About Eaug — triad voicings
Eaug is E, G# and B# — E 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.
Eaug notes and formula
| E | G# | B# |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 |
Passing chord — it belongs to no key in particular.
Also written E+, E(#5) or E augmented. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Eaug
Three notes on one string set. No seventh, so nothing is claimed about the chord beyond its quality.
Thin on their own, excellent over a bass line or against someone else’s harmony.
Eaug has 46 of them, on the high-middle three, the top three strings, the low-middle three, the top four strings, the bottom four strings, the middle four strings, the bottom three strings, strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: E in the bass, G# in the bass and B# in the bass. The one to learn first is the E shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
6 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 xx211x — only 3 fretted notes and down at the nut. 1 of the 10 shapes here sits in open position. None of them needs a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx211x | 1st fret | E, root position | B# | all fretted |
| 032110 | open position | E, root position | E | 2 open strings |
| xx6554 | 4th fret | G#, 1st inversion | G# | all fretted |
| x7655x | 5th fret | E, root position | E | all fretted |
| x7x998 | 7th fret | E, root position | B# | all fretted |
| x-7-10-9-9-x | 7th fret | E, root position | G# | all fretted |
| xxx998 | 8th fret | E, root position | B# | all fretted |
| 12-11-10-9-9-0 | 9th fret | E, root position | G# | 1 open string |
| 12-x-14-13-13-12 | 12th fret | E, root position | E | all fretted |
| x-x-14-13-13-12 | 12th fret | E, root position | E | all fretted |
What to play over Eaug
Every note of Eaug is in E whole tone and E altered.
Chords near Eaug
Change one note of Eaug and you have E (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), Emaj7#5 (add the major seventh), Eaug7 (add the flat seventh), E/G# (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth) or E/B (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth).
Eaug is a augmented chord — root, major third, sharp fifth. Augmented chords on every root.
On Eaug’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.