In plain words
The four dominants of a family share one diminished chord, so Barry used them in each other’s place. Over E♭7 he would play A7; while the pianist played B♭ minor to E♭7, he ran E♭7 into A7. Asking a pianist for a C7, he had him hold just two notes of it and set A, C and E♭ triads on top: that, he said, is family.
Bird’s D7 line on Indiana2:54Tritone lines on Indiana and Embraceable You0:00Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished9:109:4410:15
He also wanted the four run into each other, and each pairing has a use. E♭7 into C7 is how he plays G half-diminished to C7, since E♭7 holds the G half-diminished. C7 into A7 covers E half-diminished to A7. E♭7 into F♯7 takes you into the tritone of C7, which he said starts another thing altogether. If you can’t run A7 into C7 and back, he told a class, you aren’t practising the music.
Other pairs have their own reasons. Barry linked B7 into D7 to a ii going to a iv minor, which he heard in When Sunny Gets Blue; B7 into F7 is the tritone pair. Horn players especially should practise these, he said: a pianist can play the chord and hear the outside sound, but a horn player has to learn it without hearing the harmony underneath.
Step by step
Over one dominant, any of its three relatives fits: over C7, use E♭7, F♯7 or A7 lines. With chords, keep two notes of the dominant and put a relative’s triad on top.
A triad over C7- A
- C♯
- E
C triad over C7- C
- E
- G
E♭ triad over C7 (add E next to the E♭)- E♭
- G
- B♭
Bird’s D7 line on Indiana2:54Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished9:1010:15Triads in the dominant family0:03
Run one dominant scale into another of its family, choosing the pair for the progression: E♭7 into C7 for G half-diminished–C7; C7 into A7 for E half-diminished–A7; or into a tritone (E♭7 into F♯7, the tritone of C7; A7 into E♭7), which Barry said starts something else altogether.
Student performances and coaching35:3136:0536:38Howard Rees, Chord Explorations ¶42
The switch need not fall on the barline: because the scales are so close, you can start a phrase on one and finish it on another.
Howard Rees, Chord Explorations ¶14Howard Rees, Chord Explorations ¶41
How he said to practise it
Run the four dominant scales of a family into each other, in both directions: A7 into C7 and C7 into A7, A7 into E♭7, E♭7 into C7, F♯7 into E♭7.
Know why you are running each pair, not just how: Barry asked his class why he would run E♭7 into C7, then showed it over G half-diminished.
Horn players: practise B7 into D7 and B7 into F7, and try a relative over a written dominant (A7 over E♭7, then on into D7), learning them even without the chords sounding underneath.
In Barry’s words
Each one plays from the moment he says it. Every other moment he teaches it is listed below.
If you don’t know how to run A7 into C7 or C7 into A7, then you aren’t practicing the music.
Why would I run... [E♭7] into C7? You got to know why.
There’s a family, a family of four... The children play with each other first.
There’s a reason for you practicing the four sevens to go together.
Where this comes from
Everything above is drawn from these. Open any one to check it.
Every moment he teaches it11 moments in 6 recordings
Each time opens the transcript there; the video plays when you are online.
Student performances and coaching
Bird’s D7 line on Indiana
Tritone lines on Indiana and Embraceable You
- 0:00
Over the pianist’s B♭m7–E♭7, a phrase that runs E♭7 into A7.
Jazz theory, part 3: four dominants from one diminished
Triads in the dominant family
- 0:03
Short clip: just play the A triad, the C triad, even the E♭ over C.
Introducing the sixth diminished scale
- 13:41
D7’s relatives F7, A♭7, B7: their triads sound right with the chord because family.
From the lessons2 lessons, 5 points
Notes taken from Barry’s classes, each tied to the moment it comes from.
Swapping dominants within the family
- Idea
Barry called the minor third the most important interval of all. Major thirds are good too, since the whole-tone scale is built from them, but the diminished chord gives you minor thirds. The major keys C, E-flat, F-sharp and A are brothers and sisters, one family: C’s family includes E-flat, E-flat’s includes F-sharp, and so on.
Jazz theory, part 1: key families a minor third apart4:58
- Idea
Barry treated E-flat 7 and C7 as one family: E-flat 7, he said, stands for C7, and when he plays a half-diminished he plays E-flat 7 to C7, because E-flat 7 gives the G half-diminished. He also linked C7 and A7 to E half-diminished. From the E-flat 7 he went into F-sharp 7 to get into the tritone, which he said starts something else altogether. The four dominants of a family, he said, play with each other first.
Practise the four related dominants as a family
- Exercise
The four dominant chords that come from one diminished chord are, Barry said, like brothers and sisters who grow up together, so practise them together. Learn to run A7 into C7 and back, E-flat7 into C7, F-sharp7 into E-flat7 and so on, connecting each pair in the family. He said that if you can’t run these into each other, you aren’t practising the music right.
- Idea
Barry said you have to really learn about tritones, and that there are reasons for practising the four sevens together, and first; each pairing has its own reasons. He linked B7 into D7 to a ii going to a iv minor. His example was Sunny Gets Blue in E: the first chords are F-sharp minor to B7, and the tune then goes to A minor 7, a iv minor. Horn players especially, he said, should practise B7 into D7, and also B7 into F7.
