Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner - Non Classical The Barry Harris Workshop Video - opinions

Anybody check this out? I have been laid up for a couple of weeks so I started watching it, wondering what other people think of it.

A link would help so we don't have to hunt around trying to find what you're talking about.

Here is a link to the DVD I am referring to. It does say best seller...

http://www.jazzbooks.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=JAJAZZ&Product_Code=D238

Thanks for the link. I'm not familiar with it, but I looked at the sample pages.

The sample page Ch1-18 impressed me because it's similar to my explanation of diminished chords in my own book so thumbs up on that! The rest of the sample pages did not stand out as anything special

There are no audio or video samples, so it's impossible to tell how effective the materials are at teaching. At $100, it seems kind of steep, especially not knowing how good it is. Then again, the best jazz teachers in the Bay Area charge $100/hour, so ....

When it comes to learning jazz or music, the materials are pretty much the same no matter who you look at. The key is how effective the teacher is: are they giving you the right kinds of exercises and are they presenting it in the right light? Or are they giving you a bunch of irrelevant or vague stuff? Do they actually know how to teach, or do they just know how to play?

Here are some posts on my blog about Barry Harris and his system.

http://www.polishookstudio.com/2013/08/barry-harris-and-ideas.html
http://www.polishookstudio.com/2013/08/barry-harris-part-2.html
http://www.polishookstudio.com/2013/09/jazz-piano-and-symmetry-and-arnold.html

I'm not sure from the discussion so far that it's clear but Barry Harris is considered one of the major teachers in the jazz tradition. He's from Detroit originally and pretty much anyone who came from Detroit from the 1950s on studied with him or at least absorbed what he was teaching.

He's easily one of the best bebop pianists in the jazz tradition. I list some of his recordings in my blog posts. I attended his classes at the Jazz Mobile in NYC quite a long time ago. He's been teaching classes on improvisation in NYC for years in any number of venues and he goes around the world teaching and performing regularly.

I haven't seen his videos so I can't comment on them directly. Except maybe to say that they're worth watching and thinking about if only for the fact that he's a major, major figure in jazz and so if nothing else they're an historical record. A little research on the internet will bring up a long, long list of very well known musicians whom Barry Harris taught and influenced. Joe Henderson, John Coltrane, Roland Hanna, and a million others.

Here's an article Downbeat re-published for his 82nd birthday.

http://tedpanken.wordpress.com/2011...d-birthday-a-downbeat-article-from-2000/

RonL I'm not at all commenting on his system or what he's teaching in the video or what you'll learn from it. Any video by anyone on any subject is a "your mileage may vary kind of thing." But am pointing out all above because with Barry Harris, because of his experience and stature, well, you have a tiger by the tail. He played with Charlie Parker, he was a very close friend of Thelonious Monk, the recordings on which he's played have pretty much a who's who of jazz. If you're interested in hearing a "how-to" of bebop from someone who was there and is considered to be one of the major pianists of his time, well then you've got the right video.

Hope this helps!

Thanks Mark. I know a bit about Mr Harris and I recently caught his solo piano gig at the Carnegie recital hall. I have been hearing about his teaching system for years, Dave Hazeltine is a disciple.

I am looking forward to reading your blog, looks very cool.

Ron, sounds like you're a member of the choir! I hope you soon return to a non-laid up state. But in the meantime my blog THRIVES on new readers

I haven't yet watched the BH video because I just haven't gotten around to it. But basically my opinion would be why NOT watch it if you have the opportunity. The more we see and do and the more we learn. If you do watch it eventually I'd be very interested to hear what you think, what you learn, etc.

DH is a a great player ... another piece of the puzzle

I would point out that there's a rather big difference between personal mentoring sessions and a video tutorial. Not to say that the Harris DVD is poor (I have no way of knowing), just to say that it most likely will not deliver what you would have gotten with a personal tutorship.

I bought them from Amazon a couple of months ago after meeting Mr. Harris last year. They're awesome....highly recommend!!

I am on the third of the four DVD's - the first DVD covered The ABC's and it was great to hear the theory coming straight from the master as it were. I do wish it went a little slower and provided a few more examples of some of the concepts. Sometimes it felt like he spent a lot of time on a simple concept then breezed over something I found tricky.

For example the use of chromatics on the dominant scale - I think the Baker Bebop book does a better job covering the ground with a lot more examples and exercises.

I enjoyed what I have seen so far - Barry is great -
Like the Buddhists say there are many paths to the same goal.

Rod did you also pick up his follow up DVD set?

Yes, I have them both. It's a lot to cover....

Good stuff.

Here's an amazing video - The 1965 Berlin Jazz Workshop with Bill Evans, Jaki Byard, Earl Hines and more

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=511CdCaTMPs