The A+ chord is made up of three notes – A, C#, and E#.
If you’re new to chords, the ‘+’ means ‘augmented’ and the chord is also referred to as the ‘Aaug chord’, ‘Aaug triad’, ‘A augmented chord’, or ‘A augmented triad’.
And you may notice that it’s the same as the A Chord, but with an E# instead of E. This raises a question – Isn’t E# the same as F on piano?… well yes, but we call it E# because of the way augmented chords are constructed (I’ll leave that theory for another time).
You can actually play an A+ chord on piano in three ways:
- Root Position – This is where the A note is the lowest note of the chord
- First Inversion – This is where the C# note is the lowest note of the chord
- Second Inversion – This is where the E# note is the lowest note of the chord
I’ll quickly explain this in some more detail, with images and audio clips below.
A+ Chord Piano – Root Position
Whenever you play an A+ chord on piano, and A is the lowest note, that’s known as root position. It looks like this:
There are seven places on a standard piano where you can play an A+ chord in root position. If you have a piano close by, try playing each one.
Below you’ll see what all seven look like on sheet music. Click the play button if you’d like to hear what they sound like too.
A+ Chord Piano – First Inversion
Whenever you play an A+ chord on piano, and C# is the lowest note, that’s known as the first inversion. It looks like this:
And here it is played in all places on a standard piano. You’ll notice that there are seven of these too.
A+ Chord Piano – Second Inversion
Whenever you play an A+ chord on piano, and E# is the lowest note, that’s known as the second inversion. It looks like this:
And here is the second inversion played in all places on a standard piano. There are six of these.
And that’s about all for this post. I hope you enjoyed learning about the A+ chord. If you did, you may also enjoy learning about the theory behind augmented chords.
Thanks for reading, and have a great day!