My Guitar Notes

Eaug — E augmented chord

Root, major third and augmented fifth: two stacked major thirds. Because the thirds are equal the chord divides the octave into three, so it has three enharmonic spellings and only four distinct forms.

Symbol
Eaug
Root
E
Quality
Augmented
Family
triad
Notes
E G# B#
Degree formula
1 3 #5
Semitones from the root
0 4 8
Distinct pitch classes
3
Interval structure
Stacked from the root: 4 semitones, 4 semitones
Notation
Written aug or with a plus sign, for example Caug or C+.
Key
E · E major / C# minor key signature

Formula

The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.

DegreeNoteSemitonesInterval from the root
1E0Perfect unison
3G#4Major third
#5B#8Minor sixth

Inversions

An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.

InversionBass noteDegree in the bassNotes above the bassSemitones above the bass
root positionE1E – G# – B#0 4 8
first inversionG#3G# – B# – E0 4 8
second inversionB##5B# – E – G#0 4 8

Playable voicings

These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.

#Shape (low string first)NotesDegreesBassSpan (frets)Sounding strings
10-3-2-1-1-0E C E G# C E1 #5 1 3 #5 1E36
212-11-10-9-9-12E G# C E G# E1 3 #5 1 3 1E36
312-11-10-13-13-12E G# C G# C E1 3 #5 3 #5 1E36
412-11-14-13-13-12E G# E G# C E1 3 1 3 #5 1E36
512-15-14-13-13-12E C E G# C E1 #5 1 3 #5 1E36
60-3-2-1-1-4E C E G# C G#1 #5 1 3 #5 3E46

Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.

Related chords and scales

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