What is the C 7#5 (Augmented 7) Chord?
Learning the C 7#5 (Augmented 7) chord tones gives you a set of notes to outline this harmony in bass lines and arpeggios.
Notes and Arpeggios
The 7#5 (augmented 7th) chord raises the 5th of a dominant 7th, creating a bright, altered tension that pushes hard toward resolution. It's common in jazz and gospel turnarounds where you want the V chord to feel extra urgent. The complete chord tones are: C, E, G#, Bb. The complete formula is 1, 3, #5, and b7.
How to Use It
You'll mostly hear altered dominants in jazz turnarounds and tense lead-in chords before a resolution. On bass, outline the harmony one note at a time. Start from the root and add the chord's actual degrees (3, #5, and b7) as the arrangement allows. The chord-tone boxes locate notes; the ordered arpeggio gives a playable route with explicit position shifts.
Build a one-bar bass line from the chord tones before adding scale passing tones. Use the highlights to spot where the same tone repeats across strings.