In plain words
In Barry’s class a chord is four notes of a scale with one skipped between each, played as a line up or down; as Chris Parks puts it, what others call a C7 arpeggio is, for Barry, a chord, and an arpeggio is a triad with its octave. There is a chord on every degree, and Barry named them by degree: the chord on the third of B♭ major, the chord on the second of F.
Practising the blues with the horns, part 20:46Fast phrases for Perdido1:08The 1998 workshop, part 110:27Confirmation5:27Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished4:37My Chat With Chris Parks From Things I Learned From Barry Harris22:4123:14
Each chord takes the scale it comes from. A minor seventh turns up on the second, third and sixth of a major scale, so one chord is the two of one key, the three of another and the six of a third. Barry learned from Monk that the chord on the third can be heard as the one chord: in F, what looks like A minor 7 is an F chord.
Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished4:044:375:105:43
On a dominant scale the chord on the third is half-diminished, so a half-diminished chord points to the dominant a major third below: G half-diminished is the chord on the third of E♭7, and you play E♭7. A chord also holds two triads: in a drill on B♭ major Barry asked who would notice that the first chord was made of two triads, then had the class play the D minor triad in it, its arpeggio and an inversion.
Scales on Indiana in A-flat, part 13:334:41The 1998 workshop, part 147:1247:4649:56
Where a pianist grips a chord, a horn player plays it as a line. Barry told a 1998 class that he might take the chord on the third of F, then the chord on the second of F, then the chord on the fifth of B7. His calls join chords to runs: a chord up from a half step below its first note, then chromatically down; or a run down the scale to the third, then a chord up.
The 1998 workshop, part 19:5410:2754:08Fast phrases for Perdido1:08Confirmation5:27Half-step rules on the dominant scale, part 25:57
Step by step
Build the chord on a degree: that note and the next three scale notes a third apart. Name it by the degree.
On the tonic of B♭ major- B♭
- D
- F
- A
On the third of B♭ major- D
- F
- A
- C
On the second of B♭7- C
- E♭
- G
- B♭
On the seventh of F7- E♭
- G
- B♭
- D
Practising the blues with the horns, part 20:46Fast phrases for Perdido1:08Confirmation5:27The 1998 workshop, part 154:08
The chord on the third is the 3, 5, 7 and 9 of the scale’s tonic. In a major scale it is a minor seventh that stands for the one chord; in a dominant scale it is half-diminished.
On the third of F major (heard as F)- A
- C
- E
- G
On the third of E♭7 (G half-diminished)- G
- B♭
- D♭
- F
Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished4:04Scales on Indiana in A-flat, part 13:334:41
Chord up, then down: play a chord up, starting a half step below its first note, then come back down the scale (with a half-step rule for the top note) or chromatically.
Howard Rees, over Gm7–C7: chord on the second of C7, down the C7 scale- C♯
- D
- F
- A
- C
- B
- B♭
- A
- G
- F
- E
- D
- C
Chord on the seventh of F7, from a half step below- D
- E♭
- G
- B♭
- D
Confirmation5:27The 1998 workshop, part 154:08Fast phrases for Perdido1:08Howard Rees, Part 1: Scales & Chords / Part 2: Scale Rules ¶18Howard Rees, Part 1: Scales & Chords / Part 2: Scale Rules ¶19
Or the other way round: run down the scale to a chord tone, then play a chord up from it. Barry’s call: start on the third of B♭7, one half step between the tonic and the seventh, down to the third, then a chord up.
B♭7 from D, down to D, chord up- D
- C
- B♭
- A
- A♭
- G
- F
- E♭
- D
- F
- A♭
- C
Half-step rules on the dominant scale, part 25:57
an added note, outside the scale
How he said to practise it
Take every chord on a scale and play it straight up, degree by degree; then pivot each one.
Practising the blues with the horns, part 114:26
Hear a chord as two triads and play the triad inside it too, with its arpeggio and inversions.
Have phrases called and play them at once, in time, as Barry did with his students: a chord on the third, then down chromatically; a chord on the seventh of a dominant from a half step below, starting on the ‘and’ of one.
