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This study group is for fun and basic accountability in working on the ideas presented in Chris’ videos.
We will start with Blues and Rhythm changes scale outlines, and move on 10/9. Let’s start off with our personal goals for this first month, what we hope to gain, speeds to reach, plan of attack etc
be sure to support his channel
Edits:
Page 5: Episode 6 added as a long term assignment (the 4 scales of chords)
Page 9: Month #2 looking at 5-4-3-2 concept from episode 3, and continuing work on chord scales from episode 6
Page 10: Month #3 Looking at the ABCs and Barry's chromatic scale from episode 4, and continuing work on chord scales from episode 6Last edited by joe2758; 10-29-2018 at 09:34 AM.
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09-09-2018 06:43 PM
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Thanks for kickstarting this. There is so much material, organizing it will be the rub. Chris does a fantastic job making it accessible. It will have to be up to us to do what Alan K did for harmony.
PS:
Anyone know Chris’ name or how to contact him? I’m hoping he is available for a Skype lessons.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
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so my goal is to be able to run these at 200 bpm in all keys/positions. I use CAGED, so i’ll do 5 positions. this might be a stretch, but hey why not. I think i’ll just go back and forth between blues and rhythm— one’s not really any harder than the other.
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oh also im going to practice with slurs from upbeats to down beats where position permits and with no slurs
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His youtube comments says he is available for Skype lessons. chrisparksjazz22@gmail.com
I have only listened to the first 3 videos. He plays in episode 3 a little bit (versus doing exercises).Originally Posted by rlrhett
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A couple of things I've* learned that I'll share for the total novice who might come to this thread, especially if like me they came from a blues/folk background:
1) Chances are, if you were like me, you learned the minor pentatonic and played it as a scale to "shred". Maybe a little jumping around, but most of the color was in attack, rhythm, and bends. You played the notes up and down in mini runs. It is reasonable to assume we are starting with these scales because you are going to do the same thing: make your lines by running the scales.
Chris says this, BH says this, but somehow it really bears making explicit. We practice the scales to get the basic harmonic movement in our ears. Barry Harris DOES NOT improvise by just running scales. His own improvisation features very little playing straight scales. Running scales is not a way to build lines for BH. That may seem obvious to most, but I find the hardest thing about beginning is that no one ever states the obvious. Building lines in your solo will come later after you have the chord progression completely internalized. This is a tool for doing that.
2) Blues to a jazz player is not the same as the Blues you learned when you first picked up the guitar. People coming from the blues may think that the blues is 2 bars of C7 answered by 2 bars of C7/2 bars of F7 answered by 2 bars of C7/2 bars of G7 answered by 2 bars of C7 (or something like that). Where the heck does the 3rd of the "A" come from?
Jazz players tend to think of the blues form a little differently. 1 bar of C7, 1 bar of F7, 2 bars of C7, 2 bars of F7, then a turnaround for 4 bars, followed by a turnaround for 2 bars. A basic jazz "turnaround" is playing I-vii-ii-V7-I. In the key of C, Amin7 is the vi chord. Blues and jazz lived side by side and cross-pollinated, but no one said they were the same thing.
But wait, there's more! Amin7 doesn't really propel you to the ii chord, so we turn it into an A7 chord. That gives it more drive to the ii. Yes, yes... there is no diatonic A7 in C. But jazz cats don't care. So it just goes unsaid that you need to play the major third of A7 in bar eight. No explanation needed, right? Obviously .
Whew!! So if you are new to all this, BH's "basic" blues isn't really all that basic. But don't let that throw you. Call it a "jazz blues" or "BH's blues" or just a jazz tune that vaguely reminds you of a blues...whatever, but use this method of running the scales to really get the sound/changes into your ears.
*This is one man's understanding laboring alone in his former office/now daughter's bedroom somewhere in California. There will undoubtably be a dozen on this forum alone yelling at the screen, "WTF is this guy talking about!!! That is so wrong on so many levels. Where is my insult thesaurus?!!! I'm going to burn up the keyboard on this one." So take what I say in the spirit it is offered: to help a fellow journeyman with what I know.
