Technical Mastery Musicians who utilize this method often report a significant increase in technical facility. Because the exercises force the player to use "awkward" finger combinations (e.g., jumping from a low note to a high note involving many keys), it equalizes the dexterity of the fingers. It eliminates the "weakness" of specific digits.
Ear Training The method is not just physical; it is aural. To play an interval like a Major 7th accurately, the player must hear it internally before executing it. By practicing these intervals in all keys, the player internalizes the sound of "vertical" harmony while playing "horizontal" lines.
Breaking Patterns A common pitfall in jazz improvisation is "muscle memory" playing, where the hands automatically run familiar patterns. The Intervallistic Concept disrupts this. Because the intervals change constantly, the player cannot rely on automated muscle memory; they must actively think and hear, leading to more conscious, melodic improvisation.
Eddie Harris passed away in 1996, but his Intervallistic Concept is experiencing a renaissance. In the 2020s, as musicians tire of formulaic "smooth jazz" and modal clichés, the raw, mathematical beauty of interval cycles is refreshing.
Artists like Steve Lehman, Kamasi Washington, and even avant-garde guitarists like Mary Halvorson utilize techniques directly traceable to Harris’s 1970s booklet.
The Eddie Harris Intervallistic Concept PDF is not just a collection of finger exercises. It is a philosophical manifesto: Melody is the horizontalization of vertical intervals.
Whether you play saxophone, trumpet, guitar, or piano, the Intervallistic Concept is universal. Here is how to apply it without the PDF using Harris’s logic: eddie harris intervallistic concept pdf
Step 1: The 5-Note Cell Forget the 8-note scale. Practice a 5-note cell based on Perfect 4ths: C - F - Bb - Eb - Ab.
Step 2: The Chromatic Bridge Connect that cell to the next one by a half step: Ab - A - D - G - C.
Step 3: Improvisation Solo over a ii-V-I progression (Dm7-G7-Cmaj7). Play only the intervals from Step 1. You are now playing "Intervallistically." You will hit "wrong" notes (like Ab over Dm7), but because they are generated by a strict 4th cycle, they will sound like calculated tension, not mistakes.
Most players avoid half-steps because they sound "dissonant." Harris embraces them.
Jazz is heavily based on syncopation and rhythmic displacement. By breaking away from step-wise scale motion and adopting Harris's Intervallistic Concept, your lines will naturally become more angular, surprising, and melodic. It is the exact concept used by modern jazz giants like Mark Turner, Chris Potter, and Kurt Rosenwinkel, even if they don't explicitly call it by Harris's name.
Tip: If you want to see this concept in action before buying the book, go to YouTube and search for "Eddie Harris live 1970s." Listen to how rarely he plays consecutive scale tones; he is constantly leaping by 4ths, 5ths, and 6ths. Technical Mastery Musicians who utilize this method often
The Eddie Harris Intervallistic Concept PDF is not a standard textbook. Here is why musicians scour forums and databases for it:
Note on Availability: Due to copyright held by the Harris estate, the original PDF is not legally available for free on most public domains. However, the knowledge of the concept has been transcribed and discussed in depth by jazz educators like David Baker and Jerry Coker, and reprints occasionally surface through educational archives.
Core Idea:
Instead of thinking in scales or chords, the improviser builds melodies and lines using intervals (the distance between two notes) as the primary building blocks. This frees the player from predictable scale patterns.
Key Principles:
Non-Scalar Melodic Development
Fingerboard/Key Agility
Chromatic Intervallic Exercises
Application to Improvisation
To understand the Eddie Harris method, you must forget the key signature.
Traditional jazz education relies on the "diatonic system" (Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do). When a traditional musician sees a Cm7 chord, they play a C Dorian scale. Harris argued that this creates predictable, "inside" playing.
The Intervallistic Concept is defined by three core tenets: