In plain words
Barry learned to solo from records. As a young player in Detroit he could chord better than the west-side players, but they could solo and he could not. He borrowed a record player from the blind pianist Bess Bonnier that could slow a record right down, and learned solos from it, the first being Bud Powell on Webb City. In another telling, one chorus taken off a record was enough to get him soloing. They had one take of each Bird record, he said, and learned from that.
The Spirit of Bebop16:1516:50The last train to Monk: an interview7:46Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle4:036:16Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶109Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶9
He also learned from the players around him. He said he learned most from Tommy Flanagan and Kenny Burrell, the most advanced of the young Detroit players, and spent his early years watching Flanagan’s hands: when Tommy hit a chord Barry liked, he remembered it, went home and played it in every key. In interviews he urged listeners to seek out the pianists Will Davis and Terry Pollard, and to hear the young Bud Powell on Cootie Williams’s band records somewhere quiet.
The last train to Monk: an interview13:4518:3619:14Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle5:085:43The Spirit of Bebop19:0219:38
What he listened for was the small things. On one record, he said, Bud Powell plays nothing but E♭ minor 7 to A♭7, as simple as it gets, and Barry still had to learn to do that. In class he asked for someone to explain every simple thing a master did, such as why a Bud Powell phrase seems to switch from B♭ to F mid-stream; then you may play anything. Young players miss little things, like the four minor at the end of a tune’s second eight.
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are12:41Stella by Starlight14:3415:4217:59Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle15:2015:53
Written music is studied the same way. The reason to learn a classical piece, Barry said, is to ask why the composer went here and how he got from here to there, which is improvisation; he found it disgraceful that some classical pianists cannot name the changes of what they play. He distrusted fake books too: he used to go to the library to find the real sheet music.
Chopin’s changes0:421:14Believe: a talk to musicians44:3045:04
How he said to practise it
Slow a master’s recorded solo down and learn a chorus of it by ear, as Barry did with Bud Powell on Webb City.
The Spirit of Bebop16:1516:50The last train to Monk: an interview7:46Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶318
When you hear a chord you like from another player, remember it, take it home and play it in every key.
Go somewhere quiet and listen only to the pianist on a record, as Barry suggested with Bud Powell on Cootie Williams’s sides.
Listen closely to what your favourite players actually play. Barry dared a class to count the triplets their favourite stars play, offering a nickel for each and betting he would owe about ten cents: triplets are rare, so practise them.
Feeling the ‘and’21:33
Learn melodies, and learn to sing solos: a horn player’s solo.
On Bill Evans and other pianists4:45
Take one simple move from a record, such as Bud Powell’s E♭ minor 7 to A♭7, and work at it until you can do it the way he did.
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are12:41
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
I borrowed a machine and took one chorus off a record and that was it. I could solo then.
I go home and I play that chord in every key. I remember that chord. I had to remember a few chords, you know, so that’s how I learned how to play.
All the small things... Bud Powell plays an E-flat [minor 7] to A-flat 7... You can’t get any simpler than that... I gotta learn how to do that.
You got to explain every simple thing to me, every simple little thing. Why [the] cat did this?
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.
The Spirit of Bebop
The last train to Monk: an interview
Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are
- 12:41
Know the small things: Bud’s E♭m7 to A♭7 is as simple as it gets, yet he must still learn it.
Stella by Starlight
Small chords, not big ones
- 2:13
Players reach for big chords but don’t know the little things, so we have to learn the little things.
Chopin’s changes
- 0:42
The reason to learn classical pieces: ask why the composer went from here to there.
Accepting the Bruce Lundvall Visionary Award
- 9:05
Of Bud Powell: if you listen to him play, you are going to learn something.
From the lessons2 lessons, 7 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Learn from the masters by ear
- Idea
On Detroit’s west side Barry met players who couldn’t chord as well as he could but could solo, while he couldn’t, and that upset him. He borrowed a machine from a blind friend, Bess, that could slow a record right down (in one telling as far as a whole octave lower; in another he says it could play in all keys). He slowed records down and learned the solos; the first record, he said, was Webb City, which is why people say he plays like Bud Powell. In another telling, taking one chorus off a record was enough: after that he could solo. The method for you: slow down a master’s recorded solo and learn a whole chorus from it.
The Spirit of Bebop16:15Interview: Detroit, Bud Powell and the shuffle6:16The last train to Monk: an interview7:46
- Idea
Barry said he spent the early part of his life watching Tommy Flanagan’s hands, looking over his shoulder. When Tommy played a chord Barry liked, he memorised it, went home and played it in every key, all over the piano. That, he said, is how he learned to play. He also recalled that Flanagan and Terry Pollard could really play at a young age, and that Will Davis played in an entirely different way. Try his method: take one voicing you hear from a master and move it through all twelve keys until it is yours.
