QUESTION! Augmented Chords?

[Vasrely Derian]

I’m currently learning augmented and diminished chords/how they are constructed through the root of D.
I’ve noticed that D aug, A# aug and G# aug chords have the same notes. Whats up with that? Which one is which? Can someone please explain, thank you.

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Unless I’m wrong (which I very well could be) I thought that the following chords were comprised of the following notes
Daug – D, F#, A#
A#aug- A#, F#, D
G#aug- G#, C, E
I’m going to write more later but I got to pack it up at work I’m going to look into this for sure!

 

[Vasrely Derian]

Sorry, I confused F# with G#.
I meant F# earlier. Thanks.

 

[Vasrely Derian]

So does that mean, when someone tells me to play D aug chord, I could also play A# or F# instead?

 

[Brian Haner Sr.]

Diminished & Augmented chords are symmetrical. So each chord is just an inversion of the last. Augmented chords are built on Major 3rds. D to F# is a major 3rd. F# to A# is major 3rd. A# to D is a major 3rd – and we start all over again. So – Daug is D,F#,A#. F#aug is F#,A# & D. A#aug is A#, D & F#. So all three are inversions of the same chord. The distinction usually comes down to what note is in the bass. If you write a chart with a Daug chord in it – the bass player will play a D. But you can play any inversion you want over that D.
Diminished chords are built on minor 3rds. (Let’s add the 7th so it’s easier to see). So a Ddim7 is D,F,Ab,B. D to F is a minor 3rd. F to Ab is a minor 3rd. Ab to B is minor 3rd. And B to D is minor 3rd. So a Ddim7, Fdim7, Abdim7 & Bdim7 are all inversions of the same chord. Again, it just comes down to what note you want in the bass.
Make sense?

 

[Vasrely Derian]

Makes much more sense! Thank you!

 

[idssdi]

Effectively one of the thingstage I really like about Diminished/augmented chords is that you can shit them a minor third (diminished) or a major third and they will effectively be the same notes played together but with a different root note (they are inversions of each other so to speak) augmented really means a sharp 5 th. Augmented chords effectively are simply major thirds stacked upon each other. And I typed this before reading PG’s reply so essentially I’m saying the same

 

[Jak Angelescu]

Omg Papa G just literally explained an answer to a problem I’ve had for years in one paragraph and it all made sense for me too! A great question with a great answerthat helped me a lot as well!

 

[Chris Johnston]

Basically exactly what Papa Gates said. They are all inversions on one another because they are made up of stacked Major 3rds. And the Diminished one’s with Minor 3rds.
There’s some seriously cool things that you can also do with that info in a lead setting too,for example (Hopefully this isn’t going too off topic):
If I’m playing a D Augmented chord, you are free to play a D Augmented arpeggio, or an F# Augmented Arpeggio, or an A# Augmented Arpeggio over it.
You can do this because the D Augmented chord shares the same notes as every one of those arpeggios.
These are both the notes in D, F#, & A# Augmented and their corresponding arpeggios:
D Aug: D F# A#
F# Aug: F# A# D
A# Aug: A# D F#
See how it’s just the same notes in a different order? Inversions basically
I’m not sure how savvy you are with your Modes as of yet (If not just ignore this bit) but if you’re familiar with the Lydian mode (Major Scale with a Sharpened 4th Degree), you can adjust that mode to fit over these Augmented Chords too. The Mode you’d be looking for is the ‘Lydian **Augmented** Mode’, which is just the regular Lydian Mode with a Sharpened 5th degree (Augmented 5th).
You can use the same, moving in Major thirds technique with this whole scale over each Augmented chord. For example:
Over a D Augmented chord, you could play:
D Lyd Aug, F# Lyd Aug, A# Lyd Aug
It gives off a really interesting sound to mess around with!
Hopefully that wasn’t too off topic, just happy to help out with some options related to what you are learning
Hope you’re well,
Chris from Sunny Scotland