Modes vs Barry Harris method for improvisation

why don't I use modes I get this question from students all the time and I I did study modes quite a bit in the early days could never sound the way I wanted to sound with them in jazz standards and that's a big distinction okay when I met Barry Harris he said OOTS no I don't do I don't even know what they are he said to me I what and up until then all I had heard because that was the wisdom at the time was you got to know the modes you know and you got to practice the modes and that's how you're going to get any good at playing jazz so I did what I was told I just couldn't get the authentic sounds that I wanted to so I wanted to learn what is Barry doing that's different and actually I'm pretty sure he said to me he didn't even have conversations with other musicians he played with and anyone that knows his background of who he played with it's pretty impressive you know he said to me that they weren't even having those sorts of conversations so yes the modes somebody said George said yeah they're the major scale right Paul you're not a 14th century mon not as far as I'm aware yes I mean modes are you could this is called the ionian mode the see just scale C major scale from here is called the Dorian mode um frian mode lydian mode mixed lydian mode Etc aolan loan but as somebody said yes they're the major scale so actually I have limited use for this in what I call functional Harmony in the standards and we'll see why that is now if you're playing very modal tunes that are more modern and are not full of the functional stuff we use like 25 to one 25 to 6 25 to 3 flat three diminish to two some jazz musician and Jazz skills jargon 4 minor 6 going home if your tunes aren't doing that because they're written probably after 1958 or so then in some cases a mode might make more sense so if you're playing so what for [Music] example that thing you know so your comping might go up a mode in fact there's a tune that does this little sunflower or almost exactly like that right 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 so when there's no clear harmonic function to what's going on in a very modern tune or maybe in a on a Funk Jam when it's on one minor chord yeah I can see a case that because people think like that in jazz standards that have so much function not so much so something that again Barry Harris said to me that really stuck with me is he said you know every D Minor 7 is not the same what does that mean well D Minor 7 could be in three major keys for me it's not actually the one chord in a minor key at all we talk about that elsewhere which three major Keys could D Minor 7th be in D Minor 7th is Chord number two in c 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 it is Chord number three in B flat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 and it is Chord number six in f 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 consequently if it's in the key of C then it takes the c major scale right now somebody might say well why isn't that why can't you just say d Dorian then well yeah but I can also anything that comes from C I can play C major all over them okay if I get my romance you know look at these first three chords one 2 three in the key of C [Music] right and then we get a flat three diminished the leads to two as we expect that's what it does most of the time so for me if the chords come from C and you got 1 2 3 in C and then you got two five in C you're perfectly within your rights to play the c major scale all over them right in improv diminished chord tones where there I don't have to start thinking c ionian d Dorian e frian right it's just one two three in the c major scale so I'm taking the c major scale all over again if that D Minor 7th is in B flat then it's taking the B flat major scale so an example of that might be well actually that would be interesting let's put this in the key of B flap let's transpose down to B flap now we have D Minor 7th functioning as chord number three Jazz skills members you'll know this what does three function as in jazz standards one exactly one and three mean the same thing one three I can even put the one in the left hand and put the three in the right hand because they share so many notes right so here it's also going to take the B flat well it's going to take the B flat major scale cuz it's 1 2 3 and B flat so I can play B flat all over them I cannot just say when you have a D Minor 7th chord play the D Dorian mode in jazz standards yeah because it depends which key it's in and if it's going to take the scale of that key anyway then I don't really need a mode do I so what I do instead I would be looking for C major scale on chords that are in the key of C that's a cord in C so is that so is that that isn't so either we would use in this case the E flat diminish scale for newer people chord tones no problem chord tones with half step approaches no problem back to the key ofc because these are chords in the key ofc so if you just take the c major scale all over anything that's ACC cord in C and then look at what do you really need to do on these other things then you'll do great so this E7 is the next chord that is not in the key of C E7 is not ACC cord in C because it has the G sh in there and therefore I've got another scale choice to make again so the scale choice for me here would depend on where I'm going when I have a dominant chord I'm looking at what comes next so if the next thing is Major let's say this went to an a major then I could take the a major scale on that E7 which I also call the E7 scale because it's the it's the a major scale as well right but if it's going to a minor then I'm going to take the a harmonic minor scale this one and I'm going to think of e as the root and that will give me a sound to take me to a minor where some people get confused with that aside from not knowing the difference between harmonic minor and melodic minor you know who you are it happens all right let's iron those out but where people get confused is they think that means you got to play the a harmonic minor on a minor no I'm back in the key of C by then so I don't need to think in that way let's take it from that c major so C major scale and by the way the only real difference is this right between C major and a harmonic minor the G gets sharpened so C major a harmonic minor back to C major and we didn't talk about the A7 yet I feel that for a new improviser we can get through most situations with just the major scale dominant scale and harmonic minor scale most situations then there are some a couple we add on in you know deeper situations but if I know the c major scale as we've seen we can get through all of that stuff if I know the dominant scale that's C with a flat 7even right which of course is also the F major scale but if I also know the harmonic minor then that gives me things to play as we saw on dominant before minor in other words if I had G7 going to C minor I would take it's- 7 or- 6 I'd take the C harmonic minor on the G7 part right that gets me through most situations because on a minor 25 I've got let's say if it's Bor 7 flat 5 to E7 that is 25 that's going to lead most likely to a minor I could be in the key of C for all that to happen because a minor 7th is a landing chord in C and now I've got I've got that a harmonic minor on the 25 right so major scale dominant scale which is a displaced major scale it's a major scale starting on a different point and harmonic minor will get you through most stuff and then there are a couple of others that will refine your playing as well but I find that a lot simpler than worrying about chord scales which would change too often and often not even be described correctly by the way I would say Jazz skills members are typically not telling me that the way we use scales is complicated so you know therefore we can focus more on building phrases and structure and Rhythm and Surround notes and you know the Barry Harris scale rules and other things well you made it to the end of this lesson so I hope you enjoyed it consider joining me on Jazz skills where we'll take you on a real journey of fluency not just throw loads of content at you but really focus on your transformation teach you which skills need to be in place how to work on it and support you all the way so I hope you'll join me there thanks for watching and bye for [Music] now

Channel: JazzSkills

Views: 51,280

Keywords: Shan Verma, jazz piano lessons, Modes, Jazz StandardsBarry HarrisMusic TheoryJazz ImprovisationMusic Education, Barry Harris, Jazz Skills, Jazz improv, jazz improvisation

Id: Jii-DIizjis

Length: 9min 58sec (598 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 18 2023