http://hum.lss.wisc.edu/jazz/substitutio...
its the bit about tritones that bugs me can you give examples and try to explain the first 2 paragraphs in laymans terms please ????? Here is the low down on tritone substitution.
Any dominant seventh chord ( major chord with flatted seventh), can be replaced by the dominant chord whose root is the tritone (4 and 1/2 steps up) of the original chord.
This is because they share the chord tones of the third and the seventh.
Check it out.
1 C F#
3 E A# (Bb)
5 G C#
7 Bb E
The 1 3 5 and 7 are the numbers of the chordal tones. The notes going downwards are the notes in the chords. The chord on the left is a C7 chord, the chord on the right is an F#7 chord. The third in the C7 chord is the same as the seventh in the F#7 chord, and the seventh in the C7 chord is the same as the third in the F#7 chord. | 