Appreciate the Major 6 Chord! Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar Course

be honest now how many major six cords
have you played recently I already know
the answer it is not enough it is
because the major six chord is one of
the most underused and underappreciated
chords and all of music outside of jazz
you don't really see them that much like
if you look up a chord chart you'll see
major 7s down to sevens suspended chords
you barely ever see major six chords and
I wanted to kind of go over them and
maybe talk about why that is that we
don't see them so let's jump right into
it let's say let's let's talk about what
makes up a major six chord all it is
it's a major chord and you're adding the
six note of the major scale to that
chord so for instance let's take the key
C all right we've got c d e f g a b and
another seat all right so to make a C
major chord we take the first the third
and the fifth to make a C and E in a G
so if we just add the six note which is
a we'll get AC major six chord seems
pretty simple now I think one of the
reasons that it's not used a lot and you
know
rock music pop music is because the
fingerings the voicings on a guitar are
a little bit tricky so I want to go over
three of them and kind of talk about
each one let's keep it and see it let's
find out what we have to do to make a C
major chord into AC major six chord
right so this first voicing we're going
to do and this is hi my favorite voicing
because I feel it represents bass flow
two major six chord sounds like is we're
going to root on the E string the eighth
fret which is to see you so I'm using my
middle finger right here now we're going
to take the one two three four five six
no that's going to be our next note so
we're going to go root to the six we're
going to skip the a string now if you
notice my middle finger is kind of
naturally muting it so I can take
now we're still gonna get the third and
the fifth in there but we're going to
take it later on so what I mean by that
is my pinkie right now is playing the g
string ninth fret which happens to be an
E and my ring finger is playing the
eighth string of eighth fret of the B
string
right so I've got this shape right here
and to meet us what a major six chord
sounds like I'm a guitar okay so this is
one voicing and you can use this
anywhere up and down the nexus is a C
major set this is a B major six this
would be flat a so on and so forth
anywhere you can root on the E string so
it's why it's good to know what where
the notes are now the second voicing
we're going to do is going to be really
easy like let's take a a major chord
right so here's how we play a major
chord you probably know that now if we
just go in the key of E and find out
what the six note is we're gonna find
out that it is AC sharp so all you have
to do is take this e major shape and add
the second fret on the B string to it
so E major E major six
and I want to take this voicing and use
it as one of our a string voicings so
right now the root note is an e which
I'm looking at the open E string now we
can't move this around right so let's
say if we move this up and we still play
all the notes it sounds terrible right
because we still have the open E string
there we're not moving those along with
it so I'm just going to focus on the
middle four strings so this is an E
major six this is an F major six after
start major 6 g major 6 so this voicing
is really great so you have to think of
the root note is not being the first
note you're playing in fact my root note
in this chord is wherever my ring finger
is right so this is a 1/2 F sharp now
the third voicing I want to do is on the
really common one but not really my
favorite voicing on a guitar for a major
sixth I'll show you why so you may have
seen this before like let's take a a
minor chord right and you just plop your
pinky down on the 3rd fret of the
a-string pushes a seat pay HRP see right
now if we look go back to the key C and
remember we just added an a to a C major
chord C eg a alright which gives us this
shape right here now if we look at the
notes we've got here I've got a see
right here I've got E with my middle
finger I have an A there's that 6 with
my ring finger and another C so C need a
C you'll notice if you don't have a G in
here so this is one of those cores where
it gets kind of tricky because the G is
implied I don't have to play a G to
technically have what I'm calling a C
major since on guitar now I think it's
actually pretty important for a major
six voicing to have that G that v in
there because without it a C and a and E
and another C those are the same three
notes the make up
and a minor chord right so this is one
of the weird music theory things where
depending on the context when you use it
it could be a a minor or a C major six
that's why I don't think this is a great
core but it's not fully representative
of a major six chord you can still use
it as one and you can replace it as much
but just to kind of give you an example
here's the C major six in this voicing
it uses C major six in this voicing this
one sounds more like an a minor to me
with an extra see but this one sounds a
lot different to me then in a minor so
that's why I really like this one to be
the best representative C major six of
the group now let's talk about replacing
different chords with the major six to
get cool sounds let's take just a
regular progression like maybe a major -
E major to D back to a now in any key we
can always replace any major chord with
a major six chord it works that way so
instead of just going a II D hey let's
replace them with some of the different
voicings so let's replace this a with an
a major six with the E string voicing
here
so instead of here I'm going here I kind
of just gives me a little different
sound different color if you will and
then for the EU let's do that one we
just add the pinkie and then for the D
let's actually do that one patient
voicing right here right so instead of a
e D and we've got major sixes and you
can still end it you don't always have
to use major sixes but sometimes it
sounds really cool
good if you use nothing major sixes
it'll sound like a total jazz
progression which maybe isn't what you
want to do but if you just kind of
replace maybe one of those chords with a
major six you get like a it's kind of
like a really cool
five there you go major sixes use them