Barry HarrisThe method

Chris Parks · Stage 9: Sixth chords and the scales of chords

Reasons to practise major 6th to major 6th chords

Episode 140 · 11:58 · On YouTube · In the lesson player

Chris shows why it pays to move from G6 to C6 in drop 2 voicings on every string set: only two notes move, and the move turns up everywhere. In C it is Barry’s six on the fifth going to the I chord; in G, because a major 6 is a minor 7, it is the vi going to the ii. Moving the two notes a half step puts a diminished in between.

Step by step

  1. 0:33Know the G6 diminished scale (G, B, D, E plus A, C, E flat, G flat) and the C6 diminished scale (C, E, G, A plus D, F, A flat, B) in drop 2 chords
  2. 1:30Learn the drop 2s on all three four-string sets: E-A-D-G, A-D-G-B and D-G-B-E
  3. 2:15Go from G6 to C6: G and E stay while D moves down to C and B down to A; find those two notes in every inversion up the neck
  4. 4:11Use 1, in C: G6 over C is Barry’s six on the fifth, which adds the major 7th and the 9th; resolve it to C6, e.g. at the start of All of Me
  5. 6:20Barry pointed out that Donna Lee (in A flat) opens with the six on the fifth going to the sixth
  6. 6:58Use 2, in G: G6 is also E minor 7 and C6 is also A minor 7, so the same move takes the vi chord to the ii chord
  7. 8:28Move the same two notes down a half step first to get a diminished chord between the two sixths
  8. 9:14Practise the move on All of Me and in G major, with and without the diminished
  9. 10:53Take it into other keys (D flat, A flat): All the Things You Are opens F minor 7 to B flat minor 7, which is A flat 6 to D flat 6

Chords and notes in this video

Tap a time to jump to it in the video.

Line0:33
𝄞♭♭
C4GBC5DEACE♭G♭
  1. G
  2. B
  3. D
  4. E
  5. A
  6. C
  7. E♭
  8. G♭
G62:15
𝄞
C3GC4DEB
  1. G
  2. D
  3. E
  4. B

Barry’s own words on this

9.2 Two sixth chords for every major chord (6 on the 1, 6 on the 5)9.1 Sixth chords rule10.5 Drop voicings10.3 Moving a chord through its scale into the next chord (6-6-6 instead of ii-V-I)

In the course

Sixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6The major 6 diminished scaleSix on the fifth: two sixth chords for a major chordDrop 2, drop 3 and drop 2 and 4Six chord to six chordPractise keys through tunes

