The One Barry Harris Rule That Changed Everything

Barry Harris has one rule for practice that turns your boring scale exercises into real jazz lines.

And once I learned this at a masterclass, the exercises finally made sense, and I could turn them into music in my solos.

In this video, I’m going to show you the Barry Harris rule that’s helped 1000s of my students — and how it can finally make your solos sound like real jazz.

Barry’s Rule

Let me show you the difference between practicing notes… and practicing jazz.

Because you don’t practice scales to get better at scales—you practice to get better at jazz.

Of course, basic scales matter. Here’s C major.

But here’s where a lot of players lose years: they grind exercises that are great for the fingers… but don’t show up as real lines.

Like this classic “4-note grouping” pattern:

Be honest—when was the last time you heard a great jazz guitarist play that exact pattern and it sounded like a phrase?

Here’s how Barry Harris would practice: start with something that already sounds like real music.

He would literally hear a phrase and go: “This sounds great. I am going to make this into an exercise.”

So the test is simple: would you actually play it in a solo?

If not, it might build technique… but it won’t build your jazz vocabulary.

Instead, take something you actually hear in solos—like this short Charlie Parker lick.

It’s almost a scale run, but with an extra twist in the middle:

That drop-and-leading note in the middle is the magic—that’s what makes it sound like a line instead of a scale.

Now we do the Barry thing: we turn that phrase into an exercise.

Start it on each note of C major, and listen to how many of these already sound like real vocabulary.

And by the way—this drop-and-leading note phrase is all over Grant Green’s playing.

1. Vocabulary,
2. Rhythm & Phrasing,
3. Technique.

Here is why this process works: you’re building vocabulary, rhythm/phrasing, and technique—all at the same time.

Now that you’ve got the rule, here’s the real question: how do you turn this into something you can practice every day? Let me show you my simple 3-step process.

Upgrading Your Practice (The 3-Step Process)

Most players practice arpeggios every day. And arpeggios are great… but if you only drill them up and down, they rarely show up in your solos as real lines.

So here’s my simple 3-step process to turn a very simple arpeggio into vocabulary that really sounds like music.

Step 1: Turn the arpeggio into a phrase

Here’s the basic arpeggios in C major the way most people practice them.

Now let’s “upgrade” it into something you’d actually play in a solo.

Add an enclosure around the first note

Turn the arpeggio into a triplet:

Add a scale note afterward

We’ll keep the chord tones, but add a little enclosure, a triplet, and a scale note so it has rhythm and direction.

Here’s the upgraded Cmaj7 phrase:

Next: Step 2: Move the phrase through the key

Now we do the exercise part: keep the exact same idea, but start it on each note as we move through C major—so it becomes diatonic arpeggios.

The notes change as we move, but the recipe stays the same.

The phrase is this:

(Play ex 6 cmaj7)

The recipe is Enclosure, Triplet Arpeggio, and Scale note

For the next note in the scale, D, start the same idea:

First, you want to just go through the scale slowly to find out where everything is and how to play it.

Just pause between each one, and don’t worry about tempo.

Gradually, you can turn it into this exercise:

If you want the written version of this so you don’t have to memorize it off the video and you can practice it at your own pace, grab the free PDF—link in the description.

Step 3: Use it in your own lines

The most important part is using it in real play.

At this point, this is already a usable lick. Now let’s hear it in a II–V–I progression, using it on Dm7 and the upper-octave version on the Cmaj7.

The phrase is shifted to beat 2 on Dm7, which makes it connect to G7 really naturally.

And on Cmaj7, the upper-octave version fits perfectly coming out of G7 like this.

Now here’s a bonus way to get even more out of this exercise: use the arpeggio from the 3rd.

On Dm7, if you play the diatonic arpeggio on the 3rd—F—you get Fmaj7. Same sound, but now you’ve got that E, which is the 9th on Dm7. A great color to add.

So listen to how this Fmaj7 phrase sounds on Dm7… and then what happens when we do the same idea on Cmaj7 using Em7 as the arpeggio from the 3rd.

Did you hear how that Em7 phrase sounded over Cmaj7? That’s the same principle: Em7 is the arpeggio from the 3rd of Cmaj7.

