...Gw XVII. Inversions...	Welcome to Guitarweek! Music Education Inspires, Get Involved!... ----------------
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   Augmented Scales is a term (no surprise) that we have made up and refers to major scales that are altered and as a result create an augmented chord, When you alter the C major (C E G) then you are augmenting the 5th...

Key of C with an augmented 5th... (Harmonic Minor)

   Using the 'sharpen the fifth' theory on the minor chords will create major chords and when you sharpen the 5th of a diminished chord then you come up with a major chord, This theory alters a position of a chord so lets look at it as altering a position of a scale...

   Above we have altered the '5th' of C major which is 'G' which creates three augmented chords (C aug., E aug., G# aug.), There are two other positions of the major scale that you can alter to create augmented chords (the 1st and 2nd degrees)...

Key of C with an augmented root...

   Modifying the root of a chord is taboo so messing with the root of the scale is probably double taboo, Nonetheless when you augment the root (C) of the Key of C then you create three augmented chords (C# aug, F aug, A aug)...

Key of C with an augmented 2nd...

   When you augment the 2nd (D) tone of the Key of C then you create three augmented chords (D# aug., G aug., B aug.), This could be another reason you should study alterations as they are from the common major scale, The aug5 and aug2 sound related to each other but the aug1 sounds like its a little bit beyond...

   When you play in the Key of C then you are using all but five tones so using all three augmentations on the C major scale will result in playing 10 of the 12 tones possible, When you augment the 4th degree of the Key of C then you come up with the Key of G and the augmentation of the 6th degree does not create any augmented chord at all but is still a unique and valid 'scale'...

Key of C with an augmented 6th...

   The 'augmented 6th' scale sounds odd at first and then again they all sound kinda weird until you get use to them, When you raise the sixth degree of the key of C then it adds the 'G pentatonic' scale which is not normally found in the key of C...

G pentatonic scale found within 'aug6' scale...

   This lesson should show you that the term 'augmented scale' is vague and how its good to originate from one key, Alot of these scales are not taught at all and we have found no valid way to name them, If you use all four augmented scales (aug1, aug2, aug5, aug6) along with the original key you start from then you would be playing 11 tone compositions...

   Also remember that only 12 tones exist and when you play in 'one key' then you only play 7 tones...