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
Play a chord on the third of B flat major with your right hand... chord up, that’s a chord. That’s a chord on the third.
Each chord takes the scale that it comes from. You see, like we have a chord on each degree.
It showed me that this chord on the third is a one... You might think of it as an A minor 7... but it’s a one chord.
Remember that a half diminished is found on the third of the dominant.
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.
Fast phrases for Perdido
Confirmation
- 5:27
Confirmation: chord on the seventh of F7 from a half step below, chromatic down to B♭.
The 1998 workshop, part 1
Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished
Scales on Indiana in A-flat, part 1
- 3:33
G half-diminished is the chord on the third of E♭7, so play the E♭7 scale.
Half-step rules on the dominant scale, part 2
- 5:57
A call: from the third of B♭7, one half step, down to the third, then a chord up.
Practising the blues with the horns, part 1
- 14:26
Every chord on the C major scale played straight up, then pivoted.
Feeling the ‘and’
- 19:06
A student’s phrase: 5-6-7 of C7, down the chord from the seventh, seventh to the third of F.
From the lessons2 lessons, 6 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Building phrases from small pieces
- Exercise
Barry teaches short phrases named by numbers. The ‘five’ phrase is one you can play every time you reach the five; in his example it starts on the major seventh and runs down to the five. He has the class repeat and play each phrase after him, using only scale notes, then adds the ‘four’ and ‘three’ phrases, and finally has everyone play 5, 4, 3, 2 all together in a row.
- Exercise
A phrase in F major that Barry offers as a break: take the sixth chord (the 1, 3, 5 and 6 of the scale) and start with three of its notes, beginning with the 5th and 6th. Then hit the 2nd and go chromatically from there (the caption does not make the target note clear), and keep the line going.
- Exercise
A C7-to-F phrase that a student came up with, which Barry spelled out for the class: on C7 play the 5th, 6th and 7th, come down the chord from the seventh, then take the seventh of C7 to the third of F. He then combined it with the rest of the other class phrase, counting it out with the ‘ands’.
Feeling the ‘and’19:06
- Idea
Anything you do from one degree of the scale can be done from any degree and put in the same spot. Barry noticed that a class phrase played from the second could have fit the bridge of Cherokee, and had the class play the one from the second over C-sharp minor seventh to F-sharp 7.
The 1998 workshop, part 125:01
- Exercise
When a passage moves through three chords, players don’t always run every one. Sometimes they skip the first chord and come down the second; sometimes they ignore the first two and get to the third, passing up the chance to grab the second. Drill options such as running the first chord and getting to the third, and running the first and getting to the second. Barry also starts a chord up from a half step below its first note, for example on the tonic of B flat major.
Perdido: a fast phrase drill
- Exercise
Working on Perdido at a fast tempo, Barry had students play the B flat major chord and come down it, stopping on the second. Then play a chord on the third of B flat major in the right hand and come down chromatically from it; he suggested bringing in the fourth finger. The rhythm starts on the ‘and’, and he counted it ‘and-triplet-three-and-four-and-one’.
In writing6 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Howard Rees’s worksheet makes this a line-building recipe: on the ‘and’ of one, start a half step below a chord of the dominant scale and go up it, then descend with the extra-note rule for its top note. Over Gm7–C7 the chord on the fifth (G B♭ D F) tops out on F, the fourth, so no extra note.
Howard Rees, Part 1: Scales & Chords / Part 2: Scale Rules ¶18Howard Rees, Part 1: Scales & Chords / Part 2: Scale Rules ¶20Howard Rees, Part 1: Scales & Chords / Part 2: Scale Rules ¶21
The same worksheet practises the F major scale with four-note chords stacked on I, III and VI, and the C dominant scale with chords on 1, 3 and 5, and marks the A minor 7 on III as equal to the I major seventh.
