Augmented Triads: Root, 3rd, Sharp 5th
Augmented Triads – The Pepper Of A Musical Meal!
| Good morning. This is Duane, and today we’re going to take a look at augmented triads. Augmented means to widen, of course, to augment, to add to, and so we’re going to take a Major triad, triad meaning a 3-note chord and we’re going to augment it. We’re going to lengthen it, in other words, so instead of root, 3rd and 5th, we’re going to raise the 5th a half-step. That’s an augment triad. That’s a C augmented triad.
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| Here’s F Major, so how would I make it augmented? That’s right, just raise the 5th a half-step. There’s G Major, where’s G augmented? That’s right. There’s D Major, D augmented. There’s E Major chord, E Major triad. How would I make it augmented? There’s no black key to the right of D, so I have to play that white key, but I can’t call it C but I have to call it B Sharp because I’m sharping or raising the 5th degree of the scale. That has to be called B Sharp.
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| There’s an A Major triad and if I raise the 5th there, I can’t call that F, I’ve got to call it E Sharp. There’s the D Flat Major triad, so to make that augmented, I just change the A Flat into A Natural, so that’s D Flat augment. E Flat Major, E Flat augmented, same principle. A Flat Major, A Flat augmented, exactly the same principle. G Flat Major which is all black as you can see, three black keys. To make it augmented, you raise the 5th to a D Natural.
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| There’s the B Major triad, B, D Sharp and F Sharp. How do you sharp a sharp? Well, that’s right. You just raise it a half-step but can you call it G. No, you have to call it F Double-Sharp. The symbol for a double-sharp is like a fat X, a fat X. You’ll recognize it when you see it. There’s the B Major chord, and that would be a B Major triad, 3-note chord. If I raise the 5th, that’s B Flat augmented.
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| There’s 12 Major chords, 12 minor chords, 12 diminished chords, and now 12 augmented chords, and that brings a total of 48, doesn’t it? 48 basic triads. These are basic triads, 3-note chords. Of course, you can have a lot more complex. For example, you’d have C augmented, C 7th augmented. There’s C 7th but it’s augmented. These are often used as traditional, I mean, as transitional chords. In other words, if you’re going from C up to F, you might use that chord.
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| Okay, that’s it for today, a little lesson on augmented triads. If you’re not already signed up for these series of video lessons, come on over to PlayPiano.com and sign up for those. We’ll see you tomorrow with another short little video like this. Until then, I’ll say goodbye.
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