Source: Robbie Barnby’s YouTube Channel
The Scale
The 6th diminished scale is a major scale with an added or to make it an 8-note scale.
While the 6th diminished scale has the same notes as the bebop scale, it is functionally different. The bebop scale adds the as a passing tone in order to have the chord tones land on the downbeats. For example, if we play the scale in eighth notes, then C, D, E, and A (a C6 chord) land on beats 1, 2, 3, and 4.
We can also think of the 6th diminished scale as a combination of a major 6 chord and a diminished chord. If you take the notes of the I6 and iidim, you get the notes of the 6th diminished scale.
Example: In C
In C, we can think of the 6th diminished scale as made up of a C6 chord and a Ddim7.
Ddim7 or Do7 refers to a diminished 7 chord or fully diminished chord, which is composed of the root, minor third, diminished fifth, and diminished seventh: .
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"_C" C "_D" D "_E" E "_F" F "_G" G "_Ab" _A "_A" _=A "_B" B "_C" c | "C6" [CEGAc] "Do7" [DF_AB] |Chord Voicing
Barry Harris uses drop voicings for these chords. This makes playing them a lot easier, especially on guitar, where closed voicings of these chords requires extreme stretches in the left hand.
Example A6
We number the notes, highest to lowest, 1 - 4. So, for this A6, we have
Drop 2 means we drop note 2 down an octave - in this case, the E. Drop 3 means we drop note 3 an octave. We can also drop 2 & 4
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K: A
"A6" [Acef] |\
"A6/E" "_Drop 2" [EAcf] |\
"A6/C#" "_Drop 3" [CAeF] |\
"A6" "_Drop 2 & 4" [A, E c f] ||Other Scales
We can build more of these 6th diminished scales by taking a similar approach, namely, combining a root chord with a diminished chord.
Minor 6th Diminished
Cm6 + Bo7
Dominant 7th Diminished
C7 + Bo7
Dominant 7b5 Diminished
C7b5 + Bo7
The Diminished Family Theory
Barry Harris talked about our twelve notes as “God.” These notes make up our musical universe.
God made man and woman, Adam and Eve. We divide the twelve notes into the two whole-tone scales.
T: C Whole Tone & Db Whole Tone
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"C" C "D" D "E" E "F#" ^F "G#" ^G "A#" ^A||\
"Db" _D "Eb" _E "F" F "G" G "A" A "B" B||Man and woman had children: the three possible diminished chords in our twelve-note system. Each of these contain a 50-50 split of the two parents’ DNA.
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"Cdim" [C_E_G_B] | "Dbdim7" [_D_FG_B] | "Ddim7" [DF_G_A]For example, the C-diminished chord has two notes from the C whole tone scale (C and B) and two notes from the D whole tone scale (E and G).
Dividing up our twelve notes
By dividing the twelve notes by 2, 3, 4, and 6, we the the 2 whole tone scales, 3 diminished chords, 4 augmented chords, and 6 tritones, respectively.
| Divide by | C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G Ab A Bb B| | ------------------- | : ------------------------------- :| | 2 whole tone scales | C D E F# G# A# | Db Eb F G A B| | 3 diminished chords | C Eb Gb | Db E G | D F Ab| | 4 augmented chords | C E G# | Db F A | D F# A# | Eb G# A| | 6 tritones | C Gb | Db A | D A# | Eb B | E C | F C#|
By taking any of these diminished chords and moving tones around, we get other chords. We can do this with individual notes or consecutive notes. Or two nonconsecutive notes.
This gives a cool map of which chords play well together.
Starting from diminished chords
In this system, we create families of chords by making tiny modifications to the three diminished chords.
Connecting Chords
An Example Barry Uses
We can go from a C6 to an F6, putting a Cdim in between.
This works with the “brothers and sisters.” Since Cdim is Edim, we can go from E to A with a Cdim in between.
We can do the same with E to B.
Or, for something more interesting, we can go like this.
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K: style=rhythm
"I6" B0 B0 "biiio" B0 B0 | "ii" B0 B0 "biiio" B0 B0 | "I6" B0 B0 B0 B0 ||The idea here is to create movement without relying so much on the dominant-V chord. Instead, we think in diminished chords instead.
For example,
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K: style=rhythm
"G6" B0 "Gdim" B0 "C6" B0 "Ebdim" B0 | "Dm7" B0 "Ebdim" B0 "C6" B0 "Cdim" B0 | "C6" B0