Underlying Secrets to Tri-tones
There are short cuts I have discovered that will help you in determining when and how you can apply your tri-tones.
TRI-TONES!!! The big girls of gospel music! Aha! Everybody is talking about tri-tones.
The question is, Can tri-tone substitutions really revolutionize your playing?
The answer is YES!
I know you’re thinking… “Whoa! Big words. This is going to be complex.” Let me assure you that this concept is very easy to understand. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Perhaps you’ve seen these words thrown around forums, or Musicians play around with it. Well, I’m finally going to demystify tri-tone substitutions for you.
So what are tri-tones?
A tri-tone is made up of a particular tone and its b5 interval. It’s a melodic progression of 6 semi-tones.
C major:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
TRI-TONES!!! The big girls of gospel music! Aha! Everybody is talking about tri-tones.
The question is, Can tri-tone substitutions really revolutionize your playing?
The answer is YES!
I know you’re thinking… “Whoa! Big words. This is going to be complex.” Let me assure you that this concept is very easy to understand. Maybe you’ve heard of it. Perhaps you’ve seen these words thrown around forums, or Musicians play around with it. Well, I’m finally going to demystify tri-tone substitutions for you.
So what are tri-tones?
A tri-tone is made up of a particular tone and its b5 interval. It’s a melodic progression of 6 semi-tones.
C major:
C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
In C major, that will be C + Gb (G is the 5th… so simply lower it to Gb).
It’s also known as a diminished 5th interval. (Diminish literally means to “make smaller”). But here’s the thing with tri-tones. Unlike other chords, you really only have to learn 6 of them.
Yes!
12 is the magic number in music. There are 12 major chords, 12 minor chords, 12 diminished chords [but literally 3 diminished chords in inversions when extended to tetrads]…12 of everything! But with tri-tones, they are symmetric. In other words, they are the same if you take the bottom note and move it to the top. It doesn’t matter.
Take that “C + Gb”, flip it, and you’ll get “Gb + C” (it’s still a tri-tone).
Yes!
12 is the magic number in music. There are 12 major chords, 12 minor chords, 12 diminished chords [but literally 3 diminished chords in inversions when extended to tetrads]…12 of everything! But with tri-tones, they are symmetric. In other words, they are the same if you take the bottom note and move it to the top. It doesn’t matter.
Take that “C + Gb”, flip it, and you’ll get “Gb + C” (it’s still a tri-tone).
On the other hand, if you take a perfect fifth like “C + G” and flip it, you won’t get the same 5th but instead, you’ll get a 4th (“G + C”). That’s because they aren’t symmetric.
Tri-tones are basically equal when you transpose them. And get this…
They cut the octave perfectly in half.
Yes, believe it or not, the “b5 (flatted fifth) marks the MIDDLE POINT of the octave. So if you go from C to Gb and then from Gb to C, you would have encompassed an octave.
Octave = 12 half steps
Tri-tone = 6 half steps (or 3 whole steps, thus the name “tri”)
Because of all this, there are really only 6 of them. Gb + C is basically the same as C + Gb (at least for the purposes in which we’ll use them). That means, all you have to do is learn these (and I’m going to use informal spellings just to keep things simple):
C + Gb
Db + G
D + Ab
Eb + A
E + Bb
F + B
…And you’ll automatically know that the “flipped” versions are:
Gb + C
G + Db
Ab + D
A + Eb
Bb + E
B + F
Now, I want to talk about how to know the chords that will go with them, and when to use them.
What makes up a tri-tone? When is it most probably used? What chord formations carry tri-tones seamlessly? How can they be applied to add colour to songs that already have existing chords? How do you know when a tri-tone is necessary or useful? Would the melody of a song have to change when you apply a tri-tone, so that the melody and the chord don’t sound so far apart? How can I take advantage of its power?
All these questions and many more go through the minds of anyone who comes across the Phenomenon known as tri-tones. Well, most of them I would answer here, but the question of where it fits and how one can take advantage of its power would be better explained in a practical class.
You know! Tri-tones are interesting little fellas! They are quite versatile.
What makes up a tri-tone?
*A tri-tone is basically birthed from a dominant 7th chord. The formation is basically the 3rd and the dominant 7th in that chord. That is it! The name comes from the idea that the notes have 3 whole steps or 6 half steps between them. I.e. if we have a dominant 7th chord: G + B + D + F, the tri-tone formation would be B + F [The 3rd and 7th basically].
