Music Video Lesson: The Most Deceptive Chord in Music: The Augmented 6th

Hi, I'm Robert Estrin, this is LivinPianos.com with the most deceptive chord in music.

It's the augmented sixth chord. Now you've seen other videos of mine where I talk about chords are all built upon the interval of thirds and here's a chord with an augmented sixth. Not just a sixth but an augmented sixth is that. So you might wonder what is this all about? Well first I'm going to let you hear this chord and when you hear it you'll think what? I've heard that chord before, what's so deceptive about that? Here it is.

And you think oh it's just a dominant seventh chord of V7.

Done.

But listen to this, it's going to go where you never expected it to go.

Now we're in B major. So it went from a V7 in C major to a I chord in C major, which is what you'd expect now.

It resolves outward to a B major chord and F sharp 7.

How can this be? Well I'm going to show you everything you ever wanted to know about the augmented sixth chord and you'll notice when you listen to music it'll hit you. You'll recognize it, this deceptive chord. It's got three varieties. I'm going to cover all three of them for you. But first what is an augmented sixth chord? Well an augmented sixth chord put very simply sounds like a dominant seventh as you could tell. But instead of being built on the fifth scale degree as the dominant seventh, the V7 is, I started off in C major, one, two, three, four, fifth note of the scale and every other note of the scale.

Here's your V7, your dominant seventh, which resolves to one.

The augmented sixth chord is a little bit different. It's built on the flatted sixth degree of the scale. Now what does that mean? Well you go to the sixth note of your major scale, one, two, three, four, five, six, and you flat it by a half step. You lower it by a half step.

And you build a chord that sounds like a dominant seventh chord.

Notice that's exactly a half step higher than our G7.

Except instead of spelling this in thirds, A flat, C, E flat, G flat, A, C, E, G, all thirds, it's A flat, C, E flat. And instead of G flat, this is an F sharp, an augmented sixth.

That's the sixth note of the A flat major scale, half step raised, enlarged.

And this chord resolves outward from here to a 164.

In C major, that is a one chord with the G on the bottom.

Isn't that refreshing? Normally, there's your typical resolution, five, seven, to one. But now, it resolves outward deceptively, taking you to a key you don't expect. I mentioned there are three varieties of the chord. What you just heard is the full -fledged German sixth. The German sixth sounds exactly like a dominant seventh, like a five, seven, but resolves outward to a 164, a one chord in the second inversion.

In C major, flat it sixth degree of the scale.

Build the augmented sixth, and it resolves outward.

Now, other varieties. There is what's called the French sixth. What's the French sixth? The augmented sixth chord, called the French sixth, has a different flavor, just like French cooking has a different flavor. Instead of, you have, notice the augmented fourth.

Instead of the regular triad, you have the augmented fourth and the augmented sixth.

Interestingly, the French sixth can also resolve to a five, seven chord.

Why can't the German sixth resolve to a five, seven? Because you have the dreaded parallel fifths, which have been avoided in music for time and memorial.

Why? Because the fifth is so prevalent in the overtone series of the note below it that you don't hear it as a distinct note in the chord. It blends in so much with the fundamental note, a fifth below it, that it's avoided in music since the time of Bach, and even earlier.

The parallel fifths and octaves are avoided in music because they just don't sound good. The notes blend together so much that it doesn't reveal itself as separate notes. But, when you put the augmented fourth, that's perfectly acceptable. And there's one more variety, just for proper resolution, which is the Italian sixth. The Italian sixth is simply likely German sixth, except it omits the fifth note, so you avoid the parallel fifths. And it usually doubles the third of the chord, in this case, the C.

So once again, the three varieties of augmented sixth chords, where are they found? They're found starting on the flatted sixth note of the scale.

And the German form sounds like a dominant seventh, except the top note, instead of being a seventh, Ab to Gb is Ab to F sharp, hence the augmented sixth. And it resolves the Italian variety has instead of the fifth, augmented fourth and the augmented sixth. And once again, it can resolve outward or to the dominant seventh.

And lastly, but not least, the Italian sixth has two thirds.

And that's everything you ever wanted to know about the the augmented sixth chord.

And you'll hear it time and time again in music.

I'm thinking about all different places that it occurs. I'll put some links in the description for you so you can hear it for yourself and how it surprises you when it resolves where you least expect it, the most deceptive chord in music. Thanks for joining me. I'm Robert Estrin at LivingPianos.com, your online piano store. Look also in the description. The diminished seventh chord is also an extremely deceptive chord, and I explain a lot about that in another video for you. Hope you enjoy these videos. If you do, consider subscribing. And we'll see you next time here on livingpiano .com.

Find the original source of this video at this link: https://livingpianos.com/the-most-deceptive-chord-in-music-the-augmented-6th/

Automatic video-to-text transcription by DaDaScribe.com

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