“The Barry Harris Workshop Video is an outstanding educational package which provides a wealth of material for students, teachers and musicians alike.” It is a very practical and organized way of looking at chord movement applied to the areas of accompaniment, arranging and composition. “This package offers information that hasn’t been given before. “A fine workshop for striving pianists and serious students who want to play modern harmonies in the style of Charlie Parker.” “Barry’s Workshop Video is a valuable educational tool for anyone interested in the inner workings of modern jazz.” Berliner, University of Chicago Press 1994 It encourages musicians to create original phrases based, in part, on the cross-fertilization of rhythmic, melodic, and harmonic models embodied in the rules Harris promulgates.”Įxcerpts from ‘Thinking in Jazz’, by Paul F. “Harris’ theory is an expansive generative method.
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“Harris’ (method) is unique in both its emphasis and detail, for it teaches students precisely how to transform the (basic theoretical) elements into credible phrases and focuses as much upon the creative processes of improvisation as upon its products, effectively clarifying the relationship between theory and performance practice in the jazz tradition.” “A list of Harris’ graduates reads like a Who’s Who of Jazz among them are Paul Chambers, Curtis Fuller, Joe Henderson, Lonnie Hillyer, Yusef Lateef, Hugh Lawson, Kirk Lightsey, Charles McPherson, and Doug Watkins.” Or is it the other way around? In any case, Barry’s sense of time, motion and rhythm is absolutely impeccable.” “I’ve always thought that if Charlie Parker had played piano, he would sound exactly like Barry Harris. He is a living and brilliant extension of Bud Powell.” “I guess you could say Barry Harris is one of the very last of the bebop purists that we have on piano. I am confident that guitarists everywhere who are fortunate enough to pick up this book will thank him again, and again. Having had the pleasure of seeing Alan grow musically over the past 20 years, I am delighted that his insightfulness and hard work have found their way into a form that others can benefit from. Suddenly the musical ceiling gets raised and points us back to the purpose behind this book.
It’s not that the classical folks don’t play chords, they just know something about getting from one to the next in an unobvious manner. When was the last time you listened to the symphony, for instance, and said oh yeah, Am7b5 – D7. In fact, I prefer to think – movement-to-movement – as opposed to chord to chord. As well, one realizes that the interesting spots in music, whether you are comping, harmonizing a melody or writing an arrangement, are the places in between the chord symbols. The “mover” on the other hand, understands that chords come from scales and thereby learns to approach chording in a more fluid fashion. These vertical groups of notes are “hit” or “struck” on the instrument – with no thought to creating movement. The “hitter” sits up and works out a couple of beautiful sounding voicings for each kind of chord (or worse, learns someone else’s from a method book) – and from that point on, plays them exactly the same way. Either one becomes a “hitter” or, one becomes a “mover”.
Imagine, a system for learning jazz harmony that actually embraces the concept of improvisation.Īs I see it, there are two paths for a chord player to go down. What you will find herein are the structural components, as mapped out and developed by jazz giant Barry Harris, that will guide and aid you on your own personal road to discovery. You won’t come out sounding like everyone else – and that’s the good news! Studying the concepts put forth in this book will not teach you a set of hip sounding voicings.