Dm6 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 Dm6 — shell voicings
Dm6 is D, F, A and B — Dm 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.
Dm6 notes and formula
| D | F | A | B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 |
Minor tonic — an ending chord in a minor key.
Also written Dmin6, D-6 or D minor 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Dm6
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.
Dm6 has 6 of them, on the low-middle three, the bottom three strings, strings 5-3-2 and strings 6-4-3, from the 3rd fret up to the 10th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the D shape at the 3rd fret, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx0201 — 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx0201 | open position | D, root position | F | 2 open strings |
| x53435 | 3rd fret | D, root position | A | all fretted |
| x5746x | 4th fret | D, root position | F | all fretted |
| x57x67 | 5th fret | D, root position | B | all fretted |
| xx7767 | 6th fret | A, 2nd inversion | B | barred |
| x-8-9-7-10-x | 7th fret | F, 1st inversion | A | all fretted |
| 10-x-9-10-10-10 | 9th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| 10-12-12-10-12-10 | 10th fret | D, root position | D | barred |
| x-x-12-14-12-13 | 12th fret | D, root position | F | all fretted |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 15 drop 2, 10 drop 3 and 6 open string voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Dm6, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (E) and the 11 (G).
How to use Dm6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Dm6 is Em7♭5 to A7♭9: the ii and the V of D minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Dm6 belongs to C major (the ii, the supertonic) and A minor (the iv, the subdominant).
What to play over Dm6
Every note of Dm6 is in D dorian, D melodic minor and D half-whole diminished.
Chords near Dm6
Change one note of Dm6 and you have Dm (drop the sixth), Ddim7 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Dm69 (add the ninth), Dm7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), DmMaj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh) or Dmadd9 (the sixth becomes a ninth).
Dm6 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Dm6’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.