Volume II · LinesStage 6 of 15
6
Line devices: arpeggios, chords, surrounds, pivots, 5-4-3-2, triplets, the chromatic scale
The small building blocks Barry drilled on every scale.
- 6.1 Arpeggios on every degree; the three important arpeggios of a dominant scale Barry’s arpeggio is a triad with its bottom note repeated on top, played from any degree of a scale. On a dominant scale three matter most: major on the tonic, minor on the fifth, major on the ♭7. In B♭7: B♭, F minor, A♭.
- 6.2 The augmented arpeggio and the diminished on the third of the dominant Two more sounds Barry used inside a dominant: the diminished starting on its third, and the augmented arpeggio, which he called very important when the dominant resolves. In B♭7: D F A♭ (C♭), and B♭ D F♯.
- 6.3 Chords as lines The chord on each degree, ‘chord up, scale down’, the chord on the third (1-to-7, 3-to-9) Barry’s ‘chord’ is four scale notes a third apart, played as a line from any degree: from the tonic (1-3-5-7) or the third (3-5-7-9, the chord on the third). A common call: a chord up, often from a half step below, then back down.
- 6.4 Arpeggio inversions and permutations Barry wanted every arpeggio and diminished chord known in every inversion and every order. Four notes in one position can be played 24 ways: keep one note first and play the other three six ways, then start on the next. Each order feeds lines.
- 6.5 Surrounding notes (approach from above and below) A surround approaches a target from both sides, the note above and the note below, then the target: E♭ surrounded by E and D. Barry used it to pass from one scale or chord into the next: surround the note that changes.
- 6.6 Chromatic pickups and the well-placed half step A chromatic pickup puts a half step below the first note of a third, triad or chord. For Barry, soloing was putting a half step in at the right time and place; he also advised throwing in a little ‘wrong’, then making it right.
- 6.7 Pivoting Pivoting is Barry’s octave switch inside a line: keep the first note of a chord or diminished where it is and play the rest an octave lower, or take the next part of a phrase up an octave. It keeps phrases going and in range.
- 6.8 The 5-4-3-2 (and 4-3, 5-4-3-2-1) phrases The 5-4-3-2 phrases are four short stock phrases named after the scale degree they start from. Whenever a line reaches that degree you can drop the phrase in, and they can be chained; Barry taught them on major, dominant and minor scales.
- 6.9 Triplets in lines (eighth- and sixteenth-note) Barry wanted triplets, eighth and especially sixteenth, mixed into lines of eighth notes. He liked an eighth-note triplet tied in from the ‘and’ of four, put one at the top of a phrase, or used one where a run needs it to come out right.
- 6.10 Barry’s chromatic scale (chromatic runs with chord tones on the beat) Barry’s chromatic scale runs a scale chromatically with its scale notes on the beats: fill each whole step with the note between, and where two scale notes are a half step apart, put in the scale note above. Chromatic lines then still come out right.