In plain words
Barry had learned the chord as minor 7♭5, and his listeners had learned it as half-diminished, but Monk called it a minor with the sixth in the bass, and for Barry that said it all. It is the first chord of ‘Round Midnight. Play any notes of C minor and put A underneath and you have A half-diminished; F minor over D gives D half-diminished.
Believe: a talk to musicians22:3523:0723:43The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are6:006:34
Naming the chord this way tells you where it comes from. Whenever you play a half-diminished chord, Barry said, you must know immediately which major it belongs to: the major whose relative minor is sitting on top. B♭ half-diminished comes from E major (D♭ minor over B♭), C half-diminished from G♭ major (E♭ minor over C), D half-diminished from A♭ major (F minor over D), E half-diminished from B♭ major (G minor over E).
Stella by Starlight7:3810:3011:02Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are16:1516:4611 March 2016: Stella by Starlight11:00
Knowing the chord is not enough: you have to know how to get there, and Barry said bass players usually don’t. Certain chords lead to certain chords. His route to A half-diminished: E♭ major, its relative minor C minor, then A in the bass. He called major, relative minor, minor with the sixth in the bass one movement you really should know, and heard it in Like Someone in Love, I Love You and Stella by Starlight.
Believe: a talk to musicians23:4324:21Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are13:2614:0814:41
Learn it as a movement, not as chord symbols to transpose: that is how Barry expected you to play Stella in any key, since the same movement comes back later in the tune and some sections start on the minor before the sixth goes into the bass. When standards go somewhere strange, he said, it is nearly always this. The half-diminished can then go on to a minor four chord: Barry heard F minor over D as a minor four going to five and then one, rather than a ii–V.
Stella by Starlight7:388:138:4712:4911 March 2016: Stella by Starlight9:1411:36The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are6:34
Step by step
Read a half-diminished chord as a minor triad over its sixth: the bass note is the sixth of the minor, so the minor’s root sits a minor third above the bass.
A half-diminished = C minor over A- A
- C
- E♭
- G
D half-diminished = F minor over D- D
- F
- A♭
- C
Believe: a talk to musicians23:43The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are6:34Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are16:15
Find the major it comes from: the major whose relative minor that is.
E half-diminished: G minor, so B♭ major- B♭
- D
- F
C half-diminished: E♭ minor, so G♭ major- G♭
- B♭
- D♭
Stella by Starlight11:02Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are16:4611 March 2016: Stella by Starlight11:00
Play the movement: the major, its relative minor, then the same minor with its sixth in the bass.
B♭ major- B♭
- D
- F
G minor- G
- B♭
- D
G minor over E (E half-diminished)- E
- G
- B♭
- D
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are13:2614:41Stella by Starlight3:35
Between the chords you can pass through the key’s diminished chord. In Barry’s demonstration in Spain, as described by Brian de Lima, he went E♭ major, D diminished, C minor, B diminished (the same four notes, D F A♭ B), A half-diminished.
E♭ major- E♭
- G
- B♭
D diminished- D
- F
- A♭
- B
C minor- C
- E♭
- G
B diminished- B
- D
- F
- A♭
C minor over A- A
- C
- E♭
- G
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 ¶915Jazz School Online (Howard Rees), Glossary of Terms ¶56
How he said to practise it
When you meet a half-diminished chord, name its major straight away, the way Barry quizzed his class: B♭ half-diminished? E major. C half-diminished? G♭ major. D half-diminished? A♭ major.
Stella by Starlight11:02Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are16:15
Work out the opening of Stella by Starlight in other keys from the movement rather than by transposing the chords: in G♭, E♭ minor over C; in E, D♭ minor over B♭; in A♭, F minor over D.
Stella by Starlight7:388:13Major, minor, minor with the sixth in the bass0:000:38
Find the movement in tunes where it occurs, such as Like Someone in Love, I Love You and Stella, and play it each time it comes round.
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are13:2614:0815:21
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
Monk would never call it a half diminished... He’d call it a minor with a 6 in the bass.
There’s one movement you really should know. That’s major to relative minor, to minor with the six [in] the bass.
You have to play the major to get to the half diminished. Certain things lead to certain things.
Whenever you play a half diminished, you’ve got to know immediately where it comes from.
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.
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are
- 13:26
Names the movement major, relative minor, minor with the sixth in the bass; Like Someone in Love, I Love You.
- 14:41
Stella starts on the minor with the sixth in the bass; get there from B♭ major and its relative minor.
- 15:21
Where a section starts on the minor, he plays the minor first, then the sixth in the bass.
- 16:15
D half-diminished: A♭ major to F minor to F minor with the sixth in the bass.
