So, I'm interested in this revolutionary new way (Barry Harris Harmonic Method for guitar, see below) of thinking for guitarists; but I would like a little more info before I buy this book and stop pursuing mountains of other jazz methods available.
I understand your concerns and I agree with you : II-V (and their resolutions) are an essential part of jazz harmony. The point I was trying to make in the book review is : many jazz guitarists/pianists simply comp "by shape" without exploring the full harmonic potential of tunes and progressions.
Barry Harris Harmonic Method For Guitar Pdf Download
So before blindly buying another book I was wondering if you could tell us why this book had such a big impact on your comping or harmonic awareness. What makes this book or method so good? Maybe you could give some examples.
Is this the same principle of Mark Levines Drop 2 Book that was adapted by Randy Vincent to Guitar? I'm still trying to play II-V-I properly but started reading the barry harris book and saw a lot of similarities with Levine's one.
Back in the late 80's or early 90's the jazz faculty at McGillUniversity handed classes over to Barry Harris for one week and theresults on the students were amazing. He also inspired those of uswho were on the staff at that time. Although the "Passing tone" scale or "bebop" scales theoryis well known in a " scratching the surface" way , the ramificationsof it's prolonged and intense study and application are not so wellknown. There is also a harmonic or chordal component to Barry'sconcept that is much less known. It's application to guitarpresents some fingering and adaptation issues but there is much tolearn and explore. Any text that covers any portion of theBarry Harris method will I'm sure be of great value to the seriousplayer. If you get into it ,prepare to to be challenged to "godeep" ie: serious long term commitment to intense practice andstudy. Greg
I worked through all of this stuff when I studied with Barry (for about 5 years in the 80s, and then a couple more years to review in the early 90s). And YES, if you're interested in playing authentic bebop phrasing (or really pretty much any jazz style) then understanding this stuff is pretty much the key (and by "understanding" I mean being able to play it upside-down, inside-out and backwards effortlessly). So, I concur with Greg. Be prepared to commit. It's something that you practice, not something that you "think" about when you're playing.)Yes it ALL "fits" on the guitar just fine. Ronny Ben-Hur actually wrote a book called "Talk Jazz" that works you through all the "rules" with fingerings for guitar, although you probably ultimately come up with your own.Barry also teaches some very cool harmonic concepts which revolve around what he calls the Sixth/Diminished scale. There are major and minor 6th versions of this scale and it can be used to create harmony as well ans melodic lines (I wrote some articles on this for Just Jazz Guitar about 10 years ago, you can download them from my website).-- Musically Yours,Rick StoneWebsite: Recordings: Videos: Myspace: EPK:
Rick, the fingering issues I spoke of refer to the maj and min 6thdiminished as chord scales and borrowing notes in the voicings whichare impossible to do in all closed voicings on guitar and though theguitar friendly drop 2 and 3 voicings are much more facile when onetries to borrow more than one voice at a time or start to take complexvoicings through the scales , as always certain compromises will haveto be made compared to piano. I certainly didn't mean to suggest itwas not applicable to our instrument. Quite to the contrary IMO. BTW Howard Rees did several good articles on some of the harmonicstuff from a pianistic point of view for Keyboard mag years ago Ithink they are still available here. -voicings-part-iGreg
Paul CView profile More options Sep 12 2006, 9:17 pmI haven't seen this mentioned here before, so I thought some of youmight like to hear about a new book/cd combination by my fellowTorontonian and Barry Harris/Howard Rees student, Alan Kingstone. AsIknow Alan personally, I won't pretend to an objective review, but Iwill say that any jazz guitarist interested in bebop harmony,especially as taught and practiced by Barry Harris, will find this tobe an informative, highly useful, and generally quite gentleintroduction to the business of thinking of the music as movementbasedon harmonized 8-note scales; of progressions as interlockingsequencesof 6th voicings; and of dominants as, well, dominant.Unlike Roni Ben-Hur's recent book, which emphasizes scales and lines,Alan's is concerned almost entirely with the harmonic aspects ofBarryHarris's teaching. While those aspects are beautifully demonstratedinthe harmony chapters of the two volume workshop video (now dvd)seriesproduced by Howard Rees, the emphasis there is mostly although notexclusively on piano. (Alan is the guitar player on volume 2.) WhatKingstone's new book does very well is translate what are oftenintensely pianistic ideas to the guitar in ways that are bothpracticaland musical.The book starts by harmonizing Barry's four main 8-note scales (major6diminished, minor 6 diminished, 7 diminished, and 7b5 diminished),supplying drop voicings (and partial voicings) in all inversions.These are shown in standard notation and fingering charts ("boxes").Alan then moves on to the role of the diminished chord in Barry'sharmony, Barry's ideas about related dominants and how they cansubstitute for one another, voicings that use "borrowed" notes, andtheuse of all this in movement through commonly-encounteredprogressions.The book ends with a chapter on scale practice, a detailed analysisofan exemplary arrangement of a standard (Like Someone in Love) usingmany of the "moves" described in earlier chapters, and an appendixthatsystematically sets out a wide range of voicings playable on guitar.Alan Kingstone's "The Barry Harris Harmonic Method for Guitar" ispublished by Howard Rees's Jazz Workshop Productions and availablefromhis website (www.jazzworkshops.com), from Aebersold, and probablyfromlots of other places too.
