Volume I · FoundationsStage 2 of 15
2
The musical universe: twelve tones, two whole-tone scales, three diminished chords
Barry’s creation story: everything is derived from the chromatic scale by logic.
- 2.1 The chromatic scale is the source of every scale Barry’s theory starts from the twelve notes between C and B. Every scale, the major or an ‘Egyptian’ one, is written from those twelve, never the reverse, so the chromatic scale comes first and the rest is derived from it.
- 2.2 The two whole-tone scales (‘man and woman’) Divide the twelve notes in two and you get the two whole-tone scales, on C and D♭, which Barry called man and woman. They give major thirds and two chords, the 7♭5 and the 7♯5; learn both scales every way.
- 2.3 The three diminished seventh chords (‘the children’) Twelve notes make three diminished seventh chords, the ‘children’ of the two whole-tone scales: each takes two notes from each scale, Barry’s ‘perfect DNA’. Most of the music, he said, comes from the diminished.
- 2.4 Minor thirds and key families (brothers and sisters) Barry called the minor third the most important interval. Keys a minor third apart, such as C, E♭, F♯ and A, spell one diminished chord and form a family, as do the four dominants from one diminished: play with your family first.