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Augmented

Chord

All

Augmented

Chords

Using the Augmented Chord:  Example #1

As you heard in Step 1, the Augmented chord has a mysterious, unresolved quality to it. You would not want to hold this chord for too long, unless you were trying to create an unsettling feeling. The Augmented chord sounds like it wants to go somewhere. In this first musical example, we will hear the Augmented chord resolve to that next chord. Let's listen to that example (in the key of F Major):

As we've just demonstrated, the Augmented chord resolves to a Major chord.  In bar 1, the violins and celesta play a C Augmented chord. This is followed by the F Major chord (2nd inversion) in bar 2.

But this sound is not created by just any augmented chord followed by any Major chord. The sound you hear is created by the V augmented chord (in bar 1) resolving to the I (or root) Major chord (in bar 2):

As we have previously discovered, the V chord wants to go to the root chord. This natural pull is exaggerated even further when we make that V chord a V augmented chord. This is because the raised 5th of the augmented chord wants to resolve to the 3rd of the root chord. In other words, the note G# of the C Augmented chord wants to resolve upward to the note A in the F Major chord: