In plain words
Barry wanted the scales of chords practised in all kinds of ways. After taking a chord up the E♭ minor sixth diminished scale by ear, he told the class that everybody should know all these scales, in tenths as well, and that they could practise them as stride and in all kinds of other ways. In another class he had a pianist play the C minor sixth diminished scale in tenths, beginning with C and E♭.
Chording as a scale5:258:16Stride on the sixth diminished scale0:000:36Introducing the sixth diminished scale2:16
Barry wanted to be able to move any chord he played. When he hits a chord, he said, he wants to know how to move everything: the top, the bottom, or just the left hand. Knowing which scale a chord belongs to tells you where it can move. Moving minor sixth chords a minor third apart in another class, he marvelled at what the left hand can do and told the pianist to let it do the moving.
Chording as a scale0:451:20Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes7:27Practising the sixth diminished scales12:0012:41
Barry did not count himself a stride pianist. Players who were teenagers in the 1930s, such as Jaki Byard, learned stride from Tatum’s era; his own generation grew up in the 1940s hearing Bud Powell, Al Haig and George Shearing, so they were not striders, he said with a laugh. Still, he insisted that Bud Powell and Monk could stride, and he admired how Tatum and the stride players carried all the rhythm themselves, needing no drummer.
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle10:10The last train to Monk: an interview17:1417:5218:3620:28Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶120Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶122
How he said to practise it
Play the sixth diminished scales of chords, major and minor, in tenths as well as in chords.
Introducing the sixth diminished scale2:16Chording as a scale8:16
Then try the same scales as stride, in minor as well as major, and in any other way you can think of.
Stride on the sixth diminished scale0:36Chording as a scale8:16
Hold a chord and move only the left hand; then move chords between minor sixth diminished scales a minor third apart and let the left hand do the moving.
Chording as a scale1:20Practising the sixth diminished scales12:0012:41
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
You should know it [in tenths]... We can practice stride.
What you can do with the left hand is just unbelievable... Let the left hand do the move.
Bud Powell could stride. You can’t believe that.
These people were slightly different from the stride piano players, so we aren’t striders.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it12 moments in 8 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Chording as a scale
Stride on the sixth diminished scale
- 0:36
Short clip of the same remark: practise the scale as stride, in minor, all kinds of ways.
Introducing the sixth diminished scale
- 2:16
Asks a pianist to play the C minor sixth diminished scale in tenths, from C and E♭.
Practising the sixth diminished scales
- 12:41
Moving minor sixth chords: what the left hand can do is unbelievable; let it do the moving.
Chords become scales
- 8:59
A chord has become a scale thing for him; chording has to come from scales.
Being prepared to improvise
- 2:07
Plays a chord with a tenth just before it: ‘all I did’.
The last train to Monk: an interview
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle
- 8:30
Praises a record of Mel Powell striding with a drummer and no bass player.
From the lessons1 lesson, 5 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
From chords to a scale of chords
- Exercise
Take a chord and practise moving its notes in every possible way: move the top and the bottom, or only the left hand. Barry says that when he hits a chord he wants to know how to move everything, and he relates this to knowing the diminished around it. Sometimes simply leaving one note where it is sounds pretty.
- Idea
Barry demonstrated simply going up one of these scales on E-flat in chords and letting his ear tell him where to go. For him a chord becomes a scale: chording, he says, has to be learned as scales, and that is the only way to real creativity. On F6, for example, he notes that he has the C and also the D-flat to work with.
- Exercise
- Idea
- Idea
Barry said that even good guitar players do not know the scale of chords unless they have been in his class, and that he never heard any of them use the dominant seventh with a flat five, a chord he clearly loves. There are four scales of chords you should know; once you learn them your instrument becomes connected, and you move horizontally through a scale of chords instead of going chord to chord vertically. He said a guitar player is supposed to know everything, and that the instrument is, in his view, perfect.
In writing4 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Barry explained the generations: Jaki Byard, born in 1922, was a teenager in the 1930s and learned stride from Tatum and his era, while Barry, born in 1929, came of age in the 1940s hearing Al Haig, Bud Powell and George Shearing, and so, he said, was no stride player.
Taking voicings along the sixth diminished scales, Howard Rees suggests resolving borrowed notes upward in the left hand as a device for players who cannot reach a tenth.
Howard Rees, Evolutionary Voicings, Part I: Barry Harris Keeps Things Movin’ ¶49
Vera Marijt, writing up what she learned from Barry, plays the sixth diminished scale in the left hand as a bass line (F minor sixth diminished under D half-diminished, A♭ minor sixth diminished under G7 altered), and in a piece of her own runs a diminished scale in the left hand under a melody in tenths.
Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶73Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶76Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶144Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶148Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶170
Alan Kingstone’s guitar harmony course on Jazz School Online, built on Barry’s sixth diminished material, includes a lesson on four-note chords in tenths.
Jazz School Online (Alan Kingstone’s guitar lessons), Harmony Lessons for Guitar (26-lesson list) ¶27
How other teachers explain it2 videos, 2 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- What Barry Harris Showed Us 1 : Barry’s Left-Hand “Tea for Two” 左手でジャズの名曲『二人でお茶を』を弾いてみよう！
Barry’s left-hand version of Tea for Two (from the title).
3 min On YouTube
- Ep. 130 | Rossano Sportiello on Jazz Piano, Barry Harris, Stride, and Improvisation
Podcast on jazz piano, Barry Harris, stride and improvisation (from the title).
77 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, Evolutionary Voicings, Part I: Barry Harris Keeps Things Movin’
— Howard Rees takes voicings up the sixth diminished scales, with a left-hand device for those who cannot reach a tenth.
- Barry Harris on WKCR-FM
— Barry on why his generation were beboppers rather than stride players.
Books and paid courses
- The Barry Harris Workshop Video Part Two, Howard Rees: ~4h15, 156-page workbook; chapters Improvisation (49 sections), Rhythm Section (17), Harmony (41)
Barry himself (produced and transcribed by Howard Rees) — The harmony chapter takes the sixth diminished scales up and down, in contrary motion and with two and three notes (contents free, video paid).