6th Chords Aren’t Difficult – Just Add One Note To a Major or Minor Triad

Good morning. This is Duane and we’ve been working through all the chords, we worked through major chords, how they’re formed, minor chords, diminished chords and augmented chords. Today, we’re going to take up 6th chords. They sound like that. They’re a bright, happy sound. If you want to get a brightness to your piano playing then you put in a 6th and we’ll talk about that right now.

First, let’s just review a little bit about the formation of a major chord. We have to note that before we can add a 6th to it obviously, okay? Major chord is made up of the root, 3rd and 5th of whatever the major scale is. The definition of the major scale is whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. Always it goes like that for a major scale. If we start on B, we can’t play it like that because that doesn’t have the whole steps and the half steps in the right order. We have to have a whole step and then another whole step, the another half, then a whole, whole, whole, half. So the scale of B is like that. Therefore, the B chord would be B, D sharp and F sharp. Why? Because the 3rd note of the B scale is D sharp, and the 5th note is F sharp.

Now, I wouldn’t get into right now why we call those sharps in the key of B instead of flats because that’s not our subject but you have to just take my word, they are. Let’s get down to 6th chords now. If that’s the major triad and it is, you just go up a whole step from the 5th. That’s C6. In C6, whether it’s played like that or voice like that, in another words upside down, from there, I’m just taking the C off the bottom and putting it on top. That’s C6, that’s C6, that’s C6. Anytime you have those four notes in any combination, it’s C6. If you break it up, it’s still C6.

What is F6? Well, root, 3rdrd, 5th of the F scale, based on the F scale just like that. The 6th is always the whole step above the 5th so that would be F6, wouldn’t it? How about a G6? That’s the G major chord, go up a whole step from the 5th, that’s the 6th. Here’s D. The D, F sharp and A based on the scale of D which uses a root, 3rd , and 5th. We go up a whole step to B, so that’s D6. Now, the E scale goes like this. I sound like I never play a scale before. Based on that formula, whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. That’s the E major scale, where’s the 6th? Is it here? No. Why? Because we got to get up a whole step, we need to go up a whole step. That is a E 6th. Here’s the A triad, go up a whole step from the 5th and get the F sharp so that’s A 6th. That’s a D flat triad, go up a whole step from A flat to B flat. By the way, you don’t want to make sharp and flats. In order words if can call that an A flat, you got to call that a B flat. Musicians would get confused if you didn’t, okay?

There’s the E flat major triad go up a whole step from the 5th and that’s the s6th. Here’s A flat major triad, go up a whole step from the 5th and you got the 6th. Here’s a G flat major triad, go up a whole step, and there is G flat 6th. Here’s B, the B chord that we’re talking about earlier, we go up a whole step from the 5th and that’s the 6th. B flat, you go up a whole step from the 5th, and what do you get? You get a 6th chord. That’s all of 12 of the major 6th chords. I suggest you to learn those in both hands, be able to play it through all the 6th chords with your right hand and your left hand. Then, It’s a good idea to do it together.

There we go. Okay, so that’s a 6th chord. Now, a minor 6th chord would just be the minor triad, but it would be on the same 6th, wouldn’t it? That’s C minor 6th, that’s F minor 6th, G minor 6th. The only difference is that flat third right? G minor 6th, D minor 6th, E minor 6th, A minor 6th, D flat minor 6th, E flat minor 6th, A flat minor 6th, G flat minor 6th, B minor 6th and B flat minor 6th. Again, you should go through those in both hands and play it well on them in hands together. It’s a good idea to break them up if you want to take the time; learn to break them up.

Okay, that’s our little tip for today so if you like this sort of thing, come on over and get some free piano tips from playpiano.com, okay? We’ll see you there, Bye-bye for now.

Here is the video on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtAMSOY5U2g&feature=youtu.be