Tritone and Atonal

[william cummings]

hey tried countless Google searches and cant come up with much, im trying to figure out 2 things, what Atonal means and how to use it lol, And tritone? can it be used in any scale?

Im a massive buckethead fan and found these terms when reading up on his technique, i know the tritone on the minor pentatonic is adding a note between the 3rd and 4th note but cant figure out anymore than that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, and any other tips on this style would be very welcomed.

thanks for reading

william

[william cummings]

im more confused now, is adding the tritone to the major scale making it lydian? or have i got it totally wrong?

[therightjem]

Atonal means lacking any key center. Random notes played with no regard to key would be described as atonal.

A tritone is just an interval. More specifically, it's an interval that is three whole tones apart. An application I got from jazz players is the tritone sub in a 2-5-1 progression.

[william cummings]

so what would the tritone in a major scale be?

[therightjem]

In a diatonic major scale, there is only one tritone. In C major, it would be F to B.

[william cummings]

the FGAB? what would the note be? im sorry if i sound stupid i just really have no clue lol, what would it look like in tab, is it a specific note in the major scale or a series of notes? again im sorry if i seem stupid lol

[william cummings]

is there any good lessons on youtube about this or books worth buying?

[therightjem]

It seems like you are not certain of what an interval is. An interval is simply defined as the distance between two notes. A tritone is a specific interval that is three whole tones apart. Maybe using your quote below will help me clear it up a bit.

Originally Posted by william cummings

im more confused now, is adding the tritone to the major scale making it lydian? or have i got it totally wrong?

One doesn't add a tritone to a major scale, it already exists. In our example of C major, it is simply F to B. In fact, in any major scale the notes for the tritone are going to be the 4th and 7th. That's probably how you got Lydian out of it.

[sebastian]

Here is one way to think of modes.
Playing the notes in order in C Major-

C D E F G A B

If you have a Chord structure in C Major and the overall feel of the music wants to come back to C, you are in C Major or C Ionian, the first mode.

Modes are about "tonal center", what feels or sounds like the Key!

If you play a C note the whole time while the chords are being played, you will notice it always sounds good and stands out.

If you move up to D-

D E F G A B C

Now you are in Dorian if the chord structure wants to resolve of come back to D.

So in effect D becomes 1 in the Dorian mode even though the notes still look like C Major on paper.
Modes are about what you hear and feel when a piece of music is being played.
Your average rock song wants everything to come back to 1 in the scale at many points.

You will hear the trem relative minor.
Every major scale has a relative minor.
On guitar it is very popular for people to play in E minor.
E minor is the relative minor of G Major.

If you look at the notes in a G Major scale and an E minor scale they are the same exact notes.

G Major - G A B C D E F#

E minor - E F# G A B C D

If you count the notes starting on G in G Major, the sixth note is E, thus E minor.

Minor is also known as Aeolian in the Greek Modes.

The distance between any of the two notes in these seven note scales have names called intervals.

On the guitar, start on any note, let's say G again.

On G go up on fret to G#, play the two notes back and forth G G#, G G#, G G#
You are playing a minor 2nd.

Now play G to A the same way back and forth G A, G A, G A
This is a Major 2nd.

The names go in order-

minor 2nd
Major 2nd
minor 3rd
Major 3rd
Perfect 4th
Tri tone
perfect 5th
minor 6th
Major 6th
7th

When you play G to the next higher G, this is called an

Octive

There are also names for notes past the Octive that are used in chord names mostly.

9, 11, 13 Chords

They are just the same notes repeated higher again.


Let me know if you have more question, I love talking about this stuff.

[therightjem]

By the way, a perfect example of a tritone in use is the first riff of Rush's "YYZ".

[dccomputersa]

Nice explanation Sebastian. That helps!