Augmented chords - when to use them

ToneControl

this week I remembered that the Beatles use these a bit

I wondered about how much I should know about them, and when to use them

wiki-p has some info, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_triad

but I thought I'd come here and ask guitarists, for more ideas on when to use them, @Viz and @Octatonic probably know all about this

viz

I'm no expert but the 3 typical aug6th chords in prep for a dominant are the german 6th, italian 6th and fench 6th. The french 6th is just a fuller Italian 6th. The even nicer one is the diminished 6th chord - the napolitan 6th - that's basically a 1st inversian phrygian chord before the dominant. Lovely. Then there are all the aug 5th chords that arise from the melodic minor scale with its almost-wholetone aspects. They can be used all over the dominant chord itself in jazzzzz. I'll post some examples when i have more time.

Edit - just seen you're referring to aug 5 chords only. Yep. If not just suspensions (ie minor 6ths), then jazzzz. So on G dominant, you can play a g aug triad, or of course any of the other triads with those notes (B aug triad or D# aug triad, as the aug triad splits the octave into 3 equal parts)

ToneControl

how DO you play guitar with gloves on?

I was meaning things like

are they good for the first chord of a song, or is that cheesy?

as part of a key change?

switch to bridge?

as a variation in a 12bar or turnaround for the V chord instead of a 7th, etc ?

octatonic

Sorry, on hols so long posts are tricky as only on iPad. Viz is doing admirably though.

mellowsun

I use them but not deliberately, it's more a case of 'if I keep these notes from this chord that I like the sound of, but move the bass or tenor voice around a bit, I end up with an augmented chord'

For example, take this simple progression on the guitar, all based around the 2nd fret, just moving the bass line down to start with:

Bm        

Bm/A

Bm/G

then you get to the F#, but it sounds interesting if you play an F# augmented voicing here as a dominant chord leading back to the Bm:

x

3

3

x(2)

x

2

where (2) gives you F#7 augmented, which has contains E A# D. This is nice as A# is also Bb, so you can substitute this for Bb7b5 (at the 5th fret), which also contains E (the flat 5) and D (the third), and can be used to lead you off in another direction.

GuyBoden

I think these simple chord voice leading intros sound good:
(Keeping the root, using Maj and min 3rds, but the treble note increases by a semi tone)

C Eb Gb (dim)
C Eb G (min)
C E G (Maj)
C E G# (Aug)
C E A (Sixth)
C E Bb (Dom)
C E B (Seventh)
C E C (Octave)

viz

ToneControl said:

how DO you play guitar with gloves on?

I was meaning things like

are they good for the first chord of a song, or is that cheesy?

as part of a key change?

switch to bridge?

as a variation in a 12bar or turnaround for the V chord instead of a 7th, etc ?

lol dunno really, it just seems to work out ok - with the tubescreamer set to 11 anyway.

Ok so for the augmented triads, they work very well over the V (dominant) chord as they use notes that are in super locrian, which is a very common jazzer's noodle over the dominant. 

Super locrian is sTsTTTT. So if you're playing in C, with G as the dominant, the G super locrian would be G, Ab, Bb, Cb (or Db, Eb, F, G. It's the same notes as Ab melodic minor.  

So the 3 aug triads I mentioned earlier are G (G, B, D#), B (B, D#, G) and D# (D#, G, .

The easiest way to play them is on the 4 middle strings like this: x 2 1 0 0 x, x 6 5 4 4 x, x 10 9 8 8 x etc. Or you can extend them to the bass string - 32100x, 76544xx etc. As you can see they're very diagonal because of those major 3rds.

Diagonal the other way also works because of the augmented 4ths or tritones in melodic minor. Upwards diagonal aug chords that work in a super locrian context (in G) would include:

3 4 5 6 6 x 

7 8 9 10 x x, or x 8 9 10 11 x

9 10 11 12 x x

Another thing you can do is play with the fact that the B and G string are a major 3rd apart. So again with G as Dominant, you can play double stops like xxx44x, xxx66x, xxx88x, and xxx 10 9 x, xxx 12 11 x, xxx 13 12 x, xxx 15 14x. 

And you can also play Bb pentatonic over G Dominant, it uses only notes in G super locrian! Incredible.

thomasross20

What scales would you use over these chords? 

I used to play them but that was yonks ago - I'm all about the major modes these days

viz

Super locrian (7th mode melodic minor) or wholetone over dominant chords

Hindu (5th mode melodic minor) over tonic chords in place of mixolydian - though strictly speaking this uses a minor 6th rather than an augmented 5th, and the chord is really a suspension rather than an augmented triad.

