Chord family · 12 shapes
Augmented chords
An augmented chord takes a major triad and raises its fifth by one semitone. C, E and G become C, E and G#. Play those two chords back to back to hear the change in colour.
Augmented triads are symmetrical in major thirds. Moving a fully fretted shape up four frets produces the same pitch classes in a new order. One shape can therefore be named from any of its three notes.
Augmented
12 shapesHow to use augmented chords in a song
Caug can lead to F: G# rises a semitone to A, while C stays as a common tone. Eaug can lead to Am in the same way, with B# rising to C. The chord roots move by a fourth, while individual voices can move by a semitone.
Transpose a closed augmented shape by four frets and listen to the inversion. The chord name may change to match the new bass note, but the sounding pitch classes remain the same. Open strings must be moved too for this symmetry to work.
Use an augmented chord as a brief colour between stable chords. Try C, Caug and F at the same tempo, and compare it with C straight to F. Let the melody decide whether the added tension fits.
The diagrams below offer shapes across the twelve roots. Start with the one closest to a major chord you already play, check each sounding string, and practise its resolution before adding more shapes.
If you only try two of the shapes on this page, try Caug and C#aug: both can be reached from shapes you already know, so the change stays playable at speed. Play them slowly enough that you hear the added note arrive, then speed the loop up without changing anything else.
How to practise augmented chords
- Play a closed augmented shape, then move it four frets higher. Listen for the same note set in a different inversion.
- Loop C, Caug, F and C. Compare it with C, C, F and C to isolate the effect of the raised fifth.
- Play Eaug into Am, then E7 into Am. Listen for the different tension each chord brings to the same target.
Augmented chords in real songs
The Sparks practice arrangement uses the Caug shape in its later-verse exercise. With capo 1 it sounds as Dbaug. The chart gives each chord a full practice bar, rather than transcribing the recording bar by bar.
- Sparks: uses Caug between Am and C in the later-verse exercise; capo 1 makes the shape sound as Dbaug
Printable family chart
