Tritone Substitution

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September 11, 2018

When learning how to play jazz guitar, one of the concepts that comes up time and time
again is the tritone substitution. Tritone substitution is a common chord substitution for
dominant chords and occurs often in jazz standards. The tritone concept is also very useful
for comping and improvised solos.

In this lesson, you’ll be looking at a simple way to think about the tritone substitution, as
well as explore a few examples of how you can apply this cool concept to your jazz guitar
comping and solos.

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Licks List
1. What is a Tritone Interval?
2. Tritone Intervals and Dominant 7 Chords
3. Guide Tones
Guide Tone Comping Study
Guide Tone Soloing Study
4. Tritone Chord Substitution
What is Tritone Substitution?
Tritone Blues Chords
Tritone 2-5-1 Chords
Tritone Turnaround Chords
5. How to Improvise over Tritone Substitutions
Lydian Dominant Scale Lick 1
Lydian Dominant Scale Lick 2
Tritone Pentatonic Lick
Tritone Arpeggio Lick 1
Tritone Arpeggio Lick 2
6. Tritone Side Stepping
What is Tritone Side Stepping?
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 Tritone Side Stepping Arpeggios
Tritone Side Stepping 1235 Pattern
Tritone Side Stepping Minor Blues Solo

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What is a Tritone Interval?

One of the first theory terms you hear, and one that comes up time and again when
studying jazz guitar, is the tritone.

In classical music, the tritone is known as diabolus in musica (the Devil in music) or the
devil’s interval.

There are different applications of the tritone, including guide tones and tritone subs, but
before you dive into those concepts, you need to know exactly what a tritone is.

In this section, you learn what a tritone is, how it sounds, and how to apply it on the guitar.

A tritone is the interval between a root note and 3 tones above or below that note.

If you want to know what a tritone sounds like, it’s the opening notes to the Simpsons
theme song. “The Simps” is a tritone, then it resolves to the perfect 5th on “ons”.

For example (see tabs below):

F-B is a tritone interval: F to G is 1 tone, F to A is 2 tones, and F to B is 3 tones.

The last bar in the example below shows you how to play a tritone interval without
stretching your fingers beyond 1 fret on the low 2 strings.

Try playing the last two notes in this example and sing “The Simps”, then play the 3rd fret C
on the 5th string and sing “ons”. You’ll hear it right away.

Tritone Intervals and Dominant 7 Chords

Now that you know what a tritone is, let’s look at how we use it in your jazz guitar playing,
specifically over dominant 7 chords.

If you look at any dominant 7 chord, you find a tritone interval built into that chord shape,
between the 3 and b7 of the chord.

Here’s how that looks on the fretboard for a D7 chord:

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Below you’ll see the D7 example in tabs.

The first two bars are a D7 chord solid and broken so you can see the full shape.

The last two bars are the same shapes with the root and 5th removed, leaving only the
3 and b7.

The 3 and 7 of any chord are called guide tones because even if you only play those two notes
of a chord you can hear the chord progression.

These two notes “guide” you through the changes:

The 3 tells you if the chord is major or minor based.

The 7 tells you if the chord is maj7, m7, or dominant 7.

Play these shapes on the guitar to get a feel for how they sit on the fretboard and how they
sound.

Guide Tones
With the knowledge of how tritones create the 3rd and 7th intervals of any dominant 7 chord,
you can now take that to the fretboard.

Here’s the tritone (3 and b7) for D7 in four positions on the guitar. Play each one to hear
how they sound and get an idea for how to finger tritone intervals on the fretboard.

After you play through these 3rds and 7ths, move on to the next section where you apply
those shapes to a 12-bar blues in D progression.
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Guide Tone Comping Study

Now that you know what a tritone is and how it fits into dominant 7 chords, you can take
that knowledge to a playing situation.

Here’s a 12-bar chord study over a blues in D that uses only the 3rd and 7th of each chord.

For each dominant 7 chord, the interval between the 3 and b7 is a tritone interval. For Em7
that rule doesn’t apply, though the 3rd and 7th still sound good over that chord.

Work out this comping study, and then when you have it down add this concept to your
comping over other blues and standard chord progressions.

Backing Track

Listen and Play Along

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Guide Tone Soloing Study

You can also use tritone intervals in your single-notes solos, both to outline the 3rd and 7th
of any chord, as well as the transitions between chord changes.

Here’s an example of a solo that focuses on both approaches. You see the 3 and b7 (a
tritone) played over specific dominant 7 chords.

