page_title: Tritone substitution
section_title: Jazz
hierarchical_section_title: Tritone substitution / Analysis / Jazz
caption_attribution_description: English: Created by Hyacinth (talk) 15:03, 13 December 2010 using Sibelius 5. Tritone substitution.
context_page_description: The tritone substitution is one of the most common chord substitutions found in jazz and was the precursor to more complex substitution patterns like Coltrane changes. Tritone substitutions are sometimes used in improvisation—often to create tension during a solo. Though examples of the tritone substitution, known in the classical world as an augmented sixth chord, can be found extensively in classical music since the Renaissance period, they were not heard until much later in jazz by musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in the 1940s, as well as Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge and Benny Goodman.
  The tritone substitution can be performed by exchanging a dominant seven chord for another dominant seven chord which is a tritone away from it. For example, in the key of C major one can use D♭⁷ instead of G⁷.
context_section_description: A tritone substitution is the substitution of one dominant seventh chord (possibly altered or extended) with another that is three whole steps (a tritone) from the original chord.  In other words, tritone substitution involves replacing V⁷ with ♭II⁷ (which could also be called ♭V⁷/V, subV⁷, or V⁷/♭V).  For example, D♭⁷ is the tritone substitution for G⁷.
  In standard jazz harmony, tritone substitution works because the two chords share two pitches: namely, the third and seventh, albeit reversed. In a G⁷ chord, the third is B and the seventh is F; whereas, in its tritone substitution, D♭⁷, the third is F and the seventh is C♭ (enharmonically B♮). Notice that the interval between the third and seventh of a dominant seventh chord is itself a tritone.
  Edward Sarath calls tritone substitutions a "non-diatonic practice that is indirectly related to applied chord functions... yield[ing] an alternative melodic pathway in the bass to the tonic triad." Patricia Julien says it involves replacing "harmonic root movement of a fifth with stepwise root movements (e.g., G⁷–C becomes D♭⁷–C) so that although stepwise root movement is involved, the relationship between the chords is functional".
  The tritone substitute dominant often contains the original dominant pitch (the sharp fourth, also called sharp eleventh or flat fifth, relative to the original root) due to its importance melodically and tonally, and this is one of the ways in which substitute dominants may sound and function somewhat differently than conventional dominant chords. (However, sharp elevenths also occur on non-substituted dominant chords in jazz.)  The substitute dominant may be used as a pivot chord in modulation. Since it is the dominant chord a tritone away, the substitute dominant may resolve down a fifth, to a tonic chord a tritone away from the previous tonic (for example, in F one may feature a ii–V on C, which with a substitute dominant resolves to G♭, a distant key from F). Resolution to the original tonic is also common.
  Tritone substitutions are also closely related to the altered chord used commonly in jazz. Jerry Coker explains:
  Tritone substitutions and altered dominants are nearly identical... Good improvisers will liberally sprinkle their solos with both devices. A simple comparison of the notes generally used with the given chord [notation] and the notes used in tri-tone substitution or altered dominants will reveal a rather stunning contrast, and could cause the unknowledgeable analyzer to suspect errors. ... the distinction between the two [tri-tone substitution and altered dominant] is usually a moot point.
  The alt chord is a heavily altered dominant seventh chord, built on the alt scale, a scale where every scale degree except the root is flattened compared to the major scale.  For example, C⁷ᵃˡᵗ is built from the scale C, D♭, E♭, F♭, G♭, A♭, B♭.  Enharmonically, this is almost the same as the scale for G♭⁷, which is the tritone substitute of C⁷: G♭, A♭, B♭, C♭, D♭, E♭, F♭. The only difference is C, which is the sharp eleventh of the G♭⁷ chord. Thus, the alt chord is equivalent to the tritone substitution with a sharp–eleventh alteration.
  The tritone substitution primarily implies a Lydian dominant scale. In the case of D♭⁷ to Cᵐᵃʲ⁷, the implied scale behind D♭⁷ would be D♭, E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C♭. Because of this, the extensions of 9, ♯11 and 13 are all available, while the ♯11 is where it shares with the altered scale.
caption: F♯7 may substitute for C7 because they both have E♮ and B♭/A♯ and pay due to voice leading considerations. About this soundPlay (help·info)
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