Tritones

[flashjack]

Ok. I might sound super noob. But i would like to ask what exactly is tritones.

Im listen to alot of bands from old to new and for the past year i have seem to be musically glued to The mars volta and Omar rodriguez uses alot of tritones in his guitar playing.

So can someone wise and knowledgeable soul educate me on tritones and how and when can it be used in music?

Im not trying to rip Omar's style, i just wanna learn. Im on a guitar quest to learn on the different styles of guitar playing. From the awesome Jimi hendrix/John Frusciante to the weird sounding Omar Rodriguez or from the sweet licks of David Gilmour to the grungy rhythms of Kurt Cobain.

Hah i talk too much. lol

 

[karlie]

tritones are intervals.
technically a augmented 4th interval.
let's say C, the tritone interval to it would be F#, the tritone to G would C#.

the tritone has long been associated with the devil (classical theory would teach you this i think) it produces a certain sound that is very dissonant, meaning that the untrained ear would tell you it sounds very wrong and "evil".

the usages of the tritone varies alot actually.
for example in the key of C,with regards to the major scale and not going out of it, playing B and F together will get you that tritone sound. just remember that the tritone is a very dissonant sound.

tension and resoultion.
a good way (in a solo) to use tritones would be create tension and then resolve it.
you could be playing B - F - B - F - B - F and then resolve it by playing E - C - G.

anyway i hope i helped lol i'm a bit sleepy so if i make any mistakes here do correct me.
we're all learning

cheers

 

[crazyguy106]

You're right about the interval. I'm not so sure about the point of B F B F B F because if it is in Cmaj7 it doesn't sound too "evil".

The most common tritone sub is the tritone sub of a dominant fifth during a 2-5-1 (ie in the case of C major 2-5-1, Dm7-G7-Cmaj7). So with the dominant fifth, you tritone sub it to another dominant seventh a tritone away. Both up and down will give you the same effect. This gives you a 2-b2-1 sound which is Dm-Db7-Cmaj7 in C major.

Often this sub is used in solos by jazz musicians because if you actually spend time looking at it, the only thing notes which remain the same between the two chords (a tritone apart) are the 3rd, and the 7th. This applies to only dominant 7th in this scenario. And the 3rd and 7th are what we call the chord tones (a bit blur not sure if this is the accurate term), and are the "most important" in jazz soloing to outline a chord.

 

[VidaK]

in easier terms, tritone is the "blue" note.

yes, it is the most dissonant note possible in music (check out black sabbath by black sabbath or as I am by dream theater)

by adding this "dissonant evil note" into the simplest of scales, a pentatonic scale, the scale would become a blues scale instead. i.e. A pentatonic > A blues pentatonic

 

[karlie]

You're right about the interval. I'm not so sure about the point of B F B F B F because if it is in Cmaj7 it doesn't sound too "evil".

yeah true, forgot about chord backings lol.
yeah the tritone substitution, dominant 7s are so flexible. maybe one thing to note about why people use the tritone sub would be that it provides tension before the resolution.

eh yeah the 3rd 7th are called chord tones that outline the importance of a chord, the 3rd usually outlines if it's a major or minor and the 7th's the extension that outlines the unqiue quality of the chord.

what vidaK says is right too. the blues note is an augmented 4th interval away.
(i.e A - Eb) and if you lay out the notes (minor pentatonic) A C D Eb E G you get the blues pentatonic

 

[crazyguy106]

But it's not quite accurate to call it the "blues note" because what you're mentioning is only a minor pentatonic. But when we talk about a Blues Scale we're usually using a major scale to modify. And the sharp 4th is only added way later. It's more about the flat third with the major third and the flat seventh when it comes to the blues scale.

Augmented fourth is "evil" in the sense that it's meant to be dissonant, but it's not the "most jarring one". Actually you wanna talk about most jarring sounds go full distortion and play a minor second. Or a minor (flat) ninth. Same interval only with an extra octave but they have pretty interesting effects. =)

 

[VidaK]

I knew that sooner or later I will get bashed >.<

 

[karlie]

I knew that sooner or later I will get bashed >.<

haha what you said was correct lah, it can be understood your way as well as crazyguy106's way as well only that crazyguy106's more theoretical.

 

[crazyguy106]

haha what you said was correct lah, it can be understood your way as well as crazyguy106's way as well only that crazyguy106's more theoretical.

Actually it depends on how you see it... That's all. =) All about approach.

 

[karlie]

Actually it depends on how you see it... That's all. =) All about approach.

+1 hahah anyway i wonder if the threadstarter actually gained anything out of this. haha