Why do so many songwriters overlook augmented chords? They’re great for giving songs a smooth, sophisticated or edgy feel.
One problem could be that they’re tough to play on the guitar. On the other hand, they are pretty easy to get to grips with on the piano. If you want to find out more about how to add richness to your songs with a couple of aug chords, listen to the podcast by clicking the ‘play’ button below.
Alternatively, download the mp3 direct.
Recorded in GarageBand with an M-Audio Nova cardioid mike, a Yamaha DGX-630 digital piano and badly tuned Tanglewood acoustic guitar. Any questions, Twitter me!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting start Bill - looking forward to more. On a geeky note (no pun intended) I’d be interested to find out your set up. Clearly you’re on a Mac if you’re using Garageband, but what about the rest of the kit - and how does it all plug in? I’ve got a bit of a botched setup here, and need some improvement ideas!
Cheers Phil, and ta very much for posting the first ever comment!
Software-wise I’ve got GarageBand and Logic Express. I tend to use Garageband for everyday stuff, as it’s a lot easier than Logic and is great for quick’n'dirty stuff like podcasting, which I think is often better if it sounds a bit spur-of-the-moment.
The soundcard is an Edirol UA-4FX, the mic an M-Audio Nova cardioid. Mic to card is yer standard 3 pin XLR cable; card to Mac is yer equally standard USB lead. Persuading the Mac to accept MIDI instruments is sometimes a bit of a fiddle, but it picks up the mic first time, every time.
The piano is a Yamaha DGX-630 Portable Grand. It’s new, and a big improvement on my old Clavinova. I bought it will gigging in mind, as it’s light and cheap (I have a habit of dropping digital pianos). For recording, though, it’s a bit of a pain in the bum in some ways. Specifically, it’s USB- rather than MIDI-out, and the only drivers I can find are Windows-only. So until I hack together a way of making it play nicely with the Mac, I’m stuck to recording it through the mic. Still, it’s not too bad for tutorial purposes.
Nice one Bill
Reckon I might have to dust off the old theory books and get my head back in check with all of this…… I hated music theory and was glad it was only grade 5 compulsory with the Associated Board. Wish I’d paid more attention.
Looking forward to the next one!
Cheers Matt! Next one currently doing my head in, but should be available shortly - and contains a nice little dose of easy-to-understand theory.
One day I’ll post a rant about why the ABRSM method of teaching theory (and, indeed, everything) to kids is completely hopeless. But as it would represent 26 years of bottled-up anger and occupy about 30,000 words, today is perhaps not the day…