Tritone, augmented fourth, diminished fifth, half an octave... whatever you want to call it, it has no doubt been a vastly misunderstood concept throughout most of music. It is most famous for being "diabolus in musica", or "The Devil in music" (loosely), because of its tense and occasionally "evil" feel. In fact, some churches throughout the 16th and 17th centuries banned the interval from being used in hymns, due to its Devilish quality. Perhaps all this hubbub was due to the fact that some people just don't know how to properly use the interval? Read on, kiddies, as I indulge you in an example-full explaination of all the tritone's greatest advantages!
What Is The Tritone?
Known as the augmented fourth and diminished fifth, one can determine that the tritone lies 6 semitones (frets) above the root note. Oddly enough, being exactly half an octave, the tritone is also found 6 semitones below the root note. So, if you're playing an E (let's say 7th fret A string), both tritones (A#/Bb) lie easily in access, either on the 8th fret of the D string or the 6th fret of the E string. There, that's easy, isn't it? Now that you know what it is, let's get on to the good stuff!
Scales With The Tritone
Some scales, though they may not try to eccentricate solely on the tritone, at least contain it. Whether to serve a specific melodic purpose or, in some cases, to just cause pure dissonance, there are a couple essential tritone scales every tritone guitarist should know:
Blues Scale
Almost -- ALMOST!-- the same as the pentatonic minor in every single way, only with the tritone added. Let's take a look at an example, in G:
|------------------------3-6-|
|--------------------3-6-----|
|--------------3-5-6---------|
|----------3-5---------------|
|----3-4-5-------------------|
|3-6-------------------------|
Notice how without the C#/Db on the A string (4th fret) and G string (6th fret), you would have your basic G pentatonic minor scale.
You see, whereas a lot of Europeans for centuries thought that the tritone sounded "evil", Americans adopted the interval to instead sound more "blue", hence the name "blues".
Diminished Scale
Perhaps one of the best examples of a scale using tritones, the diminished scale is simply formulated but is still an amazing discovery! To play a diminished scale, starting from your root note, go up one whole step (2 frets), 1 half step (1 fret), whole, half, etc. One thing to note, however, is that a diminished scale has two distinct modes. The most common mode is to start the ascent one half step below your actual root note. If you play a C minor chord, you would then back it up with a B diminished scale, which would look like this:
|----------------------0-1-|
|------------------2-3-----|
|------------1-3-4---------|
|------2-3-5---------------|
|2-4-5---------------------|
|--------------------------|
A second but less-commonly-used mode is to start the ascent a full step below the root note. Sticking with the C minor chord again, you would back that up instead with a Bb diminished scale, which would look like this:
|------------------------0-|
|------------------1-2-4---|
|------------0-2-3---------|
|------1-2-4---------------|
|1-3-4---------------------|
|--------------------------|
Okay, now that you know a couple crucial scales, you'll be well-equipped when it comes to soloing, now won't you? But for all you rhythm guitarists out here, I'll slap some chord theory on you now.
The Dominant Seventh Chord
In chord progressions, the dominant seventh chord is one of the most important in resolving a progression back to its root chord. If you want something to build tension before you hit the root chord again, a dominant seventh chord is probably the most effective way to do such. This is in no small part due to the fact that a dominant seventh chord will always feature -- yeah, you guessed it -- the tritone. For a better visualization, here's an example:
You're in the key of C major. Now, let's say for one measure, you play a C chord. The second measure, an A minor. The third, a D minor. Okay, good, good.
Now, the D minor does build up some tension, but not really enough to make the resolution with C major satisfying. So, what do we throw in? A dominant seventh chord!
But wait... which dominant seventh chord do we use?
