stickista
Well-known member
I’ve been wanting to write this up on this forum for some time now.
(I just posted this under another thread, but really think it deserves its own thread, so pardon the double post.)
As most who correspond with me directly know, I’ve unabashedly gone off the deep end regarding Barry Harris jazz theory, specifically in regards to CBA.
I’ve played jazz for 40 years on multiple instruments, and through multiple theoretical approaches, from university level tonal theory thru Mark Levine’s work.
I still use them all, but the unique thing about Barry’s jazz methodology is that its as if its designed specifically for CBA. I’ll try to briefly explain.
The part of his teaching that has everyone burning a path to the multitude of ‘Barry Harris Whisperers’ on YouTube is his 6th/diminished scales. In his approach, almost every chord is some sort of major or minor 6th chord. A major 7th chord is more properly seen as a maj6, a minor 7th is a maj6 played a m3rd up (or just as a min6 if tonic), a half diminished is a m6th chord played a m3rd up, dominant 7ths are a m6th played off of the dom7th’s 5th (or b2nd), and so forth.
But the beauty is when you apply the next step to CBA.
In Barry framework, every 6th chord has a corresponding diminished chord, usually starting on the chord’s maj7th (or in western theory, the leading tone.)
When you combine any minor or major chord with its leading tone diminished chord, you get his ‘diminished 6th scales’.
(E.g. C,D,E,F,G,Ab,A,B, derived from the Maj6 chord C,E,G,A combined with Diminished D,F,Ab,B).
In jazz, these are known as ‘bebop scales’. A major bebop scale is an major scale with an added flat 6th, producing an 8 note scale. A minor bebop scale is a natural minor scale with an added maj7. In jazz, these scales are explained almost exclusively as a way of assuring that, if you start an 8th note run on a chord tone, you will also end up on a chord tone. In Barry world, its a LOT more than that.
If you harmonize a dim6th scale, you’ll find that you don’t get the familiar diatonic series of chords (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, dim7), but only 2 chords… I6 and (essentially) Vb9, ascending in inversions of each. What that gives you is a gorgeous I/V movement that you can use to harmonize any line or melody over the current chord. It also leads to an almost infinite choice of notes that can be borrowed from the diminished as extensions, alterations, and tensions. The most obvious simple example is that a Imaj7th isn’t the most stable tonic sound just because its next in the line of 3rds, but is instead its actually a ‘borrowed note’ from the maj6th’s diminished.
So after all that, here’s the point…
Play any major or minor 6th chord, on CBA (C or B griff) and you’ll notice it always uses just 2 of the 3 rows. And guess what the unused row always is? Its the leading tone diminished. So if you simply alternate notes of the 2 chords, interlace them, you have an 8 note bebop scale. (It works nicely for normal Dom 7th chords as well.) And if you run the arpeggiation of the 2 chords, alternating between them, you have your full scale of chords.
The point is that on every other instrument I seen Barry’s techniques played on, visualizing a dim6th scale is a pretty heavy lift, let alone all of them. The 2 sets of chords look different in every key and modality.
But on CBA its almost like cheating. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found a simple major scale to be the hardest thing to visualize on CBA. But with a dim6th scale, the notes of the scale are like obvious paving stones on a river that I can dance across at will. (Ok, I’m getting a bit syrupy here, but that really is my visualization when I improvise now.)
Just try it bouncing back and forth between Cmaj6 and Bdim and you’ll see that you’re playing amazing lines almost immediately. Do full chords, thirds, triads, lines… its pretty amazing.
There’s also tons more to his approach, a lot of it dealing with rules for adding half steps to descending scales that take you way beyond standard jazz scales, and with families of chords structured around the 3 diminished chords. (Every dom7 chord can be derived from dropping a dim chord tone a half step, and every m6th chord can be derived from raising a dim chord tone. Tritone subs and altered scales? All flow from CBA’s friend, the diminished arpeggios.)
CBA is built around diminished, and the places they can take you is staggering.
So that’s kinda it. I’d suggest 2 exhaustive YouTube series (with hours of clear explanation in depth of this stuff.
- “Things I’ve Learned From Barry Harris” He’s a guitarist but incredibly clear and musical.
- The videos by Bill Graham. Just search “Barry Harris Bill Graham” He’s a pianist, and exhaustively complete in his explanations.
All I can say is while I still have miles to go in my own understanding and execution of Barry’s (RIP) teaching, its produced a giant leap in my playing.
(YouTube also has hours of Barrys own seminars that he’d been teaching in NY for decades, but I think its better to go to his long time students who are a bit more systematic. It takes a while to follow Barry’s method of teaching out of the context of entire evenings with him, and these guys studied with him for years.)
