What’s a Tritone Substitution?
The tritone substitution is one of the most common substitution found in jazz. The basic application of a tritone chord substitution is to take any 7th chord and play another 7th chord that has its root a tritone away from the original. This guitar lesson demonstrates how you can play scales and arpeggios starting from the b5 (a tritone away) of the V7 chord in a II V I chord progression. This way you will highlight altered tones as the b9 and the #11.
Let’s take a C major II V I chord progression Dm7 | G7 | CM7 | % | After applying a tritone substitution to the V7 chord of a II V I chord progression, we get the following sequence Dm7 | Db7 | CM7 | % | The idea behind is to play Db over G7. Here are some examples :
How to Solo Over Tritone Substitution?
Four options are addressed in this lesson :
The first is to play a dominant 7 arpeggio (1 – 3 – 5 – b7) starting on the b5 of the V7 chord. Here is what happens when you play Db7 over G7 :
- The root of Db7 highlights the #11/b5 of G7.
- The third (F) of Db7 is the b7 of G7.
- The fifth (Ab) of Db7 highlights the b9 of G7.
- The minor seventh (B) of Db7 is the third of G7.
The second option is to play a dominant 9 arpeggio (1 – 3 – 5 – b7 – 9) which means that you have to add the ninth to the previous dom7 arpeggio.
- The ninth (or second) of Db7 (Eb) highlights the b13 of G.
The third option consists in playing a major pentatonic scale (1 – 2 – 3 – 5 – 6).
- The root of Db7 highlights the #11/b5 of G7.
- The second of Db7 (Eb) highlights the b13 of G.
- The third (F) of Db7 is the same note as the b7 of G7.
- The fifth (Ab) of Db7 is the b9 of G7.
- The sixth (Bb) of Db7 should be used as an approach note in order to target a chord tone
The fourth option to solo with a tritone sub is to use the Mixolydian mode (1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – b7). It has the same note as the major pentatonic scale with a fourth (4/11) and a seventh (7).
- The fourth of Db7 (Gb) must be treated as an approach note.
- The seventh of Db7 (B) is the third of G7.
- Bar 1 : Dm7 arpeggio (D – F – A – C)
- Bar 2 : Descending Db7 arpeggio (Db – F – A – Cb)
- Bar 3 : CM7 arpeggio (C – E – G – B)
Tritone Substitution Lick # 2
- Bar 1 : D minor pentatonic scale. (D – F -G – A – C ) C is not played.
- Bar 2 : Db major pentatonic scale (Db – Eb – F – Ab – Bb). Bb is not played.
Playing Db pentatonic over G7 chord provides some interesting colors:
- Db is the #11 of the G7 chord.
- Eb is the b13 of G7.
- F is the minor 7th of G7.
- Ab is the b9 of G7 .
Bar 3 : C major pentatonic scale (C – D – E – G – A). A is not played.
Tritone Substitution Lick # 3
- Measure 1 : D minor 9 arpeggio (D – F – A – C – E)
- Measure 2 : Db9 descending arpeggio (Eb – Cb – Ab – F – Db)
Playing Db9 arpeggio on G7 highlights the following tones :
- Db is the #11 of the G7 chord.
- F is the minor 7th of G7.
- Ab is the b9 of G7 .
- Cb is the major third of G7.
- Eb is the b13 of G7.
Measure 3 : C Major arpeggio (C – E – G) ending with a fourth intervals (A – D) and a major third (G and B)
Tritone Substitution Lick # 4
- Measure 1 : Dorian mode (D – E – F – G – A – B) B is not played.
- Measure 2 (second half of the beat 2) : Db7b9 arpeggio (Db – F – Ab – Cb – D)
- Measure 3 : Ending on the root of CM7.
Tritone Substitution Lick # 5
- Measure 1 : Dm9 arpeggio (D – F – A – C – E)
- Measure 2 : Db9 arpeggio (Eb – Cb – Ab – F – Db) and chromaticism to approach the root of CM7.
- Measure 3 : Ending with two chords CM7 and C6/9.
Tritone Substitution Lick # 6
- Measure 1 : D Dorian bebop (D – E – F – F# – G – A – B – C). The Dorian bebop scale is the Dorian mode with a passing tone.
- Measure 2 : Db7 mixolydian mode ( Db – Eb – F – Gb – Ab – Bb – Cb).
- Measure 3 : C major arpeggio (C-E-G) and C major scale ending on a C69 arpeggio (C-A-D-G).
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