- Exercise
When you practise B-flat7 into E-flat major, also practise E7 into E-flat major, treating the E7 as the most important chord rather than the B-flat7. A pianist has an advantage: he can play F minor 7 to B-flat7 and then the E7 and hear the outside sound. A horn player has to practise these resolutions without really hearing them.
In writing7 notes
What his interviews, his students’ class notes and other teachers’ articles add.
Howard Rees’s practice plan: take one dominant scale and run it into each of its three relatives. They are close enough to swap mid-solo, and doing it for all three diminished chords covers every progression in every key without circle-of-fifths drills.
Howard Rees, Chord Explorations ¶41Howard Rees, Chord Explorations ¶9
Rees’s chart gives each pairing a progression: C into G♭ for Gm7–C7 moving to D♭m7–G♭7, C into A for Em7♭5–A7, E♭ into C for Gm7♭5–C7, and so on round the family.
Rees notes that staying on C dominant where an A dominant would give F♯ turns the F into a ♭13: each relative sits somewhere between chord tones and altered tones. Two related dominant chords played together give an altered voicing with two common tones, easy to invert.
Howard Rees, Chord Explorations ¶14Howard Rees, Chord Explorations ¶20
Vera Marijt explains the C7–A7 pairing: E half-diminished sits on the third of C7, so a C7 scale fits the Em7♭5 of Em7♭5–A7, which makes C7 and A7 natural partners.
Frédéric Galliano’s notes turn this into a drill: move F7 to B7, F7 to D7 and F7 to A♭7.
Frédéric Galliano, Notes on the Method of Barry Harris ¶50Frédéric Galliano, Notes on the Method of Barry Harris ¶51
Harry Likas, who studied with Barry, points out on a forum that one family (G7, B♭7, D♭7, E7) already includes the backdoor dominant, the tritone substitute and Barry’s ‘minor’s five’.
jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Barry Harris’s opinion of harmonic minor scale? ¶22
Mariano Abello applies it to the ii-V-I: play the V7 over the ii, then on the V7 move to another member of its family.
How other teachers explain it10 videos, 11 series episodes
Barry’s students, and their students, teaching it their way. A second opinion, not Barry.
- Don’t think Altered, Think Family EP 112 TILF Barry Harris
Episode titled ‘Don’t think Altered, Think Family’ (Things I’ve Learned From Barry Harris, ep. 112).
10 min, transcript On YouTube
- Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris Episode 10 Playing with the Family of Dominants
Playing with the family of dominants (ep. 10, from the title).
11 min, transcript On YouTube
- Playing with Family of Dominants on All the Things You Are EP 59 TILF Barry Harris
Playing with the family of dominants on All the Things You Are (ep. 59, from the title).
13 min, transcript On YouTube
- Barry Harris Method: Borrowing Dominant 7th Roots ()
Borrowing dominant 7th roots (from the title).
10 min On YouTube
- Dominant 7 Mastery | Barry Harris’ Family of Four Dominants
The family of four dominants (from the title).
16 min On YouTube
- The ULTIMATE Blues Workout | Bebop Scales & Barry Harris Dominant Family
A blues workout with bebop scales and the dominant family (from the title).
17 min On YouTube
- Little Labyrinth 75: Learning Family from “Things I Learned from Barry Harris”
Learning the family from Chris Parks’s series (from the title).
14 min On YouTube
- Little Labyrinth 13: Family Connections ( Barry Harris )
Family connections (from the title).
11 min On YouTube
- Little Labyrinth 18: Half Steps in the Family (response to TILF Barry Harris )
Half steps in the family (from the title).
13 min On YouTube
- Bass family of dominant substitutions
Family-of-dominants substitutions for bass (from the title).
35 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
- researchcatalogue.net
— Vera Marijt’s thesis on how C7, E♭7, G♭7 and A7 relate, with transcribed lines.
- jazzguitar.be members (usernames kept per post), Barry Harris’s opinion of harmonic minor scale?
— Forum thread showing the family holding the backdoor, tritone and ‘minor’s five’ dominants.
Books and paid courses
- Howard Rees, ‘Chord Explorations’, Keyboard Magazine Mar 2001 (chords come from dominant scales; practise the 12 keys through the 3 dominant families)
student (Howard Rees) — Howard Rees’s plan for running each dominant scale into its three relatives, with a chart of progressions.
- Frederic Galliano, Notes on the Method of Barry Harris (HTML + PDF, updated Jan 2026): scale exercises, chromatic scale, Parker ideas, families, 4 chord scales, moving in fourths, 5-4-3-2, half-step tables, important arpeggios, scale outlines of blues/rhythm/Cherokee/Donna Lee/How High the Moon/Night in Tunisia
attendee-of-videos notes (from Chris Parks’ TILF + Labyrinth + Kingstone) — Frédéric Galliano’s notes on families, with moves from one family member to another.
- The Barry Harris Workshop Video Part Two, Howard Rees: ~4h15, 156-page workbook; chapters Improvisation (49 sections), Rhythm Section (17), Harmony (41)
Barry himself (produced and transcribed by Howard Rees) — Barry’s clinic includes ‘running the four related dominant 7th scales into each other’ (paid; contents free).