• Keyboard Playing May Be Challenging If Any Tritone Is Missing

    in Experienced players,Piano

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    I’ll be showing you in this lesson, two notes that keyboard playing would be difficult without.

    There are a variety of reasons why notes on the keyboard may malfunction, and here are two common reasons…

    Electrical fault: When something is wrong in the motherboard of the keyboard, some notes may not be playing.

    Mechanical fault: Sticky or broken keys too may also malfunction.

    Although it’s possible to play the keyboard when one or two notes are not functioning, when the interval between two notes that are not functioning is a tritone, keyboard playing in all twelve keys may become frustrating.

    Let’s get started by taking a look at the tritone.

    A Short Study On The Tritone

    There are so many musicians who want to learn something about the tritone. One of the reasons why the tritone is getting all the attention is because it is one of the intervals that is used in the formation of dominant chords – a class of chords that is commonly used as passing chords.

    “What Is A Tritone?”

    A tritone is basically a melodic progression that is derived by the equal division of the octave into two parts. When an octave, (for example the octave of C):

    …which encompasses twelve half steps:

    …is divided into two equal parts:

    …the tritone is formed.

    If you do the math, the division of twelve half steps into two equal parts, produces six half steps. Therefore, the tritone from C is only six half steps away.

    “Let’s check it out on the keyboard…”

    A half step from C:

    …is C#:

    Two half steps from C:

    …is D:

    Three half steps from C:

    …is D#:

    Four half steps from C:

    …is E:

    Five half steps from C:

    …is F:

    Six half steps from C:

    …is F#:

    …or Gb:

    Using F# or Gb would produce two different results because the interval between C and F#:

    …is an augmented fourth, while the interval between C and Gb:

    …is a diminished fifth.

    So the tritone can also be described as an augmented fourth or a diminished fifth interval, and this depends on its spelling.

    “Here Are Two Other Ways You Can Form The Tritone”

    The tritone can be formed using the perfect fourth and perfect fifth intervals.

    The perfect fourth interval is formed by the relationship between the first and fourth tone of the major [or minor] scale, while the perfect fifth interval is formed by the relationship between the first and fifth tones of the major [or minor] scale.

    Raising a perfect fourth interval by a half step or lowering the perfect fifth interval by a half step produces the tritone.

    For example, C-F:

    …is a perfect fourth interval formed by the relationship between the first and fourth tones of the C major scale:

    Raising the fourth tone (F):

    …by a half step (to F#):

    …produces a tritone:

    C-G:

    …is a perfect fifth interval formed by the relationship between the first and fifth tones of the C major scale:

    If G:

    …is lowered by a half step (to Gb):

    …this produces a tritone:

    Here’s the tritone in all twelve keys…

    C tritone:

    C# tritone:

    D tritone:

    D# tritone:

    E tritone:

    F tritone:

    F# tritone:

    G tritone:

    G# tritone:

    A tritone:

    A# tritone:

    B tritone:

    Attention: While talking about tritone, the tritone can either be an augmented fourth or a diminished fifth interval. This explains why we have both of them mixed up (and that’s because there are augmented fourth tritones and diminished fifth tritones as well.)

    Let me also make it clear that we’ll be using the alternate (aka – “enharmonic”) spellings of the tritone.

    The Importance Of The Missing Tritone In All Twelve Keys

    Although the tritone can be used in the formation of dominant chords (seventh and extended), I’m going to show you how frustrating keyboard playing can get when two notes that are a tritone apart from each other are not functioning.

    We’ll be using Eb-A:

    …(which can also be spelled as D#-A):

    …to make examples in this lesson.

    If all the Eb and A notes on your keyboard aren’t functioning, here’s the outcome in all twelve keys.

    In The Key Of C

    In the key of C:

    …Eb:

    …is foreign (aka – “chromatic”) note, while A:

    …is a scale tone.

    In the key of C:

    …the A note is the root of the sixth tone of the scale. When A is missing on the keyboard, that takes away the root of the sixth tone of the scale, which in this case is the A minor chord:

    It’ll also affect one of  the primary chords. The primary chords in the key of C:

    …are the C major:

    …F major:

    …and G major:

    …triads. How can the F major triad be played without its third tone (which is A):

    The missing note (A) is a chord tone in a variety of other chords like the B half-diminished seventh:

    …the D minor seventh:

    …the A minor seventh:

    …and other ninth chords.

    In The Key Of Db

    In the key of Db:

    …Eb:

    …is the second tone of the scale, while A:

    …is foreign to the key.

    If the Eb-A tritone:

    …is missing, that means that we can’t play the root note of chord 2 (the Ebmin7 chord):

    …which has the Eb note:

    …and chord five (the Abdom7 chord):

    …which is a primary chord and also has the Eb note:

    In a nutshell, we’ll have the second tone in the key of Db missing if Eb-A:

    …are not producing their respective pitches when depressed.

    In The Key Of D

    In the key of D:

    …A:

    …is the fifth tone of the scale which is inarguably the most important scale tone after the first tone of the scale (aka – “the tonic”.)

    If the Eb-A tritone:

    …is missing, that means that chord 1 (the D major triad):

    …will be played without an A:

    Other chords in the key, like chord 5 (the A major triad):

    …will be played without the A (its root):

    …all because of the missing tritone.

