"I don't play chords", said saxophone giant Coleman Hawkins, "I play movements." Perhaps inspired by this notion, jazz pianist Barry Harris has developed a framework for moving chord voicings along scales in much the same way that one might think of developing single-note improvisations from scale practice. In order to move things, however, you must understand where the basic elements come from. As Barry likes to say, "In the beginning, God created the universe. For us that means the chromatic scale (Example 1). Then God grew lonely and said, 'I think I'll make me some people', and so we have the two whole-tone scales, each based on six notes of the chromatic scale. The whole-tone scales gave birth to three diminished 7th chords, each one built from two pairs of genes (tritones), one pair from each of the whole-tone parents." From the diminished chords we get the rest (Examples 2 and 3). As Barry says, "It's like family - who do you start to play with first? Your brothers and sisters."

The beauty of this approach lies in the two scales developed some 40 - plus years ago by Barry: the major 6 diminished and the minor 6 diminished scales (Examples 6 and 7). The scales consist of a combination of two simple chord types which lend themselves to the facile movement of simple voicings up and down the scale. The goal is to keep chord voicings moving - not static - and to create tension and resolution.

Go through all of these examples and practise them in all keys. Next month, we'll apply the skills you develop from this information and these exercises to actual tunes.

Howard Rees