Believe: a talk to musicians
Stella by Starlight
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are
- 6:00
Monk’s name: a minor with the sixth in the bass, never half-diminished; F minor over D as a minor four.
11 March 2016: Stella by Starlight
- 9:14
The minor takes the sixth in the bass, then moves to a minor four; where does E half-diminished come from?
Star Eyes: a minor sixth for the half-diminished
- 0:00
Star Eyes: not plain G half-diminished but B♭ minor with the sixth in the bass, a minor 6 diminished scale.
From the lessons3 lessons, 11 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
The half-diminished is a minor chord with the sixth in the bass
- Idea
Monk described the first chord of ‘Round Midnight as a minor chord with the sixth in the bass. Barry had learned it as minor seventh flat five, and others call it half-diminished, but for Barry Monk’s description was all it took: play any notes of C minor and put A, the sixth, in the bass, and you have A half-diminished.
- Idea
Whenever you play a half-diminished chord, know immediately which major key it comes from: it is the relative minor of that major with the sixth in the bass. B-flat half-diminished comes from E major (C-sharp, or D-flat, minor with B-flat below); C half-diminished from G-flat major (E-flat minor with C below); D half-diminished is F minor with the sixth in the bass, so its major is A-flat. Knowing the parent major tells you where the chord came from and how to get there. Barry says standards that go to odd-sounding places, such as I Love You, work this way.
Stella by Starlight10:3011:0212:49Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are16:15
- Exercise
You also have to know how to get to the half-diminished; certain chords lead to certain chords, and you have to play the major to get there. Barry’s route to A half-diminished: start from E-flat major, go to its relative minor, C minor, then put the sixth (A) in the bass. He adds that the chord really belongs to B-flat major, the only place you find it, so you had to change the E-flat major into B-flat major to get to it. He tried it many different ways, and said bass players, for example, do not know these things.
Major, relative minor, minor with the sixth in the bass
- Idea
One movement you really should know: a major chord, to its relative minor, to that minor with the sixth in the bass (a half-diminished chord). It turns up in many songs, such as Like Someone in Love and I Love You. Stella By Starlight begins on the minor with the sixth in the bass, and Barry showed you could get there by starting from B-flat major and going to its relative minor, G minor (G minor with E in the bass). On a tune that starts on the minor, he goes to the plain minor first, whereas some players go straight to the sixth in the bass.
Borrowed diminished notes on All the Things You Are13:2614:0815:21Stella by Starlight3:35
- Exercise
Know it as a movement rather than by transposing chord symbols. To find the first chord in any key, take the key’s relative minor and put its sixth in the bass: in G-flat, E-flat minor over C gives C half-diminished; in E, C-sharp (D-flat) minor over B-flat; in A-flat, F minor over D; in D-flat, B-flat minor over G. The same movement comes back later in the same tune, and some tunes begin on the minor and then put the sixth in the bass.
Stella by Starlight7:388:13Major, minor, minor with the sixth in the bass1:202:30
- Idea
Barry called this movement a secret. Going through a tune, he showed a minor chord moving to the same minor with its sixth in the bass and then to a minor four chord, and asked where each chord comes from: the E half-diminished from B-flat major, the next one from F major. He said any song that goes somewhere strange is doing major to minor to minor with the sixth in the bass.
Stella by Starlight: it starts on a diminished chord
- Idea
Stella by Starlight does not begin with a II-V but with a single chord: a diminished chord, with a major seventh, over which you can run the scale. Barry points to the film The Uninvited, where Stella is played all the way through, and says Bud Powell played it the way the movie did. Listeners who hear that chord and think the player has it wrong are mistaken.
11 March 2016: Stella by Starlight2:33Believe: a talk to musicians34:40Jazz theory, part 7: Monk and Stella by Starlight10:1010:47
- Idea
The first music Barry saw of the song was in G, which he gives as the original key. It opened on G major 7 with a diminished chord built on the flat third, B flat diminished. That flat-three diminished is important and often ignored; some play a sharp-one diminished there instead.
11 March 2016: Stella by Starlight2:33Believe: a talk to musicians34:4037:0537:38
- Idea
- Idea
Barry recalled playing Stella with Chuck Israels, who announced loudly that at last Barry was playing a tune he knew; afterwards he admitted he had only thought he knew it. Barry has examined the song and points to one particular chord in it as the beautiful thing about it.
- Idea
Stella is one of those songs you should be able to play in any key. The way to do that is not to work out and transpose each chord but to know the movements: the major, relative minor, minor-with-the-sixth-in-the-bass movement from the opening returns later in the tune, and other sections start on the minor and then put the sixth in the bass. Recognising these recurring movements is what lets you move the tune around.
