Caug has no single obvious top: its three notes, C, E and G#, divide the octave into equal major thirds.
The same chord shape can therefore be named from three roots. Heard as an altered , its can climb into the next chord’s third.
Also written C+, C(#5) or C augmented.
Caug is most often a dominant with its fifth raised. That note becomes a second leading tone, a half step below the third of F. It needs a major tonic: a minor third is a whole step away, and the pull is gone.
Listen for: The raised fifth rises a half step to the third of the I. Without it, the same voice has a whole step to climb.
Heard in“School Days” (opening chord)“Oh! Darling”“From Me to You” (end of the bridge)
Over a held C, the fifth can climb by half steps: Caug, C6, C7, and on to F. Caug is just the first step of the line.
Listen for: The fifth climbs a half step at a time, to the sixth and the flat seventh, then settles a half step down onto the third of the IV.
Heard in“Kind of a Drag”“Laughing”“It’s My Party”
Contains Caug and adds second, flat fifth and flat seventh.
Contains Caug and adds second, flat fifth, sixth and major seventh.
Contains Caug and adds flat second, sharp ninth, flat fifth and flat seventh.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.