About Gaug7 — drop 2 voicings
Gaug7 is G, B, D# and F — G7 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.
Gaug7 notes and formula
| G | B | D# | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | ♯5 | ♭7 |
Altered dominant — the pull of a 7, sharpened.
Also written G7#5, G+7 or G7(#5). The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gaug7
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.
Gaug7 has 14 of them, on the top four strings, the bottom four strings and the middle four strings, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: G in the bass, B in the bass, D# in the bass and F in the bass. The one to learn first is the D# 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 321001 — 2 open strings 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 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 321001 | open position | G, root position | F | 2 open strings |
| 3x344x | 3rd fret | G, root position | D# | all fretted |
| 323x4x | 2nd fret | G, root position | D# | all fretted |
| xx5867 | 5th fret | G, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-10-9-10-x-11 | 9th fret | G, root position | D# | all fretted |
| x-10-13-10-12-11 | 10th fret | G, root position | D# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 2 shell and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Gaug7, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the b9 (Ab), the 9 (A), the #9 (A#) and the #11 (C#).
How to use Gaug7
Gaug7 is a dominant with its tension raised, so it still points at C — harder than a plain seventh does, because the altered tones sit a semitone from where they are going.
Voice by voice, Gaug7 → C. 3 voices move by a semitone, and one note is common to both chords.
| In Gaug7 | Moves | In C |
|---|---|---|
| G, the root | stays where it is | G, the fifth |
| B, the major third | rises a semitone | C, the root |
| D#, the sharp fifth | rises a semitone | E, the major third |
| F, the flat seventh | falls a semitone | E, the major third |
What to play over Gaug7
Every note of Gaug7 is in G whole tone and G altered.
Chords near Gaug7
Change one note of Gaug7 and you have Gmaj7#5 (the flat seventh becomes a major seventh), G7 (the sharp fifth becomes a fifth), G7b5 (the sharp fifth becomes a flat fifth), Galt (add the flat ninth), Gaug (drop the flat seventh) or Gaug9 (add the ninth).
Gaug7 is an altered chord — a dominant seventh with its fifth or ninth moved. Altered dominant chords on every root.
On Gaug7’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.