Abaug7 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
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About Abaug7 — drop 2 voicings
Abaug7 is Ab, C, E and Gb — Ab7 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.
Abaug7 notes and formula
| Ab | C | E | Gb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | ♭7 |
Altered dominant — the pull of a 7, sharpened.
Also written Ab7#5, Ab+7 or Ab7(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Abaug7
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.
Abaug7 has 14 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: Ab in the bass, C in the bass, E in the bass and Gb in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the nut, 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 434x5x — low, at the 3rd fret. 1 of the 6 shapes here sits in open position. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 3rd fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4x4550 | open position | Ab, root position | E | 1 open string |
| 434x5x | 3rd fret | Ab, root position | E | all fretted |
| xx6978 | 6th fret | Ab, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-11-10-11-9-0 | 9th fret | Ab, root position | Ab | 1 open string |
| x-11-10-11-x-12 | 10th fret | Ab, root position | E | all fretted |
| x-11-14-11-13-12 | 11th fret | Ab, root position | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 2 shell, 9 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Abaug7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Bbb), the 9 (Bb), the #9 (B) and the #11 (D).
How to use Abaug7
Abaug7 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at Db — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
What to play over Abaug7
Every note of Abaug7 is in Ab whole tone and Ab altered.
Chords near Abaug7
Change one note of Abaug7 and you have Abmaj7#5 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), Ab7 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), Ab7b5 (the sharp fifth becomes a flat fifth), Abalt (add the flat ninth), Abaug (drop the flat seventh) or Abaug9 (add the ninth).
Abaug7 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On Abaug7’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.