Bbm6 guitar chord
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About Bbm6 — 1st inversion
Bbm6 is Bb, Db, F and G — Bbm 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.
Bbm6 notes and formula
| Bb | Db | F | G |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 |
Minor tonic — an ending chord in a minor key.
Also written Bbmin6, Bb-6 or Bb minor 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Bbm6
Bbm6 in 1st inversion puts Db in the bass instead of Bb, the 3rd of the chord. The notes are the same; what changes is what the bass line does, which is most of why you would reach for it — it lets the lowest voice move by step where the root would have jumped.
One of Bbm6’s 9 common shapes does this: x4536x.
Start with x13x23 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Bbm6 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x13x23 | 1st fret | Bb, root position | G | all fretted |
| xx3323 | 2nd fret | F, 2nd inversion | G | barred |
| x4536x | 3rd fret | Db, 1st inversion | F | all fretted |
| 6x5666 | 5th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | barred |
| 688686 | 6th fret | Bb, root position | Bb | barred |
| x-x-8-10-8-9 | 8th fret | Bb, root position | Db | all fretted |
| x-13-11-12-11-13 | 11th fret | Bb, root position | F | all fretted |
| x-13-15-12-14-x | 12th fret | Bb, root position | Db | all fretted |
| x-x-15-15-14-15 | 14th fret | F, 2nd inversion | G | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 7 shell, 14 drop 2 and 10 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Bbm6, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (C) and the 11 (Eb).
How to use Bbm6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Bbm6 is Cm7♭5 to F7♭9: the ii and the V of Bb minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Bbm6 belongs to F minor (the iv, the subdominant) and Ab major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over Bbm6
Every note of Bbm6 is in Bb dorian, Bb melodic minor and Bb half-whole diminished.
Chords near Bbm6
Change one note of Bbm6 and you have Bbm (drop the sixth), Bbdim7 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Bbm69 (add the ninth), Bbm7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), BbmMaj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh) or Bbmadd9 (the sixth becomes a ninth).
Bbm6 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Bbm6’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.