How to play E augmented mandolin chords

Yet another augmented chord, and it is obvious, that there is a pattern. Fingering is similar and therefore memorising is a piece of cake (I hope). Try comparing E augmented with F augmented to see what I mean.

First of all, although there are many positions (ways, variants etc.) to play the E augmented mandolin chord, these positions are exactly the same with two other augmented chords, G# aug and C aug. Why is that? Well it is no magic, it is just mechanics of music theory. I will try to explain this in a post that will follow, but for now, I think it is enough to remember just this: an Eaug is also an G# aug and a C aug, ok?

Now that I have made that clear :-) lets see how to play an Eaug mandolin chord.

As always, I suggest you start with the slideshow that shows the most common mandolin chord positions for Eaug – displayed on the top of the page above, fingered for your convenience.

For practical reasons, I have included also a Chord Chart for Eaug on mandolin, feel free to print it.

The Eaug is a triad chord, i.e. it consists of three notes as following:

• The root, which for the Eaug chord is of course E
• The third, which for the Eaug chord is G#. Note that this creates a major third interval that consists of four half steps (E to F, F to F#, F# to G, G to G#)
• The fifth, which for the Eaug chord is B# (or C). Note again that this creates another major third interval that consists of four half steps (G# to A, A to A#, A# to B, B to B#).

The Eaug is an augmented chord, because the interval between the root (note E) and the fifth (note B#) is an augmented fifth interval.

See how the Eaug chord is written on sheet paper:

If you need a blank sheet paper to write it down in order to understand it, you can download one from theMandolinTuner free blank music paper sheet.

There are many good articles here at theMandolinTuner for practicing chords. I suggest you start with:

• How to practice mandolin chords
• How to play five easy mandolin chords

Ok, it is now time to practice. Grab your mandolin and try to play these chord variants now, it is easy, just follow the instructions!