About B6 — drop 3 voicings
B6 is B, D#, F# and G# — B with a major sixth added on top.
It sounds warm, and finished without being sweet. It closes a tune as firmly as the triad does but without the maj7’s shine, which is why so many standards end on one.
B6 notes and formula
| B | D# | F# | G# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
Tonic — an ending chord.
Also written Bmaj6, BM6 or B major 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play B6
The same operation one voice further down: the third voice from the top falls an octave and becomes the bass.
That leaves a bigger hole under the top three notes, so a string gets skipped: the muted string in the middle is the shape, not a mistake.
B6 has 9 of them, on strings 6-4-3-2 and strings 5-3-2-1, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: B in the bass, D# in the bass, F# in the bass and G# in the bass. The one to learn first is the F# shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 6-4-3-2, so you can run the inversions up one set without changing strings — which is the whole reason to learn them as a family rather than as separate grips.
Start with x2110x — no barre and 1 open string. 1 of the 10 shapes here sits in open position. 4 of the 10 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x2110x | open position | B, root position | B | 1 open string |
| x24444 | 2nd fret | B, root position | G# | barred |
| x64444 | 4th fret | D#, 1st inversion | G# | barred |
| 766444 | 4th fret | B, root position | G# | barred |
| 464474 | 4th fret | G#, 6th in the bass | G# | barred |
| 7x687x | 6th fret | B, root position | F# | all fretted |
| 7x9897 | 7th fret | B, root position | B | all fretted |
| 79x897 | 7th fret | B, root position | B | all fretted |
| x-x-9-11-9-11 | 9th fret | B, root position | D# | all fretted |
| x-14-13-13-12-x | 12th fret | B, root position | B | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell and 14 drop 2 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of B6, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (C#) and the #11 (E#).
How to use B6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on B6 is C#m7 to F#7 — the ii and the V of B — and F#7 shares its third and seventh with C#m7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of B6 belongs to C# minor (the ♭VII), Eb minor (the ♭VI), E major (the V), F# major (the IV), Ab minor (the ♭III) and B major (the I).
What to play over B6
Every note of B6 is in B major pentatonic, B major, B lydian, B mixolydian and B lydian dominant.
Chords near B6
Change one note of B6 and you have B (drop the sixth), Bmaj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), Bm6 (the major third becomes a minor third), Badd9 (the sixth becomes a ninth), B69 (add the ninth) or B7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh).
B6 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On B6’s sound and use this page follows Mark Levine, The Jazz Piano Book (Sher Music, 1989). The shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in where the chords and the theory come from.