Augmented 6th Theory EP 05: The French Augmented 6th Chord

[@RyanMcKayOfficial]

I'd love to see you continue this series into the more advance concepts you referenced!

[@BD-rk6hx]

Do you plan on covering the use of added note augmented 6th chords beyond the the french chord? Specifically the 8ve and aug. 3rd (quartal) types. Those confuse the shit out of me. This question comes from the understanding I've gained (or am in the process of attempting to gain) from Persichetti's 20th Century Harmony. I've found that book is perhaps slightly too advanced for me as I spend a lot of time going to other sources to research things that the author assumes, I the reader, already know. Your tutorial here helped me put together a few things already that weren't stated in the book.

[@GUIM1797]

I definitely intend to go down some "rabbit holes" with the Augmented 6th. I'll begin releasing more videos for the series soon. Some of it is going to be a bit of a mind bender since it will use a lot of cross relation in single voicings. I'll be looking into 9ths and 13ths on Augmented 6th chords as well as Augmented 5ths and how they can be used to resolve into their target chords. We'll also begin looking at the use of the Augmented 6th as an INTERVAL and not only as a chord. John Field, the inventor of the Nocturne form, has a few instances of the latter that are really happenin'. Gabriel Faure (and other French artists) also use some really interesting harmonies that can be reinterpreted as atypical uses of the Augmented 6th chord. I'll take a look at 20th Century. It's been a while since I've opened that book!

[@BD-rk6hx]

@@GUIM1797 Awesome. I look forward to whatever you come up with. I like the way you are presenting material with this channel. Oh the stuff I mentioned is found in the first few pages of the chapter on added-note chords.

[@TheZenytram]

The french augmented 6th is a symmetrical chord, a tritone away has another aug.6th that reolves in Bmaj so any F.aug.6th could resolve to two chords?

[@GUIM1797]

You could approach it as such, yes, but that isn't the only way to approach it (and isn't the conventional approach to it). In the next episode we're going to look out how all of these chords can be combined. Upon doing so it will paint a clearer picture regarding my previous statement and why I didn't call it a "symmetrical chord" in the video. The French Augmented 6th is not "really" a symmetrical chord. It is a voicing of a chord that happens to be a symmetrical pitch set. It's a subtle difference, but it is important. This is why I typically do not like it when people say that the French Augmented 6th comes from a Whole Tone scale. Sure, you can impose the scale atop the chord, but it's not "from" the Whole Tone scale. That said, yes, you can take advantage of the symmetry in the Augmented 6th written as the French variant and use enharmonic spellings to deceptively resolve the chord. For instance, a French Augmented 6th built from Bb (Bb, D, E, G#) can be rethought of as a French Augmented 6th built from either E (E, G#, A#, Cx) or Fb (Fb, Ab, Bb, D). Hopefully that answered your question at least a bit. If you have any other questions, definitely let me know! Thanks for your comment!

[@squirrel4727]

GUIM where’s the next episode?

[@thehillisalive]

Was there ever a next episode?

[@GUIM1797]

No, not yet. I'll actually be releasing a series of audio lectures with PDF handouts in the future and those might possibly be made into videos. These lectures will be broken up into numerous chapters and cover a lot of concepts ranging from more traditional theory, such as what's covered in these videos, as well as more explorative ideas for creative thinking.

[@thehillisalive]

@@GUIM1797 awesome, good to know!