The Ab+ chord is made up of three notes – Ab, C, and E.
If you’re new to chords, the ‘+’ means ‘augmented’ and the chord is also written as ‘Abaug chord’, ‘Abaug triad’, ‘Ab augmented chord’, or ‘Ab augmented triad’.
And you may notice that it’s the same as the Ab Chord, but with an E instead of Eb.
You can actually play an Ab+ chord on piano in three ways:
- Root Position – This is where the Ab 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.
Ab+ Chord Piano – Root Position
Whenever you play an Ab+ chord on piano, and Ab is the lowest note, that’s known as root position. It looks like this:
There are six places on a standard piano where you can play an Ab+ chord in root position. If you have a piano close by, try playing each one.
Below you’ll see what all six look like on sheet music. Click the play button if you’d like to hear what they sound like too.
Ab+ Chord Piano – First Inversion
Whenever you play an Ab+ 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.
Ab+ Chord Piano – Second Inversion
Whenever you play an Ab+ 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 seven of these too.
And that’s about all for this post. I hope you enjoyed learning about the Ab+ chord. If you did, you may enjoy learning more about the theory behind augmented chords.
Anyway, thanks for reading.
And have a great day!