The notes
- B♭1
- D3
- F♯♯5
The B♭ augmented arpeggio is B♭, D, F♯.
You may also see it called 1 3 ♯5.
On the staff
On a treble staff, the B♭ augmented arpeggio is written B♭ D F♯.
The solid notes are the B♭ augmented arpeggio. The pale notes are the rest of B♭ harmonic minor, the larger scale it is carved out of, so you can see which notes it leaves out.
Why the B♭ augmented arpeggio has these accidentals
- B♭1
- 4
- D3
- 4
- F♯♯5
- 4
- B♭8
A scale is a pattern of steps, and this one is 4 4 4: 4, 4, 4, and so on. 4 stands for a step of four semitones. The pattern is what gives B♭ augmented its sound, and it stays the same whichever note you start on.
This scale has only three notes, so it does not use every letter. It is built on B♭ harmonic minor, and the notes it shares are spelled the same way as they are there.
The pattern still does not fit the plain letters. If you walk the pattern up from B♭, one letter cannot keep up:
- F♯ — the sharp fifth. The pattern needs 4 from D, but D to F is only a tone and a half, so F has to rise to F♯.
That accidental was not a choice. Once you pick the note to start on, the pattern decides the rest, and a key signature is a record of the result.
The B♭ augmented arpeggio is written with B♭ and F♯. B♭ has its accidental because that is the key, and the other note needs one because the 4 4 4 pattern of steps cannot be spelled from B♭ with plain letters.
The pattern of steps is the part of a scale that never changes. The letter names take sharps or flats to fit that pattern, and a key signature is a record of those sharps or flats.
On the piano
The keyboard shows the same three notes as a shape you can see. The coloured keys are the B♭ augmented arpeggio, the pale keys are the rest of B♭ harmonic minor, and you can click any key to hear it.
B♭ augmented arpeggio on the whole neck
34 notes of the B♭ augmented arpeggio are marked across six strings.
This is every place the notes of the B♭ augmented arpeggio fall on the guitar, with each note's name and its scale degree. The roots are marked so you can find your bearings.
Position by position
The B♭ augmented arpeggio has three playable positions, at frets 2–6, 6–10 and 10–14.
Each shape starts on a different degree of the scale and fits inside five frets, so your hand can play all of it without moving.
One climb up the neck
The climb runs from fret 6 to fret 19 and plays nine notes.
This is one path from the lowest root to the top of the neck, and it plays each note once, never on two strings. It takes a different number of notes on different strings. The widest stretch on any one string is four frets.