Artists like Steve Lehman, Kamasi Washington, and even avant-garde guitarists like Mary Halvorson utilize techniques directly traceable to Harris’s 1970s booklet.
He practices cycles of a fixed interval (e.g., ascending major 3rds: C–E–G#–C) without regard to key center. This builds "intervallic ear training" and fingerboard/vocabulary freedom. eddie harris intervallistic concept pdf
Most players avoid half-steps because they sound "dissonant." Harris embraces them. Artists like Steve Lehman, Kamasi Washington, and even
Traditional jazz pedagogy often prioritizes "running the scales"—matching specific modes to chord changes. Harris’s "Intervallistic Concept" challenges this by focusing on intervals as the primary building blocks of melody. He famously posited that "there are no wrong intervals if played in succession," suggesting that any note can function within a harmonic context if the intervallic logic remains consistent. This philosophy encourages musicians to think in wide leaps—fourths, fifths, and beyond—rather than stepwise motion, a technique central to his masterpiece "Freedom Jazz Dance". Structural Breakdown of the Method Most players avoid half-steps because they sound "dissonant
Harris organizes the study by intervallic distance:
Artists like Steve Lehman, Kamasi Washington, and even avant-garde guitarists like Mary Halvorson utilize techniques directly traceable to Harris’s 1970s booklet.
He practices cycles of a fixed interval (e.g., ascending major 3rds: C–E–G#–C) without regard to key center. This builds "intervallic ear training" and fingerboard/vocabulary freedom.
Most players avoid half-steps because they sound "dissonant." Harris embraces them.
Traditional jazz pedagogy often prioritizes "running the scales"—matching specific modes to chord changes. Harris’s "Intervallistic Concept" challenges this by focusing on intervals as the primary building blocks of melody. He famously posited that "there are no wrong intervals if played in succession," suggesting that any note can function within a harmonic context if the intervallic logic remains consistent. This philosophy encourages musicians to think in wide leaps—fourths, fifths, and beyond—rather than stepwise motion, a technique central to his masterpiece "Freedom Jazz Dance". Structural Breakdown of the Method
Harris organizes the study by intervallic distance:
