Major 6 Chords
Hi! Welcome to the next set of chords in the Jazz series or the more advance chords series. My name is Stu Johnson with Second Floor Studios Live.
Today we’re going to be doing a set of chords from A through G that constitutes the group called 6 chords, Major 6. And Major 6 is fundamentally and theoretically using the first 3rd, 5th, and 6th degree of the scale to do the chord. So why don’t we just start with A. Per the diagram on the screen, you can see where to put your fingers.
Let’s start with the first chord of the Major 6 family. And that’s A6. It’s going to be - what we’re going to do instead of doing it down here now since it got into the point where we can’t utilize any of these open strings down here to get the type of voicing that we need, we’re going to come up a little higher so we can access some of these other notes that we need to grab on to.
This is the 6th chord. This is an A6. You want to come up to the 5th fret. Your middle finger’s going to be on the 5th fret here. Your index finger’s going to be back here, per the diagram, it’s going to be back on the 4th fret. Your ring’s going to be on the 5th fret as well up here on the 2nd string and then your pinky finger is going to be here in front. It’s sort of like a diamond shape.
So, you’ve got the 1. You’ve got the 6. You’ve got the 5 and you’ve got the 3 out front here. If you head them altogether, the red strings or the ones that are marked red are off limits so don’t play those. You get a Major 6 chord It’s kind of like a Major 7 that’s kind of the same type of mellow sound. Coming close to ballad sound. So, that’s Major 6. A Major 6. Make sure your strings are coming out. Push hard. If you get any buzzing, push a little harder and we’ll see you in the next chord.
This next chord is called B6. We’re going to do it in two different ways. We’re going to try once in the same form is the A6 chords. We’re going to learn that form. The A6 was down here as our downloadable PDF guide will tell you, this is your A6. And your B6 is going to be 2 frets higher so you just got to move it up one fret, up two frets. This is your root belt near the bottom and so this is a B6. Play that along with me. You can pause the video and go ahead. These chords are used in Jazz, mostly. I think it can be used in Rock. It can use any kind of music. Well, not any kind of music. But you know what I mean. Okay, see you in the next chord.
This is the other B Major 6 that we were going to do. Essentially, what this is, is we’re going to take your middle finger and put it on the 5th string on the 2nd fret. You’re going to bar this back here with your index. Through the diagram, you really just want to hit the inner four strings. You don’t want to hit them all here. This bar back here just serves to hold down the 3rd and 4th string on the 1st fret and that’s it. Doesn’t really do anything else as it’s supposed to so make sure it doesn’t. And then, this top one here is your middle on the 4th fret on the 2nd string. So, your tonic B is here. This is an A string based chord. So, that’s a B6, B Major 6. Make sure all the notes are coming out. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is a C Major 6 chord. We use the same form as we did with the B Major 6. We’re just going to move it up one fret because C comes right after B in the keyboard. So, if you’ve got a keyboard diagram, you can see that. You can download that and one of a lot of materials in site just to explore. We’ve got the B here. Remember the B Major 6 form was here and we’re just using the four header strings as the outer two, the two E’s on either side are muted out so we’re not going to use those. Let’s take this form and scoot it up to here. So, we’ve got… So, that’s C Major 6. So, just go in there and make sure all strings are coming out, do a string check, move your hand around a little bit to follow the notes that aren’t coming around and good luck. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is called D6 and we’re back to base forms which are the forms that don’t require a bar. We’re just going to come down here where D was. And there’s D proper. And what we’re going to do is just lift this up. That’s really all the D6 is. It’s just - you’ve got these two fingers on the 1st and 3rd strings on the 2nd fret and using middle one up here around the 3rd string and using your ring on the 1st string and that’s a D6. That can be used - I’m sure you can come up with an idea. If you’re into rock or pop or alternative. See, how it pop with a chord, not too jazzy. Just go in there and make sure they’re all coming out. And if they’re not, just keep practicing. 75 percent is what you’re going for. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is called E Major 6. And per the diagram, you can see it is - we’re back to the A string chord, A based chord with the tonic or the root note that’s on the A string. So, I’m going to come up to the 7th fret. If you’re on the 7th and you’re going to be able to see that you’re going to put this finger here. It’s going to be pretty much the same thing we did last time. This finger’s here. And these two bars, the in back and then this one’s up here. So, that’s the 6th chord. And remember, you can move this anywhere you want. The tonic is on the A string. It’s under this finger and to your middle finger. Good luck. Make sure they’re all coming out. If they’re not, just keep practicing. It will eventually. See you on the next chord.