They cut the octave perfectly in half.
Yes, believe it or not, the “b5 (flatted fifth) marks the MIDDLE POINT of the octave. So if you go from C to Gb and then from Gb to C, you would have encompassed an octave.
Octave = 12 half steps
Tri-tone = 6 half steps (or 3 whole steps, thus the name “tri”)
Because of all this, there are really only 6 of them. Gb + C is basically the same as C + Gb (at least for the purposes in which we’ll use them). That means, all you have to do is learn these (and I’m going to use informal spellings just to keep things simple):
C + Gb
Db + G
D + Ab
Eb + A
E + Bb
F + B
…And you’ll automatically know that the “flipped” versions are:
Gb + C
G + Db
Ab + D
A + Eb
Bb + E
B + F
Now, I want to talk about how to know the chords that will go with them, and when to use them.
What makes up a tri-tone? When is it most probably used? What chord formations carry tri-tones seamlessly? How can they be applied to add colour to songs that already have existing chords? How do you know when a tri-tone is necessary or useful? Would the melody of a song have to change when you apply a tri-tone, so that the melody and the chord don’t sound so far apart? How can I take advantage of its power?
All these questions and many more go through the minds of anyone who comes across the Phenomenon known as tri-tones. Well, most of them I would answer here, but the question of where it fits and how one can take advantage of its power would be better explained in a practical class.
You know! Tri-tones are interesting little fellas! They are quite versatile.
What makes up a tri-tone?
*A tri-tone is basically birthed from a dominant 7th chord. The formation is basically the 3rd and the dominant 7th in that chord. That is it! The name comes from the idea that the notes have 3 whole steps or 6 half steps between them. I.e. if we have a dominant 7th chord: G + B + D + F, the tri-tone formation would be B + F [The 3rd and 7th basically].
Because of its combination of b5 movements, it is only used in dominant 7th substitutions or alternations.
When is it most probably used?
*Tri-tones in general can be used as substitutions, passing chords, root chords, or in moving major tones to fill up a song [passing voicings].
*Now, another secret I want to reveal to you is that anytime you have to use a tri-tone, you will usually accompany it with a major chord. At the craziest, a dominant chord can be used as well.
What chord formations carry tri-tones seamlessly?
*Another secret is that the major chord that will usually accompany your tri-tone chord begins 2 whole steps ahead of your tri-tone root note i.e. a di-tone away.
Let me break that down for you.
What I mean is that when you have a tri-tone [F + B], and you want to form the major chord that accompanies it, it will usually be the major chord of the tone 2 whole steps away from the root of the tri-tone, or a whole step behind the bounding note of that tri-tone [A major], played from the 2nd inversion. So what I would have will be:
F + B /// E + A + C#
When is it most probably used?
*Tri-tones in general can be used as substitutions, passing chords, root chords, or in moving major tones to fill up a song [passing voicings].
*Now, another secret I want to reveal to you is that anytime you have to use a tri-tone, you will usually accompany it with a major chord. At the craziest, a dominant chord can be used as well.
What chord formations carry tri-tones seamlessly?
*Another secret is that the major chord that will usually accompany your tri-tone chord begins 2 whole steps ahead of your tri-tone root note i.e. a di-tone away.
Let me break that down for you.
What I mean is that when you have a tri-tone [F + B], and you want to form the major chord that accompanies it, it will usually be the major chord of the tone 2 whole steps away from the root of the tri-tone, or a whole step behind the bounding note of that tri-tone [A major], played from the 2nd inversion. So what I would have will be:
F + B /// E + A + C#
Even when I have to make a movement in tri-tones, the principle remains the same:
F + B /// E + A + C# - E + Bb /// Eb + Ab + C
F + B /// E + A + C# - E + Bb /// Eb + Ab + C
Remember that tri-tones are basically 6 in number, and to make it complete 12 tones, all you do is just flip the tri-tone chords around, seeing that they divide the octave into a perfect half. [Hope you remember our earlier experiment with these?]
In other words, we can say that the major chord that accompanies the tri-tone would be either 2 whole tones from the 3rd, or a whole tone behind the 7th. The point is that it is always better played from the 2nd inversion (though any inversion counts).