You also see the 3 of one chord move by half step to the b7 of the next chord, creating a
smooth movement between chords along the way. This is called voice leading.

Work on this solo in your studies. Then when you’re ready, add this concept of 3rds and
7ths to your own solos over blues and other progressions.

Backing Track

Hear and Play Along

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To learn more about music theory and how it applies to the guitar, check out our
eBook Easy Guitar Theory

Tritone Chord Substitution

The tritone substitution is one of the most commonly used chord substitutions in jazz.
Tritone substitution is fairly straightforward to understand, but learning how to add these
cool-sounding chords to your comping ideas can be tougher than it sounds.

In this lesson, you will learn why tritone subs function as they do and how to apply them to
various chord progressions.

What is Tritone Substitution?

To begin, let’s look into what a tritone sub is and how you can apply it to any dominant 7
chord you are comping over.

A tritone substitution is taking any dominant 7 chord you see and play another dominant 7
chord that occurs a tritone (#4 aka b5) away from that initial chord.

For example: playing Db7 over G7.

The reason that this substitution works is that dominant 7 chords with a bass note a tritone
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apart share the same 3rd and 7th.

Here are the notes of those two chords for comparison:

G7 G B D F

Db7 Db F Ab B

As you can see:

The 3 of G (B) is the same as the b7 of Db7 (B)

The b7 of G7 (F) is the same as the 3 of Db7 (F)

This is the glue that holds the two tritone sub chords together.

Now that you know how tritone subs function and how to apply them to dominant 7th
chords, let’s take a look at some common applications.

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Tritone Blues Chords

The first practical application of tritone substitutions we will look at is in the fourth bar of a
jazz blues chord progression.

When playing on a common blues progression, you normally play I7-IV7-I7-I7 in the first
four bars of the tune.

You can apply a tritone substitution in bar four.

In the key of F, this is a B7 chord, which resolves down by a half step to the IV7 chord (Bb7
in this key) in bar five.

Here is how that substitution sounds over a jazz blues chord progression in F.

Listen & Play

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To help you get started with this tritone blues substitution, here is an example of how you
can play through this pattern.

Listen & Play

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Tritone ii V I Chords
Probably the most popular choice for a tritone substitution is over the V7 chord in a major
key ii-V-I progression.

When replacing the V7 chord of a ii-V-I with a tritone sub, you are creating the chord
progression ii-bII-I

Have a look at the chord progression below for a basic example:

Listen & Play

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To help you get started with this tritone ii-V-I progression, here is an example of how you
can play through this pattern in the key of C major.

Listen & Play

Once you have these examples under your fingers, try applying them to tunes which
contain a number of ii-V-I progressions, such as Tune Up or All The Things You Are.

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Tritone Turnarounds
Another popular progression that you can use to practice and apply tritone substitutions is
the turnaround, which usually occurs at the end of a tune or section.

The standard major key turnaround uses the chords I-VI-ii-V, as you can see in the top
changes of the example below.

The first place to apply a tritone sub is the V7 chord, as you can see in the chord changes
in the lower staff.

When replacing the V7 chord with a tritone sub, you are creating the chord progression I-VI-
ii-bII.

Listen & Play

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To help you get started with this tritone turnaround, here is an example of how you can play
through this pattern in the key of C major.

Listen & Play

You can also apply a tritone sub to the VI chord in a turnaround, which you can see in the
following progression.

When replacing the VI7 chord with a tritone sub, you create the chord progression I-bIII-ii-V.

Listen & Play

To help you get started with this tritone turnaround, here is an example of how you can play
through this pattern in the key of C major.

Listen & Play

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Lastly, you can apply a tritone sub to both the VI and V chords in a turnaround to produce
the chord progression I-bIII-ii-bII, which you can see and hear in the next example.

Listen & Play

To help you get started with this combined tritone turnaround, here is an example of how
you can play through this pattern in the key of C major.

Listen & Play

Learning how to confidently apply tritone subs to your jazz guitar comping phrases is an
essential tool for any jazz guitarist to have. Working on it in your daily routine until you can
apply it smoothly will help take your comping to the next level of creativity.

How to Improvise over Tritone Substitutions

The scale of choice to solo over tritone substitutions is the Lydian dominant scale.

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The Lydian dominant scale is a mode of the melodic minor scale. The altered scale is also
a mode of the melodic minor scale. These 3 scales are related and contain the same notes,
but start on a different root.

