Augmented seventh Augmented seventh In classical music from Western culture, an augmented seventh is an interval produced by widening a major seventh by a chromatic semitone. For instance, the interval from C to B is a major seventh, eleven semitones wide, and both the intervals from C to B, and from C to B are augmented sevenths, spanning twelve semitones. Being augmented, it is classified as a dissonant interval. However, it is enharmonically equivalent to the perfect octave. Since an octave can be described as a major seventh augmented by a diatonic semitone, the augmented seventh is the sum of an octave,
Steps and skips step will always be a movement of 1 or 2 semitones, and a skip a movement of 3 or more semitones. In other scales an augmented second—an incomposite step equivalent to 3 semitones—and/or a diminished third—a skip of 2 semitones—may be possible. Melody may be characterized by its degree and type of conjunct and disjunct motion. For example, Medieval plainchant melodies are generally characterized by conjunct motion with occasional thirds, fourths, and generally ascending fifths while larger intervals are quite rare though octave leaps may occur between two separate phrases. Renaissance melodies are generally characterized by conjunct motion, with only