Lydian Augmented Dominant

A dominant chord with both alterations above it

Stacking thirds from the root gives C E G♯ B♭ — a dominant seventh with a raised fifth, C7♯5. What separates this mode from other scales serving that chord is the rest of the material: a natural ninth, a raised eleventh and a natural thirteenth, all available at once.

The raised fifth and the thirteenth sit a half step apart, G♯ against A, and that pair is the sound of the mode. Voiced together they grind; voiced with the A on top and the G♯ underneath they read as an ordinary altered dominant with an unusually bright upper structure.

Two scales give C7♯5, and the fourth decides which

Mixolydian augmented, a mode of the Neapolitan minor, produces the same chord from C D E F G♯ A B♭. Six of its seven notes match this one, and the whole difference is the fourth degree: F natural there, F♯ here.

That single degree changes what a line may lean on. Mixolydian augmented offers a perfect fourth, which behaves as a suspension over the third; this mode offers a raised fourth, which behaves as a colour and never wants to resolve downward. Choosing between the two is choosing whether the eleventh is natural or raised.

Against Lydian dominant

Lydian dominant is the far more common relative: C D E F♯ G A B♭. Only the fifth separates them, G against G♯, and everything else — the major third, the raised fourth, the natural sixth, the flat seventh — is shared.

Raising that fifth is what removes the chord's footing. Lydian dominant rests on a perfect fifth and sounds settled even while its raised fourth glitters; take the fifth up a half step and the chord loses its floor, which is the entire reason to reach for this mode.

The whole tone scale with a sixth added

Removing A from these notes leaves C D E F♯ G♯ B♭ — six pitches a whole step apart, the whole tone scale. Every mode of the Neapolitan major family is that scale plus one extra note, and here the extra note is the natural sixth.

Knowing which note is the extra one explains how the mode behaves. The whole tone material supplies the ambiguity and the raised fifth; the added A is the only degree that breaks the pattern, so a melody that wants to sound grounded leans on it and one that wants to drift avoids it.

Where it comes from

Rotating the Neapolitan major onto its third degree produces this mode. A Neapolitan major is A B♭ C D E F♯ G♯, and reading those same seven notes from C gives C D E F♯ G♯ A B♭.

The name stacks three words because three things are true at once: the fourth is raised as in Lydian, the fifth is raised as in an augmented chord, and the seventh is flat as in a dominant. Read that way the label is a description rather than a riddle.

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