↓
 

The Pepper of a Musical Meal: Augmented Chords

PlayPiano Posted on by

Augmented Chords – Adding Spice To a Song

Sprinkle Some Pepper On Your Musical Meal Through The Use of Augmented Chords

Augmented chords are to a piece of music like pepper is to a meal; you would never sit down to a meal of pepper alone, but you might sprinkle a little on your food to liven up the taste a bit.

Augmented triads (triads are 3-note chords) are one of the 4 basic chord types, yet they are used very little compared to major and minor chords.

There are four basic kinds of triads in music:

Major triads: composed of the root, major 3rd, and perfect 5th of a major scale.

Minor triads: composed of the root, minor 3rd, and perfect 5th of a major scale.

Diminished triads: composed of the root, minor 3rd, and diminished 5th of a major scale.

Augmented triads: composed of the root, major 3rd, and augmented 5th of a major scale.

Here are the 12 augmented triads:

C aug: C, E, G#

F aug: F, A, C#

G aug: G, B, D#

D aug: D, F#, A#

E aug: E, G#, B# (enharmonic with C)

A aug: A, C#, E# (enharmonic with F)

Db aug: Db, F, A

Eb aug: Eb, G, B

Ab aug: Ab, C, E

Gb aug: Gb, Bb, D

Bb aug: Bb, D, F#

B aug: B, D#, Fx (F double-sharp, which is enharmonic with G)

So like diminished chords, augmented chords are used to add spice to your musical meal. You don’t linger on them, but use them as transition chords between a major and another major chord, or between a major and a minor chord, or sometimes even between two minor chords.

As you play various songs, look for opportunities to use augmented triads as transition chords. And just like pepper is to a meal of food, so augmented triads are to a musical meal.

Click here to go to the web page on augmented chords: https://www.playpiano.com/Articles/20-augmentedtriads.htm

Click here to go to the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnUe3erE7wI

***For lots more good stuff on piano playing come on over to my website at https://www.playpiano.com and sign up for our free piano tips – “Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions!”

Here’s a great little book on chords and chord progressions on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Chords-Chord-Progressions-Exciting-ebook/dp/B0076OUGDE/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404158669&sr=1-1&keywords=piano+chords+duane+shinn

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­____________________________________________________________________________________

Posted in Chords & chord progressions Tagged permalink

About Duane

Duane Shinn (that would be me) has good news for you if you want to play the piano. He (me) has little fat hands & stubby little fingers - not at all suited for playing the piano - more suited to making mud pies or some such. I am also fairly uncoordinated with just average musical ability - certainly not a great piano player. But I've learned a ton about music over the years and people tell me I'm pretty decent at explaining how music works & how to progress more rapidly on the piano. Over the years I have developed about 150 techniques for conquering the piano. Most professional pianists can do these techniques, but very few can explain them in a way people can understand. I specialize in making complex techniques simple. I invite you to watch a few of my free videos and see some of these for yourself before making any decision about taking any of my courses.

Comments are closed.

↑