I Put Augmented Chords Into 5 Popular Progressions

we're all looking for the Holy Grail that one core progression which is so interesting and unique that it will make everyone want to listen to your song but if you've look long enough you'll know that like the Holy Grail this doesn't exist so it's time for a different approach what if you use some of the most common tired progressions and breathe new life into them well in this video I'm going to do just that I'll introduce you to my secret weapon the augmented cord I'll also reveal five popular progressions and show you how to deploy the augmented cord to transform the familiar sequences to begin let's meet the augmented chord augmented chords are written in notation with a plus symbol next to the chord letter you may also see them written with org or sharp five augmented chords are really simple to construct you take a major chord and raise the fifth note by half a step or semitone this note is also known as an augmented fifth giving the chord its name for example the c major chord has the notes c e and G therefore C augmented contains the notes c e and G sharp you can hear the unstable and odd sounds that augmented chords have they are neither major nor minor and have a strange awkwardness because of this they are most often used as passing chords leading the listener somewhere else they do not occur naturally in dionic major or minor Keys as such they are rarely found in classical music and not common in pop and rock however you are more likely to come across them in jazz an interesting feature of the augmented chords is that they cannot be inverted inverting a major chord involves playing the third or fifth note as the lowest note or root note instead of the first note if you take the C augmented chord you heard earlier with the note c e and gsh you can attempt two inversions with e as the lowest note you get e g Shar and C this is an e augmented chord if you use G G sharp as the lowest note you get G sharp c and e which is a G sharp augmented [Music] chord so there are actually only four sets of notes that create augmented chords these notes are always two whole steps or four half steps apart from one another this symmetry defines the augmented chord it is also worth KN that minor chords cannot have an augmented or sharp fifth they simply become major chord first inversions for example C minor has the notes c e flat and G if you raise the fifth by a semitone you get C E flat and a flat this is a first inversion a flat major [Music] chord if you understand the augmented chord then you can begin to alter your core progressions to add tension and interest but where can you find these popular core progressions I've created a free guide just for you with six popular progressions in it if you go to Major keyes.com then you can download your free copy today link is also in the description let's start with the first progression on the list this is arguably the most popular major key cord progression 1564 but it's also become a bit of a joke and cliche as the Axis of Awesome video demonstrated because it is used in a huge amount of songs so let's deploy the augmented chord to breathe some new life into it in major keys if you play the five chord as an augmented chord then it generates a bluesy tension which can be pleasing this is because the sharp fifth augmented note from the chord is the flat third note in the relevant scale which introduces the key blue note from the major blue scale you could try this out in a 12 Bar Blues progression here it is in the 1564 sharing a bar with the standard five chord this is in the key of C major with the chords C Major G Major G augmented a minor and F major augmented chords roll as passing chords means that they are often played for short durations like this look at the voic Le top note that this augmented chord plays a part in rising up by half a step each time this includes the blues scale note I [Music] discussed next on the list is the progression 1425 I'll move over to the guitar to change up this progression arguably the most common use of augmented chords you'll come across is playing the one tonic chord as an augmented chord the the goal here is to again create a nice voice leading line in this case moving from the fifth note in the one chord to the sharp fifth in one augmented to a chord that contains the sixth note of the scale in this C major key example the four chord F major contains the sixth note from the scale which is a so the rising line goes from G to gsh to a you can see it here going from the open G note to gsh on the first fret and an A on the second fret [Music] let's now move to the progression 1365 on the face of it this progression isn't as suitable for the use of an augmented chord particularly as the three chord lacks the sixth note to resolve to after the one augmented but if you play as a sus four chord then this sixth note is introduced and allows you to produce the halfstep voice leading that augmented chords Love here's how that sounds in the key of C major [Music] [Applause] moving down the list a little and you get to a non-diatonic example 1 flat 745 the flat s chord is a borrowed chord from the parallel Dorian mixian and aolan keys it is a common cord to use in major key progressions that can bring some unexpected toughness it introduces the flat 7 note as the root note which is from outside of of the key but it can play an interesting role in the augmented chord voice leading ideas I've been demonstrating so far I've been hunting for chords with the six scale note in them to follow the augmented one chord but what if you can't find or think of a suitable chord well a useful and interesting idea is to stay on the one chord but play the major sixth version of the chord the one major sixth chord adds the sixth scale note to the major Triad in this case it completes the rising voic Le idea I've been demonstrating with the one: one augmented chords this then leads nicely onto the flat seven chord as a natural extension of this so in the key of C major you would move from C major to C augmented to C major 6 and finally B flat major this creates the rising line GA a flat a B flat here's how that sounds you can also use augmented chords in minor keys this takes you beyond the major key chord guide but is still useful and simple to understand the most common approach here is sometimes found in classical music it involves using the augmented major 5 chord again this time as a way to resolve to the minor one chord using the standard major 5 chord is a really common way to resolve minor key progressions for example in the key of C minor this would involve playing the G major chord before the C minor chord this means that both chords share a g note and then the other two notes only have to move by half a step creating the pleasing resolution if you play the five augmented chord then the fifth note is raised half a step in this example this note is now E flat now both chords share two notes in common leaving just the leading note or tone B to resolve up to the tonic C this provides a really satisfying resolution I'll play the progression first with the major five then with the augmented five so you can appreciate the difference I have to admit at this point that you might have just wasted your time the thing is everything I just told you is completely useless if you don't know how to create core progressions watch the video on screen next to learn a really simple core progression system

Channel: Write A Song

Views: 63,667

Keywords: songwriting, songwriting explained, how to write a song, write a song, write a song now, chord progressions, music theory

Id: pa48okrZS5M

Length: 8min 23sec (503 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 08 2024