Yeah, I've seen Alan's book too. A lot of the charts and diagrams in it pretty much look like the stuff in my notebook from the 80s, which make sense since we were most certainly both trying to put Barry's stuff into guitar terms for my own understanding. The Chord Construction Workshop articles I wrote for JJG in 1999 & 2000 came out of that thinking as well (also from a Pat Martino article from 1977 in Guitar Player, Mel Bay's Rhythm Guitar Method, and Berklee Arranging classes). They're all available as pdf downloads on my website (go to the "Lessons" page and scroll down).
Though not half the player Rick Stone is I do consider myself lucky tohave studied with Barry Harris since 1987. I don't offer my book forfree though I've been told by guitarists and some pianists that it hashelped them grasp Barry's concepts.I caught a glimpse of Ricks work in a magazine years ago and thought'hey this looks like my stuff'.I've been with Howard Rees, since 86 who introduced me to Barry in 87and I've been wrestling with this great stuff since then. I took partin a workshop with Howard this evening with some wonderful Torontomusicians and we utilized Barry's thing of 3 or 5 or 7 ordered scaletones through a tune. It actually made me play melodically for change.Barry is in town Wednesday rehearsing a yearly outreach project and weget to take a special harmony class with him.My book differs from the Ben Hur work as it is specifically Barry'sharmonic method. The method is about improvising harmony as 'movement'as opposed to static chords.If you're in the Toronto area check out Howard's workshops. If you'rein New York, go to Barry's classes.My book can be found here. -productions/the-barry-harris-harmonic-method-for-guitarThanksAlan
I also downloaded Rick Stone's pdf files dealing with Barry's methodand they helped alot. He also has some great files about chordconstruction which neatly summarize some of the most useful stuff Ipicked up from Rick. Rick is a truly great teacher and player--I nowwish I had been a better student!I recently bought Alan Kingstones book "The Barry Harris HarmonicMethod for Guitar" which is proving to be very helpful (I'm workingthrough the 2nd chapter on movement right now). My take on Alan's bookis that it requires a knowledge of theory and a commitment to workhard unraveling Alan's short comments. If anything, Alan could haveprovided more examples and commentary since it reads a bit like atranscription of his or Barry's notes.I'm still not sure how this method will translate to other genresother than jazz.Larry
by Roni Ben-Hur Includes a book and downloadable audio tracks (no longer includes a CD). A comprehensive collection of bebop studies, with detailed explanation of some of jazz improvisation’s fundamental tools. The pages in this book contain a collection of studies developed that will help you improve your technique, knowledge of your instrument, and a feeling for jazz melodies. If practiced in tempo you will also develop a good sense of rhythm. There is a great deal of material here, all of which is based on actual jazz phrases. Any part of the following studies can be easily adopted as part of a solo. Fingerings and fret-board diagrams are included as well as an 15 online tracks that feature the studies in this book as played by Roni Ben-Hur with the accompaniment of one of New York’s best rhythm sections: Tardo Hammer on piano, Earl May on bass and Leroy Williams on drums. It is a powerful tool to help you master this material. Use it to listen to the studies and get acquainted with them, then practice them with the tracks. You can turn the guitar channel off on the tracks, and practice just with the rhythm section.Spiral bound, 79 pages. 2ff7e9595c
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