Many piano students find augmented chords difficult to learn and master. They may question where these mysterious triads originate, as well as the best way to use them within a musical setting.
Augmented chords provide a special harmonic structure; their roots lie in diatonic chord quality while being also chromatic in nature. Employ these intriguing chords as lighthouses to illuminate your compositions with their captivating sound!
Major Triad
The Major Triad chord quality is widely utilized across genres. From pop hits like Britney Spears’ Baby One More Time and Eiffel 65’s Blue to rock classics such as Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody or Chuck Berry’s Johnny B Goode, Major Triad chords provide powerful, full and cheerful sounds perfect for many genres of music.
To form a Major Triad chord, begin at the root note (in this instance C). Next count up 4 1/2 steps (a major scale). From there move forward into E which becomes the 3rd note before continuing up another three and half steps to reach G as seen below on piano diagram.
Each quality of triad chord has its own set of intervals that it can build upon to give each type of triad its unique sound. Triads can be major, minor, diminished and augmented; chords based on same notes but different note intervals give each type its own distinctive sound.
This also gives you the power to invert triads and create new chords from them. To invert, simply move around the notes within the upper structure – this is called bassline – until a suitable bassline emerges for you. Experiment with different ways of ordering or repeating notes until a bassline that suits you emerges.
Captain Chords provides instant access to an expansive variety of triads in all keys on the left-hand side of its chord palette, along with all their inversions and even basslines from any triad in any key.
In this example we used the chord voicing G9(#11). This augmented triad has been inverted so as to form a G major open voiced upper structure with fifth bass structure (G major triad VII+).
Minor Triad
Minor Triad is a three-note chord composed of roots Bb, D and F# that can be found in minor key music to produce darker sounding chords than major triads. Additionally, minor triads work great when combined with other minor triads or single notes for arpeggios in minor key arpeggios or single note accompaniment.
Minor triads can also be inverted for added tension when playing them, giving a different sound and adding tension to your playing. This technique works by taking the note with lowest pitch (which would normally be at the first note of any chord), moving it up an octave, and becoming its last note – giving a unique sound while adding tension.
An augmented minor triad differs from its counterpart in that its second note is moved up an octave and becomes the third note, creating a more dramatic sound and adding tension to chord progressions.
This augmented chord is another common major scale chord, and can be used to construct some interesting voicings. When creating an augmented chord, care should be taken when placing its roots – they should not become unstable if placed too closely together; to prevent this happening it is wiser to construct it with roots situated as far apart as possible.
Keep this in mind when learning minor triad shapes: they are not simply random forms. Triads form larger minor chords, scales and arpeggios – think about how these small pieces of harmonic information connect to the other chords and scales you already know about.
As you practice these triads, it’s also wise to practice in all 12 keys for maximum effectiveness and variety in sound production. Furthermore, practice playing them across strings as minor triads often feature open strings more frequently.
Major Arpeggio
The augmented chord is an intriguing sound. A type of triad chord, it has an “augmented” (raised or sharpened) fifth that creates its distinctive sound and can create dramatic tension and emotion in music. Furthermore, its unique sound makes it difficult to pin down; yet can be used creatively as a bridge between different musical ideas by adding mystery and tension into its progression.
Augmented arpeggios are easy to play and provide an effective way to familiarize yourself with b flat augmented chords. Since these arpeggios can be played in any key, they make for great practice sessions for any guitarist. Just remember that augmented chords can be more complex than minor arpeggios so don’t expect instant mastery of them!
To create an augmented arpeggio, start at the root note of a chord and move up or down the scale as needed to fill out all the notes of that chord. Repeat this process until all notes have been covered by an arpeggio; for additional practice you can try playing one over a simple I-IV-V progression which will develop your finger independence and sharpen picking skills.
Once you’ve mastered the b flat augmented chord, you can move on to mastering other types of augmented chords. The E shape is an especially good choice because it requires few fingers compared with other shapes; its delicate playing requires careful positioning of fingers to avoid hitting other strings; though challenging initially, its worth investing the effort!
C augmented chords are another type of augmented chord, featuring both major third interval and an augmented fifth that makes this powerful voicing. They’re great for adding drama and tension to any composition as well as transitions between sections in your song or even creating minor-to-major progressions.
Minor Arpeggio
Minor arpeggios are an integral component of every guitarist’s skill set, often used with chords to form melodies and create melodic passages. Although initially challenging to play, with practice it can become one of the best ways to advance both your guitar playing ability and music composition abilities.
Minor arpeggios are constructed using notes from the minor scale and consisting of roots, 3rd, and 5th intervals. It differs from major arpeggios by employing flattened fifths rather than sharpened fifths in their chord structure – as well as using minor thirds which are half steps lower than major thirds.
Like its larger counterpart, minor arpeggio is an essential building block of chord progressions on the fretboard and should be treated as such. Furthermore, practicing minor arpeggio can increase both speed and dexterity by quickly moving across it; plus it will allow you to become more cognizant of how major and minor scales relate, giving a deeper insight into chord progressions.
Minor arpeggio patterns offer many different sounds to explore and practice, with Pattern #1 below being an ideal starting point as it doesn’t feature any out-of-position notes that might prove challenging or force your fingers out of their comfort zones. Furthermore, this pattern enables you to practice flattening out fingers into partial barres (covering two or three strings at once) without overstretching yourself physically or stretching them beyond what feels natural to play.
Are you ready to elevate your minor arpeggio practice? Try adding harmonic minor arpeggios as an additional dimension of this form. These arpeggios use notes from harmonic minor scale instead of natural minor scale for added variety, expanding your understanding of relationships between major and minor scales as well as producing melodic tones when playing arpeggios.