Downloadable PDF - The Augmented 6th

If you are studying advanced music theory beyond diatonic harmony and moving into chromatic harmony, you know how challenging it is to remember every single new harmony.

Here is one-page summary of the "Augmented 6th" chord, a chromatic harmony created by chromatic voice leading (not really a "chord") with a subdominant function that leads to the dominant. This infographic/handout/summary includes one standard voicing in both C minor and C major, of all four archetypes: the "Italian Aug 6th," the "French Aug 6th," the "German Aug 6th," and the so-called "Swiss Aug 6th" which is really a German disguised in the major mode. Hmm..let's rephrase that. The "Swiss +6" uses an enharmonic re-spelling of flat-3 "me" to sharp-2 "ri." (Eb is spelled as D# due to the voice leading).

This handout details the best practices in the art of voice leading, for all Augmented 6th archetypes. To illustrate in a musical context, harmonic models in the keys of C minor and C major show how to elegantly connect the Augmented 6th from its approach, to its resolution to the dominant. (tendency tones are #4-fi and b6-le)