Sixth Chords
When you add the note after the fifth of any
chord, major or minor, you get what is known as a 6th chord.
Sixth chords are usually written C6 or F6 or whatever, but
with a sixth afterwards. Sixth chords are very common in pop
music, cause they outline some very important notes of the
pentatonic scale that correspond to the chord in question.
A pentatonic scale is basically 1-2-3-5-6, (click here to
listen) where a sixth chord is 1-3-5-6, (click here to listen)
a triad followed by a sixth. As we noted in previous lessons,
the strongest notes in any melody are going to be your chord
notes (click here to listen), so this is all the notes in
the triad chord and an additional 6th note. The sixth is also
a color note which can be used to embellish the fifth of the
chord (click here to listen).
However, in addition to outlining the chord
and the pentatonic, sixth chords are also minor seventh chords
in disguise. If we take the 6th and place it below the root
of the chord, we get a minor seventh chord. Click here to
listen. A C6 chord generates a A minor seventh chord (click
here to listen). A F6 chord generates a D minor seventh
chord. A G6 generates an E minor seventh chord. Minor seventh
chords and seventh chords in general are a very strong part
of pop music and blues. So, we’re getting a glimpse here
of minor seventh chords, which will be dealt with fully in
part 2 of this course.
A sixth chord generates 24 variations. Our
variations are broken up into 4 groups of 6 variations. The
fourth group generates the minor seventh variations. I think
as you listen to the variations you’ll hear of melodic
words used in a lot of songs. For the present, since this
is a prototype page, I am only presenting the 6th chords for
the C chord.
In addition to the above variations, you can
fill in the gaps in any sixth variation, with a scale segment.
By filling in the interval between C and E, you create a melody
which outlines the pentatonic scale.
Putting it all together
For this next example, we're going to use
the following melodic words:
Variation
1 on the 3rd note _____ Scale
segment on E to C _____ Minor
third in F (A to C) ____ Color
Note D to A in F
9th
of G7 chord
The D to A straddle the borderline between
the G and the F chord. We'll speak about 9th chords in a later
part of this course.
Click
here for Musical Example.
