Barry Harris provides a lesson on diminished chords and how to borrow and surround diminished notes. He explains that a diminished chord contains 4 dominant roots that form another diminished chord. The diminished scale is a combination of the diminished chord and its 4 dominant roots. Harris demonstrates how each note in a diminished chord is surrounded by the roots of two dominant chords. Musicians can create runs by borrowing notes from the dominant roots to surround and lead back to the diminished chord tones. Practicing these techniques provides musicians with a variety of musical ideas and patterns to develop their improvisational skills.

1. Barry Harris: Diminished chords lesson
playlist: https://goo.gl/uVkcZQ (original raw video: https://youtu.be/JlQNLZiKTY0 )
Transcript: R.Glover Jan 5, 2019
Barry Harris: Bilbao, Spain, May 20, 2016
Barry Harris: Borrow/Surround Diminished notes (last update R.Glover Jan 9, 2019)
90
[note: This transcript is extracted from a 53 minute
video originally uploaded by Montxo Garcia:
https://youtu.be/JlQNLZiKTY0 ]
[The transcript starts at 25min 39 secs into
Montxo Garcia's 53 min 14 sec video]
Barry: "Watch..."
Cdim7
Barry This [Cmin7] diminished... there are 4
dominants. What were the four
dominants? You tell me....
[student answers] "B, D, G, and Ab"
Barry: Right. You got that?
Barry: Okay... B, D, F, and Ab.
They are roots that form another
diminished...
B7( 9) D7( 9) F7( 9) A 7( 9)
3
Barry: So now what is a
diminished scale?
Barry: A diminished scale
is the combination
of the diminished
chord and its 4
dominant roots.
Barry: So here's the C
diminished, and
here's the B diminished.
And you just to this
[Barry folds his fingers
to show how they are
combined].
Barry: So the scale is...

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Barry Harris: Borrow/Surround Diminished notes (last update R.Glover Jan 9, 2019)
6
Barry: So there's your scale.
8
Barry: Now, the interesting things about
this is this. You start making
up things. Watch....
"C" is surrounded by what?
Barry: "C" is surrounded by what?...
10
[27:31]
Barry: If I do it with one hand,
it'll be like this:
Cdim7
I'll borrow.. watch...
I'll borrow that tonic of
the dominant...
[i.e. "b" is root of a
'B' dominant chord]
I made it go home...
13
95
So if I say....
Cdim7 Adim7
[i.e. A is
root of Ab7]
G dim7
[i.e. "f" is
root of
F7']
E dim7
[i.e. "d" is
root of
D7] You see that?
Cdim7

3. 3
Barry Harris: Borrow/Surround Diminished notes (last update R.Glover Jan 9, 2019)
16
So I say:Ahh, each
note is surrounded
by two....
Cdim7
each note is
surrounded
by that....
[i.e. "f"
and "Ab" are
roots of
F7 and
Ab7]
20
So now I'll learn how to
do...
[i.e. these are the notes of
a diminished 7 chord AND
the roots of the four dominant
chords in the family
of that dim 7 chord]
23
So I've go all of this... I've got a
whole lot of
things....
so I can say...
27
My first run should be
something like....
Cdim7 Adim7
G dim7 E dim7
Cdim7

4. 4
Barry Harris: Borrow/Surround Diminished notes (last update R.Glover Jan 9, 2019)
30
If I did two of them
I would say......
Cdim7 Adim7
G dim7
[I.e., Barry is "borrowing"
TWO notes at the same time,
from 2 of the roots of the
4 dominant chords related to
the diminished 7 chord]
E dim7
Cdim7
33
Then you're gonna
hear some cat, and
he's gonna say....
Cdim7 Adim7
G dim7 E dim7
Cdim7 Adim7
37
All these things come from
one thing....they come
from this "diminished"
75
and
"SURROUNDING"...
See, you "SURROUND"
the notes....

5. 5
Barry Harris: Borrow/Surround Diminished notes (last update R.Glover Jan 9, 2019)
41
See, the roots of the
dominants say....
"take me home"..
But now, I might not borrow
THAT one.
I [might] borrow THE ONE BELOW
that is probably more [homesick?].
43
So now what I got is this....
45
So I got a lot of things, you know.
So you end up with a whole lot
of things.
You learn to BORROW.
See, what you got
there is what you call a
"drop 2". You should
know how to do that.
Cdim7 (drop 2)
The A is "soprano (1)"
The G is "tenor (2)"
The E is "alto (3)"
The C is "bass (4)"
47
Cdim7(drop 2)
"Drop 2"
Cdim7 (drop 3)
"Drop 3"
[Barry by
mistake says
Drop 4]
Cdim7 (drop 2,4)
"Drop 2, 4" See all this...
It's different now....
The A is now "soprano
The Eb" is now tenor
The G is now alto
The C is now bass
That's how you mix them
up...

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Barry Harris: Borrow/Surround Diminished notes (last update R.Glover Jan 9, 2019)
50 85
That's pretty.
See [i.e. watch]
how I can do those
things....
53 65
If I did TWO things..
let's see...
56
That's [beats 1,2] the roots of the dominants.
Watch [beats 3,4] I take it to the diminished.
That's the way it is....
you start doing stuff...
You start doing things,
you know?