Barry Harris made a profound discovery. It’s a musical genealogy that explains the relationships between notes, scales, and chords, and he used the biblical creation story as a metaphor to explain it. Far from being merely poetic, this framework explains fundamental truths about tonal music in a way that is easy to understand and easy to hear.
God: The Chromatic Scale
In the beginning, Barry Harris tells us, there was the chromatic scale – twelve notes. They contain all musical possibilities. The chromatic scale represents the musical universe, pure potential, undefined and unlimited.
Man and Woman: The Whole Tone Scales
From the universal source (the chromatic scale) emerged two whole tone scales – man and woman. These two whole tone scales, each containing exactly half of the twelve chromatic notes, represent the first division of musical potential, a step away from the undefined, and a step towards tonality. And while they are still quite tonally ambiguous, these two whole tone scales, by their nature, bring us closer to tonality.
Children: Three Diminished Chords
From the two whole tone scales came three diminished chords. These are the children of the whole tone scales. Barry Harris explains that the proof is in the DNA — each diminished chord contains one tritone from each whole tone scale, just as children inherit exactly half of their genes from each parent. This isn’t just a clever metaphor; it’s a revelation of the deeper structures of musical relationships.
Family: Related Chords
The three diminished chords beget their own musical offspring:
– Lower any note of a diminished chord, and you get a dominant chord
– Raise that same note, and you find a minor 6th chord (minor 7♭5 chord)
– Raise or lower any two consecutive notes for a major 6 chord (minor 7 chord)
– Raise or lower any two non-consecutive notes for a dominant 7♭5 chord
One of Barry Harris’s related teachings, for example, explains that the four dominant chords derived from a single diminished chord are “Family” — brothers and sisters that can “play with”, or substitute for, one another. The idea of chord families is not just a mnemonic device, it’s an explanation of where these relationships come from. It teaches us why those chords are related.
You Should Know
What emerges from this genealogy is a profound insight into the nature of tonality itself. We begin with the infinite potential of the chromatic scale – pure possibility. Each successive generation (the whole tone scales, the diminished chords, and their chord children) represents a further refinement, a more specific condition of tonality.
This progression from universal to particular mirrors the way music actually works. When we hear a chromatic scale, we don’t know where it might lead. But as we move through the genealogy, each level brings us closer to specific tonal centers. These relationships give us the tonal dynamics of tension and release.
This Barry Harris lesson is both profound and accessible, complex and natural at the same time. Once it’s described, one can easily see the logic as well as hear it in the music. This might be the most important lesson Barry Harris had to offer. It’s not just theory – it’s wisdom.