Lydian augmented (3rd mode melodic minor) also works but is not particularly useful.

Roland

mellowsun said:

I use them but not deliberately, it's more a case of 'if I keep these notes from this chord that I like the sound of, but move the bass or tenor voice around a bit, I end up with an augmented chord'

Wisdom to this man. If it sounds right then it is right.

StanleyAccrington

I generally bung one in (aug chord) when the bass player moves up a semitone.

thomasross20

viz said:

Super locrian (7th mode melodic minor) or wholetone over dominant chords

Hindu (5th mode melodic minor) over tonic chords in place of mixolydian - though strictly speaking this uses a minor 6th rather than an augmented 5th, and the chord is really a suspension rather than an augmented triad.

Lydian augmented (3rd mode melodic minor) also works but is not particularly useful.

Do you know these scales over the whole fretboard? If so, well done!!

Could you also use whole tone? 

viz

Well in as much as if you can play a scale then you can automatically play all its modes, then yes, I can play the melodic minor scale and its modes, and I know their sounds well, so can noodle in them all. And wholetone is easy wherever you are, obviously. (I mentioned wholetone in my post, ja?) But I'm not one of those players who knows where the notes are on the 'board, not at all. I'm more of a play-by-sound chap than a visual / location-on fretboard sort of chap.

thomasross20

Sorry I missed that (you mentioning whole tone) - I see it now. 

I'm half and half - I know the shapes for the major modes starting just about anywhere now but have a good feel for them. It's taken a lot of work and to do the same again .... I'd need to be sure I'd use those modes for it to be worth it. For that reason I think harmonic minor is best suited as it's more drastically different.

viz

Well in a sense, yes, (and sorry about the continued hijacking) though it's far less useful - I mean it's not 'designed' to be used in a melodic (tune) sense, hence its name, harmonic (chord). It's invented for one reason only and that's to enable a minor piece to have an effective V chord, like a major piece can.

With Aeolian, the V chord is a minor triad, so it doesn't deploy the tonic's leading note. If you play in A minor, and for the V you play an E minor triad (as part of a Phrygian scale), you're playing strictly Aeolian music, like they did around the medieval period and before. The E minor doesn't point as effectively to the A minor as an E major would have done. Or to put it another way, the minor triad is not as effective a chord for a dominant. It still works (everything works coz there's no right or wrong in art!) but it's not as effective because G is not as good as G# in resolving to A. If you want a proper V, you need that major triad on E, with its G#. So they discovered and named harmonic minor to describe this effect - it's a harmonic device that gives a sharp 7 in the minor key.

Because it was designed for the major triad on the V, it says nothing about the 2nd note on that V - the 6th note in the A minor. That is assumed still to be a minor 6th, as per Aeolian. And therefore between the minor 6th and raised 7th (or between the unheard minor 2nd and raised 3rd on the V triad), you get an augmented 2 jump, which was thought to be ugly and difficult to play and sing. So hence the existence of melodic minor with its raised 6th as well. The dominant triad still sounded the same, E major, because there is no F or F# in the triad, but for the melody, when playing over the V and leading up to the I chord, you would play a major 2 as well as a major 3, and avoid the aug 2 jump. Of course when you'd resolved to the I chord you'd flip back to Aeolian, which is why melodic minor scale is played as Aeolian on the way down in classical - it only has raised 6 and 7 on the way up, as though it's on the V chord, but after resolving to the I, on the way down again, the 6th and 7th would be returned to their natural, minor, states.

I digress. So harmonic minor was designed solely for the major triad on the V, and even Yngwie (famed for his neoclassical harmonic minor shreddin'), if you listen carefully, only really noodles on it on that V, where it is designed for, so he's actually playing the 5th mode of it. Not harmonic minor but the 'freygish' scale. That's its main use - in fact that's why the freygish scale is also called Phrygian Dominant - and I confess I'm struggling to think of much music that uses any other of the harmonic minor modes.

Whereas because melodic minor is a melodic device, it's far more tuneful and thus far more prevalent in melodic soloing if not for chordal writing. Therefore it's a far richer scale to learn the modes of, as scales:

1st mode: Used often in minor melody, from the rennaisance period to today
2nd mode: combines phrygian start with dorian finish. Very lovely scale.
3rd mode: like lydian on steroids. Difficult to deploy but very spicy when you succeed.
4th mode: contains all the harmonics of a vibrating string. Used in the simpsons tune, famously.
5th mode: as explained earlier, used on the dominant of a minor key; also used a lot in Indian music as a scale in its own right; also try replacing mixolydian with it in I or IV chords. Interesting!

