Augmented Chords

[RPGCrazyCritic]

When should I really use these? I haven't really seen any augmented chords in any music pieces on guitar in my classes, and I haven't seen them in many piano pieces yet.

Could anyone explain when I would use them in composing?

[Buoy]

The most famous example I think is the first few seconds of Mamma Mia by ABBA. It alternates between a major chord and an augmented chord and creates a very distinct kind of tension. Won't sound good in all kinds of situations though.

Also if you listen from 0:10 to 0:16 in this song, an Eaug chord appears briefly (it's a fingerpicked chord progression which goes [E - Eaug - E6 - Eaug] which is really just an E major chord where the fifth (B) moves from B to C to C# to C) An augmented chord is really just a major chord with the fifth pushed up a semitone.

And it sounds nice if you want to get from I to vi you can put a I+ inbetween (like you want to go from G major to Em so you put a G augmented chord after the G major chord and before the E minor chord). Which is what Roger Waters did in The Gunner's Dream. I think that's the most common specific use of augmented chords.

Also useful if you want to play melodies in a whole tone scale.

Or if you want to get freaky you can just strum out an augmented chord and make a drone song around it.

[Gario]

They're often used as an alternative to 'V', changing the '2' into a '#2' so it leads to '3' better. In minor the '#2' is an enharmonic to '3', so it can be used as an anticipation. Romantic music often used the harsh tone of the augmented chord to add some spice.

In highly chromatic music they're great for modulating to remote areas. Because the augmented chord is often used as a dominant, and because it is a triad that has the same space between all of it's notes, one can reinterpret the chord so it becomes a dominant to a key that's either a major 3rd above or below the original key it heads into.

That's how it's traditionally used as an actual chord, anyway.

Also, it's used in the beginning of this awesome track (in the arpeggios). When used like this, it's just a neighbor above the major triad. It's still awesome, though.

[Rampant]

The most useful (and famous) examples of augmented chords that I can think of are the Neapolitan 6th (well, technically it's an augmented chord, I mean, it's an augmented 2nd, sort of) and the Italian 6.

The Neapolitan 6 is identified (in modern harmonic analysis) as bII6 (flatted 2 chord, first inversion). The bass note is almost always the subdominant of the scale (the third of a 2 chord), but the 2 is flatted (borrowing from the Phrygian mode). It holds a predominant functional in mid- to late-classical, but by the end of the classical and early romantic periods, it became a borrowed (a.k.a. embellishment) chord. Because the 2nd is flatted, it goes from being a diminished chord (in minor keys) to becoming a major chord.

The Italian 6th is also a predominant chord (traditionally). To build it, you start a major third below the tonic, add a M3 above the root (the tonic), and an augmented 6th above the root of the chord. It leads very nicely into a V chord.

[Buoy]

At 2/18/11 10:45 AM, RampantMusik wrote: something with parantheses

What

[Rampant]

At 2/19/11 04:28 AM, SBB wrote:

At 2/18/11 10:45 AM, RampantMusik wrote: something with parantheses

What

The OP asked about augmented chords. The Italian and German Sixth chords both feature an augmented sixth. The French Sixth chord features both an augmented sixth and an augmented fourth.

[Breed]

At 2/19/11 10:58 AM, RampantMusik wrote: stuff about sixth chords

Well said.

The III chord in harmonic minor is also augmented. III in natural, III+ in harmonic. Although I'm not sure how it falls into conventional progressions....

[Buoy]

I didn't know chords had nationalities! Anyway my point is that this thread is a big music theory terminology wank.

but I think he's talking about the specific chord made up of two major third intervals.

[Breed]

At 2/19/11 12:40 PM, SBB wrote: I didn't know chords had nationalities!

Yeah, these kind of chords usually arent discussed until higher levels of music theory. The third level at my college.

[Chris-V2]

At 2/19/11 01:13 PM, LogicalDefiance wrote:

At 2/19/11 12:40 PM, SBB wrote: I didn't know chords had nationalities!

Yeah, these kind of chords usually arent discussed until higher levels of music theory. The third level at my college.

Really? I did Neopolitcan chords in school. Not to any extremity, just like the French 6ths in the K488.

Anyway, the context in which people here are talking about augmented chords I would consider incorrect. He's taking about a chord built from two major third intervals - an augmented chord where augmented is part of the noun. You're talking about augmented chords insofar as in sitting on altered scale intervals - chords that have been augmented.

[Rampant]

At 2/19/11 02:24 PM, Chris-V2 wrote: ...chords that have been augmented.

So, in other words... augmented chords? Circular argument is circular?

Just jokin' with ya. I would like people to use more chromatic alterations, though; it might provide for some more variety in today's standard I-IV-V-I chord structures.

