is one of the most legendary, challenging, and forward-thinking instructional methods in the history of modern jazz improvisation. For decades, single-line wind players, saxophonists, and contemporary composers have chased down this massive, multi-volume system to break free from standard, scalar ways of playing.
These leaps are awkward; prioritize tone quality over speed.
Harris designed the book to be small and portable, intended for the musician to "carry around with him at all times".
Harris's philosophy is famously encapsulated in a series of "Eddieisms" found in his book, which are deceptively simple. They include the ideas that "There are no wrong intervals if played in succession," "There are no wrong chords, only wrong progressions," and "There are no wrong notes, only wrong connections.". These principles form the very core of his Intervallistic Concept, in which any interval, no matter how unconventional, can be made to sound logical and beautiful if connected properly.
Harris wanted players to be completely fluid across the register break of the saxophone. Practice moving standard triads up by a fourth or fifth rather than a step. eddie harris intervallistic concept pdf patched
Intervallistic Concept By Eddie Harris - Jamey Aebersold Jazz
If your solos sound like exercises, this concept forces you to break scale-based playing.
Harris developed exercises where the student practices these triads in all 12 keys. The goal is to stop thinking "I am playing a D Major scale" and start hearing the intervallic relationship (the 9, #11, 13) against the drone of the root.
Harris argued that if you only think in scales, your ear follows the alphabet (A-B-C-D-E). You sound like a student. But if you think in intervals—thirds, fourths, tritones, sevenths—you break the linear habit. A perfect fourth up, then a minor second down, then a major sixth up. That leap creates a shape , not a run. is one of the most legendary, challenging, and
: Check Worldcat.org to see if a university library near you holds a physical copy of the manuscript.
Perhaps the most legendary exercise in the book is a final instruction to turn the book upside down and play the patterns backward. This radical approach forces the brain to break free of visual pattern recognition and listen purely to the aural relationships between tones.
Instead of thinking vertically (stacks of notes forming chords), Harris proposed thinking horizontally via intervals . He argued that any chord could be navigated not by its parent scale, but by the intervals created between the chord tones and the extensions.
The original printing was divided across separate sections (sometimes sold as Books I, II, and III bound together). Unofficial digital copies often suffered from missing pages, duplicated exercises, or sections placed entirely out of logical order. "Patched" PDFs stitch these fragments back into a coherent 1-to-180+ page master file. 3. The Core Ideology: The "Eddieisms" Harris designed the book to be small and
However, musicians should approach the "patched" PDF world with caution. Using a low-quality scan can be a frustrating experience, filled with blurry notation that is difficult to read. More importantly, distributing or downloading a copyrighted PDF without permission is a legal and ethical gray area. The copyright for the material is owned by the publisher. While the official book is available, seeking out a "patched" PDF constitutes an act of .
, and remained out of print and highly sought after for decades. It was later republished (around 2006) by Seventh House Ltd., though physical copies remain rare in the used market. The "Patched" Digital Version
The original "Skips" book is the primary source. Look for physical copies or, in some cases, digital scans in PDF format available on reputable musical score platforms.
He printed the PDF, scrawled “Anchor + Rhythm + Glue” on the cover, and slipped it into his case.
Harris provides exact technical studies designed to expand a woodwind player's upper register smoothly, maintaining pitch accuracy during giant interval leaps.