What is a Tritone Substitution? - Music Theory 

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He says, "Let me see if I can break it down in a way that makes sense," and then proceeds to brilliantly explain the concept. Thank you once again!

Your approach makes perfect sense. I always thought of Tritone subs as a chromatic descend from the subdominant. That is why it works harmonically. The tritone sub is resolving naturally to the tonic, basically as a passing chord

Just absolutely superb as always - Thank you so much! Between these RU-vid videos and the formal Music Matters courses, I have learned more over the past year and a half than I would have thought possible. You are such a gift to so many of us.

I can’t imagine a more concise and approachable explanation that this. Well done! This channel is for me the Go To for music theory.

Love your content, Sir! About the "Devil in Music", I suggest you take a look at Adam Nely's video talking about that. He did a deep research on this subject and according to him, the tritone was not considered the Devil in Music by the Catholic Church, in fact it was considered just as a dissonance. Regardless of that discussion, I really enjoy all of your explanations. The content on this channel is fascinating!

Fascinating video - thanks so much. The tritone modulation video next!

In my opinion, the tri-tone sub is a complicated explanation that is worth learning, because the tri-tone sub is so useful!

and if you've got some time on your hands and want a challenge, you can write a string of secondary dominants to reach a final cadence. (ie: C7 - F7 - Bb7 - Eb7 - Ab7 - Db7 - Gb7 - B7 - E7 - A7 - D7 - G7 - C) ;-) Excellent video. I never stopped to consider how a dominant 7, a tritone substitution, a secondary dominant, AND a German 6 could all be the same chord. Thanks!

Can you please write out the progressions on the white board next time? Great content! Thank you!

Thank you for this video sir! You taught me more information on this! I love learning about how music works! God bless you!

I think the ‘devil in music’ was probably prohibited since Palestrina counterpoint rules because it’s just so hard to vocalize… (as well as the augmented second) … however, that also cultural. In Bulgarian ethnic music, we hear augmented and diminished intervals as well as microtones all over the place. My Bulgarian mother-in-law songs these amazing vocal acrobatics and I even hear children singing them too! I guess it al depends on what you grow up with! Love the video; you’re awesome!!

Great lesson, very eloquently explained. Thanks!

Brilliant way of explaining it. The easiest way for me to think of it as build a 7th chord a half step above the tonic of the key you’re cadence lands on

Tritone subs are also considered a basis for chromatic approach from above in walking basslines as you go around the circle of fifths, like in ragtime turnarounds I VI II V I

This channel is a phenomenal resource! Thanks a lot!…

Thank you so so so so much

This channel’s amazing

I wonder if and how it is related to the Neapolitan chord also build upon lowered second. I was kind of expecting you would mention it.

How would one analyze a tritone substitution? I was thinking possibly a neopolitan with a flat 7 but I’m not sure that this entirely serves the same chord function as a Neapolitan chord? Great video, always love to learn new music theory concepts!

Best channel on music theory!

Maestro: Thank you again this is how Music Theory should be taught. Please clear something for me, is a German 6th also an Augmented 6th Chord? Again, many thanks, R

Thank you very very veeeery much. 🍀

That’s great lesson! You confirmed my thought which happened many years ago when I was in a guitar festival. When someone show me a Tritone substituted chord to me, after hearing his demo, I said that’s nothing more than just a German sixth chord on the 2nd degree to me. He was trying to convince me that the concept of German sixth chord is from classical music whereas the tritone substitution is a Jazz concept. But I don’t think so, because I heard #4th to the 5th and the b6th to the 5th. However, the sad thing was…. he passed away long time ago too.

Thanks!

Excellent lesson!

Doesn't the Bdim chord in the key of C contain a tritone?

Brilliantly explained, Gareth. Thank you so much.

You’re becoming a jazz musician by request!

