On Friday, I introduced “tritone substitutions.”
And by now, you should be a pro at substituting one dominant chord for another.
What’s the trick?
It’s simple. Just figure out what’s a tritone up or down (you’ll land on the same note) from where you’re currently at — then just play that dominant chord instead of your original one.
For example, if you’re playing a G7, the rule simply states to find out what’s a tritone up or down from “G.” The answer is “Db.” Play Db7 and in its place and you’ve got yourself a new sound! It’s that easy!
Oh yeah… just in case you don’t know how to play a G7 or Db7 chord (pronounced “G seventh” or “D flat seventh” — or also known as a “dominant seventh” chord), here are the spellings:
G dominant 7: G + B + D + F
Db dominant 7: Db + F + Ab + B (using “B” informally but it would really be C flat (Cb) if this were a music theory exam or something)
So far, we’ve only covered tritone substitutions in “2-5-1″ progressions. In other words, you’ve only seen it in action in this setting:
Dminor7 >>> G7 (substitute D7 here) >>> Cmajor7
Let’s see how tritone substitutions can work in a 1-6-2-5-1 progression:
1-major7 >>> 6-minor7 >>> 2-minor7 >>> 5-dominant 7 >>> 1-major7
In this lesson, we talked about using secondary dominant chords on the “2″ and “6″ chords. Since tritone substitutions work best for dominant chords, let’s change our 2 and 6 chords…
1-major7 >>> 6-dominant7 >>> 2-dominant7 >>> 5-dominant7 >>> 1-major7
In C major, that’s:
C major7 >>> A dominant7 >>> D dominant7 >>> G dominant7 >>> C major7
Now that your minor chords have been changed to dominants, you can pretty much pick your choice! Any of these dominant chords can be candidates for tritone substitutions. (Other types of chords work as well but it’s particularly the way the dominant chord is structured that makes it perfect in these situations.
Notice the tritone in the G7 chord: G + B + D + F. And because there’s really only 6 UNIQUE tritones as we learned in Friday’s lesson, the chord that shares the “other side” of this tritone (F + B) is Db7. That’s why G7 and Db7 can be substituted for each other because they pretty much share two of the same notes — that’s half of their notes!)
So here’s the progression again:
C major7 >>> A dominant7 >>> D dominant7 >>> G dominant7 >>> C major7
And your options…
Option #1: You can choose to play Eb dominant 7 instead of A dominant 7 (Eb is a tritone away from A).
C major7 >>> Eb7 >>> D7 >>> G7>>> C major7
*I tend to like tritone substitutions much better as “tritone follow-ups” (made that up). Instead of replacing “Eb dominant 7″ for “A dominant 7,” I’d rather keep the “A dominant 7″ and just follow-up quickly with the “Eb dominant 7″ to take me to my next chord in the progression. Let’s try that…
C major7 >>> (A7 >>> Eb7) >>> D7 >>> G7 >>> C major7
(So always remember that trick. You don’t have to always substitute. You can use the tritone substitution chord as a follow-up and still add flavor.)
Option #2: You can choose to play Ab dominant 7 instead of D dominant 7 (Ab is a tritone away from D).
Option #3: You can choose to play Db dominant 7 instead of G dominant 7 (Db is a tritone away from G).
Option #4: You can choose to mix and match, substituting two of the three chords (but this gets risky). I wouldn’t go too far or else the real underlying chord progression will be threatened.
So really — for each of these options, you have two choices. You can either do a full substitution (one for the other) or you can do what I call a “follow-up,” keeping both of the chords. But that’s the idea.
So learn your tritones! Learn their relationships! And learn where you can substitute them and you’ll be a forced to be reckoned with!
Until next time —
GospelKeys Tritone Xtravaganza
I've teamed up with my good friend Jamal Hartwell to bring you GospelKeys Tritone Xtravaganza, the course that's finally going to reveal the ins and outs of tritones, how to use them properly, where to place them, and how to take full advantage of their power! Never before has a course focused just on tritones for a whopping 2 hours straight!