So practicing like this gives you great-sounding vocabulary you can use across multiple chords—not just one shape in one place.

Now let’s do it with a real lick—because this is where your practice starts sounding like a solo.

How to Turn a Jazz Phrase Into a Practice Routine

You’ve seen the process with arpeggios. Now let’s do the exact same thing with a real piece of vocabulary—a super short Charlie Parker lick.

Here it is on Cmaj7. I’ll explain how it works when you’ve heard it:

That’s two chord tones—E to C

and Parker connects them with an enclosure into C, this melody: B–D–C. (play)

Notice how this already sounds more like a real melody than a straight scale run. But most people don’t practice little phrases like this as exercises.

Step 1: We already have the lick.

Let’s keep it in C so it’s easy to see and hear—and I’ll move it down an octave so we can easily take it through the scale.

Step 2: Move it through the key

Now start that same idea on each note as you move through C major.

You already know how this works.

Now for the next target note, D: we start on F, and then we enclose D: C#–E–D.

And yes—that C# is outside the key on purpose. It’s the chromatic “below” note that pulls into D.

And like this, you can go through the scale and get this exercise:

Step 3: Turn it into your own licks

This is the fun part: don’t just repeat it—use it.

Here it is as a longer line over a Cmaj7. Notice how I use the phrase, then I keep going up the arpeggio. Super easy, barely an inconvenience!

And once you’ve got a couple of versions under your fingers, you can start mixing them.

Here’s a complete II–V–I lick—and listen on the Cmaj7 for the “arpeggio from the 3rd” bonus.

Did you catch that on the Cmaj7?

Because this is chord-tone based, we can use the “arpeggio from the 3rd” trick. So over Cmaj7, I’m using the Em7 version of the phrase.

The other place the phrase shows up is at the beginning of Dm7—and again, because it just flows naturally, I let the last note become the root of a Dm7 arpeggio.

Remember, if you want the tabs for the ii–V–I lick and the Parker exercise, I added them to the same free PDF—link in the description.

Ok, now you’ve got two ways to build vocabulary: from arpeggios, and from a real lick.

But here’s where this becomes actual improvising: we’re going to take the exercise and plug it into a real progression—a II–V–I—so it starts sounding like a solo, not just an exercise.

Turn The Exercise Into Improvisation

Now let’s take that Parker lick and put it where you’ll actually use it: over an II–V–I in C.

Here are the three “home base” versions—one for each chord.

Dm7

Next is the V chord: G7

And finally the I: Cmaj7

Now it is important to also practice this in time, so you can hear how it actually sounds in the music

This is how vocabulary starts showing up in your solos automatically.

And already from just this, you can create a solid line. Notice how the G7 version is shifted by an eighth note—that little rhythmic displacement gives it a bit of extra bebop flavor.

If you want my help turning exercises into real lines inside songs—so you’re not guessing what to practice next—that’s exactly what we do in my Roadmap Course. I’ll show you what to practice, how to apply it to standards, and you can get feedback on your progress in the course community. Link’s in the description.

Ok—bonus tip. If you want this to sound even more like jazz with almost no extra work, here’s the “from the 3rd” version.

From the 3rd just means: build the same phrase starting on the 3rd of each chord. It keeps the same sound—and they’re still solid licks.

Doing this gives us one of my favorite sounds on Dm7.

On Dm7, the 3rd is F, so the “from the 3rd” phrase is the F version:

on Dm7

On G7, the 3rd is B, so we use the B version:

And on Cmaj7, the 3rd is E, so we use the E version:

Now take that through the II–V–I:

And the best part is you can connect this to your other lines really easily—especially that F phrase on Dm7. Listen to how perfectly it sits on the chord.

So that’s the whole idea: music first, exercise second.

Build a phrase, move it through the key, then plug it into a progression so it becomes real vocabulary.

The “Boring” Triad Exercise

And if you want the simplest version of this—something you can practice today that immediately shows up in your solos—your next step is triads.

Check out this video! It’s one of the fastest ways to get that real jazz sound, and it’s all over classic jazz solos—Joe Pass, Wes, Benson. Everywhere!

Check it out!

Learn Jazz Make Music

This “Boring” Triad Exercise Will Save You Years! (But Most Ignore It)

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