How to Play Minor 6 Chords on Guitar Video Lecture - The Ultimate Guitar

minor six chords the musical equivalent
of a quizzical facial expression but
what are they how are they made now to
use them so let's start with an a minor
six now you might think that this chord
is constructed by using the a minor
scale but no it is not it is actually
constructed using the major scale with
one alteration so real quick the notes
of a major a B C sharp d e F sharp G
sharp and another a now if we were to
make in a major six we would take the
first the third the fifth and six for
thinking of this as an alteration of it
so we're flattening that third note
therefore that C sharp becomes a C so
it's an A and not a C sharp plus C is
that flattened third if you've ever
heard of a chord spelling this is what
is talking about it's talking about
taking the notes in the major scale and
you're altering one so the chord
spelling of this would be a 1 a flat 3 a
5 and a 6 that's how you come to the
formula of making a minor 6 chord so
it's a minor triad try it being a three
note chord which a minor triad of a is a
minor and you just add the six note in
the major scale so let's look at a
couple of voicings for these first let's
take a regular a minor chord and we need
to add that F sharp right the easiest
way to do that is take a regular a minor
and then the F sharp is going to be the
second fret e F F sharp right here so
just can use your thank you
okay now this can be a movable shape as
long as you don't get the a in there so
this is an a minor six a sharp minor sit
B minus C so as long as you think of
your root note being where your ring
finger is you can always read it there
now I liked root a lot of chords on the
low E string this is probably the boys
that I usually use so my middle finger
is on the root right this is an A now my
pointer finger is getting the six right
there so there's my six the rest of it
is right here so I have five on the E
string four on the D string five on the
g string and five on the B string now
you can kind of think of this as two
different voicings in one because
anything rooted on the low E string can
also be rooted on the high E string so
right now I'm skipping the I can play it
open and a but if I want to make this a
shape I have to skip the a second now if
I want to swap this note for a higher
note I can do that right there okay so
I'm switching this a for this a and I'm
doing the rest in the same thing but I'm
borrowing the bottom right there okay so
these are kind of I guess these are
three different voicings right here
I just movable shapes now the most
interesting thing about minor six chords
to me is how you use them in context if
you look at which minor chords can be
turned into minor sixes is a little bit
different than with like minor sevens
like in any scale like you people looked
at any of the past music Theory videos
you'll know that like let's take the C
major scale one two three four five six
seven eight c d e f g a pc to make those
minor triads the second third and six
notes become minor chords in a scale so
in the case of C the key of c d e and a
become minor chords now only one of
these three minor triads can become a
minor six while keeping in the scale
that you're thinking of so let's
actually find out which one it is right
let's start with with a a minor is
really popular one that's why we've been
using it now if we find out that a we
already know the
is a f-sharp and now f-sharp isn't in
the key of C so technically it you can't
play an a minor 6 while staying
completely in the key of C so let's go
to the 3 chord in E right if we look at
E and we start out let's play the major
scale from e 1 2 3 4 5 6 we know that
this right here is a c-sharp also not in
the key of C so let's go to the D right
D 1 2 3 4 5 6 6 note and the key of D is
a B now I'm Abby is also in the key of C
that's the 7th note therefore D can
become a minor 6th chord in the key of C
and hopefully understood that but
basically you can think of the 2 chord
right so in the key of C it's a D and
the key of D it would be an e as long as
you know what key you're in you can take
the second note in that key and turn it
into a minor 6 chord so for example
let's do a replacement let's do
something that has D minor in the key of
C so let's do a progression with like a
C major to a minor to D minor D minor
again right now we can replace that D
minor with that voicing that we just
learned
a D minor 6 so C to a minor
instead of seeing a minor and you can do
a lot of cool things now one thing that
I like to do is kind of we talked about
we have three different minor triads in
the key and in the key of C we have an D
minor and E minor and an a minor one
thing that you can do to increase your
compositional chops is go outside of a
key right so we already discussed about
how a an E minor chord and an a minor
chord can't be in the key of C but let's
treat all the Triads in the key of C all
the minor triads as minor sixes and see
how it sounds so instead of playing like
just triads right three note chords a
minor take a minor to D minor now if we
treated all of these as minor six chords
we're going outside of the key and it
can sound cool because I'm whatever
depending on your preferences but so
this a minor into it a minor six and
let's turn that a minor right we have to
find out where that usery we could go
way down here
looked like the twelfth fret and then do
the same thing with the D minor so let's
move down here same voicing alright so
if we have a a minor six instead of a
minor
and it kind of gives you like just a
different flavor I guess if you want to
see so now that you know about minor six
voicings I'm sure that you'll
incorporate them into your playing
efficiently and tastefully ax or will
you