In plain words
A half-diminished chord sits on top of a dominant seventh: its root is the dominant’s third. G half-diminished (G B♭ D♭ F) is built on the third of E♭7. So where the sheet says G half-diminished to C7, Barry played E♭7, not a G minor idea, and then changed to C. A minor ii-V becomes one dominant scale and a note of arrival on the C7.
A run he liked starts E♭7 on its root, adds one half step between the root and the ♭7, and runs down to E, the third of C. He liked it because the line has the E♭ itself in it, not just the D♭. In his scale outline of Indiana the same move appears as ‘E♭7 up and down to the third of C’.
The 1998 workshop, part 30:001:13Scales on Indiana in A-flat, part 11:08
A m7♭5 also names its key at once. A minor seventh belongs to three keys, but a m7♭5 to only one, so a B half-diminished in the left hand means C major: play the C major scale, then change to the E7 it goes to. Barry wanted you to know immediately where a half-diminished chord comes from. His reason for the whole approach was simple: if he believed in sevenths, he had to find a way to play everything with them.
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are4:395:14Stella by Starlight10:30Scales on Indiana in A-flat, part 15:48
Barry had another name for the same chord. From Monk he took ‘a minor chord with its sixth in the bass’: G half-diminished is B♭ minor with G underneath. On Star Eyes, at a spot where most players think G half-diminished, he used the B♭ minor sixth diminished scale instead.
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are6:006:34Star Eyes: a minor sixth for the half-diminished0:00
Step by step
Name the dominant: the root of the half-diminished chord is that dominant’s third. G half-diminished → E♭7; B half-diminished → G7.
Barry’s run: start the dominant on its root, put one half step between the root and the ♭7, and run down to the third of the V.
G half-diminished → C7: E♭7 down to E- E♭
- D
- D♭
- C
- B♭
- A♭
- G
- F
- E
Over two bars, run the dominant scale up to its ♭7 and back down, ending on the V’s third instead of the root.
G half-diminished | C7: E♭7 up and down to E- E♭
- F
- G
- A♭
- B♭
- C
- D♭
- C
- B♭
- A♭
- G
- F
- E
E half-diminished | A7: C7 up and down to C♯ (Howard Rees)- C
- D
- E
- F
- G
- A
- B♭
- A
- G
- F
- E
- D
- C♯
Scales on Indiana in A-flat, part 11:08Jazz School Online (Howard Rees), Glossary of Terms ¶7Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), What is this scale called: Charlie Parker ¶6Howard Rees, Part 1: Scales & Chords / Part 2: Scale Rules ¶9
Read the key from the chord: a m7♭5 is the seventh degree of one major key only, the key whose V is the dominant you just named (B half-diminished → C major; G half-diminished → A♭ major).
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are4:39Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶48Vera Marijt (research coach Jarmo Hoogendijk), Barry Harris: Exploring the Diminished (MA research paper) ¶91
an added note, outside the scale
How he said to practise it
Learn tunes as chains of scales and write them out in a manuscript book. Barry’s outline of the last 16 bars of Indiana includes ‘E♭7 up and down to the third of C’ and ‘F minor up, E♭7 down to the third of C’, played in time with the band.
Quiz yourself as Barry quizzed his class: for any half-diminished chord, name the seventh chord to play against it straight away.
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
When you see a half diminished, you’ve got to know what 7 to play against it.
Remember that a half diminished is found on the third of the dominant.
A minor 7 flat 5 is in one key.
See, if I’m going to believe in sevens, I have to find a way to play everything.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it10 moments in 6 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Scales on Indiana in A-flat, part 1
The 1998 workshop, part 3
Student performances and coaching
- 35:31
On a half-diminished he plays E♭7 into C7, then E♭7 into F♯7, the tritone.
The C minor seventh in All the Things You Are
Stella by Starlight
- 10:30
Whenever you play a half-diminished you must know at once where it comes from.
Star Eyes: a minor sixth for the half-diminished
- 0:00
Star Eyes: plays the B♭ minor sixth diminished scale where most would think G half-diminished.
From the lessons2 lessons, 7 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Put the ii chord away: think of the dominant
- Idea
Barry compared a jazz performance to classical music: it is a whole, not a bar-by-bar affair. You can’t think of it as one measure of C minor 7 to F7; sometimes the B-flat major comes in early, or the F7 does. He said he didn’t believe in ii chords at all and that they should all be put away.
- Idea
Barry said the important minor chord is always found on the fifth of the dominant. F-sharp minor 6 is found on the fifth of B, which tells you the F-sharp minor belongs to the B7. That is why, he said, you can’t really practise F-sharp minor 7 to B7: if it is B7, you practise B7. He felt this was taught wrongly and wished he could hold a big session with all the teachers.
- Idea
Barry admitted he used to say there was no such thing as a half-diminished chord, until someone corrected him. He passed on Monk’s view: Monk never called it half-diminished or minor 7 flat 5, but a minor chord with its sixth in the bass. D half-diminished, for example, is just F minor with D, its sixth, in the bass. So the progression is not II-V but minor IV to V to I. In the same way, D minor 7 is really the major IV going to V to I.
- Idea
Why play E-flat 7 in bars where the sheet says G half-diminished to C7? Because G half-diminished is the chord built on the third of E-flat 7. So Barry played the E-flat 7 scale there, not a G minor idea, and then changed to C. His rule: when you see a half-diminished chord, play the seventh chord whose third is its root. He quizzed his class on other half-diminished chords this way, and said that if he believes in sevenths he has to find a way to play everything with sevenths.