How can they be applied to add colour to songs that already have existing chords?
*Another secret I would want to put forward, which is related to the previous one is that when substituting chords with tri-tone substitutions, the tri-tone root note will begin a whole tone behind the substituted tone, while the major chord will begin a whole tone at the front of the substituted chord.
Did that sound confusing? I thought so too. Let me break it down as well.
Now, let us say we want to substitute the 7 – 3 – 6 progression on Ab [which is G – C – F] the tri-tone substitute will begin from F – E – F basically.
In other words, we can say that the major chord that accompanies the tri-tone would be either 2 whole tones from the 3rd, or a whole tone behind the 7th. The point is that it is always better played from the 2nd inversion (though any inversion counts).
How can they be applied to add colour to songs that already have existing chords?
*Another secret I would want to put forward, which is related to the previous one is that when substituting chords with tri-tone substitutions, the tri-tone root note will begin a whole tone behind the substituted tone, while the major chord will begin a whole tone at the front of the substituted chord.
Did that sound confusing? I thought so too. Let me break it down as well.
Now, let us say we want to substitute the 7 – 3 – 6 progression on Ab [which is G – C – F] the tri-tone substitute will begin from F – E – F basically.
Original:
G Bb D / F A C - C G Bb / E Ab Bb Eb - F C Eb / Ab C Eb G
G Bb D / F A C - C G Bb / E Ab Bb Eb - F C Eb / Ab C Eb G
Tri-tone:
F + B / E + A + C# - E + Bb / Eb + Ab + C - F + C + G / Ab + Eb + G + Bb
F + B / E + A + C# - E + Bb / Eb + Ab + C - F + C + G / Ab + Eb + G + Bb
What I want you to take note of based on this point is the fact that when I substituted the 7th tone chord, the tri-tone root note began a whole tone behind the 7th tone [F], and the accompanying major chord took its root a whole tone forward from the 7th tone [A major].
Wonderful isn’t it?
I want you to notice the use of the major 7th extension (7th on steroids) as the last chord substitute. I know you would be wondering why I did not use a tri-tone there. That brings me to the next secret.
How do you know when a tri-tone is necessary or useful?
*The tri-tone chord works best when substituting on your 7th, 6th, 3rd, 2nd or 1st tones i.e. on ‘ti’, ‘la’, ‘mi’, ‘re’, or ‘do’ tones.
I have given you a substitute for the 7 – 3 – 6 progression, so right now, I want to give you a substitute for the 3 – 6 – 2 progression passing up from the 7, but I won’t need to write out the 7th again.
Original: C G Bb / E Ab Bb Eb - F C Eb / Eb Gb A C - Bb F Ab / Db F Ab C
[m t r / se d r s] - [l m s / s to de m] - [r l d / f l d m]
Tri-tone:
E + Bb / Eb + Ab + C - F C G / Ab Eb G Bb - Ab + D / G + C + E + G
Wonderful isn’t it?
I want you to notice the use of the major 7th extension (7th on steroids) as the last chord substitute. I know you would be wondering why I did not use a tri-tone there. That brings me to the next secret.
How do you know when a tri-tone is necessary or useful?
*The tri-tone chord works best when substituting on your 7th, 6th, 3rd, 2nd or 1st tones i.e. on ‘ti’, ‘la’, ‘mi’, ‘re’, or ‘do’ tones.
I have given you a substitute for the 7 – 3 – 6 progression, so right now, I want to give you a substitute for the 3 – 6 – 2 progression passing up from the 7, but I won’t need to write out the 7th again.
Original: C G Bb / E Ab Bb Eb - F C Eb / Eb Gb A C - Bb F Ab / Db F Ab C
[m t r / se d r s] - [l m s / s to de m] - [r l d / f l d m]
Tri-tone:
E + Bb / Eb + Ab + C - F C G / Ab Eb G Bb - Ab + D / G + C + E + G
As you may well know, the tri-tone is an invaluable tool in gospel music. The tri-tones alone will not work. You have to couple the tri-tone with a chord in your right hand. You will almost never play a tri-tone in your right hand. Tri-tones are usually played in your left hand.
