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Posted by: Marc_Maiden Nov 13 2008, 05:27 PM

lately my jazz/rock band instructor has been giving us some steely dan songs, and a lot of the chords in the song are "6" chords....i know that all you do is just add the 6th to them, but in theory, when can you use them? where do they come into play in certain keys?


im just curious...i personally think they are hideous chords alone, but work well with the horn section of the jazz band

Posted by: fatb0t Nov 13 2008, 06:24 PM

C major scale: C D E F G A B C

CMaj = C E G
C6 or CMaj6 = C E G A

You can switch between the Cmaj and the Cmaj6 to add some flavor to a static song...



A C6 shouldn't sound dissonant really...

I use it all the time in major and minor progressions...

Posted by: Muris Varajic Nov 13 2008, 06:41 PM

6th chords have specific flavor,
you can use them all the time in every key if you want,
it's just that they will work better for some music genres
and less better for some other genres.
Per example,they are very often in Jazz,Latino music etc.
Rarely seen in Hard Rock,Metal etc.

Posted by: Jose Mena Nov 13 2008, 06:47 PM

I do not like adding 6th when you have heavy distortion, I guess why in metal it is not used often I believe, but it is a very interesting voicing when playing clean.

Posted by: Gerardo Siere Nov 13 2008, 07:07 PM

Also the placement of the 6th is important, because the intervals have diferent efects depending the tesiture of thwir placement. Check this two chords, both are C6


-------------- --------5--------------
--1----------- --------5-------------
--2----------- --------5------------
--2----------- --------5-------------
--3----------- --------3-------------
--------------- ---------------------

In both cases the function of the 6th is a color function one. However this two chords are noted differently, Major 13 (the second one) is a usual color for major chords, and eben dominant chords, so you just don´t mark it in the lead sheet chord name but you can play it. The only danger is ut ussage on minor chords where the 6th make the chord ambiguos bettween a minor strong colored chord, and a dominant chords.
(Am6 has the same notes as the shell voicing of D7/9)

-------------- ----------------------
-----5-------- ----------5-----------
-----5-------- ----------5-----------
-----4-------- ----------4-----------
-------------- ----------5-----------
-----5-------- -----------------------

Provided that you can manage in a nice way the harmonic time of a song, you can just add a chord almost whatever you want any way.

Posted by: Nazgul Nov 13 2008, 09:10 PM

Nice tip, Gerardo. Thanks!

I have one little question generally about chords though: When I compose songs in the genre of "Clean Rock", I only use/know standard chords and Sus2 and Sus4. What are some other chord types that can be used for creating nice ballads or something like that?

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Nov 13 2008, 11:29 PM

You can use them in any situation where they sound good mate, I like to use them when comping away, and with the top 6th note playing the basic melody, while the chord is on the bass strings. In that situation you add the 6th note on top to add a flow to the chord progression a bit.

Posted by: Muris Varajic Nov 14 2008, 12:15 AM

QUOTE (Nazgul @ Nov 13 2008, 09:10 PM)

Nice tip, Gerardo. Thanks!

I have one little question generally about chords though: When I compose songs in the genre of "Clean Rock", I only use/know standard chords and Sus2 and Sus4. What are some other chord types that can be used for creating nice ballads or something like that?

Posted by: Marc_Maiden Nov 14 2008, 12:44 AM

so they are like 9 chords...just depends what kind of ice cream you are having!


minor9 chords are my favorite sounding



but thanks for the replies!

Posted by: Muris Varajic Nov 14 2008, 12:46 AM

9th chord is something else,it includes 7th already plus 9th.
Add9 is another thing tho,it has no 7th.