How to play augmented chords. How to use augmented chords on guitar. Songs that use augmented chords.

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Video Script:
In the last Sound Bite we went over how the Dim 7 chord takes the 12 notes of the Chromatic scale and jumps up them three at a time. Now let's look at its strange sister, the Augmented Triad.

Again we'll start by looking at this chord in its natural habitat. Augmented triads occur naturally at the third degree when we harmonize the harmonic minor Scale. Not so difficult to spot the chord synonyms here.

But let's stick to the system and name each note in these three chords and then, taking account of the enharmonic equivalents, we can clearly see that the same three notes are used in each of these three augmented triads.

And plotting the notes against the chromatic scale we can see that whereas the dim7 chord divided the twelve notes of the chromatic scale into 4 notes, each 3 semitones apart; the augmented triad divides the scale into 3 notes, each four semitones apart. So now perhaps you can see why I call them sister chords!

So we can create an augmented triad by starting on any note in the chord and adding notes a Major 3rd higher. This gives us three viable shapes depending only on which string we start on.

As for what this chord is useful for. Well look out for its use in intros in particular as a chord that sets up quite a strong sense of suspense.

Chuck Berry's intro to No Particular Place to Go is perhaps the best known example of this.

The extra suspense this chord achieves makes its use popular in slow blues intros like the Allman Bros version of They Call it Stormy Monday or Freddie King's 'Same Old Blues'.

I'll make a printout showing the chords for those examples, which you'll be able to access from a link beneath the screen.

In film music, you'll hear augmented arpeggios used to build suspense in a way similar to how the dim7 chord is used and you'll also here it used to express sudden surprise.

So, quite a fun chord to play around with and learn to use, and remember that because of its symmetry, any one of its notes can be considered the root.

In the next lesson we'll continue our exploration of the exotic backwaters of chord theory by taking a look at slash chords.

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