    In The Key Of Eb

    It’s also difficult to play in the key of Eb:

    …if the Eb-A tritone:

    …is missing. This is because Eb:

    …is the first tone (aka – “tonic”) and the most important tone in any key. How does it feel playing in a key that its tonic is missing? Imagine a tonic chord in the key of Eb:

    …having just the G and Bb:

    …because of the missing tritone:

    This produces a tonic chord without the tonic. :)

    It won’t be easy playing in the key of Eb because the Eb tone is a chord tone in the Eb major triad (chord 1):

    …Ab major triad (chord 4):

    …(which are primary chords) and a variety of other chords in the key of Eb:

    In The Key Of E

    It’s a lot more difficult to play in the key of E:

    …with the missing tritone D# and A:

    This is because D# and A:

    …are the seventh and fourth tones in the key of E major:

    If you play in the key of E without these two notes, you’ll be casting out the devil in music, consequently, you’ll be having a pentatonic scale.

    So the E major scale:

    …if played on a keyboard where the D# and A notes:

    …are bad, you’ll just have the E pentatonic scale:

    Chord 4 (the A major triad):

    …and chord 5 (the B major triad):

    …have the A and D# tones respectively.

    Let’s keep going…I hope we’ll soon find a key that we can be comfortable in.

    In The Key Of F

    In the key of F:

    …the A note:

    …which is part of the missing tritone (D#-A):

    …is the third chord tone of F major triad:

    …which is chord 1 in the key of F and also the root note of the A minor triad:

    …which is chord 3 in the key of F.

    How does the Gmin9 chord:

    …sound without the A tone? Would you call this Gmin9 chord (without the A note):

    …a Gmin9 chord? The answer is no.

    Playing in the key of F without the third tone (A), would make chords 1 and 6 sound this way…

    Chord 1 (without the A note):

    Chord 6 (without the A note):

    I bet you’ve seen how difficult it is to play in the key of F when the Eb-A tritone is missing.

    In The Key Of F#

    In the key of F#:

    …D#:

    …is the sixth tone of the scale. In a wide variety of music styles, there’s a tendency for the first tone to move to the sixth tone in a chord progression.

    For instance, while playing the song ‘As the deer‘, there’s a tendency for chord one:

    …to move to chord six:

    So you tell me, how can you move from chord 1 to 6 when the root note of chord 6 is not functioning?

    Playing in the key of F#:

    …would be difficult because the sixth tone:

    ….is missing, and the sixth tone:

    …is the third chord tone of chord 4 (the B major triad):

    …which is a primary triad.

    Playing a B major triad (without a D# tone):

    …produces a power chord, which is neither a B major:

    …nor a B minor chord:

    Heck, you can’t even call it a B sus4 chord:

    In The Key Of G

    In the key of G:

    …the A note:

    …is the root of the second tone of the scale. When A is missing on the keyboard, that takes away the root of the second tone of the scale, which in this case is the A minor chord:

    It’ll also affect one of the primary chords. The primary chords in the key of G:

    …are the G major:

    …C major:

    …and D major:

    …triads. How can the D major triad be played without its fifth tone (which is A):

    In The Key Of Ab

    In the key of Ab:

    …Eb:

    …is the fifth tone of the scale which is inarguably the most important scale tone after the first tone of the scale (aka – “the tonic”.)

    If the Eb-A tritone:

    …is missing, that means that chord 1 (the Ab major triad):

    …will be played without an Eb:

    Other chords in the key, like chord 5 (the Eb major triad):

    …will be played without the Eb (its root):

    …all because of the missing tritone.

    In The Key Of A

    In the key of A:

    …A:

    …is the first tone of the scale which is inarguably the most important scale tone after the first tone of the scale (aka – “the tonic”.)

    If the Eb-A tritone:

    …is missing, that means that chord 1 (the A major triad):

    …will be played without an A:

    Other chords in the key, like chord 4 (the D major triad):

    …will be played without the A (its fifth):

    …all because of the missing tritone.

    In The Key Of Bb

    It’s a lot more difficult to play in the key of Bb:

    …with the missing tritone Eb and A:

    This is because Eb and A:

    …are the fourth and seventh tones in the key of Bb major:

    If you play in the key of Bb without these two notes, you’ll be casting out the devil in music, consequently, you’ll be having a pentatonic scale.

    So the Bb major scale:

    …if played on a keyboard where the Eb and A notes:

    …are bad, you’ll just have the Bb pentatonic scale:

    Chord 4 (the Eb major triad):

    …and chord 5 (the F major triad):

    …have the Eb and A tones respectively.

    In The Key Of B

    In the key of B:

    …the D# note:

    …which is part of the missing tritone (D#-A):

    …is the third chord tone of B major triad:

    …which is chord 1 in the key of B and also the root note of the D# minor triad:

    …which is chord 3 in the key of B.

    How does the C#min9 chord:

    …sound without the D# tone? Would you call this C#min9 chord (without the D# note):

    …a C#min9 chord? The answer is no.

    Playing in the key of B without the third tone (D#), would make chords 1 and 6 sound this way…

    Chord 1 (without the D# note):

    Chord 6 (without the D# note):

    I bet you’ve seen how difficult it is to play in the key of B when the D#-A tritone is missing.

    Final Words

    We can go on and on till we cover all twelve keys, and trust me, there’s no key you can easily play when a tritone is missing. It’s frustrating to play any key on the keyboard if a tritone is missing.

    In another lesson, I hope to show you how you can be able to escape situations where the tritone is missing on the keyboard.

    Until then, I’ll come your way again.

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    Onyemachi "Onye" Chuku is a Nigerian musicologist, pianist, and author. Inspired by his role model (Jermaine Griggs) who has become his mentor, what he started off as teaching musicians in his Aba-Nigeria neighborhood in April 2005 eventually morphed into an international career that has helped hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world. Onye lives in Dubai and is currently the Head of Education at HearandPlay Music Group and the music consultant of the Gospel Music Training Center, all in California, USA.




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