Barry Harris - Borrowing notes move

so the famous Barry Harris exercise with borrowing notes people ask me to explain it sometimes so here it goes it's based on the major six diminished scale you may have heard this before it's this exercise but I'll explain how it works and how to learn it and what you might do with it so what's going on here it's one of the first things he Ed to show people I don't think it's top priority for you if you just getting started with playing or anything like that if you're interested in chord movement and you're at the level where you've got some Freedom with standards then yes of course it's great what's going on is we are using the c major 6 diminished scale I talk about this in other videos which I will link below but I'll just briefly say this is basically the major scale with the extra between the five and the six in this case a flat okay but if we take those notes and and Alternate them like this we'll say C's on the inside D's on the outside then we get e f g a flat a b and back to C so we've got this chord in the middle and we've got this chord on the outside right so it works like this notice that the chord in the middle we get c e g and a is C6 and then if we play the next chord from the d f a flat and B is D diminished so so far we've got C6 and we've got a D little diminish sign okay but if we keep moving and now make e our starting note e g a c we've still got another C6 and then if we make F our starting note we've got F A flat B and D we've got F diminished or same as D diminished and if we keep doing that we keep getting c6s and inverted D diminished inverted c6s so for me that's really why it's the major six diminished he used to say it's the major with the six diminished with with the a diminished there fine of course if you're enjoying this lesson would you please give it a like And subscribe to the channel hit the notification Bell so you know when there's a new video a positive comment in the comment section really helps as well and if it's time to level up your playing and get some Freedom then consider joining us on Jazz skills more about that at the end for now let's get back to the lesson the borrowing Exercise Works like this so we take those same chords but we split them between two hands so the left hand will take the root and fifth of that C6 but the E and the a will be taken into the right hand and then we just move up the scale so if you just have a look at the scale on the screen the C has to move up to d right the G has to move up to a flap the E moves to F and the a moves to B but that just gives us D diminished anyway so we're still just working with those two chords right and then if we move again these two move here these two move here it's another C6 and another D diminished another C6 another D diminished another C6 and another di D diminished and finally back to C6 so that's just taking the scale in chords split between two hands it's harder than it looks especially when you start putting it in the other keys of course now once you get that down you can take the top note or any note but but the top note was the one that he used to do first and you can borrow a diminished note let's do it in one hand these are all the major notes on the inside of that Circle and these are all the diminished notes right so if you're playing Major notes like this the top note is a but you're going to borrow the B and give it back to a like this right and then you do the same on the next one you borrow the C and give it back to the a right let's give it back to the B I'm sorry and then the next one will be D to C e to D Etc so it ends up like [Music] this even these ones that people think you could never use this one people say surely you can never use that yes you can maybe we'll do something to prove it in a minute okay so that's the borrowing exercise now let's see the kind of thing that we might do with it of course the most important thing is to get it under your fingers first people often grab for what can I do with it before it really belongs to them it's the old phrase that I always say amateur do it till they can get it right and professionals do it till they can't get it wrong if you do that then ideal will will suggest themselves to you as well because your ear will start to hear things and spaces and places to do stuff the example I remember getting from Barry was on all the things you are because you get these two bars of C major which are just crying out to be filled with something so that borrowing exercise can be perfect for it so there are other moves here of course but that's [Music] different okay if we go G7 to C 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 perfect place to fil right and it even joins well to the next C minor you know why because every time you're on that D diminished it functions if you've seen my other lessons on voicings for that G7 you can move that up a half step that G and then you get the diminished which we've been playing anyway that's the same diminished so the function of this is like a G7 so if the function is G7 and the next chord is C minor well G7 is the dominant of C minor it's the fifth of it anyway so it leads us there perfectly so that's one example of what you might do other things maybe learn them down I can hear something already because if I take that first one and then go to the one that starts on a what'll be nice is you get this sort of movement in there I can hear that as an A Minor 7 because C6 is also a minor 7 and and bar used to say every major 6 is a minor 7 so if C6 is a minor 7 has the same notes there's C6 there's a minor 7 all the same notes then we use C6 to move on a minor 7 so let's say I have an A Minor 7 in a progression typical progression you would get a minus 7 in let's say it's a minus 7 D7 and then to G major some kind of G so on the a minor 7 we could play those sorts of moves let's see fine a minor 7 to D7 to G major just learning that in a few Keys which I need to do cuz I just thought of it let's see what this one's like not bad something I haven't done before and that's the interesting thing about this stuff because you just keep finding new ways to apply right that's a G major 6 diminished there's G major 6 a diminished and some diminished notes in the middle so I hope that gives you an idea of how you can take that relatively simple borrowing exercise and just start to move it through a scale use it to fill up some time maybe use it on a minor seventh movement as well there's a lot in there there's always a lot in this stuff and the important thing is to know them till you you can explore them and make them your own if it's time to level up your plane then come and see us on Jazz skills where we won't just drown you in information I always say it but we'll focus on your transformation and what to work on in which order and how to practice it with support from me and a Vibrant Community as well take care and bye for [Music] now

Channel: JazzSkills

Views: 5,408

Keywords: Shan Verma, jazz piano lessons, jazz piano lessons for intermediate, jazz piano lessons advanced, barry harris, barry harris theory, barry harris 6th diminished scale, barry harris method, barry harris method explained, 6th diminished scale, barry harris lesson, sixth diminished scale

Id: 6XmCRYsIlMo

Length: 8min 34sec (514 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 15 2024