Augmented Triad Arpeggios - All Inversions

Hi, this is Hub Guitar.

We're going to do an augmented triad arpeggio. There are alot of uses for this, especially in jazz and blues. It will often show up on a dominant 7th chord. For instance, you can play this arpeggio based on the root of the V7 in a blues. So if you're playing a C blues, when the G7 comes, you can play G augmented arpeggio for an interesting sound.

Now, the augmented triad is what's called a symmetrical structure. That means that mathematically, its notes are chosen in such a way that each inversion of the chord is exactly the same shape. And because each chord is the same as its inversions, each inversion of the chord is also another augmented triad. And furthermore, there are only four augmented triad chords and therefore only four augmented triad arpeggios, since each triad could be considered any one of the three different triads it contains. For instance, C augmented, E augmented and G# augmented could all be considered the same as they are all inversions of each other.

Long story short: this arpeggio is pretty easy: you just learn one shape.

However, we are going to do it in all inversions just to show you how it works.

So here's the F augmented root position arpeggio:

I just want to point out that the last root, F, can be moved to the B string if you want to make it a little easier.

Okay, here's the A augmented arpeggio, or the first "inversion" of the F augmented arpeggio, if you will.

And here's the G# augmented arpeggio.

Great, so practice these arpeggios and find a way to apply them to your own playing.