Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 8: Thinking dominant

Don’t think altered, think family

Episode 112 · 9:55 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris explains altered dominants through Barry’s dominant family. From one diminished chord, lowering each note in turn gives four dominants, and raising each note gives the four minor sixth chords built on their fifths. That is why A flat minor 6 diminished works over G7, and why the sharp 9, flat 5 and ninth all belong to G7’s family.

Step by step

  1. 0:00An altered dominant is one whose ninth or fifth is raised or lowered.
  2. 1:14Recall Barry’s order: chromatic scale, two whole-tone scales, three diminished chords; G7 comes from one of the three.
  3. 1:48From A flat diminished, lower one note at a time: A flat to G gives G7, D to D flat gives D flat 7, F to E gives E7, B to B flat gives B flat 7.
  4. 2:24Raise a note instead and you get the minor 6 on the fifth of each dominant: A flat up to A gives D minor 6, on the fifth of G7.
  5. 3:01D up to E flat gives A flat minor 6, F up to F sharp gives B minor 6, and B up to C gives F minor 6.
  6. 4:17Over G7 flat 9 sharp 5, rather than A flat melodic minor, play the A flat minor 6 diminished scale, because G7 and A flat minor 6 are family.
  7. 5:22The A flat minor 6 diminished scale holds both the melodic and the harmonic minor.
  8. 5:57Comping D minor to G7: play F6 diminished for D minor, then A flat minor 6 for G7.
  9. 7:07The sharp 9 (B flat) and the flat 5 (D flat) are roots of family dominants.
  10. 7:45G9 is D minor 6 over G, the minor 6 on the fifth, from the same diminished.

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Ab dim1:48
𝄞♭
C3BC4DFA♭
  1. A♭
  2. B
  3. D
  4. F

Barry’s own words on this

8.3 Four dominants from every diminished chord9.7 The important minor and the tritone’s minor (minor 6 dim over a dominant)8.4 Playing with the family

In the course

Barry’s creation theoryThe family of dominantsMinor 6 chords from the diminishedDon’t think altered, think familyThe minor 6 diminished scaleThe minor 6 on the fifth: don’t think C9Barry gives you the why