- Exercise
A run Barry said he likes when playing over what the caption suggests is a G half-diminished: take E-flat 7, start on the root, put one half step between the root and the seventh, and run down to the third of C. He wanted the E-flat itself in the line, not just the D-flat.
Indiana in A flat: learning a tune through its scales
- Exercise
The last 16 bars of Indiana in A flat as scales: A flat major up and down, landing on the third of F; B flat 7 up and down; E flat 7 up and down to the third of C; F minor up, E flat 7 down to the third of C (twice); F minor up, B flat 7 down to the third of G; then A flat major up, E flat 7 up, twice.
- Idea
The method is to turn the chords into scales run up, down, or up and down, several of them landing on a target note such as the third of a chord. Barry presents it as a way into any piece: take any tune you want to learn and you can at least learn its scales from it.
Scales on Indiana in A-flat, part 11:08
In writing6 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Tom Cleary explains Barry’s minor ii-V as one seventh scale starting a major third below the ii’s root, a minor third above the V’s root, played up and down. It fits the m7♭5 without leaning on its root, and ending the descent a half step above the scale’s root outlines a diminished chord that acts as a rootless V.
Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), What is this scale called: Charlie Parker ¶4Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), What is this scale called: Charlie Parker ¶5
Cleary hears the ‘seven down to the third’ run in Charlie Parker’s solos on What Is This Thing Called Love and Hot House over the C7♭9, and in Barry’s own playing on At the Jazz Workshop: through the minor ii-Vs of Woody’n You and over the Gm7♭5–C7♭9 of Is You Is.
Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), What is this scale called: Charlie Parker ¶7Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), What is this scale called: Charlie Parker ¶12Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), What is this scale called: Charlie Parker ¶13
For a one-bar minor ii-V the same scale can go up (‘seven up’) or down; going down, the last note is raised a half step. Cleary links this to Monk calling the half-diminished chord a minor sixth chord with the sixth in the bass.
Tom Cleary (University of Vermont), Midnight Donna and Reets in Paris: anagrams ¶11
Harry Likas reports that Barry called this scale ‘the minor’s five’. It is learned not up from its root but down from its seventh to the third of the dominant, with an added note that keeps chord tones on the beat.
Vera Marijt spells out why it works: G half-diminished is the E♭7 scale started on G, because a half-diminished chord is the seventh degree of a major key (here A♭), whose dominant is E♭7.
Howard Rees’s practice chart pairs dominant scales for minor ii-Vs: E♭ dominant into C dominant for Gm7♭5–C7, G♭ dominant into E♭ dominant for B♭m7♭5–E♭7, and so on round the family.
How other teachers explain it9 videos, 2 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- TILF Barry Harris Ep 38 Creating lines on Minor II V.
Creating lines on the minor ii-V (Things I’ve Learned From Barry Harris, ep. 38).
14 min, transcript On YouTube
- Must Know Minor 2-5’s EP 159 TILF Barry Harris
Must-know minor 2-5s (ep. 159, from the title).
14 min, transcript On YouTube
- A Minor 7b5 is Beautiful EP 86 TILF Barry Harris
‘A Minor 7b5 is Beautiful’ (ep. 86, from the title).
15 min, transcript On YouTube
- Barry Harris Method: Importance of Scales (Minor ii-V-i) ()
Scales over the minor ii-V-i in Barry’s method (from the title).
8 min On YouTube
- Jazz Mandolin Instruction Barry Harris Half Diminished Chord Pete Martin
The half-diminished chord, for mandolin (from the title).
5 min On YouTube
- Jazz Mandolin Instruction Barry Harris Minor II V I Pete Martin
Minor ii-V-I, for mandolin (from the title).
10 min On YouTube
- The Barry Harris approach to minor II V’s
The Barry Harris approach to minor ii-Vs (from the title).
11 min On YouTube
- Minor ii-V is SO SIMPLE With This Barry Harris Method
13 min On YouTube
- The Barry Harris Harmonic Method For Classical Pianists Lesson 15 Movement Over m7b5 Chords
Movement over a m7♭5 chord, for classical pianists (from the title).
12 min On YouTube
In the teaching series
Episodes on this idea in the long series by other teachers. Each name opens that whole series in order.
Read further5 links
These open on the web.
Free to read
- Tom Cleary, BirdFeed blog: ‘Charlie Parker, Barry Harris and the minor ii-V’ (Eb7 up and down to the 3rd of C over Gm7b5-C7)
other teacher (Univ. of Vermont) — Tom Cleary on ‘E♭7 up and down to the 3rd of C’, with Parker’s and Barry’s own uses transcribed.
- jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Barry Harris’s opinion of harmonic minor scale?
— Forum thread on why Barry preferred the dominant scale (‘the minor’s five’) to the harmonic minor here.
- researchcatalogue.net
— Vera Marijt’s thesis: the E♭7–C7 relationship and transcribed examples from Barry’s workshops.
- Howard Rees, Jazz Workshops
— Howard Rees’s chart of which dominant scales to run over which minor ii-Vs.
Books and paid courses
- The Barry Harris Workshop Video (Part 1), Howard Rees / Jazz Workshop Productions: 4+ hours, 5 clinic segments + 102-112 page workbook (ABCs, scales on song forms, movable chords, rhythm section, vocalizing)
Barry himself (produced and transcribed by Howard Rees) — Barry on video with Rees’s workbook (paid; contents free).