Every key, every degree, every way

Barry pointed to Schoenberg, who wrote out the C major scale in thirds and then told the reader to learn the other 11 keys. That, Barry said, is the secret: you have to know the other 11, and the same goes for the scale his class works with. He had students go up the C major scale in thirds. The class recalled Bud Powell making a whole introduction out of scales played that way; if Bud knew how to do that, Barry said, we should too.

Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished2:222:56Jazz theory, part 3, with score2:423:14

Barry admitted he couldn’t play one dominant (the captions read F 7, probably F-sharp 7 in this Giant Steps context) as well as B-flat 7 or C7, because jazz players don’t play enough in the less common keys. Classical composers wrote in all those keys, so classical players know how to finger them. Imagining Round Midnight in B-flat minor, he said he would have to play very carefully. The lesson: spend more time playing in all the keys, until the fingering is familiar everywhere.

Around Giant Steps, part 20:093:414:16

Barry said he got into the habit of chromatic practice years ago: the first thing he does with something new is take it down chromatically, so he knows it everywhere on the keyboard. While demonstrating this, he pointed to a diminished note and said it gives a tension you can’t get anywhere else.

Practising the sixth diminished scales16:0616:42

Barry’s torture test: after going up the scale over a chord in the left hand, do the same kind of thing in four keys, starting on C. The four keys are a minor third apart, C, E-flat, F-sharp and A, so you are practising four keys at once, because they are related. He said minor thirds are the most important thing of all, and called these four major keys brothers and sisters, one family.

Jazz theory, part 1, with score1:514:23Jazz theory, part 1: key families a minor third apart2:304:58

After struggling through Stella By Starlight in B major, Barry said he hadn’t done a good job but should still be able to play it, because if you know the movement, how the song goes around, you can play a song in any key. You have to understand what you’re doing.

11 March 2016: Stella by Starlight0:407:30

Barry recalled playing Cherokee in every key at the Tin Palace with George Coleman. He stressed that it was not specially prepared or practised key by key in advance; you simply make yourself do it on the spot.

Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle14:46

Barry’s advice is to practise a scale any kind of way. Among his examples: play it in contrary motion and then fill it in; practise the whole-tone scale starting from D-flat, then in thirds; play mirror image, doing the same thing in each hand. Try anything, without worrying at first about how it sounds. Finding many ways to practise one thing is how you learn it.

Practising the sixth diminished scales4:106:207:037:36

Put both thumbs on middle C and play the C major sixth diminished scale in contrary motion, out and back; then make it minor by flattening the third. Barry said a guitarist can do the same thing on the guitar, and he didn’t tell young pianists to worry about fingering at this stage. In class he then called pianists up to do the same in other keys, such as D-flat.

Introducing the sixth diminished scale4:0622:35Jazz theory, part 5: the sixth diminished scale9:3110:07

Barry quizzed a pianist in D: play D6, then the diminished chord that goes with it. He corrected the student to E diminished, not another one. Alternate D6 and the diminished chord up the scale, inversion by inversion (along the way he named the diminished as B-flat, C-sharp and G diminished), then make it minor by flattening the third, without cheating. The point is that the scale is composed of the sixth chord and the diminished chord. His assignment: by the next day, know all twelve sixth diminished scales.

Introducing the sixth diminished scale22:0225:2726:0326:40

Another way Barry filled in the scale: play the notes of the major sixth chord, then all four notes of the diminished chord, moving through the scale in chords. Doing these scale things, he said, is what music is about.

Jazz theory, part 5: the sixth diminished scale13:0713:45

Play the sixth diminished scale in thirds as well. Barry noted that one of the intervals this produces is what his classical piano teacher called a diminished third, and said everything in the scale is logic. He told a guitarist to practise drop 2 voicings and to run the scales in drop 2.

Jazz theory, part 6: every major sixth is a minor seventh1:412:162:49