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October 13th, 2008 (comment#1)
C major
Cmajor7 >>> A7 >>> (D7 >>> Ab7) >>> G7 >>> C major7
————-
F major
F major 7 >>> (D7 >>> Ab7) >>> G7 >>> (C7 >>> Gb7) >>> F major 7
*both of these are “follow-ups” (keeping both the original chord and the tritone substitution). My example in C major only uses one. My second example in F major actually goes a step further and uses the technique twice.
——–
Challenge yourself! Try it! If you get it wrong, don’t worry. I’ll give you feedback until you get it right.
All the best,
JG
October 13th, 2008 (comment#2)
Wow, this blog is getting better and better. I haven’t commented in the past because i’ve been scared but I see that everyone else is, so I’m going to go for it.
I’ll try B flat major.
Bb major 7 >>> (G7 >>> Db7) >>> C7 >>> F7 >>> Bb major 7
I used the Db7 tritone substitution after the G7 instead of replacing, just like jermaine suggested.
October 13th, 2008 (comment#3)
@Michael: Welcome to the blog! Thanks for posting!
Your progression looks good! That G7 to Db7 will definitely sound great going to the next chord…C7. So great choice there!
Keep up the good work!
October 13th, 2008 (comment#4)
A MAJOR
A major7>>>F#7>>>(B7>>>F7)>>>E7>>>A major7
@MICHEAL WELCOME, LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU ON TOMORROW (TUESDAY’S RADIO SHOW/CLASS)NIGHT, AS WELL AS FUTURE BLOGS..
@JG…GOOD LESSON, IT LEAVES ALOT OF ROOM FOR EXPERIMENTATION…COUNTLESS POSSIBILITIES!!
AGAIN , THANKS :-D~>
October 13th, 2008 (comment#5)
@Brian: Thanks! Lookin’ good!
October 14th, 2008 (comment#6)
JG you’re such a blessing to me for the tips to play more advance. All I can say is thank you very much and may GOD BLESS YOU ALWAYS!!!
October 14th, 2008 (comment#7)
G MAJOR
Gmaj7 > (E7> Bb7) > A7 > (D7>Ab7) >Gmaj7
I think following up is better than complete substitution.
October 14th, 2008 (comment#8)
Eb major
1 6 2 5 1
Ebmaj7>>C7>>(F7>>B7)>>Bb7>>Ebmaj7
October 14th, 2008 (comment#9)
That looks good Chawk!
October 14th, 2008 (comment#10)
F#major7 >>> (D#7>>>A7) >>> (G#7) >>> (C#7>>>G7) >>> F#major7
October 15th, 2008 (comment#11)
I’m so scurred….but I’ll try Db major
Dbmaj7>>>Bbmaj7>>>(Ebmaj7>>>B7)>>>Abmaj7>>>Dbmaj7
October 15th, 2008 (comment#12)
Correction: Dbmaj7>>>Bb7>>>(Eb7>>>B7)>>>Ab7>>>Dbmaj7
October 15th, 2008 (comment#13)
HI CHEVONNE, GOOD TO HAVE YOUR INPUT….AND ENJOYED YOU ON THE SHOW LAST NIGHT…
OH YEAH…DON’T BE SCURRED, WE BE’S FAMILY NOW!!! :-D~>
October 15th, 2008 (comment#14)
What he just said. lol
October 15th, 2008 (comment#15)
Thanks guys…you’re the best.
October 16th, 2008 (comment#16)
Yes, Chevonne! You’re coming out the box! Lol!
October 21st, 2008 (comment#17)
I was noticing we’re not finishing the assignment. I don’t know about you’ll but I like to come back to the blog and see which ones are finished and make a copy and try to play the chords after Jermaine tell us if we did them correctly :) Help a sister out, let’s do this.
Dmaj7>>B7>>(E7>>Bb7)>>>A7>>Dmaj7