Another good place to turn for an example is Bud Powell’s “Bouncing with Bud,” also called “Bebop in Pastel” on some recordings. The bridge to that tune, as usually played, is a great lesson in these so-called “Barry Harris” voicings (which I’ve also heard called "George Shearing " voicings). Especially right at the beginning of the bridge.
@Robert - we can copy/paste YouTube URLs into the forum and it automatically creates an embed like the one below. It’s useful to share references to recordings.
Here’s one of my favourite examples of harmonising the entire head with this style of block chord:
Hi @Robert,
Thanks for posting!
I’m glad to hear someone checking out the earliest recordings, where the tune actually was called Bebop In Pastel, here the very first recording:
Like you mentioned, the bridge is an excellent example of how to use these voicings.
Also like you mentioned, these voicings were made famous earlier by George shearing, here an example of his playing, check out especially from 2:00 (soloing with chords):
@Hayden, I really love that Bud Powell performance of TWNBAY; thanks for sharing that!
Since you mentioned that he harmonizes the entire head using the Barry Harris voicing scheme, can you explain how the Db7#11 chord at 0:23 fits into the scheme? Or maybe @Tuomo would like to take a shot at it?
The reason I ask is that the Barry Harris scheme requires that dominant chords be voiced either as b9 chords using the diminished chord voicings from the scale, or as some kind of m6 voicing over a root note (the non-diminished voicings from the major Barry Harris scale don’t contain a tritone, so they can’t be used to really voice a dominant chord). Those are the only two voicings in the Harris scheme that have tritones in them, and neither of them can be used for a #11 chord – they’re either a 7b9 voicing in the case of the diminished ones, or an aug7b9 or a plain old 9 chord in the case of the m6 structure.
I feel like @Tuomo’s “change a note” approach, while very practical for performance, really moves us a step away from the system of using voicings built from every second note of these scales that are either major or melodic minor with a b6 note added. The need to change a note means we have found a situation where the strict framework of those scales doesn’t apply. Unless I’m hearing it wrong, I think Powell’s #11 chord is a similar situation; you just can’t use the “strict Barry Harris” scheme successfully there. Of course because Powell’s voicing is a lydian dominant voicing, it comes from a melodic minor scale, so technically speaking the Abm Barry Harris scale can give you that voicing with the right selection of notes. But the notes you have to choose are not alternating notes from the scale, and in my understanding this is a departure from the Barry Harris voicing scheme.
In a similar way, the fourth bar of the bridge of “Bouncing with Bud” departs from the scheme with its D7#9 harmony.
I find it useful to know when a beautiful idea works, and when, contrariwise, you need to use a different beautiful idea.
This is an example what you can use over the Db7 chord:
If you want to think of the ‘changing a note’ approach more technically, some people think of them as “borrowed” notes from the related dim chord; in this case:
Db7 = Ab-6
The dim chord that goes with Ab-6 if Bb, Db, E or G dim
So in a sense, we just “borrowed” a note (G) from the diminished chord.
In the end, no system is perfect, as music is a natural thing and not something that we humans can put to a frame (we try hard though…)
I would always suggest to learn to understand a system (in this case Barry Harris voicings), then learn to play them methodically, and then apply it to every possible situation, so you will detect the points where you have to just be practical.
-Tuomo
great discussion that open the doors after this 5 min very dense video
and those application exercice a really great idea that could follow every 5 minutes videos ! 
@Tuomo could i ask some similar on the diminished ?
New Topic created, please post your questions about diminished there!
About Barry Harris voicings
another interesting video that complete the discussion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF67azWnMvw
he pointed :the Barry voicings scales when alternating C and G on bass sound as V going up to I 
in the comment i read this 
I loved Barry Harris story of the ‘world’: the world (chromatic scale), divides into male/female (the two Whole Tone Scales), they had three children (the Three Diminished Chords), and they together had the Dominant Chords. Makes you think.
True,
it’s a good point, the diminished chord is in the end always just a dominant.
