Augmentedmusic Sixth theory for musicians Chords and normal people by toby w. rush like that moment of incredible tension just before the hero finally kisses the leading lady, the half-step is the go-to interval for creating tension in music of the common ˙ practice period. it drives the entire style! ˙ if one half-step can create such strong tension, how about two half-steps sounding simultaneously? Let’s get creative here for a minute to find a cool new way to approach a diatonic chord. in this case, we’ll use them to approach the dominant triad. ...and approach that first, we’ll start with octave with a half step the doubled root of a below the top note, V chord... #˙ ˙ #˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ & b ˙ ˙ & b ˙ ˙ V & ˙ V ...and, finally, add the V ...and a half step above tonic as the third note. the bottom note... the result is a new chord, one we call the augmented sixth chord, after the interval created by the top and bottom notes. augmented sixth chords are predominant chords, meaning they are used to approach dominant chords. if we just use they are usually used to approach dominant triads, three notes not dominant sevenths, because of the doubled and double the roots present in dominant triads. tonic, we get the #w italian ww however, they also often augmented sixth. b w & approach tonic chords & #˙ ˙ It.6 in second inversion, ˙ ˙ which also contain a doubled fifth scale degree. ? b˙ n˙ b ˙ ˙ if we add the 6 Ger.6 I4 second scale degree instead ˙ ˙ rarely, augmented sixth chords of doubling the # w & ˙ ˙ are found transposed down tonic, we get the ww a perfect fifth, analyzed as french b w ˙ ˙ “on flat two,” and used to augmented sixth. & ? b˙ ˙ approach a tonic chord in Fr.6 root position. Fr.6 I on 2 b and if we and, finally, when resolving replace the the german augmented sixth second scale chord to a dominant triad, & #˙ ˙ degree with the you might find yourself ˙ ˙ lowered third # w writing parallel fifths... scale degree, b w w but it’s perfectly okay! we get the b w mozart did it all the time! ? 5 german & b˙ ˙ augmented sixth. Ger.6 b ˙ ˙ Ger.6 V licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more.