......................................................................................................................................

Augmented

Chord

All

Augmented

Chords

The Whole Tone Scale

In this next musical example, we will discover another method of using augmented chords. At the beginning of this Augmented Chords topic, we learned how to construct an Augmented chord by taking a major chord and raising the 5th by a half step. There is another method of constructing augmented chords. This requires a brief but valuable theory lesson.

An Augmented chord really consists of three notes, all belonging to one Whole Tone scale. A Whole Tone scale is a scale where every note is a whole step apart from its next note, up or down. This means that, unlike the major or minor scales, there are no half-steps from one note to the next. The C Whole Tone scale consists of the notes C, D, E, F#, G#, A# and back to C:

Because there are no half steps, this scale has only six different notes, as compared to the usual seven found in major and minor scales. The only basic chords that can be built from the Whole Tone scale are Augmented chords, and therefore the Whole Tone scale and Augmented chords are closely linked.

Whole

Tone

Scale

Review