In plain words
Barry called minor sixth, diminished, dominant probably the first progression a pianist should know. It grows out of the diminished chord: lower one note and you get a dominant, raise one and you get a minor sixth. He pointed out that Schoenberg’s book only says to lower the note; raising it is what gives the minor sixth. Play the minor sixth, let the raised note sink back to the diminished and then one half step more, and you are on the dominant.
Eyes of the Masters: the first progression0:02Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes3:206:18Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶42
The minor sixth sits on the fifth of the dominant it leads to, so every dominant has one: E minor 6 for A7, D minor 6 for G7, C minor 6 for F. Barry had a student work down a chain of dominants this way. He also had the dominant’s root put in the bass under the minor sixth while the one moving note walks down: F♯ minor 6 over B becomes B7 and goes on to E.
This makes sense, he said, because the music is moving. Small changes like this are what he wanted in a pianist’s hands. In a blues he had a pianist turn F7 into F♯ diminished, which goes straight to C major. And he called major to relative minor to minor with the sixth in the bass one movement you really should know, because it turns up in many standards.
Eyes of the Masters: the first progression0:020:37Passport: teaching a blues by ear12:1312:49Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are13:26
‘Minor with the sixth in the bass’ was Monk’s name for the half-diminished chord: C minor with A in the bass is A half-diminished. Barry used the move to show where a half-diminished chord comes from and how to get to it: E♭ major, its relative minor C minor, then A in the bass. He derived the E half-diminished that opens Stella By Starlight from B♭ major the same way, and wanted it found in any key from the movement.
Believe: a talk to musicians22:3523:0723:4324:21Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are14:4116:15Stella by Starlight7:388:13
Step by step
Start from a diminished seventh chord and raise any one note a half step. The result is a minor sixth chord, and the raised note is its fifth.
C°- C
- E♭
- G♭
- A
A raised to B♭: E♭m6- C
- E♭
- G♭
- B♭
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes3:20Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶42
Lower that note back to the diminished, then lower it once more. The other three notes stay put and you land on a dominant seventh whose root is the note you finished on. This is the first progression: minor sixth, diminished, dominant.
E♭m6- C
- E♭
- G♭
- B♭
C°- C
- E♭
- G♭
- A
A♭7- C
- E♭
- G♭
- A♭
Eyes of the Masters: the first progression0:02Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes3:58Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶42
To reach a given dominant, start from the minor sixth on its fifth: E minor 6 for A7, D minor 6 for G7, C minor 6 for F.
Dm6- D
- F
- A
- B
A down to A♭: D°- D
- F
- A♭
- B
A♭ down to G: G7- D
- F
- G
- B
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes5:43
Put the dominant’s root in the bass and play the same move above it, then resolve. Barry’s example: B in the bass, F♯ minor 6 above, the moving note walks down twice to make B7, then on to E.
F♯m6 over B- F♯
- A
- C♯
- D♯
C♯ down to C: F♯° over B- F♯
- A
- C
- D♯
C down to B: B7- F♯
- A
- B
- D♯
The next move uses major sixths: raise two neighbouring notes of the diminished to get a major sixth chord, bring them back down to the diminished, then lower them once more to get another major sixth.
G♭ and A raised: E♭6- C
- E♭
- G
- B♭
back to C°- C
- E♭
- G♭
- A
down once more: A♭6- C
- E♭
- F
- A♭
Eyes of the Masters: the first progression1:54Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶42
In a blues, turn F7 into F♯ diminished: raise the root a half step and keep the other three notes. It goes straight to C major.
F7- F
- A
- C
- E♭
F♯°- F♯
- A
- C
- E♭
Major to relative minor to minor with the sixth in the bass: from B♭ major go to G minor, then put E, the sixth of G minor, in the bass. That chord is E half-diminished. Barry said every half-diminished comes from a major, and you should know which.
B♭- B♭
- D
- F
Gm- G
- B♭
- D
Gm6 with E in the bass = Em7♭5- E
- G
- B♭
- D
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are13:2614:4116:15Stella by Starlight12:14
How he said to practise it
Work down a chain of dominants (B7, A7, G7, then F), reaching each one from the minor sixth on its fifth through the diminished.
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes5:43
Play the progression with the dominant’s root held in the bass under the minor sixth, and resolve it to the major chord.
Find major to relative minor to minor with the sixth in the bass in the standards you play, and work out the half-diminished chord in any key by asking which major it comes from.
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are13:26Stella by Starlight7:3811:0211 March 2016: Stella by Starlight11:36
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
So probably the first progression on the piano... [is] the minor six going down to the diminished, down to the dominant that it comes from... This stuff makes sense.
Play that chord. And move that note down. Go on. Do that again. That’s probably one of the first progressions that we should know right there.