This next chord is called F Major 6 of the E Major 6 chord that we did. It’s usually the same formation. F comes right after E on the keyboard. So, it’s just a half step up. And if you look closely, you’ll see that it is just one fret higher than E. So, E is here and there you go. Once again, we’re just utilizing information we already know to get stuff that we didn’t think we knew. So, there’s F6. And then there’s G6, G#6, G6 and so on and so forth down and down the line. Just go in and try to make that chord work. I’ve got through - test the strings and make sure they’re all coming out. Push hard. Try hard. Keep practicing and we’ll see you in the next chord.
This next chord is called G6. And we’re back down the bottom of the neck. We’ve been going kind of and getting sort of high up here. We’re going back to the bottom and start here. So, we’re going to put our middle finger on the bottom. Remember, you got G here. So, let’s do that. Let’s put this here. G is on the 3rd fret. A good way to remember that is G3. So, the 3rd fret is 3 and the note is G. So, 3, G. See you want your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret on the 6th string. And then you want - then we’re just going back to 6th chord that was based on the bottom string. We’re doing it for the B6 chord, if you remember when we did that. We’re going to have this here on the bottom. We’re going to have this one here on the 4th string of the second fret. And then, we’ve got the third finger on the 2nd string and the 3rd. And then, we’ve got this one here with our little finger and the 3rd string on the 4th fret. And we’ve got some muted strings there so just be careful and just go ahead and strum them all and see what you get. If you’re getting… or if you’re getting, just make sure you muted that stuff out so it doesn’t come out. That’s it for the Major 6 here.
I hope that you learned something today. Please check our other videos as we go more and more into depth in how to put all these stuff together that people are calling music. See you in the next series.
Today we’re going to be doing a set of chords from A through G that constitutes the group called 6 chords, Major 6. And Major 6 is fundamentally and theoretically using the first 3rd, 5th, and 6th degree of the scale to do the chord. So why don’t we just start with A. Per the diagram on the screen, you can see where to put your fingers.
Let’s start with the first chord of the Major 6 family. And that’s A6. It’s going to be - what we’re going to do instead of doing it down here now since it got into the point where we can’t utilize any of these open strings down here to get the type of voicing that we need, we’re going to come up a little higher so we can access some of these other notes that we need to grab on to.
This is the 6th chord. This is an A6. You want to come up to the 5th fret. Your middle finger’s going to be on the 5th fret here. Your index finger’s going to be back here, per the diagram, it’s going to be back on the 4th fret. Your ring’s going to be on the 5th fret as well up here on the 2nd string and then your pinky finger is going to be here in front. It’s sort of like a diamond shape.
So, you’ve got the 1. You’ve got the 6. You’ve got the 5 and you’ve got the 3 out front here. If you head them altogether, the red strings or the ones that are marked red are off limits so don’t play those. You get a Major 6 chord It’s kind of like a Major 7 that’s kind of the same type of mellow sound. Coming close to ballad sound. So, that’s Major 6. A Major 6. Make sure your strings are coming out. Push hard. If you get any buzzing, push a little harder and we’ll see you in the next chord.
This next chord is called B6. We’re going to do it in two different ways. We’re going to try once in the same form is the A6 chords. We’re going to learn that form. The A6 was down here as our downloadable PDF guide will tell you, this is your A6. And your B6 is going to be 2 frets higher so you just got to move it up one fret, up two frets. This is your root belt near the bottom and so this is a B6. Play that along with me. You can pause the video and go ahead. These chords are used in Jazz, mostly. I think it can be used in Rock. It can use any kind of music. Well, not any kind of music. But you know what I mean. Okay, see you in the next chord.