6th mode, half locrian. Like locrian but with a normal, not flattened, 2nd. Not particularly useful but at least it's better than locrian!
7th mode; used all over jazz on the V. An amazing scale. Every note is altered from the major scale by 1 semitone but it still works somehow!

Of course you can learn whatever you like!!!!!! Obvs. And 5th mode harmonic minor is clearly useful for shreddin' but i think you will find more application from getting melodic minor and its modes under your skin.

mgaw

where could i find tab for the above modes @Viz please

viz

I think just google melodic minor tab. All modes use the same tab, they just start at different points.

thomasross20

I'm going to have to rewind 10 years, play drone notes and play each mode for the melodic and harmonic minor and see what I like best

viz

Exactly and why not! Use my scala chart for reference

http://www.guitaristtv.com/Downloads/Modes 2014_02_18 - for GTV.xlsx

GuyBoden

viz said:

WIn a sense, yes, (and sorry about the continued hijacking) though it's far less useful - I mean it's not 'designed' to be used in a melodic (tune) sense, hence its name, harmonic (chord). It's invented for one reason only and that's to enable a minor piece to have an effective V chord, like a major piece can.

With Aeolian, the V chord is a minor triad, so it doesn't deploy the tonic's leading note. If you play in A minor, and for the V you play E minor (ie a Phrygian scale), you're playing strictly Aeolian music, like they did around the medieval period and before. The E minor doesn't point as effectively to the A minor as an E major would have done. Or to put it anotherway, the phrygian scale is not an effectivescale as a dominant. It still works (everything works coz there's no right or wrong in art!) but it's not as effective because G is not as good as G# in resolving to A. If you want a proper V, you need that major triad on E, with its G#. So they discovered and named harmonic minor to describe this effect - it's a harmonic device that gives a sharp 7 in the minor key.

Because it was designed for the major triad on the V, it says nothing about the 2nd note on that V - the 6th note in the A minor. That is assumed still to be a minor 6th, as per Aeolian. And therefore between the minor 6th and raised 7th (or between the unheard minor 2nd and raised 3rd on the V triad), you get an augmented 2 jump, which was thought to be ugly and difficult to play and sing. So hence the existence of melodic minor with its raised 6th as well. The dominant triad still sounded the same, E major, because there is no F or F# in the triad, but for the melody, when playing over the V and leading up to the I chord, you would play a major 2 as well as a major 3, and avoid the aug 2 jump. Of course when you'd resolved to the I chord you'd flip back to Aeolian, which is why melodic minor scale is played as Aeolian on the way down in classical - it only has raised 6 and 7 on the way up, as though it's on the V chord, but after resolving to the I, on the way down again, the 6th and 7th would be returned to their natural, minor, states.

I digress. So harmonic minor was designed solely for the major triad on the V, and even yngwie, if you listen carefully, only really noodles on it on that V, where it is designed for, so he's actually playng the 5th mode of it. Not harmonic minor but the 'freygish' scale. That's its main use - in fact that's why the freygish scale is also called Phrygian Dominant - and I confess I'm struggling to think of much music that uses any other of its modes.

Whereas because melodic minor is a melodic device, it's far more tuneful and thus far more prevalent in melodic soloing if not for chordal writing. Therefore it's a far richer scale to learn the modes of, as scales:

1st mode: Used often in minor melody, from the rennaisance period to today
2nd mode: combines phrygian start with dorian finish. Very lovely scale.
3rd mode: like lydian on steroids. Difficult to deploy but very spicy when you succeed.
4th mode: contains all the harmonics of a vibrating string. Used in the simpsons tune, famously.
5th mode: as explained earlier, used on the dominant of a minor key; also used a lot in Indian music as a scale in its own right; also try replacing mixolydian with it in I or IV chords. Interesting!

6th mode, half locrian. Like locrian but with a normal, not flattened, 2nd. Not particularly useful but at least it's better than locrian!
7th mode; used all over jazz on the V. An amazing scale. Every note is altered from the major scale by 1 semitone but it still works somehow!

Of course you can learn whatever you like!!!!!! Obvs. And 5th mode harmonic minor is clearly useful for shreddin' but i think you will find more application from getting melodic minor and its modes under your skin.

Fortunately, Pop/Rock doesn't always adhere to Classical Music Theory Rules, as this recent analysis shows:

http://www.hooktheory.com/blog/i-analyzed-the-chords-of-1300-popular-songs-for-patterns-this-is-what-i-found/

thomasross20

Wow, that's a detailed spreadsheet!