On implementing the augmented fifth

feature requests
3

  1. Yes. As I said the augmented triad accepts no workarounds; you cannot really replace it with any other chord in the same way viio/ approximates viio7/, V7sus2 approximates 7♭9, or even 24sus4 approximates 6/9, because the augmented triad is not a subset of any other chord supported by Hookpad right now.

  2. Due to the symmetry of the augmented triad, inversions of the augmented seventh chords do create exotic chords; I+34 is the incomplete G♯+M9 and V+34 can indeed be ♭III+(add9) borrowing from the Minor mode. This I believe is akin to how 6sus4 was used to access sus2 in older versions.

  3. Does not matter as an embellishment; even if augmented triad is enabled on just one scale degree, augmented chords can still be used on all 12 pitches including one pair of enharmonic pitches due to the 6-sharp and 6-flat supermodes. It depends on which of the following you would consider being more complex for Hookpad users in general:

  • Accessing 7 diatonic modes and 6 supermodes to reach all chords of the same type (e.g. diminished triad as it is right now)
  • Overriding chord types using embellishments that behave like secondary chords (this does not apply to suspended chords, which if it does, would immediately disable maj7sus4 and ø7sus4)
  • Accessing 7 modes of the harmonic minor scale that often become supermodes (the most indirect way for sure)
  1. Again, approach #1 would drastically increase the complexity for reasons given above, much more than adding a checkbox on the list of embellishments.

It is a direct consequence of disallowing it that more often than not when an applied chord appears in Hookpad it has no functional value attributed to its target chord. From Trends, about 53% of the time V/ii resolves to ii (including 27, L2, L27, 5/5, and their inversions), 35% V/iii to iii (including similar variations), 31% viio/iii to iii, 22% viio/IV to IV, 0% IV/iii to iii - even though I had already worked to remove instances of incorrect secondary chords. It appears that for some users secondary chords are indeed a “hack to force the quality of arbitrary chords” so long as they can be accessed from the limited repertoire of secondary chords and their inversions/extensions, thus eventually these non-functional appearances of applied chords would only cause more confusion on the function-slash-degree notation for the Roman numerals because the Roman numerals are now misrepresentative of their originally designated functions.

I don’t know how the staff and the users in general would balance between accessibility (to reach all chords without complicated, indirect steps) and accuracy (to associate each chord with a clear diatonic functionality). The misuse of secondary chords, apart from due to the lack of borrowing chords in older versions of Hookpad, is an example of attempting to cope with the functional approach when no music that appears on this site ought to use chord progressions limited to diatonic functions.

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