Stackapella Open the app

Four notes · 1 ♭3 5 6 · pure 30:36:45:50

The minor 6th chord

A minor 6th chord is a minor chord with a major sixth added above the root. It sounds dark but bittersweet, with an edge that a plain minor chord lacks.

How it's built

Add the major sixth, 9 semitones above the root, to a minor chord: C, E♭, G and A. The sixth is major despite the name: "minor" describes the chord, not the sixth. Between E♭ and A is a tritone, and that's where the edge comes from.

Cm6 has the same notes as Am7♭5, the half-diminished chord on A.

Singing it in tune

Switched to Pure, this page tunes it 30:36:45:50. The minor third sits 15.6 cents (a cent is a hundredth of a semitone) above the piano's, the fifth 2.0 above, and the sixth, 5:3, 15.6 below. That leaves the tritone between the third and the sixth, 25:18, 31.3 cents narrower than the piano's.

Cm6 and Am7♭5 share their keys on a piano, but they tune differently. As Cm6, E♭ is a 6:5 minor third over C. As Am7♭5, the chord is 5:6:7:9 from A, and E♭ comes out 48.8 cents lower. Pure tuning follows the root.

Where you hear it

As the home chord of a minor key in jazz and swing, often in place of a plain minor or a minor 7th, and all through jazz manouche, often called Gypsy jazz. In a major key, the minor chord on the fourth note with its sixth, F, A♭, C and D in C, is a bittersweet step before the home chord. Its notes fit the Dorian mode, a minor scale with a raised sixth.

More chord types

Free tools by Stackapella

All of these are free, and so is every course.

Stackapella teaches you to sing harmony one part at a time, right in your browser.

Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up. Stackapella recording the alto part of Amazing Grace: each note is a bar with its name, and the one being sung says A little low, go up.
  • A guide sings your partHear your line over the others, slow it down, then take your turn.
  • Your notes light upEach note shows where you landed, and a hint when to go up or down.
  • Record every part yourselfStack your takes in time until you're the whole choir.
Start the beginner course Open the app How Stackapella works

Questions

Why is it called a minor 6th chord if the sixth is major?

Because "minor" names the chord, not the sixth: it's a minor chord with the sixth added, and the sixth used is the major sixth, 9 semitones up. A minor triad with a minor sixth, C, E♭, G and A♭, would sound like A♭maj7.

Is Cm6 the same as Am7♭5?

They share the same four notes, C, E♭, G and A. Over C it's Cm6, over A it's Am7♭5, and tuned pure the two come out slightly different: the E♭ moves.

What scale fits a minor 6th chord?

The Dorian mode or the melodic minor scale, both minor scales with a major sixth. On C, Dorian is C, D, E♭, F, G, A and B♭.

More free tools

No account, no ads. Each one keeps working offline once you've opened it.

See all 17 tools
Ready to tell them apart by ear? Try chord ear trainingChord ear training · Major, minor or seventh: which?