Tritone subs sidestep the tonic.In the traditional II V I progression the tritone substitution would be IIb (often a dominant seventh with added upper partials)
The neosoul sound is just extended chords with plenty of chromatic substitions.Rather than
Em Am B7
Em7/9 Bb7 Am7 F7
So, you are saying that the tritone sub can be
inserted into a progression, rather than
replace an exiting chord in the progression - atypical use, as it is no longer a
substitution but an
alteration to the progression
The Bb7 sidesteps to Am and the F7 sidesteps to Em. The voicings are equally important too. In fact all this tends to sound like an exercise in jarring harmony without correct voicing.I'd voice F7 thus:
F Eb Eb (G )A D
So you are saying it should be used as ii-V-[sup]b[/sup]II :kind of defeats the purpose of using it then, as it's primary purpose in jazz and other styles has been to provide semitonal chordal planing. In fact, if we consider the related concept of the Neapolitan 6th (N6) which is a [sup]b[/sup]II chord in 1st inversion and whose sole purpose is to move to V - a tritone away - this is more akin to what you are describing and is not considered to be a true tritone substitution, as it is a chromatic substitute for ii or IV - it is notated as N6-V-i|I
As for voicing F[sup]7[/sup] - once you add the 9 and the 13 it is no longer a dom7, but a dom 13th. And, yes while it can sub for the lower level extension, it also functions in its own way in both traditional and jazz harmony having voice leading consequences beyond the dom7 function....
Thats its primary use. Im just trying to reduce the trick to the bare essentials.
bare essentials is that replaces a dominant (or minor, I concede) chord in a ii-v|V-i|I scrap progression, by which I mean analysing the function of any 3 successive chords in isolation to identify it as being of the class ii-v|V-i|I, like so ii-[sup]b[/sup]II-i|I
You're right though and your erudition knows no bound. I kid.
Are you seriously saying that you are just having a go for the sake of winding me up
The sub basically substitutes the perfect fourth for a tritonic interval.
Um, it substitutes the movement of V-I (ii-V is the same) by moving by semitone downwards rather than a 4th upwards or a 5th downwards
That is reminiscent of the lydian raised 4th which is openly and notoriously jazzy.
Yes, except that it is not a reference to the scale form but a chordal movement which is less strictly defined. Also the lydian does not need to be further qualified as the #4 is implicit in the naming.
So the root of the sub could be any chord. Say F to B of any kind. The other point oft missed is that the actual substitution need not be a dominant. It became that because it acts as a sort of secondary dominant. However it can be minor 7th Major etc well I made that up and its not true but shoot and you might score
So, you are essentially pushing the view that the use of N6-V-i|I is how a tritone sub works...
Notational usage lesson
I used the shorthand i|I and v|V to indicate that either the first or second chord could appear in the progression but not both, i.e. it replaces writing
ii-v-i
ii-V-i
ii-v-I
ii-V-I