Bm6 guitar chord
Root, third and seventh: the guide tones fix the quality, so the fifth is dropped. That is what leaves a string free, so pick a tension to put on top.
- Tap a note to hear it
- Arrows change position
- Fingers, notes or intervals
- Play the chord
About Bm6 — shell voicings
Bm6 is B, D, F# and G# — Bm with a major sixth added on top.
It sounds bittersweet — minor underneath, major on top. The major sixth over a minor triad comes from the melodic minor, and it is the classic jazz minor tonic.
Bm6 notes and formula
| B | D | F# | G# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 |
Minor tonic — an ending chord in a minor key.
Also written Bmin6, B-6 or B minor 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bm6
Root, third and seventh. The third and seventh, the guide tones, are what make the chord major, minor or dominant, so the fifth can go: it says nothing the symbol needs.
Three notes means a spare string, which is the real point. Put a tension on it.
Bm6 has 7 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2 and strings 6-4-3, from open position up to the 13th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the B shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with x20102 — no barre and 2 open strings. 1 of the 9 shapes here sits in open position. 3 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 14th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x20102 | open position | B, root position | F# | 2 open strings |
| x2413x | 1st fret | B, root position | D | all fretted |
| x24x34 | 2nd fret | B, root position | G# | all fretted |
| xx4434 | 3rd fret | F#, 2nd inversion | G# | barred |
| x5647x | 4th fret | D, 1st inversion | F# | all fretted |
| 7x6777 | 6th fret | B, root position | B | barred |
| 799797 | 7th fret | B, root position | B | barred |
| x-x-9-11-9-10 | 9th fret | B, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-14-12-13-12-14 | 12th fret | B, root position | F# | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 14 drop 2, 10 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bm6, 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 Bm6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bm6 is C#m7♭5 to F#7♭9: the ii and the V of B minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Bm6 belongs to F# minor (the iv, the subdominant) and A major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over Bm6
Every note of Bm6 is in B dorian, B melodic minor and B half-whole diminished.
Chords near Bm6
Change one note of Bm6 and you have Bm (drop the sixth), Bdim7 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Bm69 (add the ninth), Bm7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), BmMaj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh) or Bmadd9 (the sixth becomes a ninth).
Bm6 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Bm6’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.