Key & harmony
Tritone
A tritone is six semitones — exactly half an octave, and the most dissonant interval in Western music. Two keys a tritone apart sit opposite each other on the wheel and share the fewest notes.
In practice
Six semitones, six positions round the wheel — the maximum-clash move, and the one to check before you commit.
If a transition sounds violently wrong and the beatmatch is clean, count the distance between the two Camelot codes: six positions apart is a tritone and no EQ will rescue it while both basslines are present. The escape is to bass-swap early and hard, or to move through a breakdown so the harmony is out of the way at the moment of the change. Used on purpose it is a jolt; used by accident it is the trainwreck people remember.
6
Semitones in a tritone
6
Wheel positions apart
Bass swap
The only real escape
Where these come from: Interval arithmetic and its position on the Camelot wheel — theory, not a catalog figure. For what we can measure, see why it sounds like that.
Why it matters
It is the worst harmonic move you can make, and knowing where it lives on the wheel is more useful than knowing its name. Six positions round the Camelot wheel is a tritone, so 8A to 2A is the maximum-clash move — which is exactly why the wheel is drawn as a circle with the far side being far.
It is also, occasionally, deliberate. The tension it produces is real and usable if the arrangement gives it somewhere to go — a tritone move landing on a drop can read as a jolt rather than a mistake. That is a decision to make on purpose and rehearse, not to discover mid-set.
Frequently asked
Which Camelot moves are tritones?+
Six positions in either direction — 8A to 2A, 5B to 11B. On a circle, the opposite side is always six steps away and always the worst move available.
Can you ever use a tritone deliberately?+
Yes, as a jolt, if the arrangement resolves it — landing one on a drop can work. It is a rehearsed decision rather than something to find out about mid-set.
Why is it called the devil’s interval?+
A medieval nickname for how unstable it sounds. The instability is real; the folklore about it being banned is mostly overstated.
Related terms
Dissonance
Dissonance is the unsettled sound of notes that do not agree; consonance is the settled sound of notes that do. Neither is a fault — a record with no dissonance anywhere has nothing to resolve.
Camelot key
Camelot notation renames every musical key as a number from 1 to 12 plus a letter — A for minor, B for major. 8A is A minor. Codes next to each other on the wheel share most of their notes.
Perfect fifth
A perfect fifth is the interval of seven semitones — the most consonant interval after the octave, and the one the Camelot wheel is built from. Moving one step round the wheel is moving a fifth.
Harmonic mixing
Harmonic mixing means choosing the next track by key as well as tempo — staying on the same Camelot code, moving one step around the wheel, or swapping between the major and minor of the same number.
Explore: Key compatibility checker · Camelot key · Trainwreck · All DJ terms