Tritones

Tritones in music are the flattened 5th interval (or sharpened fourth)

Here they are in every key:

A - Eb
A# - E
B - F
C - Gb
C# - G
D - Ab
D# - A
E - Bb
F - B
F# - C
G - Db
G# - D


The reason why a seventh chord (also known as dominant chord) wants to move to the one chord, is because of the 'tritone' within the dominant chord.

In my example I play a C7 to F chord. The C7 consists of the notes C E G Bb, and notice how the tritone in that chord is between the two notes E - Bb

Tritones are powerful in songwriting, so have fun with it!


More tutorials IN ORDER at http://waltribeiro.net

Category:

Music

Tags:

• tritones
• chords
• guitar
• piano

[TimothyMcGaw]

In jazz, the flattened 3rds and 5ths etc are used in conjunction with the unflatted notes to approximate the quatertones that would be played on the traditional African instruments. Those notes are unavailable on the guitar and the piano, so the surrounding notes are played simultaneously, creating a lot of tension and dissonance. It's what gives jazz a lot of it's heart and soul as well and allows it to be so open to improvisation.

[waltribeiro]

@TimothyMcGaw cool!

[Guitarisforgrins]

Awesome lesson thanks. Going to have to re-watch it a few times lol.

[malkinmario]

thanks, i got interested in the tritone from watching a show on vh1 on the history of metal and it said that the tritone was actually not allowed to be played at one point in history. reason being poeple thought it was the note of the devil or even summoned demons! So then I went on wiki and was like what the #&%$????? You have explained it in easy terms. Thanks

[josiah912]

ok bro i have a question well i'm a keybordest in my church and am also in a band and the keyboardest in my band completely plays in tritones and he songs great. well am not an expert but i learned the keyboard on my own u can say God given talent and the thing is my strongest key is (C) i transpose all gospel songs to C so i want some help on how to spice up playing in the same key of C while i go to school to learn other keys to play in Thanks Bro for the Help

[megan9987]

Very informal lesson man! Thanks a lot!

[MarkoRuzinOfficial]

Cool lesson, sounds like a good way to start learning modulation.