Harmonic Reinterpretation and Substitution
Unlock modern harmonic depth by moving beyond basic functional harmony. Learn how to transform standard chord progressions using altered substitutions, chromatic mediants, polychordal upper structures, and smooth linear voice leading.
Like Duolingo, but for Harmonic Reinterpretation and Substitution. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
A short one: 11 levels across 2 sections, about 22 minutes end to end, roughly 4 days at five minutes a day. It moves through Re-voicing the Functional Spine and Layered Textures and Linear Motion.
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Key ideas in Harmonic Reinterpretation and Substitution
- The tritone interval between 3 and b7 (B and F) is symmetrical and shared identically by dominant chords six semitones apart
- Swapping the chord identity inverts the roles: the 3rd becomes the enharmonic 7th and vice versa
- The root movement replaces cyclic circle-of-fifths leaps with smooth chromatic half-step descent into the target tonic
- The altered scale on the primary dominant (Super Locrian) is identical in pitch content to the Lydian Dominant scale rooted a tritone away
- Altered tensions on V7 (b9, #9, b5, #5) map directly to natural upper extensions (9, #11, 13) of the bII7 substitute
- A soloist or arranger can think clean, natural extensions over Db7 to effortlessly produce an altered G7 sound
- In a standard circle-of-fifths chain (e.g., E7 - A7 - D7 - G7 - C), substituting alternating dominants converts fifth jumps into stepwise downward chromatic motion
- Applying tritone substitution to the 2nd and 4th chords creates an E7 - Eb7 - D7 - Db7 - C sequence
- Every half-step step downward alternates between an unaltered secondary dominant and a tritone substitute dominant
- Because a dominant seventh chord and its tritone substitute share the exact same tritone, the ear can accept resolution to either tonic target (C or F# / Gb)
- Treating bII7 as V7 of a key a tritone away (or pivoting via enharmonic reinterpretation) delays or completely redirects the expected tonal center
- Chromatic guide-tone voice leading remains smooth even when the bass resolves by fifth rather than half-step
- Chromatic mediants shift roots by a major or minor third while sharing the same chord quality or belonging to non-diatonic keys
- Ab major (bVI) shares the common tone C with C major while introducing Eb and Ab
- Diatonic mediants share two common tones, whereas chromatic mediants share exactly one
- bII borrows the lowered second scale degree characteristic of the Phrygian mode
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Harmonic Reinterpretation and Substitution the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When you substitute Db7 in place of G7, what happens to the guide tones B and F?
Get it right to open this lesson and 10 more in the app.
Where Harmonic Reinterpretation and Substitution takes you
- 1
Re-voicing the Functional Spine
- Tritone Substitutions and Altered Dominants
- Chromatic Mediants and Modal Mixture
- 2
Layered Textures and Linear Motion
- Upper Structure Triads and Polychords
- Linear Voice Leading and Line Clichés
2 sections · 4 units · 11 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Harmonic Reinterpretation and Substitution is taught in the The Professor style: clear, structured, thorough. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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