[Chris-V2]

It's a weird difference to put into language, but it's existance.

The sort of difference we're talking about is, say in A minor that CEG# is a C Augmented chord. However the BbDF Neopolitan chord is NOT an Augmented chord insofar as it lacks the two major thirds. However the D to Bb is an Augmented 5th and since they're generaly used in first inversion they're often called after this augmented element of the chord.

However I think it's a bullshit term used by classicists and I'd merely consider it a Major triad built on the b2 degree of a scale. And this mistake is probably why people use terms like French, italian, German 6th or Neopolitan. Because otherwise you're confusing the tonality of Augmented triads with simply chords that have been altered within the context of Major/Minor key music.

</the fucking pedantry>

[Breed]

At 2/19/11 05:30 PM, Chris-V2 wrote: However the D to Bb is an Augmented 5th

I don't know much about the topic at hand, but I am an interval slut, and that is most definitely a minor 6th not and augmented 5th. Same sound, but not the same contextual interval. In order to be an augmented 5th it would need to be D to A#

[Breed]

If that was a +5 interval then they wouldnt call it a sixth chord to begin with

[Chris-V2]

At 2/19/11 05:39 PM, LogicalDefiance wrote: If that was a +5 interval then they wouldnt call it a sixth chord to begin with

Woops, done goofed. Meant to say +6, which is not actualy related to the Neopolitan chord. But they're still not augmented chords. In A minor it'd be D# A F. Sure there's an augmented interval but to call it Augmented? gettaoutta here. Like calling a minor chord major because there's a major third between the third and the 5th. Generates needless ambiguity.

[Breed]

At 2/19/11 06:26 PM, Chris-V2 wrote:

At 2/19/11 05:39 PM, LogicalDefiance wrote: If that was a +5 interval then they wouldnt call it a sixth chord to begin with

Woops, done goofed. Meant to say +6

It's not a +6 interval either lol

MINOR SIXTH YO

[Chris-V2]

Link to what I'm talking about.

[Rampant]

At 2/19/11 06:26 PM, Chris-V2 wrote: Sure there's an augmented interval but to call it Augmented? gettaoutta here. Like calling a minor chord major because there's a major third between the third and the 5th. Generates needless ambiguity.

...er, no, it's still an augmented chord. It does not generate needless ambiguity, because only an idiot would call a minor chord major. ("Minor chord major" should not be confused with "Major Minor Chord," aka the dominant seventh, or the "Minor Major Chord" which is a very cool James Bond-y chord featuring an augmented triad built atop a minor 3rd above the root.)

Calling it an augmented chord clarifies that it's an augmented sixth, and not a seventh. The augmentation is the defining characteristic of an augmented chord.

So saying the +6 chords aren't "augmented chords" because they feature an augmented sixth is like saying than an augmented triad can't be called an "augmented chord" because it features an augmented fifth.

[Chris-V2]

At 2/19/11 08:59 PM, RampantMusik wrote:

...er, no, it's still an augmented chord. It does not generate needless ambiguity, because only an idiot would call a minor chord major. ("Minor chord major" should not be confused with "Major Minor Chord," aka the dominant seventh, or the "Minor Major Chord" which is a very cool James Bond-y chord featuring an augmented triad built atop a minor 3rd above the root.)

I always though a Minor 9 with a Maj 7th sounded closest to the Bond chord myself. Groovey chord, though.

Calling it an augmented chord clarifies that it's an augmented sixth, and not a seventh. The augmentation is the defining characteristic of an augmented chord.

While it's a defining feature of the chord, and I'm certainly not saying it isn't, I still don't think it should be named the way it is. Augmentation isn't really a meaningful term - it's just the sharpening of a tone. An augmented 6th and an Augmented 5th don't really share tonal qualities or invertability the way Minor 3rds and 6ths do, or Perfect 4ths and 5ths.

So saying the +6 chords aren't "augmented chords" because they feature an augmented sixth is like saying than an augmented triad can't be called an "augmented chord" because it features an augmented fifth.

Weird arguement you got out of that. It's not that it can't be called it that because of the 6th - it's just that it's a poor expression of a chord when the term already exists. Especialy when, to me, an Italian 6th just looks like a bVI7 with no 5th! It's a dominant chord if you ask me - and it sounds like one too! The reason for it's naming probably has to do with the Tonalist ideas and their wanting of avoiding a parallel with the Neopolitan chord being made. To me it functions the same, it's just a little more eniogmatic in French and German 6ths as you would seem to have two Dominant or Diminished chord fragments merged together.

But to me it's very similar if not identical to a tri-tone Substition is Jazz. Especialy the French Sixth.
So to me these are altered dominants or, rarely, altered subdominants. They're not augmented chords.

