From the Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris

YouTube channel

For Barry Harris, playing a scale means playing it

root to 7th, not root to root.

Scales for blues in C

C7
F7
C major 7 up and back down, ending on C# (the 3rd of
A) instead of C
G7

Bars 1-4: C7 up F7 up C7 up and down

Bars 5-8: F7 up and down Cmaj7 up and down to the
3rd of A
Bars 9-12: G7 up and down Cmaj7 up G7 up

Barry thinks of a ii-V as just the V. So for Dm7-G7, he

thinks of it as G7