which are fat thank goodness they did but his method is giving you the ability to create yourself it’s not
- 12:33hey come look at my method and nYSSA’s you can copy all my lines that’s not anything that doesn’t mean anything that’s something for people too if you want to do that that’s something good for school or something that’s not really playing and that has nothing to do with jazz music whatsoever so I hope you take it to heart because that’s exactly the way he thinks about things so I hope you enjoyed episode 52 of working on an important or Pidgey and in
- 13:08this case in 4d 7 Thanks until next time