In writing8 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Howard Rees spots the movement in How High the Moon, where E♭maj7 goes to Am7♭5–D7, a minor ii–V a tritone away. In Barry’s terms that is E♭ going to its relative minor, C minor, with A, the sixth, in the bass. Rees says the situation comes up often.
The Jazz School Online glossary gives the full walk-down with passing chords: C major, B diminished, A minor, A♭ diminished, C major over G, then A minor over F♯. It adds a stop on the major with its fifth in the bass before the last chord.
Rees adds that treating the half-diminished as a minor sixth lets the voicing move along that minor 6 diminished scale before it resolves, instead of sitting still.
Howard Rees, Evolutionary Voicings, Part I: Barry Harris Keeps Things Movin’ ¶27
Vera Marijt shows that C minor 6 with its sixth in the bass gives Am7♭5, and pairs it with A♭ diminished, which has the same four notes as the B diminished of the C minor 6 diminished scale.
Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶64Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶67
Forum posters point out that Dizzy Gillespie described the chord the same way, so it was common bebop thinking rather than Monk’s alone.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶1963jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), The Barry Harris scale for ii V in Minor (jazzguitar.be forum thread) ¶63
A poster signing as A. Kingstone, answering a question about Stella, calls the movement a way to outline a major chord moving to a half-diminished a tritone away, and says Barry also used it towards a minor seventh a tritone away in Giant Steps.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Barry Harris: Maj6 built on the 5th or on the tonic ¶42jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Barry Harris: Maj6 built on the 5th or on the tonic ¶43jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Barry Harris: Maj6 built on the 5th or on the tonic ¶44
Tomasz Białowolski’s chord transcription of the Rome class shows the movement in Barry’s playing: B♭, G minor, G minor over E; A♭6, F minor, F minor over D; and D minor, B half-diminished, then B♭ minor, the minor four, on the way to F.
Tomasz Białowolski, Barry Harris, Rome 11/03/2016 (transcription of a class video) ¶36Tomasz Białowolski, Barry Harris, Rome 11/03/2016 (transcription of a class video) ¶48Tomasz Białowolski, Barry Harris, Rome 11/03/2016 (transcription of a class video) ¶50
The workbook to Barry’s first workshop video has a section called ‘Major – Minor – Minor/6’, applied to Stella by Starlight, Like Someone in Love and I Remember You, with guitar voicings for Stella.
Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Workshop Video ¶19
How other teachers explain it4 videos, 5 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- Major-Minor-Minor/6: “The Walkdown”
‘The walkdown’: E♭6, diminished, C minor, diminished, E♭ over B♭, C minor over A, placed in How High the Moon.
11 min, transcript On YouTube
- Harmonizing on “Once In A While”
Harmonising Once in a While; finds a walk-down to the minor with the sixth in the bass.
11 min, transcript On YouTube
- Barry Harris Method: Major-Minor-Half Diminished ()
Major, minor, half-diminished (from the title).
9 min On YouTube
- TILF Barry Harris Ep 34 Playing Movement Major to Relative Minor
Playing movement from major to relative minor (Things I’ve Learned From Barry Harris, ep. 34, from the title).
17 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.
Where the accounts differ1 point
Barry used ‘where it comes from’ in two senses. In the movement, the half-diminished comes from the major a tritone away (A half-diminished from E♭). But he also said a minor 7♭5 belongs to only one key, the major a half step above its root (B half-diminished means C major; A half-diminished is found only in B♭ major), so in Spain he spoke of changing E♭ major into B♭ major to reach it.
Believe: a talk to musicians24:2124:5925:32The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are4:39Stella by Starlight11:02
Read further6 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- Howard Rees, Jazz Workshops
— Rees on reading m7♭5 as a minor sixth chord and moving it along its scale.
- jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Official Barry Harris Thread (jazzguitar.be forum thread)
— Posts on Monk’s and Dizzy’s ‘minor with the sixth in the bass’.
- bb.steelguitarforum.com
— Short thread on the equivalences Cm6 = Am7♭5 and C6 = Am7.
- Barry Harris (on video); Howard Rees (producer, The Barry Harris Workshop Video Part 2: product page and 156-page workbook table of contents
— Barry’s clinic includes ‘Seeing Em7b5 as Gm6’ (paid; contents free).
Books and paid courses
- Howard Rees, ‘Evolutionary Voicings Part 2: Applying the Barry Harris method to tunes’, Keyboard Magazine Nov 1998 (Star Eyes; m7b5 as m6; Eb minor 6 dim as the altered scale for D7)
student (Howard Rees) — Howard Rees applies the movement to How High the Moon, E♭ to C minor with A in the bass.
- 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 clinic, Part 1: ‘Major – Minor – Minor/6’ applied to Stella, Like Someone in Love and I Remember You (paid; contents free).