About C#m6 — drop 3 voicings
C#m6 is C#, E, G# and A# — C#m 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.
C#m6 notes and formula
| C# | E | G# | A# |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 |
Minor tonic — an ending chord in a minor key.
Also written C#min6, C#-6 or C# minor 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play C#m6
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.
C#m6 has 9 of them, on strings 5-3-2-1 and strings 6-4-3-2, from open position up to the 12th — every inversion the chord has: C# in the bass, E in the bass, G# in the bass and A# in the bass. The one to learn first is the A# shape at the nut.
5 of them sit on strings 5-3-2-1, 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 x4635x — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for C#m6 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 3 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| x42324 | 2nd fret | C#, root position | G# | all fretted |
| x4635x | 3rd fret | C#, root position | E | all fretted |
| x46x56 | 4th fret | C#, root position | A# | all fretted |
| xx6656 | 5th fret | G#, 2nd inversion | A# | barred |
| x7869x | 6th fret | E, 1st inversion | G# | all fretted |
| 9x8999 | 8th fret | C#, root position | C# | barred |
| 9-11-11-9-11-9 | 9th fret | C#, root position | C# | barred |
| x-x-11-13-11-12 | 11th fret | C#, root position | E | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 6 shell and 13 drop 2 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of C#m6, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (D#) and the 11 (F#).
How to use C#m6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on C#m6 is D#m7♭5 to G#7♭9: the ii and the V of C# minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of C#m6 belongs to Ab minor (the iv, the subdominant) and B major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over C#m6
Every note of C#m6 is in C# dorian, C# melodic minor and C# half-whole diminished.
Chords near C#m6
Change one note of C#m6 and you have C#m (drop the sixth), C#dim7 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), C#m69 (add the ninth), C#m7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), C#mMaj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh) or C#madd9 (the sixth becomes a ninth).
C#m6 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On C#m6’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.