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minor sharp sixth than the minor sixth. It is not a common chord, though around the time of the 'White Album'
Lennon became fond of it, as can be heard in the verses of 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun'. It is effective to use this
chord when a song features a change from the minor form of chord IV to I. In C major, this would be Fm (F Ab C)
to C; try Fm#6 (F Ab C D) instead of Fm. Try playing Am G C and then Am#6 G C and notice the change in feeling.
Augmented Chords
To complete Part 1 of the Chord Dictionary, we'll look at two chord types that have occasional uses. The augmented
chord is a major triad where the top note (the fifth) is sharpened: C E G becomes C E G#. In traditional harmony, it
does not occur on the major scale but is found on the harmonic minor scale as chord III (C E G# in A harmonic
minor).
This chord is tense sounding and never played for more than a beat or so. It is usually found as a passing chord
between a major and a minor or a major and a major sixth. Try changing from D to D+ to Bm, or D to D+ to D6.
Chuck Berry famously put an augmented chord at the start of the classic song 'No Particular Place To Go' to imitate
a car horn. You can catch the augmented strutting its funky stuff in 'All My Loving' (ch: VI bVI+ I in E), 'Ask Me
Why' (ch: IV V I I+) and 'From Me To You' (end of bridge). It is an essential part of the riff in 'Kashmir' – recently
given a down-market re-fit and renamed the good ship 'Come With Me' by Puff Daddy. There are augmented chords
in 'It Won't Be Long', 'Michelle', 'Fixing A Hole', 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You', 'Mamma Mia' and 'Just Like
Starting Over'. An E+ kicks off 'Oh Darling', and the chorus of 'Hey Bulldog' has the hypnotic climbing sequence
Bm Bm+ Bm6 Bm7,
Augmented chord shapes