Official Barry Harris Thread

[tamirgal]

BTW talking about transcription, I realised something in the Barry improv class (a lot of which is transcription in tempo at real time, sink or swim :-))

Barry Harris teaches in WORDS and SENTENCES. The idea is not to spend hours puzzling out lines note by note, the aim is to get the word or the common idiom in one go. Once this is done, transcription is no longer necessary. You just listen to the music at tempo and hear what's going on (90% of the time at least.)

These words and usages have flexibility and room for variation built in, but they are basic structures you can hear quickly.

I think we all have that to some extent - for instance, I bet all of us could recognise a descending blues phrase starting on the b5, and we all have phrases that we play that we can hear in other players. I mean I can say

ghkjdfidqpoguh1g

Doesn't mean it has any value!

The thing is, that's what 'bebop vocabulary' means - it's quite literally things you can say and have a conversation in real time, and that's the thing about that era of jazz, and why I think people who talk about 'creativity' or 'moving the music forwards' kind of miss the point. It's not about that.

And of course, there are other words from other branches of jazz.

But I don't know anyone else who teaches that way. Or at least I haven't had contact with them. A lot of books and courses aim to teach the grammar without teaching the conversational idioms.

Yeah, I totally get what you mean. I never been to Barry’s class but I’ve been all over his DVDs and his youtube videos, and I totally can hear him spelling out his lines when listening to his recordings. When I transcribed this I went, oh here he go again, starting an arpeggio from the 3rd of the iim (or the 7th of the dominant), here he’s going down to the 3rd of D7, here he play his “4” phrase, etc.

Transcribing a whole solo is not the most efficient way to internalize vocabulary. It is much more efficient to take bits and pieces at a time and focus on small stuff. But taking a whole solo is great when you want to focus on analyzing and understanding the player you transcribe, for example to see how often he does certain things.

I did learn new stuff doing this, I planned to summarize some of my my findings, with snippets and pointers to the transcription. Hopefully that’ll be next.

[rlrhett]

ghkjdfidqpoguh1g

Yeah, well... ghkjdfidqpoguh1g to you too buddy!!!


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[tamirgal]

Yeah, I sure would like to know what process you used to transcribe that!

Thanks for all your work.

Sure, it was like this:

I took it one chorus at a time. I sat with my guitar and a slow down app (either the transcibe! app on my computer, or anytune pro on my iphone), and learn to play a whole chorus on the guitar, up to a point when I can play it together with the recording at some tempo, usually its between 50%-75% of the original speed. Once I have it in my head, I go to guitar pro, and insert the notes in the correct rhythm with the guitar input tool, which give both notation and tab. After that I fill in the chord symbols and that’s pretty much it.

Cheers,
Tamir

[joe2758]

Measure 4 is interesting because he plays the "4 phrase," but then instead of playing down a minor third as I would have expected, he plays it down a major 3rd

[joe2758]

he obviously hasn't studied the concepts enough

[WILSON 1]

Sure, it was like this:

I took it one chorus at a time. I sat with my guitar and a slow down app (either the transcibe! app on my computer, or anytune pro on my iphone),
Cheers,
Tamir

Transcribe! and Anytune ok thanks.

[tamirgal]

Measure 4 is interesting because he plays the "4 phrase," but then instead of playing down a minor third as I would have expected, he plays it down a major 3rd

Hi Joe,
Not sure I follow. Which major 3rd does he play instead of a minor 3rd?

He starts on the 5th of C7, then he do his "4" phrase bringing him to the 3rd of the C7, from there he goes down a diminished triad, and then half step up to approach the 5th of the tonic Fmaj.



I've heard Barry play this bar as a whole many times. To me this phrase is the essence of bebop

[tamirgal]

The last three notes can also be seen as just an enclosure or approach notes from above and double below the 5th of Fmaj.
But I strongly hear the diminished here. The phrase could easily go from the 3rd of C7 up the diminished7 arpeggio and land on the 5th of F up an octave.

