Tritone
The tritone spans 6 semitones and 4 steps (C–F#). Inversion: tritone. To remember it: »Maria« from West Side Story or the Simpsons theme, the first two notes.
- Semitones
- 6
- Steps
- 4
- Quality
- —
- Inversion
- itself
- Sound
- dissonance
In notation
First one after the other, then together — the distance as a step and as a sound.
On the keyboard
On the guitar: 6 frets higher on the same string.
How to count it
Counting 4 steps up from C — C, D, E, F — lands on F; the tritone goes one semitone further, to F#. By steps it is a fourth, by its 6 semitones an augmented one — exactly half an octave, three whole tones, hence the name.
Move the lower note up an octave and a tritone remains: the augmented fourth C–F# becomes the diminished fifth F#–C, six semitones either way.
Dissonance — the sound wants to move on.
To remember it
»Maria« from West Side Story or the Simpsons theme, the first two notes.
Where it occurs
In these chords it lies between the root and another note: Cdim, Cm7b5.
Related
In the glossary: tritone · Ear training: hear intervals and guess them · All intervals
Anotona does this for you
Photograph a page of sheet music or play the melody — Anotona finds the key, engraves the notes and transposes them into any other. Free.
See AnotonaEvery note on this page is computed, not typed in — following the rule that also makes F# major spell its seventh degree E#, not F.