The Guitar Player's Resource
Let's talk about the augmented scale! But wait, which one?
We have an interesting situation here regarding the augmented scale. The fact is, that there are (at least) two scales that are called "augmented" by different musicians - and every one is convinced that 'their' augmented scale is 'the' augmented scale.
I was actually quite surprised to discover that, since for me too it was perfectly obvious that one of them was the augmented scale, and the other not.
You never finish to learn, apparently.
In practice all musicians agree that the augmented scale #1 works on some specific chord and has a specific sound, and scale #2 works on other chords and has a different sound.
So on practical applications there are no problems. It's strictly a confusion on names!
But between you and me, who cares about the names? Both these scales have great sounds and are interesting to play. And both these scales suggest great chord substitutions that you can learn and use in your music.
You can learn all this in the video below:
Fun isn't it? What about you - without resorting to Google, which one of the two scales was 'the' augmented scale for you?
Tommaso Zillio is a professional prog rock/metal guitarist and composer based in Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Tommaso is currently working on an instrumental CD, and an instructional series on fretboard visualization and exotic scales. He is your go-to guy for any and all music theory-related questions.
