Baug7 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
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- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Baug7 — shell voicings
Baug7 is B, D#, G and A — B7 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.
Baug7 notes and formula
| B | D# | G | A |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | ♭7 |
Altered dominant — the pull of a 7, sharpened.
Also written B7#5, B+7 or B7(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Baug7
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
Baug7 has 2 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from the 2nd fret up to the 7th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the B shape at the 2nd fret.
Start with x21203 — 1 open string and down at the nut. 1 of the 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x21203 | open position | B, root position | G | 1 open string |
| x25243 | 2nd fret | B, root position | G | all fretted |
| 767x8x | 6th fret | B, root position | G | all fretted |
| 7x788x | 7th fret | B, root position | G | all fretted |
| x-x-9-12-10-11 | 9th fret | B, root position | D# | all fretted |
| x-14-13-14-x-15 | 13th fret | B, root position | G | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 15 drop 2, 9 drop 3 and 3 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Baug7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (C), the 9 (C#), the #9 (C##) and the #11 (E#).
How to use Baug7
Baug7 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at E — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, Baug7 → E. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In Baug7 | Moves | In E |
|---|---|---|
| B, the root | stays where it is | B, the fifth |
| D#, the major third | rises a semitone | E, the root |
| G, the sharp fifth | rises a semitone | G#, the major third |
| A, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | G#, the major third |
What to play over Baug7
Every note of Baug7 is in B whole tone and B altered.
Chords near Baug7
Change one note of Baug7 and you have Bmaj7#5 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), B7 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), B7b5 (the sharp fifth becomes a flat fifth), Balt (add the flat ninth), Baug (drop the flat seventh) or Baug9 (add the ninth).
Baug7 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On Baug7’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.