Q: Hey Bill, recently I've been thinking a lot about how augmented chords and how sad it is that they're almost never used. Do you know why that is?
A: i think it's an illusion, based on the fact that it has been taught to you in the same context as major and minor chords. but it's really not that. it's actually 1 of many variety of whole tone based chordal situations. which are not happy nor sad but kind of tense feeling. and they are best used as transitions, usually, .... and the one particular arrangement that may have been taught to you as an 'augmented' chord (the augmented triad) is just 1 of many ways to use that stuff