Bebop Improvisation 101: The 2 Concepts From Barry Harris That Transformed My Playing Overnight

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If you're interested in jazz improvisation, you need to check out these 2 concepts. When I learned them, my playing immediately took an exponential leap forward. Barry's system is so beautiful because it really teaches you how to improvise, rather than just showing you a scale to play over a particular chord like CST, or just playing specific lines that you lifted from other players' solos. This concept is also way more flexible than the fixed extra half steps in the so called "Bebop Scales" This stuff is amazing for playing bebop, of course, but this material has very much improved my soloing across the board. I play this vocabulary on funk gigs, on straight ahead jazz gigs, on more modern jazz, it's even helped my playing in a free jazz context.

In this episode, we look at what Barry calls "Dominant 7th scales," the arpeggios that come out of dominant 7th chords, and adding extra half steps to descending scale lines over them. We'll also look at the "Family Of Four Dominants," a powerful tool for playing substitute chords in your lines.

Next time, we'll talk about applying this vocabulary to a tune and soloing in a real world context.

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My book "Chord Tone Improvisation - A Practical Method For Jazz Improvisation: Volume 1 - Approaching Major And Minor Triads" is available for purchase at https://amzn.to/2UNu9YE

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If you want to know more about what's in my book, check out this video    • Chord Tone Improvisation - Arpeggios And A...  

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Intro 0:00
Dominant 7th Scales 0:32
Extra Half Step Rules 1:21
Arpeggios on the R, 3rd, 5th, and 7th 5:20
Ascending Arpeggios into Descending Scale Lines with Extra Half Steps 6:25
The Family Of Four Dominants 12:48
Playing The Family Of Four Dominants over a ii-V-I 18:10
Example 1 18:45
Example 2 19:39
Example 3 20:15
Example 4 21:32
Example 5 22:37
Example 6 23:33
Example 7 24:29
Example 8 25:43
Playing the Family of 4 Dominants over a Minor ii-V-i 26:52
On Half Diminished Chords, think about Dominant 7th chords starting from the 3rd 27:11
Minor ii-V-i Example 1 28:47
Example 2 28:59
Example 3 31:30
Example 4 32:54
Wrap Up 34:16

Thanks for watching!