Scales › tritone scale

tritone scale scale

symmetric on two tritones

What color?

A symmetric scale built on two tritones (R b9 3 b5 5 b7): an unstable, symmetric dominant tension, kin to the diminished. For very outside dominants.

Origin & history

A symmetrical scale of six notes formed of two triads a tritone apart, invariant under transposition by a tritone. An ambiguous and unstable color, close to octatonicism, explored by 20th-century music and modern jazz.

Which chords to play it on?

Outside the functional consensus: this is an exploration color. Lay it over a vamp or a held chord to tint your improvisation with an unexpected flavor, rather than inside a cadence.

Try it in a real chart

Paste a chord chart into the tool: Pentania tells you, chord by chord, when this scale fits — and what other colors are open to you. Open the tool →