Oops eventually..... lots of people blabbing around...... I almost gave up on triton substitutions... but thank God 🎉

Some 40 years ago as a small child, I remember my piano teacher demonstrating the V7 chord from a particular piece of music that I could not for the life of me relate to (or just about anything from those classes, in all honesty). Probably exhasperated, she said, "just remember the V7 chord." I sort of remembered how the pitches related to each other and little more. Imagine my "shock" when I heard those notes again all the way across the internet here! Thanks for the lesson!

You've put together one of the best treatments of the tritone substitution that I have seen - this is wonderful material and many will learn from this.

Enjoyed comparing and contrasting this Tritone Substitution video with your earlier instruction on the function of the Napoleon Sixth Chord.

Outstanding! Or as they say 'over there ': brilliant! I'm gonna call you Chord I. Seems like always coming back to your channel to learn (really resolve confusion) on this concept and others. Your video leaves nothing to chance in fact you fully delivered onthe title of your vdo: ''tritones' and then 'substitutions.' Taking it step by step. Well done. Perhaps, best compliment I can offer is: after watching your vdo, I now understand how to construct a tritone substitution chord easily.

I haven't learned about tritone subs in my theory class but I had one come up in a piece that I'm playing for my piano class. My piano teacher tried explaining it to me but it was not clicking! Thank you for this amazing explanation! You made it seem so simple. In class we're talking about borrowed harmonies... Is a tritone the same as bII?

Love this channel - I have learned so much about theory...without trying very hard.

You're one of the very few people that have pointed out the important bit which is the tritone within the V7 chord , they are important notes because they are the notes that drive the the V7 towards chord I ( ie Gm7 or G aren't as compelled to move towards C ).... What you missed , and this is mis understood not only all over the world but wrongly taught in many many music collages ) is that the bII7 is an example of tritone sub but not what it is ....a tritone sub is any chord with those all important driving notes substituted for the V7 chord so for example in C we could also use A9+ (with possible colouring notes too such as the #11 or 13th or both ) or Bb7 (b9), again with the option of colouring notes , or Fm7(b5) or Dm6 or a whole lot of other chord with F and B (or B and F if you invert their position in the chord ) ... Also remember the Db7 example can have all it's colouring note variations ie Db9, Db7 (b9), Db7 (b10) , Db7+ etc etc .... The advantages to these other tritone variations is you aren't limited to a nelody only harmonised by a bII7 chord (presuming you are reharmonizing a piece ) for example if the melody note was G thus an A9+ or an Eb9+ would work better than a Db7 ....will all these various substitutions sound great ? well like anything else it all depends on the previous chord , in reharmonization it also gives you options of using substitutions to what would effectively be a V7 chord going towards the V7 chord ie D7 to G7 to C and a regress going backwards , as you can imagine substitutions for both D7 and G7 may no longer look like a V7 to I but functionally would serve the same purpose

So basically you can use a dom7 chord on the flat second degree of any major or minor scale and it will resolve to the first degree ? That would be pretty genius. I've been looking for ways to harmonize phrygian mode in a way that it sounds likes a proper scale and not just a mode. This would actually be a solution.

It seems that there may not be any real thing called a tritone substitution. The C and Gb moving to B and G is out of tune, it is a misspelling. The C and F# pulls outwards to the B and G. The only acceptable motion if full parallel motion c and Gb moving to B and F. The only way a tritone sub would work is if you wanted to create a fake out, where instead of resolving the tense interval, you just move it in parallel stepwise motion to another tritone/dim5th. Like in C major having (C, G, E, C) - (Ab, Gb, Eb, C) - (G, F, D, B) - (C, E, C, C). It seems it would normally also result in parallel fifths as well unless you employed some creativity to avoid it like a suspension or something. Where if the 3rd chord was spelled (Ab, F#, Eb, C) it could easily move diatonically to (G, G, F, B) before resolving to (C, G, E, C). The more I look at this the tritone sub is either a misspelled (and thus, out of tune) augmented 6th chord, or some kind of fake out that usually entails less than ideal voice leading.