Also this approach is very useful in improvisation as well,
here improv. examples over Cmaj:
or
Check out Charlie Parker’s composition ‘Bebop’; you hear him using this in the intro:
Keep up the good work!
-Tuomo
Thanks Tuomo. That is actually very useful for me because I’m a music reader and seeing it makes sense. I’m still working on “All the things you are”, but I’ve also started harmonizing some of my minor key hymns too as an exercise just to see where they go and what they sound like.
Hi @Canadanne,
I’d love to hear/ read your harmonizations when they are ready! That’s also the easiest way to give feedback and help you with your development.
You can send them here, or if you prefer, you can send them directly to me.
Thanks,
-Tuomo
For me, chord scale relationship is what i have been struggling with on the barry harris harmony.
If i just take a major sixth diminished and think of the ii-v-i I keep wanting to think
ii= dorian with an added flat 5 btwn 4 and 5; v = mixolydian with b2.
Or in c, g# on the i is b5 on 2 and b9 in mixolydian. I just then want to stay in the same key to improvise.
Is this how to think about it?
Also using diminished sixth theory, I don’t fully understand the scale for melodic soloing for the minor 6, for instance C-6, F7, Bb.
C-6 means the melodic minor to make C, Eb, G, A & D, F, Ab, B. I can understand the Ab as a passing tone, and/or its role in the diminished part of the scale. Its just its seems to me that the C-6 is in a different key that the F7 and the Bb. There’s no Bb in the C-6 scale.
So these two issues have me stumped, believe it or not.
Thanks in advance for any input.
-Chris
Hi @chris4, thanks for writing!
I understand what you mean, it can get complicated if we dissect it to a very detailed level.
My suggestion is:
Don’t overthink it, try to see, and especially hear the bigger picture.
At least you will be able to play a good portion of the song with just this.
Of course, if the song is in C, most likely the C6/Ddim works over the 25s as well.
Then you can use either D-7(which is of course F6)/Edim, as it is the II chord,
or you can use the G7(that is D-6)/Edim, as it is the V chord.
OR the combination of the 2, if the melody for example would go to C, I would use F6/Edim.
AND of course, you can also use the Ab-6/Edim as well, as Ab-7/Db7 is the tritone sub 25 to D-7/G7.
And if you need the D- to be half diminished, you would treat it as F-6/Edim, as F-6 is the same chord as D-7b5, just with different root:
Main point is, don’t get too caught up with individual notes, even if they are not a part of a scale, they can work fine within a strong melody, or a harmonic function, for example with the Barry Harris voicings.
Thanks,
-Tuomo
See attached examples. Do i have it right?
To my ear, C6/D dim resolves more clearly to C than F6/E dim.
Chris
Hi @chris4
You’re right, from those 2 melodies the first one resolves better to Cmaj, reason why is not the voicing, but the melody. Remember, everything in improvising is about a good, strong melody, as we talked on our lesson (remember when we started working on the bebop line in every key?)
I’d like to give you 2 exercises; 2 melodies to harmonize by using the Barry Harris voicings:
Remember, your options are:
If the song is in C, most likely the C6/Ddim works over the 25s as well.
Use either D-7(which is of course F6)/Edim, as it is the II chord, or you can use the G7(that is D-6)/Edim, as it is the V chord.
The combination of the 2, if the melody for example would go to C, I would use F6/Edim.
You can also use the Ab-6/Edim as well, as Ab-7/Db7 is the tritone sub 25 to D-7/G7.
And in some cases, you can replace a melody note of the voicing if needed,
check 06:30 from the video:
Trust your ear more than the theory behind the voicings, if it doesn’t sound right, find another solution.
All the best,
-Tuomo
Thanks.
The Edim part of the F6/Edim really gets me confused. Isn’t this C7b9? It goes to F in my line. It even ends on F before I put the F, D in as a little G7 to C.
I think I’ll stick to the diatonic C6/Ddim, til I understand the F6/Edim better.
