In plain words
Barry thought in scales, not chords. As far as he was concerned chords come from scales, not the other way round, so each chord takes the scale it comes from: the scale of the key it belongs to where it occurs. A chord’s root does not choose the scale; the key does.
Rhythm changes: scales, not chords6:19Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished4:37The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are2:18
His example: in a blues in F, going from the B♭ chord back to F, many players suddenly play a B natural. That note does not belong to any F major scale, so it does not belong there. In a B♭ blues an E natural on the D minor 7 is just as bad: it shows you think that chord is in C, when here it belongs to B♭.
Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished4:044:37Student performances and coaching21:5722:30
Minor 7 chords need the most care, because each belongs to three keys. A C minor 7 can be in B♭, E♭ or A♭, and takes the B♭, E♭ or A♭ major scale accordingly. In All the Things You Are it comes after D♭ major and D♭ minor and belongs to A♭, so its scale has D♭; Barry stopped a student who put a D natural in it, and told of a very good pianist in Italy who played it as if it were in B♭.
Student performances and coaching21:2221:57The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are0:002:187:10
Major sevenths work the same way. A major 7 in the key of C takes the C major scale; when Barry put himself in the key of G instead, he played a progression with G major’s F♯ in it. He admitted he had not always known this, and said it is something we really have to find out.
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are7:44Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶890
Step by step
Decide which key the chord belongs to at this point in the tune, using the key and the chords around it. A minor 7 has three candidates, a major 7 two.
Play that key’s scale over the chord. The same C minor 7 gives three different scales.
C minor 7 in B♭ (B♭ major from C)- C
- D
- E♭
- F
- G
- A
- B♭
C minor 7 in E♭ (E♭ major from C)- C
- D
- E♭
- F
- G
- A♭
- B♭
C minor 7 in A♭ (A♭ major from C)- C
- D♭
- E♭
- F
- G
- A♭
- B♭
Student performances and coaching21:57
Check the notes that give the key away. On the D minor 7 of a B♭ blues the scale has E♭, not the E natural of C major; back on F in an F blues it has B♭, not B natural.
D minor 7 in a B♭ blues (B♭ major from D)- D
- E♭
- F
- G
- A
- B♭
- C
Back on F in an F blues (F major)- F
- G
- A
- B♭
- C
- D
- E
Student performances and coaching21:5722:30Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished4:37
Over the C minor 7 in A♭, Barry allowed one exception: a D natural, but only if you are thinking of it as the flat five of A♭, and then it has to do something.
How he said to practise it
Pick a chord, work out which scale it comes from, and take the chord up through that scale. Barry’s point is that knowing a chord’s scale is what tells you where you can move it.
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes6:537:27Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶172
Take one minor 7 and play its scale in each of its keys in turn, the way Barry questioned a student about D minor 7 in B♭, in C and in F.
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
They play B natural, and you can’t play that B natural... because each chord takes the scale that it comes from.
Every G-7 isn’t the same. Every D-7 is not the same. Every C-7 is not the same.
We deal in scales. We don’t deal in chords, we deal in scales. Scales make music, not chords... Chords come from scales. I’m not gonna say scales come from chords.
I believe in scales. And I don’t mean a whole lot of scales, like most people believe in a whole lot of scales.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it12 moments in 6 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished
- 4:04
Players hit B natural going from B♭ back to F in an F blues; each chord takes its own scale.
Student performances and coaching
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are
- 0:00
All the Things You Are: a student’s D natural over the C minor 7 is wrong, and he explains why.
- 1:46
D minor 7 could be in C, F or B♭; asks the student what to play in each key.
- 2:18
That C minor 7 is in A♭: A♭ major with D♭; D natural only as the flat five of A♭.
- 3:24
Plays an introduction in A♭ to show the C minor 7 heard inside A♭ major.
- 7:10
A fine Italian pianist played that C minor 7 as if in B♭; not every C minor 7 is alike.
- 7:44
Not every major 7 is alike: in the key of C it takes C major; in G it differs.
Rhythm changes: scales, not chords
- 6:19
We deal in scales, not chords: chords come from scales, not scales from chords.
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes
- 6:53
Each chord a player plays belongs to a scale; knowing which tells you where to move it.
Jazz theory, part 3, with score
- 4:26
Another captioning of the F blues B natural example and ‘each chord takes the scale’.
