About Aaug — triad voicings
Aaug is A, C# and E# — A with the fifth raised a semitone.
It sounds stretched, and suspended between keys. Its commonest job is passing between a major triad and its sixth or seventh, with the raised fifth as a single voice walking up.
Aaug notes and formula
| A | C# | E# |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 |
Passing chord — it belongs to no key in particular.
Also written A+, A(#5) or A augmented. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Aaug
Three notes on one string set. No seventh, so nothing is claimed about the chord beyond its quality.
Thin on their own, excellent over a bass line or against someone else’s harmony.
Aaug has 45 of them, on the top three strings, the top four strings, the low-middle three, the high-middle three, the middle four strings, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2-1, the bottom four strings and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass, C# in the bass and E# in the bass. The one to learn first is the A shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
6 of them sit on the top four strings, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with xxx221 — only 3 fretted notes and down at the nut. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xxx221 | 1st fret | A, root position | E# | all fretted |
| x03221 | open position | A, root position | E# | 1 open string |
| 54322x | 2nd fret | A, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 5x7665 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | all fretted |
| xx7665 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-x-11-10-10-9 | 9th fret | C#, 1st inversion | C# | all fretted |
| x-12-11-10-10-x | 10th fret | A, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-12-x-14-14-13 | 12th fret | A, root position | E# | all fretted |
| x-12-15-14-14-x | 12th fret | A, root position | C# | all fretted |
What to play over Aaug
Every note of Aaug is in A whole tone and A altered.
Chords near Aaug
Change one note of Aaug and you have A (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), Amaj7#5 (add the major seventh), Aaug7 (add the flat seventh), A/E (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), A/F (add the fifth) or A/C# (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth).
Aaug is a augmented chord — root, major third, sharp fifth. Augmented chords on every root.
On Aaug’s sound and use this page follows Stefan Kostka, Dorothy Payne & Byron Almén, Tonal Harmony (McGraw-Hill, 8th ed., 2018). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.