Tritone Substitutions

As long as the root motion is preserved, you can use virtually any quality
of chord for your composition.

Beginning with the common progression

| G Em | Am D |

we can substitute major chords for the minors

| G E | A D |

or dominant chords

| G E7 | A7 D7 |

Diminished chords are often found for the second chord

| Gmaj7 Edim7 | Am7 D9 |

All of the above not only work, but are extremely common.

* * * * * * *

Using the same original progression ( | G Em | Am D | ), it is possible to substitute just one of the chords in the sequence with a tritone substitute:

note that the examples below only use ROOTS, no chord qualities are indicated

| G E | A Ab |

| G E | Eb D |

| G Bb | A D |

It is also possible to substitute 2 of the chords in the sequence with tritone substitutes:

| G E | Eb Ab |

| G Bb | Eb D |

| G Bb | A Ab |

And it is also possible to substitute All of the three last chords with tritone substitutes:

| G Bb | Eb Ab |

You'll notice that I did not indicate chord qualities in the above examples, ONLY ROOTS.

That's because the quality of the chord does not alter the order of the circle, TRITONE SUBSTITUTE OR NOT.

Granted that the last chord is very likely to be a dominant, the middle two chords can be pretty much whatever qualities/colors the composer chooses.

* * * * * * *

When you have a long circular string, the chords can get wierder and wierder the further away from the tonal center you get.

Example (tonal center = G):

Bm7b5 -> E+ -> A9 -> D13 -> Gmaj

* * * * * * *

The most common tendency for long chains of circular progressions with tritone substitutions is to alternate between minor quality chords for the chords whose roots occur within the scale, and dominant quality chords over the chords whose roots have been tritone substituted.

Example:

| Bm7 Bb7 | Am7 Ab7 | Gmaj |

If you've found the information above to be useful,
Please drop a tip in the Tip Jar by clicking in the "Click to Give" box below!
Thanks!


Guitar-Lessons-Riverside-CA.com
copyright © 2005 Jeff Brent