From the lessons2 lessons, 5 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Each chord takes the scale it comes from
- Idea
Barry warned about a common mistake on a blues in F: going from the B-flat chord back to F, many players hit a B natural. You can’t play that B natural against an F major scale, because each chord takes the scale it comes from. Work out which key each chord belongs to and use that scale’s notes.
Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished4:044:37
- Idea
There is a chord on every degree of the major scale. A major 7 chord turns up on degrees one and four, so it belongs to two keys. A minor 7 turns up on degrees two, three and six, so it belongs to three: D minor 7 is the two of C, the three of B-flat and the six of F, and the scale you play over it depends on which of those keys you are in. A dominant 7 belongs to only one key, and so does a minor 7 flat 5. Barry said every pianist should know these counts and then work out which key they are actually in.
Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished5:10The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are1:104:398:18
- Exercise
Because a minor 7 flat 5 belongs to one key only, it tells you the scale straight away. Barry’s example: with B minor 7 flat 5 in the left hand you are in C major, so play the C major scale, then change to the E7 that the chord moves to.
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are4:39
Every chord takes the scale it comes from
- Idea
Barry criticises players who, in an F blues, go from the B flat chord back to F and suddenly play B natural. That note doesn’t belong in the F major scale. His principle: every chord takes the scale it comes from, so you have to know the chord on each degree of the scale and which scale it belongs to.
Jazz theory, part 3, with score4:26
- Exercise
Not every minor seventh is the same. A C minor 7 can belong to B flat, E flat or A flat, and each takes a different scale: the B flat major, E flat major or A flat major scale. In a B flat blues, Barry says, playing E natural when you reach the D minor 7 is a drag, because it shows you think that chord is in the key of C rather than B flat. Make the distinction: know which key each minor seventh belongs to before choosing your notes.
In writing5 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
A fuller transcription of the All the Things You Are lesson records that the student played a C minor 9, whose ninth is the offending D natural, and that when Barry turned to a major 7 in the key of G he played a progression using F♯ to tie it to the G major scale.
Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶888Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶890
A conservatory student reports that Barry’s closing words on the last of the workshop DVDs tie scales and chords together: practise your scales, then take a chord, work out which scale it comes from and move it through that scale.
Rees’s bar-by-bar scale map of an F blues gives each chord the scale it comes from: F major, with E natural, over F major 7; B♭ and F dominant scales, with A♭ and E♭, over the seventh chords; and one C dominant scale across the G minor 7 to C7 bars.
Howard Rees’ Jazz Workshops, Blues in F - Scale Outline ¶3Howard Rees’ Jazz Workshops, Blues in F - Scale Outline ¶4
Rees finds some minor 7 chords easier to handle through the major scale they belong to. He runs the F major scale over three common progressions, and shows the II of a II-V read as a voicing of the I, with the same scale carried over the V until the line reaches its 3rd.
A JazzTimes report on the workshop sets Barry’s approach against the college method of pairing every chord with its own scale; the pianist Eli Yamin says Barry talks about moving chords through scales, where most courses treat chords as fixed.
How other teachers explain it2 videos, 4 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- Barry Harris Method: Importance of Major/Dominant Scales ()
The importance of major and dominant scales in the Barry Harris method.
6 min On YouTube
- Barry Harris Method: Importance of Scales (ii-V-I) ()
The importance of scales over a ii-V-I.
9 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.
Where the accounts differ1 point
Forum members working through All the Things You Are disagreed about the D♭ major 7 (the 4 of A♭): one breakdown ran the D♭ major scale over it, a later one the A♭ major scale, and one member worried the key’s scale misses the move to the 4. Another read Barry’s lesson as pointing to the key’s scale; in class he showed a major 7 in the key of G with G major’s F♯.
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are7:44jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1042jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1045jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1046jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1050Brian Jude de Lima, Reanimating Dissonance: Cultivating the Antecedents of Barry Harris’ Concept of Movement as a Multidimensional Pedagogical Tool for Ontario Post-Secondary Jazz Curricula ¶890
Read further2 links
These open on the web.
Books and paid courses
- Howard Rees, ‘Chord Explorations’, Keyboard Magazine Mar 2001 (chords come from dominant scales; practise the 12 keys through the 3 dominant families)
student (Howard Rees) — Free article by Howard Rees: chords come from specific points on scales, so you need not find a new scale for every chord.
- 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) — The Workshop Video’s scale outlines (blues, rhythm changes, Cherokee) apply this rule to whole tunes; paid, contents list free.