Getting through changesWhich chord to run, landing on the third, turnbacks, IV to I

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.

The 5-4-3-2-1 phrase0:362:183:294:14

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.

Rhythm changes: scales, not chords8:229:30

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

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

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.

The 1998 workshop, part 150:4154:0854:5758:33

Barry calls this probably the first progression a pianist should know: starting on C, a minor sixth going down to the diminished, then down to the dominant the diminished comes from. He stresses that this makes sense because the music is moving.

Eyes of the Masters: the first progression0:020:37

Another one Barry counts among the first progressions to know: put B in the bass, play the chord over it, then move a note down, and you arrive at E major.

Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes3:58

Barry worked through a chain of dominants with a student: where you need A7, he says to play E minor 6; for G7, D minor 6; and for F, C minor 6 (he first said B-flat minor 6, then corrected himself). Notice that each minor sixth sits on the fifth of the chord being aimed for.

Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes5:436:18

Working on a blues, Barry had the pianist take the F7 and change it to an F-sharp diminished chord, which moves right to C major, with the fifth on top or something similar. Learning to make small chord changes like this is, he says, the kind of thing you should be doing.

Passport: teaching a blues by ear12:1312:49

In the tune Barry was studying, the I goes to the IV, but not to a IV dominant seventh: it goes to the IV major seventh and then to the IV minor. Barry says that sometimes, to get back to the I, he plays the IV minor. In A-flat he offered a line for this: a D-flat minor arpeggio played downward, landing on the fifth of A-flat.

The 1998 workshop, part 38:098:419:20

Jazz players should know the same movements classical pianists know: how to get to the II, how to get to the IV, how to make a deceptive cadence. Barry says the knowledge is almost exactly the same in both musics.

Rhythm before notes0:000:37