Bbaug guitar chord
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About Bbaug — root position
Bbaug is Bb, D and F# — Bb 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.
Bbaug notes and formula
| Bb | D | F# |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 |
Passing chord — it belongs to no key in particular.
Also written Bb+, Bb(#5) or Bb augmented. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bbaug
Bbaug in root position puts Bb in the bass, which is the chord as it is spelled: the note it is named after underneath everything else.
7 of Bbaug’s 8 common shapes do this: x1x332, xxx332, x1433x, 65433x, 6x8776, xx8776, x-13-12-11-11-x.
Start with xxx332 — only 3 fretted notes and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Bbaug uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x1x332 | 1st fret | Bb, root position | F# | all fretted |
| xxx332 | 2nd fret | Bb, root position | F# | all fretted |
| x1433x | 1st fret | Bb, root position | D | all fretted |
| 65433x | 3rd fret | Bb, root position | D | all fretted |
| 6x8776 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| xx8776 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-x-12-11-11-10 | 10th fret | D, 1st inversion | D | all fretted |
| x-13-12-11-11-x | 11th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 45 triad voicings, each on its own page.
What to play over Bbaug
Every note of Bbaug is in Bb whole tone and Bb altered.
Chords near Bbaug
Change one note of Bbaug and you have Bb (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), Bbmaj7#5 (add the major seventh) or Bbaug7 (add the flat seventh).
Bbaug is a augmented chord — root, major third, sharp fifth. Augmented chords on every root.
On Bbaug’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.