Stuart Smith
Tritone substitution: ëIIÏ substituted for VÏ
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Tritone substitution: ëIIÏ substituted for VÏIt is often said that jazz uses a lot of “substitute” chords. What this comment generally indicates is that many musicians are unhappy with the blandness of the chords provided in the sheet music for tunes, and they seek to replace these chords with ones that better express their sense of the harmony of the tunes. From the musician’s point of view, then, “substitute” in this context means something closer to “correct.” In jazz there is at least one true chord substitution: ëIIÏ substituted for VÏ. ëIIÏ is a dominant seventh chord based on a root located a tritone away from the root of the actual dominant. Because ëIIÏ contains the characteristic tones of the dominant seventh, 4^ and 7^ , it has a similar tendency to move to the tonic. ëIIÏ also contains ë2^ and ë6^ , chromatically altered scale tones which tend strongly down to 1^ and 5^ , which define the tonic chord: 
The same tritone substitution can be applied to any secondary dominant, and chains of such substitute chords are not uncommon. For example, if ëIIÏ is used as a substitute for the dominant seventh chord, it my be preceded by its own dominant seventh, ëVI7, which in turn may be preceded by its dominant seventh, ëIIIÏ: 
ëIIÏ may also be preceded by its own dominant preparation chord. Billy Strayhorn, for example, employs this harmony at the end of the A section of Satin Doll: 
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