“In the beginning there was the chromatic scale”

We show the relationship of whole tone scales to diminished 7th chords.
We show the relationship of dim 7th chords to dominant 7 chords

“4 dominants are family“

One important offshoot of Barry’s ‘cosmological’ concept of harmony is the diminished scale. Just like the chromatic scale (God), the diminished scale (children) is symmetrical, and therefore has some extraordinary properties. As we can see from the creation story, there are four diminished 7 chords. We know from the harmonic minor scale that there is a very close relationship between the function of a diminished 7 chord and a dominant 7 chord: they both have a tritone and they both resolve to the Tonic. Barry used this close relationship to derive the diminished scale. He said: “Take a diminished chord. If you lower one note you get a dominant 7 chord. You get 4 dominants this way. Now add the tonics* of the dominants to the diminished 7 notes and you get a diminished scale”

*Note: In classical parlance, the Tonic refers to the 1st degree of a scale, whereas the Root refers to the bottom note of an un-inverted chord (hence the term ‘root position’). Barry is referring to the roots of 4 dominant chords.