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Oh, and in the spirit of the first assignment:
My goals are to be able to play these scales from the root on the 5th-4th-3rd string starting with my middle finger AND starting with my pinkey. I want to be smooth with no hesitation, speed is not really too important to me right now. Finally, I hope to have anyone call out any key and specify which string set and be able to launch right in. To do that I will probably work it through a circle of fourths for 4 or 5 cycles. I have strong opinions why I don't think practicing in "all 12 keys" makes sense for a guitarist, but that is for another discussion.
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Good thread joe2758.
Chris was my teacher in '93 in NY and was giving me things at a mad pace as he learned them...straight from BH class.
I was able to attend a few of those but was completely lost.
I wasn't ready but kept all my notebooks and things he told me while I simply worked on knowing my instrument.
This is the real thing IMHO and I'll be involved,
Thanks again joe
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Thanks Joe. I'll be learning these in all positions. Ive already watched all these videos, so will be throwing some suggstions from future videos as well, but will make sure I can do these in all keys and positions first.
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So for scale outlines I like to think of the interval shape - the octave (although of course we don’t run the scale to the octave.
Find all the the octave positions on the guitar, and run scales between them going to the 7th and back.
I find this less unwieldy than CAGED
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It took me a couple of years to get the scale outline thing up to speed, I still get roasted on it sometimes, but I used to just sit there in the class drooling out the corner of my mouth, so that’s a step forward
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Just had a thought - if a pianist is using Barry’s methods and takes a solo, where the left hand plays chords and the right hand plays single notes, do they simultaneously use the ‘harmonic system’ in the left hand and the ‘scale system’ in the right hand?
E.g. on a Gm7b5 does the LH play Bbm6/dim chords while the RH plays Eb7 lines? Could get complicated to think about, at least in the ‘learning’ stage!
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Originally Posted by grahambop
My general vibe with how most bop pianists play, including Barry and Pasquale Grasso, is that when they are in soloing on faster tunes they tend to play sparse shell left hand (7ths, 3rds, 6ths) and bebop lines in the left hand. The shell voicings are more punctuation... The classic Bud Powell thing.
Even Bill Evans tend to play this way.
The lush types of harmonisations that Barry uses the 6th dim scales etc for tend to be more for heads, slower tunes and comping...
In practice, I don't think there would be a huge issue using one over the other, but I think for practicalities sake it rarely comes up?
When I comp, I often use the 6th dim scale to create voice movement and colour. I don't think it clashes or messes up the soloists lines... (?)
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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Originally Posted by grahambop
One of Barry's common complain about piano players (in his videos at least) is that they put their left hand too high on the piano register. I think that's apparent in his playing. The left hand usually hits a bass note, and maybe one extra note. The right hand is where the color comes from, even when soloing I believe.
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tamir, you actually play the piano don’t you? is that you on your youtube playing? sounds great
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Originally Posted by joe2758
Was too frustrated trying to improvise on piano, so picked up the guitar after many years, thinking it will be easier. What was I thinking... lol.
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Originally Posted by tamirgal
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It's not all 100% Barry material, but it relates to it
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Actually maybe I should have posted those on the another Barry thread. TBH there's quite a few of them now.
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Originally Posted by christianm77
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One drawback of playing BH scales always starting from the root is that the brain loves shortcuts. When you do something always in the same specific way, brain learns to rely on certain cues/landmarks that apply only to that specific way. These cues/landmarks are usually subconscious. If you play scales always starting from the root, you're learning just that.
Scales should be practiced starting from different degrees and with different targets. Some people call them "modes" I prefer mastering a scale deeply, rather than skimming all it's modes as separate entities. But that's a different subject.
BH scales of course are for ear training and learning a tune's changes. But one doesn't have to play scales from the root to "sound" the changes. So you can pack more to your practice time by being creative with the scales. This might be obvious to some. But since we established that there is a value in stating the obvious,I though I'd state this as well.Last edited by Tal_175; 09-10-2018 at 12:57 PM.
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Another proof of the "subconscious" landmarks the brain relies on is playing things in different keys.
Logically there is no point to practicing things in different keys on guitar because if you can play something in one key, then it should be trivial to play the same thing up a couple of frets, right? It never is!
Take a bebop head you know very well in it's original key. Try to play it up a HALF fret. I'm completely thrown off when I do this.
Never mind a bebop head, this is true even with much simpler things.Last edited by Tal_175; 09-10-2018 at 01:09 PM.
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Originally Posted by Tal_175
Transcriber wanted
Today, 04:35 PM in Improvisation