This trick will spice up your dominant chord progressions… instantly!

Wow, the last 4 posts have been crazy!

On Thursday, I introduced you to the power chord’s little cousin, “tritone.”

Then on Friday, we talked about tritone substitutions with 2-5-1 chord progressions.

Just yesterday, we took it a step further and applied tritone substitutions to 6-2-5-1 chord progressions.

Today, I want to show you another way to use tritone substitutions.

Consider this simple 1-4 turnaround progression:

C major

C7 (1-chord) >>> F7 (4-chord) >>> C7 >>> F7

(Play this in rhythm. Just cycle from the 1 chord to the 4 chord).

For this progression, I prefer to play these voicings of the dominant chords:

C7
Bb + E + G on right /// C on left (instead of the regular “C + E + G + Bb”)

F7
Eb + A + C on right /// F on left (instead of the regular “F + A + C + Eb”)

Now, to spice this up, let’s figure out what a tritone up from C is. You should have mastered “tritone relationships” in prior lessons.

The good news is that if you’re moving in fourths, a tritone up from your current chord should always fall right next to the chord you’re progressing to. In other words, it will be a half step higher than the chord you’re moving to.

Let me explain…

A tritone up from C7 is Gb7. Gb7 is a half step higher than F7, the chord we’re ultimately trying to get to. It’s that simple.

So basically, similar to yesterday’s lesson, we just throw in this Gb7 chord (in the same voicing) to take us to our 4 chord. It adds much more flavor than just going directly there. See what I mean?

C7
Bb + E + G on right /// C on left

Gb7
Fb + Bb + Db on right /// Gb on left

*Note: “Fb” is basically “E.” Heck, you can call it “E” if you want. You won’t pass a music theory test though 🙂

F7
Eb + A + C on right /// F on left

So anytime you’re playing dominant chords and you’re progressing in fourths, you can always look for an opportunity to throw in a tritone “transition” chord.

Until next time —