What feeling do you get from hearing a minor 6th chord?

Good morning. This is Duane, and last time we took up 6th chords. I kind of covered minor 6th chords as well, but I think I better devote a whole video just to those, because they kind of have some unique properties that I’d like to talk about a little bit.

Just to review, 6th chords are made out of the root, 3rd, 5th of a major chord, plus the 6th, right? 6th degree of the scale. The 6th degree of the scale is always a whole step above the 5th. So here’s an E major chord. Where’s the 6th? Is it here? No, it has to be a whole step, right? So just by way of review, remember that. You have to have a major triad plus the 6th note of the scale.

A minor 6th chord is simply lowering the 3rd of a major chord a half step. Instead of a happy, bright sound, it takes on a completely different feeling, doesn’t it? I mean, we all get different feelings from chords, but what feeling do you get out of that? I get kind of a serious, sad, tragic almost … and you may get something different. That’s fine, but it does have a different feel, doesn’t it? A feel of its own.

Now, I want to say something. I hope I don’t confuse you here. A minor 6th chord is kind of related to a half diminished 7th chord. In other words, if I put A on the bottom, see A is up there. What if I put it on the bottom? If I count A as the root, that’s the diminished triad with a major 3rd on top. That’s called a half diminished 7th chord. It’s in harmonic with a half diminished 7th chord, is what I’m trying to say.

But for now, just remember that a minor 6th chord is like a major 6th, except you lower the 3rd half step. So let’s go through the 12 chords and cover them. Here’s F. Here’s F6. Here’s Fm6. Here’s G, Gm, Gm6. Here’s D major, Dm, Dm6. Here’s E major, Em, Em6. Here’s A major, Am, Am6. Db major, Dbm, Dbm6. Eb major, Ebm, Ebm6. Ab major, Abm, Abm6. Gb major, Gbm, Gbm6. B major, Bm, Bm6. Bb major, Bbm, Bbm6. Okay?

Now of course, you need to learn those in all positions. So when you learn the Cm6 chord, practice turning them upside down, and breaking them up, that sort of thing, in both hands, and so on, okay? Be sure and do that so that you can get them into your fingers. It’s one thing to know them in your head, another thing is to get them into your fingers, isn’t it?

Well that’s it for today. I hope you enjoy that. If you don’t … I mean, if you do, come on over to PlayPiano.com, and sign up for our free newsletter. If you don’t, don’t come on over then, okay? Thanks for being with me. Bye bye for now.

Here is the YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWpYfTe1k44&feature=youtu.be

PS In case I confused you, here is an explanation of the half-diminished 7th chord I mentioned: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-diminished_seventh_chord
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