Caug guitar chord
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About Caug — 1st inversion
Caug is C, E and G# — C 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.
Caug notes and formula
| C | E | G# |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 |
Passing chord — it belongs to no key in particular.
Also written C+, C(#5) or C augmented. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Caug
Caug in 1st inversion puts E in the bass instead of C, the 3rd of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
One of Caug’s 8 common shapes does this: x-x-14-13-13-12.
Start with xxx554 — only 3 fretted notes and low, at the 4th fret. None of the shapes for Caug 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 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x3211x | 1st fret | C, root position | C | all fretted |
| x3x554 | 3rd fret | C, root position | G# | all fretted |
| x3655x | 3rd fret | C, root position | E | all fretted |
| xxx554 | 4th fret | C, root position | G# | all fretted |
| 87655x | 5th fret | C, root position | E | all fretted |
| 8-x-10-9-9-8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-x-10-9-9-8 | 8th fret | C, root position | C | all fretted |
| x-x-14-13-13-12 | 12th fret | E, 1st inversion | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 46 triad voicings, each on its own page.
What to play over Caug
Every note of Caug is in C whole tone and C altered.
Chords near Caug
Change one note of Caug and you have C (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), Cmaj7#5 (add the major seventh), Caug7 (add the flat seventh), C/E (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth) or C/G (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth).
Caug is a augmented chord — root, major third, sharp fifth. Augmented chords on every root.
On Caug’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.