C6 is C, E, G and A. It keeps the triad and adds the .
In the pair below, the 6th replaces a repeated root. Compare with C6 to hear that one note change.
One repeated root moves down three frets to the sixth. The other notes stay the same.
When is home, jazz players often use C6 or . C6 has ; has instead.
Also written Cmaj6, CM6 or C major 6.
Alternate C6 with Bdim7 and the pair always sounds smooth: that diminished chord is the V7♭9 with its root left out, so the two chords are really I and V. Harmonising a melody this way puts the sixth chord under its own notes and the diminished chord between them.
Listen for: Every voice steps to its neighbour, a half or a whole step down, and back. Nothing leaps.
Heard in“Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise” (the same device on a minor sixth)
The line cliché works on a major chord too, though the minor form is far more common: hold C and walk one voice down from the root, a half step at a time. C6 is the last step, where the seventh has dropped to the sixth.
Listen for: Only one note moves: root, major seventh, flat seventh, sixth.
C6 can replace the major seventh as the home chord at the end of a ii–V–I.
In which keys. Every note of C6 belongs to C major, D minor, E minor, F major, G major and A minor.
Contains C6 and adds second.
Contains C6 and adds second, fourth and major seventh.
Contains C6 and adds second, sharp eleventh and major seventh.
Adds second, fourth and flat seventh. The flat seventh pushes the sound toward a dominant chord.
Adds second, sharp eleventh and flat seventh, for a dominant sharp-eleventh color.
The common shapes and the derived voicings come from different places, and both are explained in how this site is built.
Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.