The most important difference with the tri-tones is that the tri-tone stands alone. What this means is that the other chord combinations in the left hand usually contained the bass note as part of the chord, whereas the tri-tone rarely has the bass note in the chord. You see, tri-tones add instant colour to major triads and major chords. They are used to colour the major chord. The method I am showing you can be used for the organ, but it is more applicable to the piano and keyboard. Tri-tones on the organ have a totally different feel and method than that of the piano and/or keyboard.
Note: This is not a ‘hard rule’, but if you apply the family relationships of the patterns that exist, you’d see the wide application to these babies on all the notes of the scale. This is a discussion for another topic I’d introduce soon, so be alert.
*Another secret is that the tri-tone can be used along with its mother dominant chord. So, if we have a dominant chord, its tri-tone can be used to form the chord on the left hand. This works crazy well, but better when you have someone on the bass guitar hitting the bass note.
C + Gb / Ab + C + Eb + Gb - F + B / Db + F + Ab + B - G + Db / Eb + G + Bb + Db
The most important difference with the tri-tones is that the tri-tone stands alone. What this means is that the other chord combinations in the left hand usually contained the bass note as part of the chord, whereas the tri-tone rarely has the bass note in the chord. You see, tri-tones add instant colour to major triads and major chords. They are used to colour the major chord. The method I am showing you can be used for the organ, but it is more applicable to the piano and keyboard. Tri-tones on the organ have a totally different feel and method than that of the piano and/or keyboard.
Note: This is not a ‘hard rule’, but if you apply the family relationships of the patterns that exist, you’d see the wide application to these babies on all the notes of the scale. This is a discussion for another topic I’d introduce soon, so be alert.
*Another secret is that the tri-tone can be used along with its mother dominant chord. So, if we have a dominant chord, its tri-tone can be used to form the chord on the left hand. This works crazy well, but better when you have someone on the bass guitar hitting the bass note.
C + Gb / Ab + C + Eb + Gb - F + B / Db + F + Ab + B - G + Db / Eb + G + Bb + Db
Or in the key of C:
Bb + E / C + E + G + Bb - A + Eb / F + A + C + Eb - B + F / G + B + D + F
Bb + E / C + E + G + Bb - A + Eb / F + A + C + Eb - B + F / G + B + D + F
*Another secret I would like to tell you about is the trick to knowing what to play to accompany what tri-tone. I have talked about this a little, but now, I want to give you an actual chord to remember.
Let us say we want to perform the substitution for the 7 – 3 – 6, like I have given before, the trick of the tri-tone is that you start off with the destination tone on tri-tones, and move semi-tones back and forth to establish the number of tones to be played, which is 6 – 6b – 6. The major chords, Easy! What you play for this particular progression is the major triad chord progression of 1# – 1 – 5.
See that? Fascinating!
And when you want to play the substitution for 5b – 7 – 3, the tri-tone again will be the destination tone in tri-tones moving back and forth to establish the number of tones to be played. The major chords will be
6b – 5 – 1 [or your 1 major 7th].
This works for any tri-tone substitution you want to play.
Would the melody of a song have to change when you apply a tri-tone, so that the melody and the chord don’t sound so far apart?
*This next secret has to do not only with the tri-tones, but in your chord formations generally. NEVER compromise the melody for the pleasure of the chord, no matter the circumstances. Playing out of melody is just wrong.
The beauty of the tri-tone effect is when you have to locate a tri-tone chord that places the melody of the song on the highest note. That’s the whole concept.
Added to maintaining the melody, the ‘off’ feel of the tri-tone chord gives the progression a rather ‘phat’ texture that has to be played subtly. The wrong application of this power will make your music have too much dissonance, you’d sound off tune. The secret is not to be overly generous in your use, but simple and selective. You don’t have to play all the tri-tones that exist in one song.
I’d open up on this issue in a later post.
*The last secret I want to talk about in this level is the substitution for the tonic chord. The tri-tone follows the same principle, but the tonic chord doesn’t have to. What you can play on the tonic is your 6th major chord.
Gb + C / F + A + C + F
Let us say we want to perform the substitution for the 7 – 3 – 6, like I have given before, the trick of the tri-tone is that you start off with the destination tone on tri-tones, and move semi-tones back and forth to establish the number of tones to be played, which is 6 – 6b – 6. The major chords, Easy! What you play for this particular progression is the major triad chord progression of 1# – 1 – 5.
See that? Fascinating!
