The Augmented Triad in The Beatles to Wings and Beyond – Part One

Posted On April 14, 2020

In Volume Two of Paul McCartney After the Beatles: A Musical Appreciation I discuss how McCartney first came across the musical oddity of the augmented chord while listening to the Buddy Holly track Raining In My Heart (1958). It can be heard at 0:03 in the song and then in each verse – on the words “the sky is blue” in the first verse. As McCartney commented:

We knew that something went up in the chords, so me and George would work it out. Buddy Holly would use an odd chord like that – ‘Raining In My Heart’ – and the second chord in there was augmented.

Paul and George would have learned the chord shape by ear, but perhaps not fully realised the chord’s true musical purpose. In this case, the chord of G augmented provides a voice-leading function. The augmented interval in the second chord is a dischord that creates tension – the D# wants to rise; to an E to create the chord of G6; then to an F to create G7 and then to C major on the word “raining” at 0:19.

Can you hear the release in tension here? And then a final release in tension at 0:23 as plain-old G major returns?

Another Day (1971)

McCartney has made use of the instability and voice-leading function of the augmented at various points in his career. Have a listen to the bridge passage of Another Day. Can you hear the augmented chord on the words “and he comes” ?

What is notable here is the change in mood over the course of a few chords. The rising voices of D to D+ to B minor and B7 create a feeling of excitement and expectation as “the man of her dreams” “comes and he stays”; but the mood changes as he “leaves the next day” as the chords changes to the “so sad” E minor. This is an example of McCartney’s genius streak – he perfectly captures the flow of the narrative through inventive harmonic design:

Oh Darling (1969)

The other main function of the augmented chords in pop music is as dominant substitute chord. As we discovered in Volume One, the second most important chord in all tonal music is that of the dominant. From the dominant chord, we feel a sense of resolution as the harmony falls back to the tonic.

Instead of a plain old G7 chord, an inventive songwriter might use an augmented chord. This is what McCartney does right on the first chord of Oh Darling – in this case, he subsitutes the chord of E augmented for E7 with a rolled piano chord. This is what it looks like – the augmented notes are the B#s:

And, of course, this is what it sounds like:

Little Lamb Dragonfly (1973)

Here’s a quiz question for you all. Now that you are familiar with the sound of an augmented chord, can you identify the exact point where you can hear the chord in the extract below?

Let’s narrow it down to the first verse, between 0:35 and 1:12. If you think you know where the augmented chord occurs, please answer in the comments below:

(By the way, the chord symbol for an augmented chord is a plus sign; such as G+ in case you were wondering why McCartney has a big plus symbol on his hand on this blog’s avatar!)

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