Barry Universe

Start with the five views

The top navigation contains Chromatic Map, Whole Tones, Family of Dominants, Chord Builder, and Chord Paths. The lesson sequence moves from twelve chromatic notes to two whole-tone collections, three diminished chords, and four dominant children per diminished chord. Select a tab to open a view; the active tab and page title follow the current view.

Keyboard navigation is available when focus is outside a form control: 1–4 open the first four views, Home returns to Chromatic Map, Escape returns to the map, Arrow Left or Backspace goes back, Space triggers the current view's play action. Browser Back and Forward restore view parameters when they are present in the URL.

1. Open Chromatic Map and read the 12 notes at the top of the lesson.
2. Choose the next view from the top navigation or the lesson's next-step button.
3. Use the play controls in each view to hear the displayed collection or chord.

Use Chromatic Map

Chromatic Map displays the twelve-note chromatic collection and the two six-note whole-tone collections beneath it. Select a note in the chromatic circle to hear the note and follow it into its whole-tone collection. The map's Play chromatic scale and Play [root] scale buttons play the full collections; selecting the next-step button opens Whole Tones.

The map is a relationship view. A note click changes the highlighted route and the current lesson context; it does not open a project editor or change an account setting.

Compare Whole Tones and diminished collections

Whole Tones presents two whole-tone circles. Choose one of the displayed diminished collections to change the highlighted four-note result. Each whole-tone circle highlights the two notes contributed to that diminished seventh; the result panel identifies the source collection for each note.

Play scale, Play pair, and Play diminished let you hear the selected whole-tone collection, its highlighted pair, or the four-note diminished chord. Select Family of Dominants → to carry the chosen diminished collection into the next view.

Explore Family of Dominants

The Family of Dominants view starts with a diminished parent and shows the selected dominant child. Use the diminished selector to choose one of the three displayed diminished collections. Select a child row or its orbit note to change the selected dominant; the relationship label identifies the displayed relationship to the reference dominant.

Play parent, Play the change, Play the selected dominant, and Play all four make the movement audible. The reference-dominant selector changes the reference key context, and Play [dominant] → [tonic]6 plays that dominant-to-tonic comparison.

• Each child lowers one parent note by a half step while the other three parent notes hold.
• The family comparison lists four dominant children from the same diminished parent.
• The expanded connection explanation is available under How does this family connect?

Use Chord Builder

Chord Builder shows the selected diminished sources and four derived chord types: Major 6, Minor 6, Dominant 7, and Dominant 7♭5. Select a diminished source pair when the pair controls are shown, then read each derived card's movement description and notes.

Select a chord card or its play control to hear the result. Show Chord Results expands the overview; Show Movement Grid expands the matrix of pairs, chord types, movement descriptions, and generated chords. Animate plays the displayed transformation step by step.

Compare Chord Paths

Chord Paths presents a selected chord type and the two diminished parent paths that lead to each result. Choose Major 6, Minor 6, Dominant 7, or Dom 7♭5 from the tabs. Each card labels the notes that stay and the notes that move; selecting a parent diagram plays that parent, and Play on the result plays the chord.

Use this view to compare the displayed routes and relationships. It does not write a chord progression or send changes to another tool.

Choose sound and note names

The footer Instrument selector changes the soundfont used by the play controls. The list includes piano, guitar, bass, orchestral, brass, reed, and string instruments. The volume control changes the audio level; the note-name toggle switches the displayed enharmonic preference between sharps and flats.

The audio engine starts when the browser permits Web Audio. If the browser blocks audio until an interaction, select a play control once and then retry. Audio playback is separate from navigation: changing views does not automatically start a lesson sound.

Understand browser state and setup links

Barry Universe has no project library or Save button. Instrument, volume, tooltips, automatic playback, and sharp/flat note-name choices are saved in this browser. Map selections travel with the page URL or a shared setup. These are not an account project backup.

When the site offers Share this view, a valid setup link restores the selected view and map state, diminished and dominant selections, reference choice, derivation state, chord type, selected notes, enharmonic preference, and volume. Opening the link restores the exact example for that session, does not automatically play it, and does not grant account privileges.

Troubleshoot the map

If a view appears empty after using browser history, select its navigation tab again; the app reinitializes the view from the page address. If note names look different, use the Note names toggle. If sound is missing, interact with a Play control, verify the footer volume, and try a different Instrument.

Barry Universe is a public visual explanation tool. It does not use the Scales of Chords or Harmony Explorer authoring controls, and its setup link does not elevate access. If a shared setup is malformed or unsupported, the link reports that it could not be loaded rather than silently substituting an unrelated example.