Transcript

  1. 0:00hello and welcome to episode 140 of things I’ve learned from Barry Harris and today I thought we would talk about the importance of going from one six chord to another six chord so for instance let’s take a G6 chord to a C6 chord let’s talk about why that’s important and where you’re going to use it okay so the first thing is let’s just let’s say we’re going to stay and drop twos so the first thing you need to know if you’re going
  2. 0:33to practice this is you need to know your G6 diminish scale which is four notes of G6 GB d e and four notes of a diminished a c e flat and G flat and that is your scale and when you play chords on that scale you’re going to get two chords A G6 and a diminished over and over again the second scale of chord you’re going to need to know is C6 so C6 diminished is going to be the
  3. 1:07four notes of C6 c e g a and then the four notes of D diminish d f a flat B and when you play those you’re going to get a C major 6 and a d diminish C major 6 D diminish so these are them in drop twos um so you have to know those first okay so I would practice those the next thing and you should know them as guitar players if we’re going to do drop twos you should know them on all these three string sets these three string sets meaning the first one
  4. 1:40starting from the E string which is going to give you the e a d and g string because that’s a drop two is four consecutive strings the next one is going to be starting from the a string a d g and B strings that’s the middle four strings you have to do the top four strings D GB and E strings so you have to know all those those different string sets now what’s pretty is to be able to play a G6 and then right after it a C6 so if we take our original G6 which we started here which we have g d well a
  5. 2:15drop two would be uh g d e and B now what’s pretty about a G6 to a C6 is only two notes move two notes stay the two notes that move move are the D moves to C and the B moves to a but the G and the E stay so that’s a pretty move so now we should know every inversion of that going up the instrument here’s our next drop two so all we’re going to do is find those same
  6. 2:50two notes and move them down a whole step and the two notes were the D to the C and the B to the a every time that’s what that looks like let’s go to the next set of strings that’s nice and they’re going to be in different spots every time so for instance the first one it was the it was uh one of the middle notes and the top note which giv us this sixth movement which is really pretty the second one the second one is really pretty
  7. 3:25because it’s it’s um it’s a tenth it’s the note on the bottom string and the note on the top string which is really pretty the next one it’s going to be the lowest note and a sixth above that really pretty now let’s do the um the last one now this one’s really nice CU this one is the two middle notes mov so now we had this this the first one second one third
  8. 3:58one last one but if we want it to keep going we have to be able to see them we have to be able to see them everywhere um all these okay now that’s a pretty move so you say to yourself okay well when am I going to use this so the first way you can use it is you can say if we’re in the key of C sometimes we like to play a G major over a c so here I’ll do G major 6 here’s over over a c when you play a g B major 6 over a c that is what Barry used to call 6 on the 5ifth
  9. 4:36meaning you go to the fifth of whatever chord you’re playing which happens to be C and you’re playing a major six chord on the fifth of it now there’s a different one for a dominant chord but we’re just going to talk about the major one so now we have the six on the fifth of the C which is G6 but if you look at the notes of G6 compared to C what happens is you still have the fifth you still have the major third but you also have the ninth and the major 7th so what it does is it gives you this major 7th with the ninth sound which is really pretty
  10. 5:10and as Barry people we know a major six is always a minor 7 so E minor 7 is the same as G major 6 so in the key of C an E minor 7 is just the three chord so it’s just like playing the three chord with the root in the Bas it’s very pretty now what’s interesting is to be able to go go from um the six on the fifth to just the regular C6 which is pretty so then you do that so sometimes if you’re playing a C major you might do a quick one I like [Music]
  11. 5:42that let’s say if we were playing all of me which [Music] starts goes to E7 after that so if we were playing that and we said uh one two one two 3 two three see I just did two of [Music] them really pretty this C6 to [Music] G6 I think that’s a really pretty move D
  12. 6:20or that’s a really nice one as a matter of fact Barry used to point out that in the beginning of Donna Lee if you hear the original version where Palace playing piano for Charlie Parker the the song starts off one 2 1 2 3 4 that’s how he starts off B up and then the melody starts I mean it’s in a the key of a flat so it would be one 2 one 2 3 4 that’s the way it starts off it starts off with the six on the fifth to the sixth really pretty bop bop now that’s one interesting uh way
  13. 6:54that you could think about it another interesting way that you could think about it is let’s say we’re in the key of G so if we’re in the key of G G6 is the one chord it’s also the sixth chord because G G6 and E minor 7 are the same so this is the same now if I move it to C6 remember every minor 7 is a major 6 and every major 6 is a minor 7 so a C major 6 is also a minor 7 so let’s say I’m in the key of
  14. 7:30G and I want to be able to play from from the sixth chord to the two chord there it is I like that so if we say [Music] look see there’s the sixth to the six here’s another one if I [Music] say there it is six to the six that’s the G6 to the C6 [Music] really
  15. 8:05pretty really pretty pretty stuff so that’s the second reason to use it so now you used it if we were in the KY of C where you’re saying the six on the fifth going to the one chord now you’re using it in the key of G like we’re going to from the six chord to the two chord which is pretty so there’s all reasons to learn this now there’s a third little move though that we should learn how to do and that is if we go back to the original G6 to C6 we said we’re moving two notes a whole
  16. 8:40step but we have to also learn that if we move those a half step we get it diminished if we take those same two notes the D and the B and move them a whole step that’s one thing but if we move them a half step we get the this diminished which is really pretty so this is a little movement this one so [Music] pretty really pretty so now that’s
  17. 9:14something else we can do so let’s go back to All of Me let’s say all of me it’s a really pretty move you don’t have to do them all over the place like that but it’s a nice little thing to practice This Ti [Music] so you could do one with the diminished one out one without the diminished really pretty move you could also do it as you’re practicing it on if you’re in the key of
  18. 9:46G major here’s G major there’s that [Music] diminished really pretty move so let’s try that again here’s G6 G6 half step going to the two chord really pretty move so those happen you’re going to use those it’s just an
  19. 10:20interesting way to look at a six chord to a six chord there’s been a bunch of uh videos made about the six on the fifth which I love and I love using the six on the fifth but that move can also be done in a different key as the six chord going to the two chord which is really pretty also these give you reasons much like I was saying in the last video about having an excuse to practice a six chord to a six chord um this is a reason to practice a six cord to a six chord if this particular one I could say well if I’m
  20. 10:53playing a song in the key of C I need to know this if I’m playing a song in the key of G I need to know this I would probably take it up a half step and say if I’m playing a song in the Kia d flat I need to know this and same thing in the key of a flat I need to know this so for instance the reason why this came up in the first place is because over at Open studio we’re talking about all the things you are and the first two chords are F minor 7 to B flat 7 so that’s what we were saying it is it’s a flat 6 going to d flat 6 so now we were throwing in this
  21. 11:28little we were thrown in that little move which is really pretty so so many pretty little things that you could do with just the first two chords of all the things you are anyway I hope that was helpful and I hope that gave you a reason to practice a six chord to a six chord anyway until next time enjoy practicing your sixes