Transcript

  1. 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 112 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. And today I thought we would talk about the topic of altered dominance. So I think the definition of an altered dominant is the 9 being raised or lowered or the 5th being raised or lowered. so either sharp 5, sharp 9, or a flat 9, flat 5, or a flat 9, raise 5, whichever, or raise 9, whichever way you want to go with it.
  2. 0:33But what I find the most interesting is, according to, and I don’t know if I have this correct, but according to most theories it’s this kind of separate thing where they say well you can use these particular intervals because it gives you this particular sound this altered sound but what I find fascinating with berries is berries gives you a why like why can we alter these sounds why can we alter these notes? Why does that work? So I thought we would use as an example just a normal G7.
  3. 1:14Now, if you’re a Barry person, you know the hierarchy of chords basically is you got your chromatic scale, which was the universe, then the universe breaks apart into two whole tone scales, which is beautiful, and then from the two whole tone scales, you take two notes from one whole tone scale and two notes from another and you create a diminished. You can do that three times. So this G7 comes from one of those three diminishes because this is how we find out how we get all the different dominants that belong to one particular diminished.
  4. 1:48Let’s say we took A-flat diminished, and the way we find all the dominants that come from that one diminished is we lower a note at a time. So the first note we lowered was A-flat to G, that gives you G7. The next note we lowered is going to be D to D-flat, that gives you D-flat 7. The next note we lower is going to be F to E. That gives you E7. The next note we lower is the top note, which would be B, and you lower it to B-flat, and then you have B-flat 7. So you see, there’s your four dominants, or your four family members.
  5. 2:24You’ve got G7, B-flat 7, D-flat 7, and E7. Now that’s one interesting thing that you can do with it, and there are people that discuss that. But the other interesting thing that I’ve never heard anybody else discuss is if you take that same A-flat diminished and you raise a note, what’s interesting is you get the four minor sixes that are connected to those dominants, meaning the minor six that’s found on the fifth. So for instance, if we raise the Ab a half step, now we get D minor 6 to A. Now we get D minor 6.
  6. 3:01D minor 6 is the minor 6 found on the 5th of G7. It’s beautiful. So there’s your D minor 6. Then if we raise, let’s say, the D up a half step to Eb, now we get Ab minor 6, which is also beautiful. which is the minor 6 on the fifth of D flat 7. Then you’re going to raise the F natural to F sharp. And now you’re going to get B minor 6, which is beautiful also. And that B minor 6 is the minor 6 found on the fifth of E7.
  7. 3:41The last one is going to be raising B to C. And now you get F minor 6. It’s beautiful. So now you have all of these family members. You have the four dominants, and you have the four minor sixes that are connected with those dominants. Okay, so what do we do with that information? Well, now you know if I play a chord like G7, I guess it would be called G7 flat nine, sharp five.
  8. 4:17So there’s a flat 9, there’s a sharp 5. This flat 9 is on top, sharp 5. Now you can think, and I know people think, well, the scale that we play on that is we played the melodic minor. That’s a half step above the G7. So that would be A flat melodic minor. That’s A flat melodic minor. That’s great. And those notes are correct. But that doesn’t tell you everything. and it doesn’t tell you why. I’ve heard many teachers talk about,
  9. 4:49well, you just play the melodic minor half step up from G7 and then you get those pretty notes. But it doesn’t tell you why. Barry’s system tells you why. Because G7 and A flat minor 6 come from the same diminished. So they’re family. So it makes total sense. So now, instead of saying I wouldn’t say to play Ab melodic minor, I would say to play Ab minor 6 diminished scale, one of Barry’s four scales.
  10. 5:22So I would say to play this scale, because within that you’re going to have the melodic minor, but you’re also going to have the harmonic minor. You’re going to have both. So as far as I can tell, which scale would be greater? The melodic minor, or the harmonic minor, or the minor 6 diminished, which has both of those scales in it, and explains why you can use it over G7? I don’t think there’s a question.
  11. 5:57That’s the answer. The answer is Ab-minor 6. So you’ve got to be able to know your Ab-minor 6, which why if you play all your you know drop two stuff or if you play your if you play your contrary motion stuff it’s gonna sound beautiful over that’s all do let’s say if I’m playing D minor G7 when I’m courting I’m thinking look here’s F6 diminished for D minor now here’s A flat minor 6 Really pretty. Those are really important things.
  12. 6:31So what I find is Barry gives you the why, where nobody else does. Not at least as far as I’ve ever heard. I just hear people all the time say, oh, on this chord, you just throw this scale on top of it. Why? Where did melodic minor come from all of a sudden? I don’t know. Why do we put it on top of G7? Well, it gives us those, the altered sounds. Correct, it does. but it doesn’t tell you why. Why does that go with that? Barry’s system tells you why. It makes perfect sense. And also when you’re chording it makes sense. So another one that people
  13. 7:07do is let’s say the sharp 9. Now the sharp 9 is a pretty note. And all that is if you want to think about it is go back to your G7. If you think about the sharp 9 that’s a Bb. And isn’t Bb one of the dominant family members. You got G7, you got Bb7, you got Db7, you got E7. There’s another family member. So there’s your sharp 9. What about the flat 5? Flat 5 is the same thing, right? Because we have G7, we have G7, Bb7, Db. There’s your flat 5.
  14. 7:45So you see how Barry’s system of seeing it from, starting from the diminished, looking at the diminished breaking into dominant, four dominance and four minor sixes, you see how it gives you all the answers to basically every every alteration you’re gonna have. Let’s say we want to just do G9, that’s G9, that means it has an A in it. Well the G9 happens to be also D minor six and D minor six is one of the important minors found on the fifth of G7 which the D
  15. 8:23minor six came from that same a flat diminished to. There you go. So it’s amazing that this one concept of starting at chromatic scale leading to two whole tones leading to the three diminishes and then each diminished you find its dominant family members and you find its minor six family members. When you start to look at music like that, then you also have the why. And I don’t know why the why is so empowering, but it certainly is. It beats having a teacher tell you, oh, don’t even think about it, just play this
  16. 9:07scale over that and it’s going to work. And melodic minor does work. Of course it does work over, over a G7. A-flat, melodic, minor works beautifully. And I love the notes of A-flat, melodic, minor. But I love A-flat, minor, six, diminished more. Because it’s got that flat six in it, too. I love it more than melodic and harmonic. I love it. Not to say that you shouldn’t practice those. I get it. You should. But at least if you learn this, you learn where the source is. I think. I’ve never heard it disputed.
  17. 9:40So. Anyway, just a little quick one. in talking about instead of thinking altered dominant, I want everybody to start thinking just playing with family. Playing with family members. Until next time.