Your first move should be minor sixth to diminished to dominant... Now you see that is the first movement. That is the start of music.
There’s one movement you really should know. That’s major to relative minor, to minor with the six [in] the bass.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it12 moments in 7 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Eyes of the Masters: the first progression
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes
Passport: teaching a blues by ear
- 12:13
In a blues, has the pianist change F7 to F♯ diminished, which moves right to C major.
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are
Stella by Starlight
- 7:38
Works out the first chord of Stella By Starlight in several keys from major, minor, sixth in bass.
Believe: a talk to musicians
11 March 2016: Stella by Starlight
- 11:36
Sometimes you have to know how to play major to minor to minor with the six in the bass.
From the lessons1 lesson, 6 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
First progressions to know
- Exercise
- Exercise
Another one Barry counts among the first progressions to know: put B in the bass, play the chord over it, then move a note down, and you arrive at E major.
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes3:58
- Exercise
Barry worked through a chain of dominants with a student: where you need A7, he says to play E minor 6; for G7, D minor 6; and for F, C minor 6 (he first said B-flat minor 6, then corrected himself). Notice that each minor sixth sits on the fifth of the chord being aimed for.
- Exercise
Working on a blues, Barry had the pianist take the F7 and change it to an F-sharp diminished chord, which moves right to C major, with the fifth on top or something similar. Learning to make small chord changes like this is, he says, the kind of thing you should be doing.
- Idea
In the tune Barry was studying, the I goes to the IV, but not to a IV dominant seventh: it goes to the IV major seventh and then to the IV minor. Barry says that sometimes, to get back to the I, he plays the IV minor. In A-flat he offered a line for this: a D-flat minor arpeggio played downward, landing on the fifth of A-flat.
- Idea
In writing4 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
In the 2003 Hague workshop text, Barry derives the minor sixth by raising one note of the diminished and calls minor sixth to diminished to dominant the first move. He then gives the next move: raise two neighbouring notes for a major sixth, return them to the diminished, and lower them once more.
Howard Rees’ online piano curriculum puts raising, lowering and resolving a note of the diminished chord before two lessons of ‘small moves’, and later gives separate lessons on voicing a dominant with the minor sixth on its fifth and on major to minor to minor with the sixth in the bass.
Howard Rees / Jazz School Online, Harmony Lessons for Piano (25-lesson list) ¶12Howard Rees / Jazz School Online, Harmony Lessons for Piano (25-lesson list) ¶14Howard Rees / Jazz School Online, Harmony Lessons for Piano (25-lesson list) ¶15Howard Rees / Jazz School Online, Harmony Lessons for Piano (25-lesson list) ¶24Howard Rees / Jazz School Online, Harmony Lessons for Piano (25-lesson list) ¶25
A guitarist summarising Alan Kingstone’s book: treat the ii minor seventh as a IV sixth chord, move two of its notes down a half step to make the IV diminished, then resolve to a I sixth chord, giving a smooth-moving progression to play over ii-V-I.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Kingstone/Harris Harmonic Method for Guitar ¶212
A forum member relays a daily drill from Alan Kingstone: I, I7 with the third in the bass, IV, raised IV diminished, back to I, and a descending version, played for half a minute whenever you pick up the guitar.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1008jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1009jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1010jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1012
How other teachers explain it3 videos, 2 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- Barry Harris Method: First 2 “Moves” ()
Barry Harris method: the first two moves.
10 min On YouTube
- Barry Harris for Jazz Mandolin First Chord Movements Pete Martin
First chord movements, applied to mandolin.
10 min On YouTube
- Barry Harris 13 - V I Movement - V I Exercise - We Are Learning Piano 🎷 🎹 🎺- Göksel Canerli
A V-I movement exercise.
11 min On YouTube
In the teaching series
Episodes on this idea in the long series by other teachers. Each name opens that whole series in order.
Read further3 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- Howard Rees, Jazz Workshops
— Howard Rees’ free article derives the dominant, minor sixth and major sixth chords from the diminished.
Books and paid courses
- The Barry Harris Workshop Video (Part 1), Howard Rees / Jazz Workshop Productions: 4+ hours, 5 clinic segments + 102-112 page workbook (ABCs, scales on song forms, movable chords, rhythm section, vocalizing)
Barry himself (produced and transcribed by Howard Rees) — Barry’s own workshop video (paid; contents list free), with Rees’ workbook of the chord moves.
- Fiona Bicket, ‘Approach to Improvised Lines & Harmony: An Introduction’ (26 pp): scale runs, basic motifs, solo on ‘Stay Right With It’, sixth chords long and short, major/minor 6th dim scales
student, sold on Barry’s official site — Fiona Bicket’s introduction (paid) covers sixth chords and the major and minor sixth diminished scales the moves come from.