Hope you found this of some value
(I just posted this under another thread, but really think it deserves its own thread, so pardon the double post.)
As most who correspond with me directly know, I’ve unabashedly gone off the deep end regarding Barry Harris jazz theory, specifically in regards to CBA.
I’ve played jazz for 40 years on multiple instruments, and through multiple theoretical approaches, from university level tonal theory thru Mark Levine’s work.
I still use them all, but the unique thing about Barry’s jazz methodology is that its as if its designed specifically for CBA. I’ll try to briefly explain.
The part of his teaching that has everyone burning a path to the multitude of ‘Barry Harris Whisperers’ on YouTube is his 6th/diminished scales. In his approach, almost every chord is some sort of major or minor 6th chord. A major 7th chord is more properly seen as a maj6, a minor 7th is a maj6 played a m3rd up (or just as a min6 if tonic), a half diminished is a m6th chord played a m3rd up, dominant 7ths are a m6th played off of the dom7th’s 5th (or b2nd), and so forth.
But the beauty is when you apply the next step to CBA.
In Barry framework, every 6th chord has a corresponding diminished chord, usually starting on the chord’s maj7th (or in western theory, the leading tone.)
When you combine any minor or major chord with its leading tone diminished chord, you get his ‘diminished 6th scales’.
(E.g. C,D,E,F,G,Ab,A,B, derived from the Maj6 chord C,E,G,A combined with Diminished D,F,Ab,B).
In jazz, these are known as ‘bebop scales’. A major bebop scale is an major scale with an added flat 6th, producing an 8 note scale. A minor bebop scale is a natural minor scale with an added maj7. In jazz, these scales are explained almost exclusively as a way of assuring that, if you start an 8th note run on a chord tone, you will also end up on a chord tone. In Barry world, its a LOT more than that.
If you harmonize a dim6th scale, you’ll find that you don’t get the familiar diatonic series of chords (I, ii, iii, IV, V, vi, dim7), but only 2 chords… I6 and (essentially) Vb9, ascending in inversions of each. What that gives you is a gorgeous I/V movement that you can use to harmonize any line or melody over the current chord. It also leads to an almost infinite choice of notes that can be borrowed from the diminished as extensions, alterations, and tensions. The most obvious simple example is that a Imaj7th isn’t the most stable tonic sound just because its next in the line of 3rds, but is instead its actually a ‘borrowed note’ from the maj6th’s diminished.
So after all that, here’s the point…
Play any major or minor 6th chord, on CBA (C or B griff) and you’ll notice it always uses just 2 of the 3 rows. And guess what the unused row always is? Its the leading tone diminished. So if you simply alternate notes of the 2 chords, interlace them, you have an 8 note bebop scale. (It works nicely for normal Dom 7th chords as well.) And if you run the arpeggiation of the 2 chords, alternating between them, you have your full scale of chords.
The point is that on every other instrument I seen Barry’s techniques played on, visualizing a dim6th scale is a pretty heavy lift, let alone all of them. The 2 sets of chords look different in every key and modality.
But on CBA its almost like cheating. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found a simple major scale to be the hardest thing to visualize on CBA. But with a dim6th scale, the notes of the scale are like obvious paving stones on a river that I can dance across at will. (Ok, I’m getting a bit syrupy here, but that really is my visualization when I improvise now.)
Just try it bouncing back and forth between Cmaj6 and Bdim and you’ll see that you’re playing amazing lines almost immediately. Do full chords, thirds, triads, lines… its pretty amazing.
There’s also tons more to his approach, a lot of it dealing with rules for adding half steps to descending scales that take you way beyond standard jazz scales, and with families of chords structured around the 3 diminished chords. (Every dom7 chord can be derived from dropping a dim chord tone a half step, and every m6th chord can be derived from raising a dim chord tone. Tritone subs and altered scales? All flow from CBA’s friend, the diminished arpeggios.)
CBA is built around diminished, and the places they can take you is staggering.
So that’s kinda it. I’d suggest 2 exhaustive YouTube series (with hours of clear explanation in depth of this stuff.
- “Things I’ve Learned From Barry Harris” He’s a guitarist but incredibly clear and musical.
- The videos by Bill Graham. Just search “Barry Harris Bill Graham” He’s a pianist, and exhaustively complete in his explanations.
All I can say is while I still have miles to go in my own understanding and execution of Barry’s (RIP) teaching, its produced a giant leap in my playing.
(YouTube also has hours of Barrys own seminars that he’d been teaching in NY for decades, but I think its better to go to his long time students who are a bit more systematic. It takes a while to follow Barry’s method of teaching out of the context of entire evenings with him, and these guys studied with him for years.)
Hope you found this of some value
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