To correct my previous Augmented 6th spelling, it's F A D#. Which must have made for great jokes in the musical community at the time...in England...if Fad was in the vernacular.

[Rampant]

At 2/19/11 09:35 PM, Chris-V2 wrote: I always though a Minor 9 with a Maj 7th sounded closest to the Bond chord myself. Groovey chord, though.

Both are fun. I'm not so fond of anything over 7th chords, really... in my opinion, you might as well just play every note in an octave and call it a 'chord.'

Weird arguement you got out of that. It's not that it can't be called it that because of the 6th - it's just that it's a poor expression of a chord when the term already exists. Especialy when, to me, an Italian 6th just looks like a bVI7 with no 5th! It's a dominant chord if you ask me - and it sounds like one too!

Well, yes. It's technically a secondary dominant of a distantly related key, and in the late classical period, that was exactly how it was used. (By the romantic period, though, a lot of dominant and pre-dominant chords became used more for their sound than their functionality.)

The reason for it's naming probably has to do with the Tonalist ideas and their wanting of avoiding a parallel with the Neopolitan chord being made. To me it functions the same, it's just a little more eniogmatic in French and German 6ths as you would seem to have two Dominant or Diminished chord fragments merged together.

That's somewhat true. Neapolitan is a major chord built on the flatted supertonic, where as French, German, and Italian Sixths are traditionally built on the submediant of the scale (a major third below tonic).

I guess technically the augmented sixth chords could be built anywhere (although they would no longer strictly be Fr6, It6, and Gr6), and as you said before, they do function as pre-dominant chords (resolving outwards [i.e. correctly] leads to a dominant chord with doubled root), but they're also very good for moving to distant keys.

E.G. in the key of C mino, you can go i - v* - Fr6. And from there, you can modulate to Db minor, which is anything but closely related -- quite a good thing to do if you're imitating mid-Romantic style.

(*Yes, minor v. I love Aeolian mode; it sounds very old school and 'fresh' to our ears, as we're so used to hearing the leading tone.)

I'm just going to end this argument here. I mean, we're not even really arguing. We've pretty much come to an agreement, and now we're just confusing our non-theory friends with pedantic quibbling over naming and how to use the chords!

[sorohanro]

@RampantMusik

Good info in your posts. Cheers !
Welcome to Newgrounds, the place where if somebody put a serious question people start a war with whoever give a good answer.
That's why I asked mods to close my jazz thread.

[Chris-V2]

I agree, you are a worthy foe.

It's a tritone substitution to me. So built on the bII you get the tri-sub of V and if you build it on bVI then you're getting the Tritone sub of the V of V. So realistictly I don't feel they're too distantly related.

This would also explain why composers occasionaly built them on #4 which would give you the tri-tone sub of the V of IV.

But I'd sincerely ask you to play a Dominant 9th chord without the 5th and tell me that it's not great.

[Alchemist94]

They're good for "bridging" from one chord to another.

[Rampant]

At 2/20/11 08:44 AM, Chris-V2 wrote: But I'd sincerely ask you to play a Dominant 9th chord without the 5th and tell me that it's not great.

Okay, I'll give you that one :P Also, Vb9 is just one of the best chords evar, with or without the fifth. Beethoven loved Vb9.

...I'd like to apologize to our other forum members for basically turning this into a theory 'gasm thread.

@soro: Hah yes, a forum "war" over music theory. Wow, when you put it like that, it sounds really nerdy XD Well, if others might pick up some higher-level theory from our discussion then I think that's a good thing.

[S3C]

At 2/20/11 01:03 AM, RampantMusik wrote:

The reason for it's naming probably has to do with the Tonalist ideas and their wanting of avoiding a parallel with the Neopolitan chord being made. To me it functions the same, it's just a little more eniogmatic in French and German 6ths as you would seem to have two Dominant or Diminished chord fragments merged together.

Well they do function for the same purpose, but I wouldnt group the three "European" chords with the Neapolitan. French is a 7b5 chord, as a German is a 7 and the Italian is a 7th without the fifth like I think you mentioned. They tonicize the Neapolitan chord, which then in turn tonicizes the dominant.

I guess technically the augmented sixth chords could be built anywhere (although they would no longer strictly be Fr6, It6, and Gr6), and as you said before, they do function as pre-dominant chords (resolving outwards [i.e. correctly] leads to a dominant chord with doubled root), but they're also very good for moving to distant keys.

I don't see the reason why they would no longer be classified as Fr6, It6, Gr6 as long as they still retain the same interval collections; if they were built elsewhere that would just indicate a key change.

pedantic quibbling over naming and how to use the chords!

well please pass me the cocktail sauce