This Will Change The Way You Play Jazz: Even Scales

0:00 Introduction
1:14 Demonstration
1:53 Conceptual overview
3:15 Even scales yield just two chords
9:00 Application - Harmonizing the melody
18:30 Borrowing Notes (RH)
22:29 Borrowing Notes (LH)
23:33 Using Counterpoint
25:55 Other scales and chords
30:20 Families of dominants
34:33 Whole-tone scales
36:40 Other resources

In today's lesson we will talk about what I call "Even Harmony", using concepts popularized by legendary jazz pianist Barry Harris. You'll often hear some of these ideas being referred to as "Barry Harris Chords". I will show you how to depart from the usual thinking about jazz chords using major or minor scales and instead we will focus on how to derive motion by using scales with an even number of notes. These will allow us to think freely in terms of tensions and releases.

Edit (24/5/24): For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, the thumbnail is a nod to Rene Magritte's "The Treachery of Images", one of my favorite paintings of all time from one of my favorite artists (followed by Vladimir Kush!).