Barry Harris Institute Summer Intensive in NY?

[OzarkArchtop]

Hi all,

Has anyone attended the weeklong intensive that the Barry Harris Institute offers each year in NY? If so, would love to hear your thoughts on it, both in general but also specifically as a guitarist attending the sessions. There's not a lot of info on the format of the workshops and whether or not instrumentalists bring their instruments or if it's more lecture style.

Any insights are welcome.

Thanks!

[starjasmine]

I hear that this year's workshop features a cage match between Chris Parks and Chase Maddox.

[OzarkArchtop]

i hear that this year's workshop features a cage match between chris parks and chase maddox.

lol

[Christian Miller]

How much are the tickets?


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[David B]

2026 BHIJ Summer Intensive at The New School – The Barry Harris Institute of Jazz

Barry Harris Institute of Jazz Summer Intensive June 22-26, 2026

Stay tuned for full schedule, faculty details

Join us for the Barry Harris Institute of Jazz Summer Intensive at The New School.

Early Bird Registration Now Open

We are pleased to announce that Early Bird Registration is now open for the 2026 Summer Intensive Workshops.

• Register by May 15 to receive the discounted full-week Early Bird rate of $150.
• Beginning May 16, the Regular Registration rate for the full week will be $200 through June 15.
• Starting June 16, the Last Chance Registration rate for the full week will be $250.

Last year's schedule is at https://barryharrisinstituteofjazz.o...e_schedule.pdf


I'm actually going to be in New York that week with family. I wonder if I can get to any of this!

[Christian Miller]

I meant for the fight


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[Christian Miller]

Seriously seems pretty reasonable. Very much in the spirit of Barry.


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[Eugle]

Unfortunately, I know nothing about it, so I can't help, but I should say, it sounds really interesting.


The format mystery is always tricky with these legacy workshops. It actually reminds me a bit of the structured, hands-on programs they run at trade schools like Charter college. You really need to know upfront if you're expected to show up with your gear ready to jam, or if you're just sitting there taking lecture notes.


If you end up going, please post an update on how it works for guitarists!

[OzarkArchtop]

Thanks, y'all. I'm signed up and will report back on how it goes.

[OzarkArchtop]

One additional follow-up: yesterday they posted the schedule for the week, including the instructor. There are two guitarists (great ones) on the bill now: Roni Ben-Hurr and Dan Nicholas.

Here's the link to the full schedule:

2026 BHIJ Summer Intensive at The New School – The Barry Harris Institute of Jazz

While being in NY for a week isn't cheap, if you're based there or nearby, it's a heck of a bargain.

[OzarkArchtop]

Hi y'all. Just a quick report back. I attended the weeklong intensive and it was great. While Barry was a piano player and there are a lot pianists who attend, there were also a half-dozen guitarists as well as dozens of horn players and a few vocalists, most from intermediate up to pros. Really great instructors all around and a packed week of 75-90 minute sessions on various topics (harmony, improv, instrument intensive master-classes) from 9-5 and access to practice rooms at the New School to shed on the content before/after class or over lunch. There were two guitar instructors, Roni Ben-Hur (who played with Barry for many years) and Dan Nicholas, who were both great and very different stylistically. Everything takes place at the New School, so the facilities are great and easily accessible via subway/bus/etc.

For only a $150 for the week (early bird rate) or $250/300 for last-minute, if you can find a place to crash or other housing situation, the value is tremendous. I got a lifetime of content from the week and there seems to be a long culture around Barry Harris stuff of students returning over and over, as there is always something new to learn. They also organize jam sessions and an itinerary of shows at different venues in NY in the evenings.

That plus getting to see Toninho Horta at Mezzrow and Roni at Dizzy's, it was a great trip all around and I'd recommend it for any guitarists looking to learn more about Barry's theories and approach or just get a fresh take on how to approach your music.

[Christian Miller]

I've been listening to Roni a lot lately, as it happens!

[OzarkArchtop]

I've been listening to Roni a lot lately, as it happens!

He's great, no? He has a new album out, recorded in Cuba with a number of great musicians there.

[Christian Miller]

He's great, no? He has a new album out, recorded in Cuba with a number of great musicians there.

I’ll check that out


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[j.l]

I'd really love to do this some year! It sounds like a fantastic experience, and fun.

If you're interested in writing about it, I'd be very interested to hear what your biggest takeaways were from the week? Some of it is hard to put into words, I'm sure, but I don't have much of an imagination for the sorts of insights that you carry with you from an experience like this. I'd be grateful for your thoughts.

[OzarkArchtop]

I'd really love to do this some year! It sounds like a fantastic experience, and fun.

If you're interested in writing about it, I'd be very interested to hear what your biggest takeaways were from the week? Some of it is hard to put into words, I'm sure, but I don't have much of an imagination for the sorts of insights that you carry with you from an experience like this. I'd be grateful for your thoughts.