Howard Rees, Part 1: Scales & Chords / Part 2: Scale Rules ¶4Howard Rees, Part 1: Scales & Chords / Part 2: Scale Rules ¶5Howard Rees, Part 1: Scales & Chords / Part 2: Scale Rules ¶7
In ‘Chord Explorations’ Rees lists C7, E minor 7♭5 and G minor 7 as chords inside the C dominant scale, all usable where C7 is called for.
Alan Kingstone’s quick recipe: four-note chords on each degree of a seventh scale; on the upbeat, from a half step below, a triplet up a chord; descend with the half-step rule for its top note; on reaching the dominant’s 3rd, 5th or ♭9, run up a diminished, then resolve.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Quick start guide to Barry Harris line building ¶53jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Quick start guide to Barry Harris line building ¶54jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Quick start guide to Barry Harris line building ¶55jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Quick start guide to Barry Harris line building ¶56jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Quick start guide to Barry Harris line building ¶57
Galliano’s scale exercises include the scale ‘in chords’ (seventh arpeggios on each degree) and the same with a chromatic pick-up; the forum outline of the workshop video’s ABCs orders them after triads: four-note chords, then four-note chords with a half step below the first note.
Frédéric Galliano, Notes on the Method of Barry Harris ¶12Frédéric Galliano, Notes on the Method of Barry Harris ¶18jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶41
A member paraphrases how Barry calls a line in the workshop videos: start on the 2nd of the dominant, two half steps down to the ♭7, a major 7 chord up from there, now on the 6th, down the scale to the dominant’s third, then up the diminished.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Things I learned from Barry Harris Study Group ¶628jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1093
How other teachers explain it6 videos, 11 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- Jazz Mandolin Instruction Barry Harris Chord Up Scale Down Major Pete Martin
Mandolin lesson: chord up, scale down on the major scale.
9 min On YouTube
- Jazz Mandolin Instruction Barry Harris Chord Up Scale Down Dominant Pete Martin
Mandolin lesson: chord up, scale down on the dominant scale.
9 min On YouTube
- Jazz Mandolin Instruction Barry Harris Chord Up Scale Down Minor Pete Martin
Mandolin lesson: chord up, scale down on the minor scale.
9 min On YouTube
- Difference Between a Chord and an Arpeggio Ep 152 TILF Barry Harris
Episode 152: the difference between a chord and an arpeggio.
9 min, transcript On YouTube
- Triad Chord or Arpeggio ? EP 129 TILF Barry Harris
Episode 129: triad, chord or arpeggio?
10 min, transcript On YouTube
- Barry Harris’ Jazz Piano Arpeggios + Extra Half Step Rules for Descending Lines
Piano arpeggios combined with the descending half-step rules.
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 further6 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- Howard Rees, Jazz Workshops
— Howard Rees on the chords found inside a dominant scale and how they stand for it.
- YouTube
— Chris Parks’s free episodes on chords versus arpeggios in Barry’s terms.
Books and paid courses
- Frederic Galliano, Notes on the Method of Barry Harris (HTML + PDF, updated Jan 2026): scale exercises, chromatic scale, Parker ideas, families, 4 chord scales, moving in fourths, 5-4-3-2, half-step tables, important arpeggios, scale outlines of blues/rhythm/Cherokee/Donna Lee/How High the Moon/Night in Tunisia
attendee-of-videos notes (from Chris Parks’ TILF + Labyrinth + Kingstone) — Free notated exercises: the scale in chords on every degree, and with a chromatic pick-up.
- jazzguitar.be ‘Quick start guide: Barry Harris line building’ thread
players — Kingstone’s chord-up, rule-down recipe and other players’ line-building tips.
- jazzguitar.be Official Barry Harris thread, post #21 (joe2758, 14 Oct 2016): attendee-style outline of the ‘ABCs’ on Rees DVD 1 (important minor ignored for soloing; scale up and down tonic-to-7th; thirds, thirds with half step below, triads, triads with pickup, 4-note chords, chords with pickup; 3 important arpeggios in all inversions; pivoting)
player summarising Barry’s DVD — Post #21 lists the ABCs from the workshop video, chords with and without a half step below.
- 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 workshop video and workbook with the scale-practice ABCs (paywalled; contents free).