Aaug7 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Aaug7 — drop 2 voicings
Aaug7 is A, C#, E# and G — A7 with the fifth raised a semitone.
It sounds strained and chromatic. The raised fifth is heard as a ♭13 sitting a semitone above where it is going, so the chord pushes harder than a plain dominant.
Aaug7 notes and formula
| A | C# | E# | G |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | ♭7 |
Altered dominant — the pull of a 7, sharpened.
Also written A7#5, A+7 or A7(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Aaug7
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
Aaug7 has 14 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from the 2nd fret up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: A in the bass, C# in the bass, E# in the bass and G in the bass. The one to learn first is the E# shape at the 2nd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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 x03021 — 2 open strings and only 3 fretted notes. 2 of the 8 shapes here sit 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x03021 | open position | A, root position | E# | 2 open strings |
| x03223 | open position | A, root position | G | 1 open string |
| x05665 | 5th fret | A, root position | A | 1 open string |
| 545x6x | 4th fret | A, root position | E# | all fretted |
| 5x566x | 5th fret | A, root position | E# | all fretted |
| x-x-7-10-8-9 | 7th fret | A, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-12-11-12-x-13 | 11th fret | A, root position | E# | all fretted |
| x-12-15-12-14-13 | 12th fret | A, root position | E# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 10 drop 3 and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Aaug7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Bb), the 9 (B), the #9 (B#) and the #11 (D#).
How to use Aaug7
Aaug7 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at D — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, Aaug7 → D. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In Aaug7 | Moves | In D |
|---|---|---|
| A, the root | stays where it is | A, the fifth |
| C#, the major third | rises a semitone | D, the root |
| E#, the sharp fifth | rises a semitone | F#, the major third |
| G, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | F#, the major third |
What to play over Aaug7
Every note of Aaug7 is in A whole tone and A altered.
Chords near Aaug7
Change one note of Aaug7 and you have Amaj7#5 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), A7 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), A7b5 (the sharp fifth becomes a flat fifth), Aalt (add the flat ninth), Aaug (drop the flat seventh) or Aaug9 (add the ninth).
Aaug7 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On Aaug7’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.