About Faug — triad voicings
Faug is F, A and C# — F 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.
Faug notes and formula
| F | A | C# |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 |
Passing chord — it belongs to no key in particular.
Also written F+, F(#5) or F augmented. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Faug
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.
Faug has 45 of them, on the top three strings, the top four strings, the high-middle three, the low-middle three, the middle four strings, the bottom three strings, strings 6-4-3-2, the bottom four strings and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 14th — every inversion the chord has: F in the bass, A in the bass and C# in the bass. The one to learn first is the A 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 xx3221 — down at the nut. None of the shapes for Faug 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 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1x3221 | 1st fret | F, root position | F | all fretted |
| xx3221 | 1st fret | F, root position | F | all fretted |
| xx7665 | 5th fret | A, 1st inversion | A | all fretted |
| x8766x | 6th fret | F, root position | F | all fretted |
| x-8-x-10-10-9 | 8th fret | F, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-8-11-10-10-x | 8th fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-x-x-10-10-9 | 9th fret | F, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 13-12-11-10-10-x | 10th fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x-x-15-14-14-13 | 13th fret | F, root position | F | all fretted |
What to play over Faug
Every note of Faug is in F whole tone and F altered.
Chords near Faug
Change one note of Faug and you have F (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), Fmaj7#5 (add the major seventh), Faug7 (add the flat seventh), F/A (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth) or F/C (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth).
Faug is a augmented chord — root, major third, sharp fifth. Augmented chords on every root.
On Faug’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.