Faug7 guitar chord
A close-position chord with the second voice from the top lowered an octave. Sits on four adjacent strings.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Faug7 — drop 2 voicings
Faug7 is F, A, C# and Eb — F7 with the fifth raised a semitone.
It sounds strained and chromatic. The raised fifth is heard as a ♭13 sitting a semitone above where it is going, so the chord pushes harder than a plain dominant.
Faug7 notes and formula
| F | A | C# | Eb |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | ♭7 |
Altered dominant — the pull of a 7, sharpened.
Also written F7#5, F+7 or F7(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Faug7
Take the four notes stacked as close together as they go, then drop the second voice from the top an octave. The gap it opens is what makes the chord sound like a chord rather than a cluster.
It lands on four adjacent strings, which is why it is the workhorse voicing on guitar.
Faug7 has 13 of them, on the top four strings, the middle four strings and the bottom four strings, from open position up to the 13th — every inversion the chord has: F in the bass, A in the bass, C# in the bass and Eb in the bass. The one to learn first is the Eb shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
5 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 10122x — 1 open string and down at the nut. 1 of the 6 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10122x | open position | F, root position | C# | 1 open string |
| xx3645 | 3rd fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x878x9 | 7th fret | F, root position | C# | all fretted |
| x-8-11-8-10-9 | 8th fret | F, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 13-12-13-x-14-x | 12th fret | F, root position | C# | all fretted |
| 13-x-13-14-14-x | 13th fret | F, root position | C# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 4 shell, 9 drop 3 and 1 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Faug7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Gb), the 9 (G), the #9 (G#) and the #11 (B).
How to use Faug7
Faug7 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at Bb — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, Faug7 → Bb. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In Faug7 | Moves | In Bb |
|---|---|---|
| F, the root | stays where it is | F, the fifth |
| A, the major third | rises a semitone | Bb, the root |
| C#, the sharp fifth | rises a semitone | D, the major third |
| Eb, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | D, the major third |
What to play over Faug7
Every note of Faug7 is in F whole tone and F altered.
Chords near Faug7
Change one note of Faug7 and you have Fmaj7#5 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), F7 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), F7b5 (the sharp fifth becomes a flat fifth), Falt (add the flat ninth), Faug (drop the flat seventh) or Faug9 (add the ninth).
Faug7 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On Faug7’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music, 1995). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.