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Go very slow! Use a metronome and learn the lines at ridiculously slow speeds. The Entire Exercise Sheet Music: Scales from different degrees using pickupsĭownload your "Barry Harris Half Step Practice Model" PDF Part three: Tips Practice suggestions Don't forget to read the practice suggestions! See below (and the video) for the complete set of exercises. I turned this (Original "Barry Harris Workshop" way): Placed on beat "one" (after the pickup)īasically, if you play them "my way" you'll get all the musical juice from the original Barry Harris Workshop exercises plus a few added bonuses. A picture is worth a thousands notes, so here's an example.
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So, yes: I like the idea behind Barry's Half Step Practice Model very much. Part two: Implementation What am I doing different from Barry ? It always better to hear the master himself explain it to you!
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You have to own the Barry Harris Workshop DVD to really "get it" and understand how it works. One more example: starting on the 3rd ("E" note).
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Notice how they fall on downbeats after the scale is "rebalanced" because of the presence (or absence) of passing tones. You can have either:Īs you can see, the arrows point to chord tones. Let use the "F" (the fourth degree) as an example in the same old, C7 mixolydian scale. So Barry found a solution to this musical problem. Let's say you wanted to start the scale on something other than the root, it wouldn't always work! Give it a try! However, the Barry Harris Workshop goes beyond this simple scale by using two more available passing-tones. It is most commonly referred to as "bebop scale" and only has ONE passing note between b7 and 1 (in this case, the "B natural" note). The primary scale which is, by the way, a great starting point for most teachers (including yours truly). The three optional passing notes can be found between degree b7 and 3 (in a mixolydian scale). This simply means that we get chord-tones 1-3-5-7 on downbeats. The end result is the rhythmical alignment of "strong notes on strong beats" within the bar. In short, the model is a technique that adds 0, 1, 2 or 3 extra passing notes to regular scales. This concept stems from the bebop language. Barry Harris has a way of making scales "fit" into bar lines which he calls: Without going into too much detail (no spoiler alert here!). Part one: Learning the Model What is the "Practice Model" ?
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