Great video and musical illustration! I would also add a theoretical note: Triton is exactly a half-octave interval, which gives us √2 frequency ratio, and this is one of the simplest and first-known irrational numbers (the finding is usually attributed to Hippasus who was also a creator of the theory of music). While all harmonic intervals are represented by rational numbers with small numerators and denominators (4/3 and 3/2 are even called perfect fourth and fifth), the Triton is “most apparently” irrational, and it gives the interval its special peculiarly disharmonious and troublesome feel.

Thank you so much! This was so helpful! you're very good at teaching

There is another way to think about this by asking the question: what are the most essential notes in the scale of a V7? Well it's the 1 and the 7th of course, but also the 3rd, so we can hear that it's a Dur and not a Moll scale. Every other note can be altered. So the 2 becomes b2 and #2, the 4 becomes #4 and the 5 #5 (b4 is the same as 3, b5 is the same as #4, b6 the same as #5 and #6 is the same as the b7 enharmonically). This is in fact the altered scale which is often used in Jazz. But if you look at this scale you may notice it's the same as the bII Myxolidian, except that it has a sharpened 4th which is usually written as #11. That's why the tritone substitution is usually written bII#11 in Jazz. So when you improvise over this chord don't use the standard bII Myxolidian scale but a sharp 11. So in the case of Db the scale shares the g with the G7 chord in addition to the tritone which makes the relationship even stronger.

Thank you for such a fantastically simple explanation sir 👍

Hi, could you please explain what's espressivo, please

But isn’t it a Dom Neapolitan 7 ??? What’s the difference? Thnx

Important to know: a tritone interval is the only interval that keeps its name when inverted.

Trigonometry, trinity, triage, tribulus,where is the tr👁 ?

Sir would you please talk about chords substitution techniques beginner to advance

It is very similar to Neapolitan sixth Chord, isn't it?

Thank you for the brilliant explanation, I understand it completely ❤

Hi sir! How to write a chord symbol for a major 7th first inversion….

Hot topic! Thanks!

Incontrast to the keyboqrd, in violin playing a diminished fifth is definitely different from a tritone / augmented fourth.

This is a fantastic lesson, thanks for describing in a perfect way for even a bloody beginner like me to understand. One little mistake was, contrary to popular belief, the tritone was not called the devils interval in the middle ages. But that's history and doesn't make a difference in the music theory behind it in any way.

Isn't the 7th of the D minor chord supposed to resolve downward?

May be a little less clear than usual. Could you add several exercises with solutions in an additional video on the subject?

This video really makes my life changing!!!

The ‘diabolus in mūsicā’ myth is just that: a myth.

Beautiful share my friend! Fantastic video, wonderful music! Like #645! Have a wonderful day to you!

Thank You, Brilliant explanations!

How are there comments from two months ago?

So it is basically a Neapolitan chord with an added 7th, creating a dominant seventh chord. The name of this chord, however, "tritone substitution", seems confusing. I understand that there are two common tones between the dominant seventh and this one (F and B in the key of C); however, still the name seems dubious.

very good explanation, thanks

I really enjoyed this video and learned a ton. Thank you!

Great stuff and explanation, as always. Thanks! Would be great if you could show an example application of this technique.

It is about the Neapolitan chord, isn't it?

Best explanation of this concept on youtube!

Is there only one tritone substitution in each key?

GREAT LESSON, Thank You

I appreciate it Gareth, thank you

01:54 So _why_ does it work well anyway despite of not being from the key? What is that _function_ of a chord that you're talking about? Do you have any video about those functions of different chords? Are these functions somehow related to the _emotions_ that these chords convey per any chance?

Try any tone till you find one that works?

Thank you for the video! Where does the flat from the D flat come from though?

That was extremely helpful.

