Volume III · HarmonyStage 8 of 15
8
Dominant thinking: no ii-V, families, the tritone, the diminished as ruler
Barry’s view of harmony from the soloist’s side.
- 8.1 Put the ii chord away The soloist thinks of the dominant Barry did not believe in ii chords. The minor chord before a dominant is that dominant’s ‘important minor’, built on its fifth, so the soloist thinks and practises the dominant (B7, not F♯m7–B7) and leaves the ii-V to the pianist.
- 8.2 A half-diminished chord means the dominant whose third it is A half-diminished chord is built on the third of a dominant seventh, so Barry played that dominant over it: over G half-diminished to C7, run E♭7 down to E, the third of C. A m7♭5 also tells you the key at once.
- 8.3 Four dominants from every diminished chord The dominant family Lower any one note of a diminished seventh chord a half step and you get a dominant seventh rooted on that note. The four dominants from one diminished chord, a minor third apart, are a family, ‘brothers and sisters’, and can replace each other.
- 8.4 Playing with the family Swapping and chaining related dominant scales Once you know a dominant’s family, you can play any relative over it (over C7: E♭7, F♯7 or A7) and run the four related dominant scales into each other. Barry wanted these pairings practised, and had a reason for each.
- 8.5 The tritone V into its tritone, V-tritone-I While the rhythm section plays G minor to C7, the soloist can turn the C7 into F♯7, its tritone, or play V, tritone, I. Barry wanted horn players to practise tritone pairs (A♭7 into D7) as well as written ones (E♭7 into A♭7).
- 8.6 The diminished scale as diminished chord + four dominant roots Barry would not define the diminished scale as alternating half and whole steps. For him it is two diminished chords: a diminished seventh chord plus the roots of the four dominants that come from it, so each diminished note sits between two dominant roots.
- 8.7 The diminished as ‘ruler’ Modulating and leading with diminished chords For Barry the diminished chord decides where the music goes: one diminished can lead into several keys. In the blues, the diminished a half step below or above the two takes you to the two, and the upper one also brings you home.
- 8.8 Whole tone in practice 7b5 and 7#5 chords, whole tone over V-bII-I Each whole-tone scale gives Barry two dominant chords, the 7♭5 and the 7♯5, and he used its sound on dominants, including a whole-tone phrase on the tritone dominant resolving to I. He also told students to ignore textbook fingering rules for it.
- 8.9 Bird’s devices The tritone line, ninths as seconds, phrases from Confirmation and Scrapple Barry taught Charlie Parker’s moves directly: a whole D7 line against E♭ minor 7 to A♭7 on Indiana, and F♯7 for C7 on Embraceable You (its ninth called a second). He also built phrases with a band on Bird’s Confirmation.