Db Lydian dominant scale = Ab melodic minor scale = G altered scale

Db Lydian Dominant Scale Db Eb F G Ab Bb Cb

Formula 1 2 3 #4 5 6 b7

The Lydian dominant scale is also very similar to the Mixolydian mode, the most common
choice to play over dominant chords. The only difference is the #4 of the Lydian dominant
scale, which is a natural 4 in the Mixolydian scale.

Here’s how the Lydian dominant scale looks on the guitar fretboard:

Here are 2 licks that use the Lydian dominant scale to get you started…

Lydian Dominant Scale Lick 1

The first lick starts with the D minor bebop scale and goes to the Db Lydian dominant scale
in bar 2.

Lydian Dominant Scale Lick 2

The second lick starts with a Dm7 arpeggio, goes into the Db Lydian dominant scale in bar
2, and finishes on the 9 of Cmaj7 in bar 3.

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Tritone Pentatonic Lick
Another scale you can play over tritone substitutions is the major pentatonic scale or the
major blues scale.

The following example starts on the D minor pentatonic scale, goes to the Db major
pentatonic scale in bar 2 and ends on the C major pentatonic scale in bar 3.

Tritone Arpeggio Lick 1

Besides scales, you can also use arpeggios to play over tritone substitutions.

This basic lick starts on the Dm7 arpeggio, goes to the Db7 arpeggio in bar 2 and ends on
the Cmaj7 arpeggio in bar 3.

Tritone Arpeggio Lick 2

This classic bebop lick uses some common chord substitutions:

Fmaj7 arpeggio over Dm7

Fm7b5 arpeggio over Db7
Em7 arpeggio over Cmaj7
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The F half-diminished arpeggio over Db7 results in a 9-sound:

Fm7b5 Arpeggio F Ab Cb Eb

Played over Db7 3 5 b7 9

Tritone Side Stepping

Learning how to bring a modern jazz guitar sound into your improvised lines, in the style of
great players such as Adam Rogers, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ben Monder and John McLaughlin,
can be tough.

But, with the right focus, and breaking ideas down into digestible chunks, you can learn to
bring a sense of tension and release into your playing just like your favorite modern
guitarist.

In this section, you’ll be looking at how you can play two chords at once over any
underlying chord progression in order to bring a modern feel to your lines and phrases.
Though the concept and ideas in this lesson can be applied to any chord or progression,
we’ll be exploring it first over a Cm7 chord.

What is Tritone Side Stepping?

While many of us have checked out side stepping where you move between two chords a
1/2 step apart, you can also bring a modern sound into your lines by playing two different
chords a tritone apart over the underlying chord(s) of a given progression.

For example, if you are soloing over a Cm7 chord, you can move between the chords Cm7
and F#m7 (2 minor 7 shapes a tritone apart).

Here are some examples of how you can bring this sound into your practicing and
improvising as a jazz guitarist.

Tritone Side Stepping Arpeggios

A good way to outline these two changes is to use arpeggios for each chord.

Here is how that would look like on the fretboard, beginning with Cm7, then moving through
F#m7 and back to Cm7 again.

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Here is another lick over a static Cm7 chord, using the tritone side-step arpeggios as the
basis for the phrase.

Work this lick as written with a metronome in the given key, and then take it across the
neck in all 12 keys. When you’ve worked it out and are comfortable with this line, try writing
out a few licks of your own using the tritone side-step arpeggios as the basis for those
phrases.

Writing out lines using a specific concept can be a great way to get a handle on a new
idea while bringing new lines and phrases into your vocabulary at the same time.

Tritone Side Stepping 1235 Pattern

Another pattern you can use with this tritone concept is the 1235 pattern. The 1235 pattern
is made famous by John Coltrane, who used it in many of his classic solos including his
legendary solo on the tune Giant Steps.

This pattern uses the triad of the underlying chord (135) and mixes in the 2nd for good
measure. As well as sounding good over chord changes, the 1235 pattern is fairly easy to
play on the fretboard.

Here is an example of the 1235 pattern for both Cm7 and F#m7 played over a static Cm7
chord.

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Here is another example of the 1235 pattern used in a tritone side-stepping line over a
static Cm7 chord.

Tritone Side Stepping Minor Blues Solo

Here is a sample solo over a C minor blues chord progression that uses this concept to
build every m7 line in the solo.

Start by learning this solo as written, then try writing out your own solo etude over a minor
jazz blues chord progression in a similar manner. From there, begin to improvise over
minor blues chord progressions and use the tritone side stepping concept to bring a
modern flavor to your minor 7 lines.

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Do you have a question or comment about this lesson? Post it in the comments
section below.

Tritone Substitution was last modified: September 11th, 2018 by Matt Warnock & Dirk
Laukens

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