Happy to offer a few thoughts, with the caveat that I’m still fairly new to the Barry Harris world and I’m just a hobbyist / relative newcomer to jazz guitar.


One concrete idea that really stuck with me was Barry’s “family of dominants” concept. Take a diminished seventh shape for guitarists a la one of the familiar top-four-string diminished grips. If you lower any one note by a half step, you get a dominant seventh chord. So one diminished shape gives you four nearby dominant seventh chords.
For example, one diminished family gives you G7, Bb7, Db7, and E7. That immediately opens up comping and substitution possibilities. A diminished chord on the page is no longer just “a diminished chord”; it points to a whole family of related dominant sounds. And going the other direction, if you see a dominant chord, you can start to see nearby dominant possibilities that are physically very close on the guitar.


That was one of the things I found most useful: Barry’s system can seem theoretical at first, but a lot of it is actually about movement. On guitar, the “drop one finger by one fret” aspect makes the concept very concrete. It’s not just a chord-symbol substitution game; it’s a way of seeing how harmony moves.


Another takeaway was the way Barry seems to reduce the mental clutter around ii–V–I progressions. Rather than treating the ii and V as two totally separate events, he often has you think from the V/dominant sound across that whole ii–V motion. For example, in Dm7–G7–C, the Dm7 chord tones are already inside the broader G dominant scale/sound. That doesn’t mean “never play the ii chord,” of course, but it does mean you can sometimes simplify what you’re thinking about and focus more on forward motion.


So, for me, the big takeaway was not “here are a bunch of hip voicings to memorize.” It was more: here is a different way to organize harmony so that the guitar neck starts to show you movement, families, and nearby choices. It reduces some of the cognitive load and makes the music feel less like a sequence of isolated chord symbols.


I’ll also mention that Alan Kingstone’s The Barry Harris Harmonic Method for Guitar is worth checking out. It’s specifically aimed at translating Barry’s harmonic ideas to the guitar, and it has been a helpful companion for me, as well as some of the videos and resources that Howard Rees publishes online and in hard copy (he's one of the definitive resources on Barry's work, though not from a guitar-specific approach)

Overall, it was really fun and inspiring to be challenged with new ways of thinking about the music and in particular, from a perspective developed by such a legendary musician himself.

Hope that helps. And I’d welcome additions or corrections from anyone here who has lived with Barry’s approach much longer than I have.

[Christian Miller]

Happy to offer a few thoughts, with the caveat that I’m still fairly new to the Barry Harris world and I’m just a hobbyist / relative newcomer to jazz guitar.


One concrete idea that really stuck with me was Barry’s “family of dominants” concept. Take a diminished seventh shape for guitarists a la one of the familiar top-four-string diminished grips. If you lower any one note by a half step, you get a dominant seventh chord. So one diminished shape gives you four nearby dominant seventh chords.
For example, one diminished family gives you G7, Bb7, Db7, and E7. That immediately opens up comping and substitution possibilities. A diminished chord on the page is no longer just “a diminished chord”; it points to a whole family of related dominant sounds. And going the other direction, if you see a dominant chord, you can start to see nearby dominant possibilities that are physically very close on the guitar.


That was one of the things I found most useful: Barry’s system can seem theoretical at first, but a lot of it is actually about movement. On guitar, the “drop one finger by one fret” aspect makes the concept very concrete. It’s not just a chord-symbol substitution game; it’s a way of seeing how harmony moves.


Another takeaway was the way Barry seems to reduce the mental clutter around ii–V–I progressions. Rather than treating the ii and V as two totally separate events, he often has you think from the V/dominant sound across that whole ii–V motion. For example, in Dm7–G7–C, the Dm7 chord tones are already inside the broader G dominant scale/sound. That doesn’t mean “never play the ii chord,” of course, but it does mean you can sometimes simplify what you’re thinking about and focus more on forward motion.


So, for me, the big takeaway was not “here are a bunch of hip voicings to memorize.” It was more: here is a different way to organize harmony so that the guitar neck starts to show you movement, families, and nearby choices. It reduces some of the cognitive load and makes the music feel less like a sequence of isolated chord symbols.


I’ll also mention that Alan Kingstone’s The Barry Harris Harmonic Method for Guitar is worth checking out. It’s specifically aimed at translating Barry’s harmonic ideas to the guitar, and it has been a helpful companion for me, as well as some of the videos and resources that Howard Rees publishes online and in hard copy (he's one of the definitive resources on Barry's work, though not from a guitar-specific approach)

Overall, it was really fun and inspiring to be challenged with new ways of thinking about the music and in particular, from a perspective developed by such a legendary musician himself.

Hope that helps. And I’d welcome additions or corrections from anyone here who has lived with Barry’s approach much longer than I have.

Alan used to be a regular contributor here. Very sadly he passed away a year or two ago.

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[j.l]

Thanks, Ozark—this certainly does help paint the picture with a little more definition. Sounds like a blast—maybe I'll see you there in the future sometime!