[joe2758]

patterns stick out to me, so to me it just seemed like he plays the 4 figure, then plays the 4 figure in Ab. You are correct of course

[tamirgal]

Obviously you are right too

The same enclosure pattern that is used to approach the note C (C#-Bb-B-C) is also used in Barry's "4" phrase to approach the note E (F-D-D#-E).

Are you familiar with Thomas Owens dissertation on Charlie Parker? Owens calls this pattern 'motive 5B'. It is one of the most distinctive motives used by Parker in his solos, and according to Owens it became one of the most frequently copied of Parker's figures.

Owens dissertation can be found here:
Charlie Parker Dissertation Volume II Thomas Owens 1974 : Thomas Owens : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

It is an amazing read...

Cheers,
Tamir

[joe2758]

Thanks again, Tamir! great resources and contributions to the thread

[rlrhett]

I would never have seen the missing Eb for the second “4”. Very interesting. I’d love to see more of that kind of analysis, if you guys are willing.


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[christianm77]

‘All science is either physics or stamp collecting.’ Rutherford

I think people focus too much on the theoretical physics and not enough on the stamp collecting.

That Charlie Parker dissertation is a good bit of honest empirical science. Which is also what Barry Harris did as a youth (but got no PhD for his trouble lol.)

You could know all the music theory in the world and never be aware of these little devices and idioms. To know that stuff requires a humble and close connection with the music.

I mean, you may not want to play these things eventually, but it’s good to know what they are.

[tamirgal]

stamp collecting... nicely put

Barry did eventually get a Honorary Doctorate from Northwestern University.

[joe2758]

Everything he teaches is in this solo; it’s amazing. It’s like an etude in which he goes “and here we will put it all together”

[tamirgal]

Cool
The pdf is here if anyone is interested:
Ornithology - Barry Harris Transcription.pdf - Google Drive

It has some fixes for mistakes appear in the video.

[WILSON 1]

Cool
The pdf is here if anyone is interested:
Ornithology - Barry Harris Transcription.pdf - Google Drive

It has some fixes for mistakes appear in the video.

Thanks bro...you just saved me a lot of time. I took 20 screenshots of your uTube vid.


Still wondering how you got the software to display measure 39.... (pickup measure?).

Thanks again for your work.

[joe2758]

Transpose - Pitch - Loop for videos - Chrome Web Store

check this out, i think you can easily slow the video without changing pitch

[tamirgal]

Still wondering how you got the software to display measure 39.... (pickup measure?).

Bar 39 is just a mistake. I forgot to add rests. I guess guitar pro can handle such mistake gracefully.
Anyway I fixed it now in the pdf.

Cheers,
Tamir

[tamirgal]

Transpose - Pitch - Loop for videos - Chrome Web Store

check this out, i think you can easily slow the video without changing pitch

Nice.
For me the most efficient way to work with videos is to download the video (either grab it from youtube, there are ways to do that, or I can share the video file if needed). And then load the video into Transcribe!.

Transcribe! is pretty amazing, and a powerful tool. Worth the penny.

Have fun

[WILSON 1]

Transcribe! is pretty amazing, and a powerful tool. Worth the penny.

Have fun

I like Transcribe because I can “tap in” every measure.


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[don_oz]

Ok Barry said ‘Melodic Minor’ today. We played it up and down and everything. I have it on a recording if anyone wants proof.

Oz is all over this shit. I need a lie down. :-)

Ahhh shit Christian too many kind words! It was fun sitting next to you! Did you go on Friday?

[don_oz]

Alsooooo on the plane to turkey after Thursdays class I transcribed Barry's improv classes from memory. Wednesday (All of me) and thursday (half nelson) albeit we didn't finish half nelson, he only took us up to Abmaj and the rest I made up. Put it all on Sibelius, I'll try and upload it at some point.

[tamirgal]

If you guys have *any* recordings from the class, please don’t hesitate to share
Thanks!

[christianm77]

Ahhh shit Christian too many kind words! It was fun sitting next to you! Did you go on Friday?

No, had some house & family stuff to attend to...

Let's get together for a play soon!