Barry Harris was adamant in his belief that chords are derived from scales, rather than the other way around. He taught that each degree of a scale has a chord built upon it constructed in ascending 3rds, and when instructing beginning students on how to find chords, he would first have them play a scale, and then have them play a note from the scale and say “Now skip a note, skip a note,” resulting in triads. The same process would go for building four note chords.

When Barry used the term “Chord” it referred to a four note chord (i.e. Cmaj7, Dm7, G7…) When he used the term “Arpeggio,” he referred to a triad with the bottom note doubled on top.

Below are a series of chord based exercises Barry would expect students to know in all 12 keys.

Demonstrate scale in thirds, triads, chords