Chris Parks · Stage 9: Sixth chords and the scales of chords
Minor 6th Diminished Chord Ideas
Chris applies the previous episode’s middle-string chord exercise to the C minor 6 diminished scale, the eight-note scale made of a minor 6 chord and a diminished chord. Since Barry sees a minor 7 flat 5 as a minor 6, the same shapes work in a C minor tune and on A half-diminished to D7 going to G minor.
Step by step
- 0:34Know the minor 6 diminished scale (minor 6 plus diminished, eight notes) and its drop 2 chords.
- 1:46On the middle strings, skipping the D string, play the first shape at the 3rd fret and let the G-string note release down.
- 2:21Walk the shape up the scale, each one with a note that releases down, then play them all up and down.
- 3:41Variation: go a half step below the released note and come back, on every degree.
- 4:47In a C minor tune, use these shapes right from the start.
- 5:10C minor 6 is also A minor 7 flat 5, so use it on A half-diminished to D7 going to G minor.
Chords and notes in this video
Tap a time to jump to it in the video.
Barry’s own words on this
In the course
Sixth chords rule: minor 7 is major 6, half-diminished is minor 6The release-note chord exercise
Transcript
- 0:00Hello and welcome to episode 27 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. I just wanted to do another quick video connected to the video we did last time, episode 26, which was about the major scale exercise. this. And I thought we would do it with the minor 6 diminished scale.
- 0:34Now for those of you that don’t know what a minor 6 diminished scale is, it’s basically a minor scale that consists of a minor 6 and a diminished. And when you put those two things together, you get an eight note scale that sounds like this. And out of those things comes a lot of beautiful things like a minor 6 chord, a diminished,
- 1:13Another minor 6. Another diminished. Another minor 6. Another diminished. Another minor 6. Diminished. Another minor 6. Now those I just did in what we call drop 2. So those are all important things for you to know before maybe you look at this particular episode and I’ve outlined those in previous episodes. But anyway, the exercise that we did last episode We’re going to do that same thing, but we’re going to do it with a minor 6.
- 1:46So the first one is going to be, which is going to be 3rd fret. And again, we’re only going to use the middle 4 strings. So the A string, D string, D string, and D string. And we’ve got the 3rd fret on the A string. We’re going to skip the D string for the whole thing. We’re going to say 3rd fret, 4th fret, and 4th fret. Then the 4th fret is going to release on the G string to the 2nd fret. That’s the first one.
- 2:21Next one. Which is going to be 5th fret, 5th fret, 6th fret, and the 5th fret releases to the 4th fret. Next one. Which is going to be 6th fret, 7th fret, 8th fret, and the 7th fret releases to the 5th fret. Next one. Eighth fret, eighth fret, ninth fret, and the eighth fret releases to the seventh fret. Next one. Tenth fret, tenth fret, tenth fret, and the tenth fret releases to the eighth fret. Next one.
- 2:56Eleventh fret, twelfth fret, twelfth fret, and the twelfth fret releases to the tenth fret. Next one. 12th fret, 13th fret, 13th fret, and 13th fret releases to the 12th fret. Next one. 14th fret, 14th fret, 15th fret, and the 14th fret releases to the 13th fret. And then you’re back to the first one again. So here’s what they sound like. down
- 3:41now what we did yesterday too is we had a a variation of it which was after you go down we’re going to go down a half step below the note come back up so we’ll say we’re going to do that on each degree next one And let’s maybe do that down and see what that sounds like. Now ways that you can use this in a song, let’s say if you had a song that is in C minor, you can start right away with a...
- 5:10So that’s in C minor, but remember, C minor 6 is also A minor 7 flat 5. So if you think about it this way, you can also use that particular one in that particular key if we were doing something, let’s say, in Bb. To G minor.
- 5:53So let’s say, again, if we were going to do it... Oh, sorry, that was my phone. Let’s say, again, in A half diminished. So, again, if we had Bb major. Something simple like that. So you’re going to G minor. So as you can see, they’re usable any time you can use a minor 6 chord, which is in a lot of places. Those two examples are just if you’re going to a minor, or if you’re doing a 2-5
- 6:41to a minor, and the 2 is that minor 7-flap 5, which is really, Barry looks at it as a minor 6. So it was an example of playing A half diminished to D7, use C minor 6. Or if we were just playing a tune in C minor, you can use it. Anyway, I hope that was helpful, and I think I’m going to try to make another video for the major six diminished soon. So hope you enjoyed that and have fun practicing your C minor six. Until next time. Thanks.