Tri Tone Subs

[bluesbass99]

Can anyone explain exactly what a tri-tone sub and when it would be appropriate to use it? Everything I have read has been somewhat confusing to me. Thanks.

[Febs]

A tritone substitution is the substitution of one chord with another chord whose root is a tritone (i.e., three whole steps) away from the root of the original chord.

For example, if you have a C7 chord (C E G Bb), a tritone substitute could be a Gb7 chord (Gb Bb Db Fb).

One of the reasons that tritone substitutes can be effective is that they share two common notes. The third and seventh of the C7 chord are E and Bb. Those same notes are the seventh and third of the Gb7 chord.

Tritone substitutions can provide nice chromatic movement. For example, look at a typical I-vi7-ii7-V7 progression:

CMaj7 | Amin7 | Dmin7 | G7 | CMaj7

If you use a tritone substitute for the V7 chord, you get the following progression:

CMaj7 | Amin7 | Dmin7 | Db7 | CMaj7

I'm sure that others can provide a more thorough explanation, but I hope this helps.

[bluesbass99]

Perfect explanation. Thank you Febs.

[Dave Overthrow]

Looks like this is covered. I would just add that tritone subs only involve dominant chords (because they are the only chord with a tritone interval between the 3rd and 7th) and it's called a tritone sub because each chord contains the same tritone interval (formed by the 3rd and 7th of each chord).

Once you start adding the relative two chords before the tritone subs it gets even better.

For example

C A7 D7 G7
C A7 Ab7 G7 - This is with one tritone sub

C Em7 A7 Ebm7 Ab7 D-7 G7 With relative ii chords of each dom.7


Best,
-D

[bluesbass99]

Originally Posted by Dave Overthrow

Looks like this is covered. I would just add that tritone subs only involve dominant chords (because they are the only chord with a tritone interval between the 3rd and 7th) and it's called a tritone sub because each chord contains the same tritone interval (formed by the 3rd and 7th of each chord).

Once you start adding the relative two chords before the tritone subs it gets even better.

For example

C A7 D7 G7
C A7 Ab7 G7 - This is with one tritone sub

C Em7 A7 Ebm7 Ab7 D-7 G7 With relative ii chords of each dom.7


Best,
-D

Thanks Dave. Now it is even clearer. BTW, I have several of your instructional books. Great books. I like the way you approach things.

[Febs]

Originally Posted by Dave Overthrow

Once you start adding the relative two chords before the tritone subs it gets even better.

There's a great example of this in measure 2 of the example in this thread: Over The Rainbow jazz analasis

[Arch1medes]

Can somebody provide a example or link to a video/audio sample of a tri-tone sub being used musically? I get the theory but I'm struggling with the application...

Thanks

[Febs]

Measure 6 of Satin Doll. ("Out cattin', that satin doll.")