Hi Gareth, thank you. Would you mind should I correct what you’ve said about tritone had been believed to be the musical sound of the devil? In fact, some medieval theorists wrote about the “diabolus in musica” because “diabolus” means “divider” a metaphor to the fact the the tritone divides, splits the octave in two, creating this strong dissonance; that’s why the Tritus Autenticus Mode was the last of the Octoechos modes to be enployed due the lack of a liable notation that could express the exact pitch of the B and the B flat, the fourth degree above the final degreee F. Many manuscripts of the XIIth century even avoid to write the B so the too strong dissonance would be replaced by a minor third from A to C (the Tenor degreee) But, the Chant books includes lots of pieces, mainly Alleluias, with a B flat and the B interchanging causing a beautiful effect, so it wiuldn’t be so should the Tritonus be the “sound of the devil”, even more by the fsct that it wad never meant to be understood this way, it was not a supertitious way of thinking, but wisdom and gusto.

I've been experimenting with tritones lately. In my own musical traditions, one of the most famous examples of a powerful use of tritone is from the song "Black Sabbath" by the band of the same name. In this song, they establish the key with a full measure of the tonic chord--G--played as a power chord (no 3rd) then another measure of the same at the next octave up, just to make sure the listener is firmly hearing the tonic. Then, it unleashes pure demonic evil by playing the tritone power chord, D flat/ C sharp, pulling the listener into full mortal despair. It has an effect and a sound, both of which have been thoroughly explored by every heavy rock group since. Without a tritone in some form, rock music doesn't have the hard rock edge. That is exactly the sound church music in the days of Pope Gregory didn't want. It made the congregation think of Satan. Flash forward to modern times, and this same tritone sound has made thousands of rock music fans think about Satan, evil, mortal terror, etc. But it's just a relationship among notes. Played as a passing note on the way to the fourth or fifth, the tritone note is just a bit bluesy. It can function more like a suspension of the fourth or fifth, and as always, the overall effect of the music depends on the expression of the musician. In my experiments, sometimes I can make a tritone note sound like a sweet longing of the melody to arrive at the diatonic fourth or fifth. I'm still somewhat of a beginner with music, but I am proud of what I've accomplished in my playing by coaxing a different flavor out of this "sour" note.

very nice. thank you.

Why don’t you play a D when demonstrating a g7 chord?

So well explained! Cheers!

Watching your keyboard just gave me an aha moment about why IV minor substitution sounds so good too. The IV minor has that same inverted tritone interval F to B. And IV minor can be thought of as the Db7 with the root note Db dropped off. 🤯

What scale would you use to make melodies while on the tritone substitute chord? Thanks!!!

Guitar is my primary instrument, so any theory video with a keyboard at the bottom intimidates me, but I followed this with ease! Wonderful explanation! I just subscribed.

Clearest explanation ever!

I need some advise at to how I can improve my aural skills. Like know the key of a song without touching the keyboard. Any tip will be appreciated

Nicely explained - thankful to find your channel! Cheers from Seattle 🍻 Alex

Why D♭ and not C#? Isn’t D♭ technically a diminished fifth? Also, consider Neely’s interesting video on C♭/B♮ and other enharmonics.

Excellent. This channel is my go-to for quick insights on music theory concepts. The explanations are always concise, include very lucid and clear examples, and easy to follow. Only a great teacher with very deep insight can pack so much in a short video like this.

Brilliant. What a master.

Thank you, yet again.

Good one thisone!

Best explanation ever! Thanks!👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

B diminhed7 plays similar role, since there is tritone between B and Cb. Resolves up to C so sounds sometimes even better than Db7

Nicely explained.I teach the same way . I would like to add that the German 6 th on b VI also resolves on Ic. It's interesting to note that the French 6 th is a dom7 b5 ( #4 ) chord and if thought of as a tritone substitute, it has the exact same notes.

Sorry this is not a musical question . May I be impertinent and ask if your weight loss is voluntary due to dieting? You can ignore my question if you think I have been too personal, but I just have been concerned ……

Been following since a long time. Excellent channel. Love from India 💗

Great, thank you

Vb7

Excellent teacher, this guitar player subscribed!

Awesome vid, Gareth. Thanks very much!

uah! 🐻👍👍👍💥👍👍👍