And when you want to play the substitution for 5b – 7 – 3, the tri-tone again will be the destination tone in tri-tones moving back and forth to establish the number of tones to be played. The major chords will be
6b – 5 – 1 [or your 1 major 7th].
This works for any tri-tone substitution you want to play.
Would the melody of a song have to change when you apply a tri-tone, so that the melody and the chord don’t sound so far apart?
*This next secret has to do not only with the tri-tones, but in your chord formations generally. NEVER compromise the melody for the pleasure of the chord, no matter the circumstances. Playing out of melody is just wrong.
The beauty of the tri-tone effect is when you have to locate a tri-tone chord that places the melody of the song on the highest note. That’s the whole concept.
Added to maintaining the melody, the ‘off’ feel of the tri-tone chord gives the progression a rather ‘phat’ texture that has to be played subtly. The wrong application of this power will make your music have too much dissonance, you’d sound off tune. The secret is not to be overly generous in your use, but simple and selective. You don’t have to play all the tri-tones that exist in one song.
I’d open up on this issue in a later post.
*The last secret I want to talk about in this level is the substitution for the tonic chord. The tri-tone follows the same principle, but the tonic chord doesn’t have to. What you can play on the tonic is your 6th major chord.
Gb + C / F + A + C + F
This will work perfectly in the 5 – 1 – 4 progression. [This example is given in the key of Ab]
Furthermore if you are in the key of Db and you have a 2 – 5 – 1 progression, you can use the same chord combination on the 5. So you see essentially, you can use this tri-tone combination to replace the 5 or the 1 of a progression.
* If you understudy these movements closely, you would see that the same tri-tone and major chord combination you would use on Ab in the substituted progression of 7 – 3 – 6, is the same chord combination you will use on Db in the substituted progression of 5b – 7 – 3, and you can use it in your substituted progression of 3 – 6 – 2 on Eb.
*Subsequently, you can use the same chord combination on your progression of 5b – 7 – 3 on Ab, and play it as a substitution of 7 – 3 – 6 on Eb, and 3 – 6 – 2 on the key of Bb.
* You can also use the 3 – 6 – 2 substitution on Ab to play the substitution of 7 – 3 – 6 of Db, and the substitution of 5b – 7 – 3 on Gb.
So you can see that the chords are related in a way. What I want you to do now is figure out the other similar combinations on other keys. It is important to pay attention to the chords or notes you play, so you can easily play them on other keys. I know every musician has favourite keys, where they can perform all their fancy runs, but you try to get yourself accustomed with all the keys.
I don’t want you to get used to electronic transposition on the keyboard. What happens when you sit on a piano, which has no buttons? How will you transpose then? Or probably a singer is on the microphone on a particular key and modulates, or asks you to change keys. What will you do then? Locate the transpose option? Don’t do it please.
Digest these, and I’d see you soon.
Furthermore if you are in the key of Db and you have a 2 – 5 – 1 progression, you can use the same chord combination on the 5. So you see essentially, you can use this tri-tone combination to replace the 5 or the 1 of a progression.
* If you understudy these movements closely, you would see that the same tri-tone and major chord combination you would use on Ab in the substituted progression of 7 – 3 – 6, is the same chord combination you will use on Db in the substituted progression of 5b – 7 – 3, and you can use it in your substituted progression of 3 – 6 – 2 on Eb.
*Subsequently, you can use the same chord combination on your progression of 5b – 7 – 3 on Ab, and play it as a substitution of 7 – 3 – 6 on Eb, and 3 – 6 – 2 on the key of Bb.
* You can also use the 3 – 6 – 2 substitution on Ab to play the substitution of 7 – 3 – 6 of Db, and the substitution of 5b – 7 – 3 on Gb.
So you can see that the chords are related in a way. What I want you to do now is figure out the other similar combinations on other keys. It is important to pay attention to the chords or notes you play, so you can easily play them on other keys. I know every musician has favourite keys, where they can perform all their fancy runs, but you try to get yourself accustomed with all the keys.
I don’t want you to get used to electronic transposition on the keyboard. What happens when you sit on a piano, which has no buttons? How will you transpose then? Or probably a singer is on the microphone on a particular key and modulates, or asks you to change keys. What will you do then? Locate the transpose option? Don’t do it please.
Digest these, and I’d see you soon.