The Spirit of Bebop18:2919:38Artists House Master Class Barry Harris - Student Interviews After Concert9:33
- Idea
Recalling the 1940s, when Charlie Parker and others moved into small groups, Barry mentioned that tenor players were expected to know Illinois Jacquet’s famous solo (the recording is unclear on the details). His advice to students: start learning melodies, and learn to sing solos, meaning horn solos, not only singers’ songs.
- Idea
Barry recalled a class he attended in which everyone was a classical musician studying with the same teacher, and each had to play a piece. He explained the changes of one piece to a young woman who played it very well, and it was the first time she understood it. The composer, he said, was simply playing changes in his own special way, starting with a C7. Barry found it disgraceful that many classical pianists don’t know the changes of what they play, such as a move from major to the relative minor and back. The reason to learn classical pieces is to ask why the composer went here and how he got from here to there, which is the same thing as improvisation.
Study the small things the masters did
- Idea
Barry asks students to explain why Bud Powell played certain simple phrases, such as one that seems to switch from B flat to the key of F in mid-stream. For him, that is what a jazz school should be about: exploring bebop and understanding it. He isn’t interested in hearing Bill Evans sounds; he wants someone who can explain every little simple thing a player did and why. Once you can do that, he says, you may play anything you like.
- Idea
Know all the small things. Barry points to a Bud Powell record where Bud plays nothing more than E flat minor 7 to A flat 7, about as simple as it gets, and says he himself still has to learn how to do that the way Bud did.
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are12:41
- Idea
Barry warns against thinking you are the hippest: go to another city and there may be a pianist there who eats you up. He tells of a trumpeter who grew up with Art Tatum in Toledo and thought little of him, and only realised how great Tatum was after travelling the country with a band.
In writing7 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Asked whether he transcribed Bud Powell on paper, Barry said it was by ear: you had to slow the record down and get it. He added that young players would be better off learning from records than from education, and regretted that proper slow-down machines were no longer made.
He was delighted by the pianist Johnny O’Neill, who learned to sound like Art Tatum by playing the records sped up; slowed back to normal, O’Neill said, he could hear everything. Barry’s generation did the opposite, and he promised himself to try it.
With Monk’s music he did not later copy recordings note for note: he learned the melody and how the piece goes. What struck him, from Monk showing him parts of ‘Round Midnight’, was how simply Monk did things, sometimes with just three notes, and he complained that most players get its changes wrong.
In Detroit there were set pieces every player was expected to know: every pianist had to play ‘After Hours’ and every tenor player ‘Flying Home’.
Barry credited Cootie Williams with letting the young Bud Powell solo right through some of his records, and described hearing Bud’s minor sounds in the background on ‘Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby’ as the kind of moment that turns a young player on.
Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶9Andrew Velez, Barry Harris: A Thousand Percent Music Man ¶10
When he played with Coleman Hawkins, Barry stopped chording to try to steal his phrases, and Hawkins would laugh, knowing what he was after. Barry said it showed him there was far more to play than bebop.
Quoting Coleman Hawkins, who said he played movements rather than chords, Barry named the little things young players don’t know: how to go to the relative minor, how to come back from IV to I, how one place leads to the next.
How other teachers explain it3 videos, 9 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- Ep. 20 | Charles McPherson: Meeting Charlie Parker, Studying with Barry Harris, and the Art of Bebop
Learning Bird solos from LPs slowed to 16 rpm, which also put them in other keys.
73 min, transcript On YouTube
- Justin Robinson Interview: Barry Harris Masterclasses, Roy Hargrove, Jiu-Jitsu & Music, & More
Transcribing Bird’s solos and Barry’s own phrases as part of studying with him.
47 min, transcript On YouTube
- These 3 Words From Barry Harris Changed How I Played Music!
In Barry’s classes everything was oral: he played or sang it and you played it back by ear.
2 min, transcript 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.
Things I’ve Learned From Barry Harris
- Episode 75: transcribing with a purpose YouTube
- Episode 95: small things YouTube
- Episode 115: stealing a Bud Powell phrase YouTube
- Episode 126: master-level phrasing from a 1979 recording with Barry YouTube
- Episode 144: stealing from Bud Powell YouTube
- Episode 162: improvising from a Bud Powell phrase YouTube
Where the accounts differ2 points
Barry took solos off records as a young man, but later said in class that he could not transcribe the way people do, and that he learned Monk’s pieces by their melodies rather than note for note.
The last train to Monk: an interview7:46Practising the sixth diminished scales25:37Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶377
Slowing records down was Barry’s way in; Johnny O’Neill did the reverse. Christian Miller, writing on jazzguitar.be, advises resisting slowed-down recordings once you can play lines by ear, because hearing lines at tempo matters in bebop.
Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶318Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶321jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Harris vs Haque... please set me straight? ¶55
Read further1 link
These open on the web.
Free to read
- checkerboardfilms.org
— The Spirit of Bebop film, where Barry tells how he learned from records and from Tommy Flanagan’s hands (page free; film sold).