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Augmented Sixth Chords: Arithmetic

Goal: To prepare improvisations using augmented sixth chords (Italian, French, and German).

Out of Tempo

All Levels

“Out of Tempo” exercises are not presented separately in Ear Training III and Ear Training IV improvisations. Should any exercise prove difficult performed in tempo, out of tempo versions of the materials in Ear Training III and Ear Training IV can be modeled on Ear Training I and Ear Training II approaches to out of tempo improvisations.

In Tempo

Teacher sets up a tempo, time signature, tonality, and rhythms.

Phrases can be four to thirty-two measures in length depending on the student’s ability.

Start with one note per measure and add different rhythms as students become more comfortable with the exercise. For more confident students, use non-repeating notes and rhythm patterns.

Students sing one, two, three, or four notes per measure.

Speaking, singing, playing.

Refer to the Seventh Chord Smorgasbord for ideas.

Addition

Beginning

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Student A sings an Italian augmented sixth chord upward starting on note x.”
  2. Student A does so.

Intermediate

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Student B sings a French augmented sixth chord upward starting on note x.”
  2. Student B does so.

Advanced

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Student C sings a German augmented sixth chord upward starting on note x.”
  2. Student C does so.

Subtraction

Beginning

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Student A sings an Italian augmented sixth chord upward starting on note x and then removes the middle note.”
  2. Student A does so.

Intermediate

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Student B sings a French augmented sixth chord upward starting on note x and then removes the second of the four notes.”
  2. Student B does so.

Advanced

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Student C sings a German augmented sixth chord upward starting on note x and then removes the second of the four notes.”
  2. Student C does so.

Multiplication

Beginning

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Student A sings two notes per beat building an Italian augmented sixth chord repeating each pair of notes from bottom to top then top down." For example: BbD BbD, DG#DG#/G#D G#D, DBb DBb.
  2. Student A does so.

Intermediate

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Student B sings two notes per beat building a French augmented sixth chord repeating each pair of notes from bottom to top then top down." For example: BbD BbD, DE DE, EG#EG#/G#E G#E, ED ED, DBb DBb.
  2. Student B does so.

Advanced

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “Student C sings two notes per beat building a German augmented sixth chord repeating each pair of notes from bottom to top then top down." For example: BbD BbD, DE# DE#, E#G#E#G#/G#E# G#E3, E#D E#D, DBb DBb.
  2. Student C does so.

Division

Beginning

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “In measure one two students sing the root and sixth of an Italian augmented sixth chord at the same time. In measure two a third student adds the third of the chord.”
  2. Students do so.

Intermediate

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “In measure one two students sing the first and third notes of a French augmented sixth chord at the same time. In measure two, two more students sing the second and fourth notes of the chord.”
  2. Students do so.

Advanced

  1. Teacher sets up as above and prompts, “In measure one two students sing the first and third notes of a German augmented sixth chord at the same time. In measure two, two more students sing the second and fourth notes of the chord.”
  2. Students do so.

The process continues with students singing the chord tones in different combinations.