This is the other B Major 6 that we were going to do. Essentially, what this is, is we’re going to take your middle finger and put it on the 5th string on the 2nd fret. You’re going to bar this back here with your index. Through the diagram, you really just want to hit the inner four strings. You don’t want to hit them all here. This bar back here just serves to hold down the 3rd and 4th string on the 1st fret and that’s it. Doesn’t really do anything else as it’s supposed to so make sure it doesn’t. And then, this top one here is your middle on the 4th fret on the 2nd string. So, your tonic B is here. This is an A string based chord. So, that’s a B6, B Major 6. Make sure all the notes are coming out. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is a C Major 6 chord. We use the same form as we did with the B Major 6. We’re just going to move it up one fret because C comes right after B in the keyboard. So, if you’ve got a keyboard diagram, you can see that. You can download that and one of a lot of materials in site just to explore. We’ve got the B here. Remember the B Major 6 form was here and we’re just using the four header strings as the outer two, the two E’s on either side are muted out so we’re not going to use those. Let’s take this form and scoot it up to here. So, we’ve got… So, that’s C Major 6. So, just go in there and make sure all strings are coming out, do a string check, move your hand around a little bit to follow the notes that aren’t coming around and good luck. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is called D6 and we’re back to base forms which are the forms that don’t require a bar. We’re just going to come down here where D was. And there’s D proper. And what we’re going to do is just lift this up. That’s really all the D6 is. It’s just - you’ve got these two fingers on the 1st and 3rd strings on the 2nd fret and using middle one up here around the 3rd string and using your ring on the 1st string and that’s a D6. That can be used - I’m sure you can come up with an idea. If you’re into rock or pop or alternative. See, how it pop with a chord, not too jazzy. Just go in there and make sure they’re all coming out. And if they’re not, just keep practicing. 75 percent is what you’re going for. See you in the next chord.
This next chord is called E Major 6. And per the diagram, you can see it is - we’re back to the A string chord, A based chord with the tonic or the root note that’s on the A string. So, I’m going to come up to the 7th fret. If you’re on the 7th and you’re going to be able to see that you’re going to put this finger here. It’s going to be pretty much the same thing we did last time. This finger’s here. And these two bars, the in back and then this one’s up here. So, that’s the 6th chord. And remember, you can move this anywhere you want. The tonic is on the A string. It’s under this finger and to your middle finger. Good luck. Make sure they’re all coming out. If they’re not, just keep practicing. It will eventually. See you on the next chord.
This next chord is called F Major 6 of the E Major 6 chord that we did. It’s usually the same formation. F comes right after E on the keyboard. So, it’s just a half step up. And if you look closely, you’ll see that it is just one fret higher than E. So, E is here and there you go. Once again, we’re just utilizing information we already know to get stuff that we didn’t think we knew. So, there’s F6. And then there’s G6, G#6, G6 and so on and so forth down and down the line. Just go in and try to make that chord work. I’ve got through - test the strings and make sure they’re all coming out. Push hard. Try hard. Keep practicing and we’ll see you in the next chord.
This next chord is called G6. And we’re back down the bottom of the neck. We’ve been going kind of and getting sort of high up here. We’re going back to the bottom and start here. So, we’re going to put our middle finger on the bottom. Remember, you got G here. So, let’s do that. Let’s put this here. G is on the 3rd fret. A good way to remember that is G3. So, the 3rd fret is 3 and the note is G. So, 3, G. See you want your 2nd finger on the 3rd fret on the 6th string. And then you want - then we’re just going back to 6th chord that was based on the bottom string. We’re doing it for the B6 chord, if you remember when we did that. We’re going to have this here on the bottom. We’re going to have this one here on the 4th string of the second fret. And then, we’ve got the third finger on the 2nd string and the 3rd. And then, we’ve got this one here with our little finger and the 3rd string on the 4th fret. And we’ve got some muted strings there so just be careful and just go ahead and strum them all and see what you get. If you’re getting… or if you’re getting, just make sure you muted that stuff out so it doesn’t come out. That’s it for the Major 6 here.
I hope that you learned something today. Please check our other videos as we go more and more into depth in how to put all these stuff together that people are calling music. See you in the next series.