How To Find The Dominant Seventh Chord
Well, any time you hear the word dominant in music, it's referring to the 5th scale degree; you folks here would recognize this relationship as the trusty power chord. All you have to do to find the root note of your dominant chord would be to look a fifth above your root note, and you've got it. Since we're looking for the dominant of C, then we'd go a perfect fifth above C to a G. So now our progression goes |C|Am|Dm|G7|C|Am|Dm|G7|. See how that resolves nicely? The dominant seventh builds up tension and resolves perfectly... and do you know why? Let's take a look at both the G7 and C chords:
G7 C
|1-------0-------|
|0-------1-------|
|0-------0-------|
|0-------2-------|
|2-------3-------|
|3---------------|
The tritone forms between the 3rd and the flatted 7th of the G in the G7 chord (the 3rd of a G is a B, the b7th is an F, and the distance between those two notes forms a tritone).
Okay, for the sake of making the resolution easier to hear, just play the top 2 notes of those two chords. What do we hear happening there? Well, the F on the e string wants to go down to an e, while the open B wants to go up to the 1st fret C. Can you hear it? Isn't it excellent voice leading to make a chord resolve in that manner? And I'll show you how you can do it yourself:
Building Your Own Dominant Seventh Chord
In order to form a dominant chord, you must use the interval formula for a dominant chord, which is 1 3 5 b7. What does that mean? It means to take the 1, 3, 5, and b7 notes in relation to the root note's major scale.
So let's say you're forming a G7 chord. We start out with the G major scale.
G A B C D E F# G
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1
Now, we take the 1, 3, 5, and b7 tones of the scale. This turns out to be G (1), B (3), D (5), and F natural (b7).
We now know the notes of the G7 chord, and it is simply a matter of arranging those tones on the guitar to form the chord. One common way is to arrange them as such:
e|-----
B|-----
G|--10- F (b7)
D|--9-- B (3)
A|--10- G (1)
E|--10- D (5)
Of course, there are plenty of other voicings (arrangements) you could potentially use.
Okay, moving on!
Dissonance
Dissonance is defined as anything that is unharmonized and unstable. The tritone is traditionally considered dissonance, though it is not as dissonant as the second or seventh. So what's basically meant by dissonance is simply this: noisy. Though it can be used in other ways to serve more melodic purposes and avoid being rendered completely "noisy", in certain situations it's used simply because it's noisy.
Take the metal genre, for example. Metal has for a long time been one of the most heavily tritone-laden -- and just generally dissonance-laden -- genres around.
Though a lot of metal is just an adaptation of the blues scale, there's no doubt that some bands are trying to sound more dissonant than they are bluesy. I can think of, offhand, WAY too many examples! Let's take the most basic and one of the most famous examples: the opening riff to Black Sabbath's heavy metal masterpiece, "Black Sabbath":
|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|
|--------------------------------|
|--------5------------trill------|
|----------------4h5p4h5p4h5p4h5-|
|3-------------------------------|
So simple, yet so effective! The C#/Db (4th fret A string) produces one of the most evil effects ever, and is no doubt only heightened by the two G notes right before it.
Now, that's basic tritone metal. That alone is evil-sounding enough, but that's even in its simplest form! Some bands have gone further into the tritone territory (some bands even make the use of the tritone part of their signature sound, a la Slayer or even Metallica), and it can really make for a cool effect. Though not exactly harmonically relevant, it can create an atmosphere of incredible tension that would otherwise be unattainable.
And I think the best example of extreme tritone dissonance would be the blistering chorus riff of Judas Priest's "The Ripper":
[Caution: Dissonance may melt face off]
|------------------------------------------------|
|---------------------------8--7-----------------|
|------------------7--9-----------7--10-9-----8--|
|7--9--10-9-----10-------------------------10----|
|------------------------------------------------|
|------------------------------------------------|
[Side note: Whenever you get the chance, be sure to pick up a copy of Judas Priest's "Sad Wings Of Destiny" album. I guarantee you won't be disappointed]
Okay, now that you've got all that down, you should have all the knowledge you'll need to start tritoning with style! I hope this article made you understand the concept better, and maybe now you'll even have a greater appreciation towards the little misunderstood interval. If used properly, the tritone can become your best friend.
Until next time, keep on rockin'!
Special thanks to SilentDeftone for the "Building Your Own Dominant Seventh Chord" section, who wrote it himself due to my lack of ability to explain it clearly enough; much better than how I could've written it! This article wouldn't have been complete without ya, man.
damn it it sounds cool
