Ebm6 guitar chord
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About Ebm6 — 2nd inversion
Ebm6 is Eb, Gb, Bb and C — Ebm 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.
Ebm6 notes and formula
| Eb | Gb | Bb | C |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 |
Minor tonic — an ending chord in a minor key.
Also written Ebmin6, Eb-6 or Eb minor 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Ebm6
Ebm6 in 2nd inversion puts Bb in the bass instead of Eb, the 5th 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 Ebm6’s 8 common shapes does this: xx8878.
Start with xx1312 — no barre and down at the nut. None of the shapes for Ebm6 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 3 of the 8 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 13th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| xx1312 | 1st fret | Eb, root position | Gb | all fretted |
| x64546 | 4th fret | Eb, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x6857x | 5th fret | Eb, root position | Gb | all fretted |
| x68x78 | 6th fret | Eb, root position | C | all fretted |
| xx8878 | 7th fret | Bb, 2nd inversion | C | barred |
| x-9-10-8-11-x | 8th fret | Gb, 1st inversion | Bb | all fretted |
| 11-x-10-11-11-11 | 10th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
| 11-13-13-11-13-11 | 11th fret | Eb, root position | Eb | barred |
The same notes rebuilt from scratch give 5 shell, 14 drop 2 and 9 drop 3 voicings, each on its own page.
Tensions. A shell of Ebm6, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (F) and the 11 (Ab).
How to use Ebm6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Ebm6 is Fm7♭5 to Bb7♭9: the ii and the V of Eb minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Ebm6 belongs to C# major (the ii, the supertonic) and Bb minor (the iv, the subdominant).
What to play over Ebm6
Every note of Ebm6 is in Eb dorian, Eb melodic minor and Eb half-whole diminished.
Chords near Ebm6
Change one note of Ebm6 and you have Ebm (drop the sixth), Ebdim7 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Ebm69 (add the ninth), Ebm7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), EbmMaj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh) or Ebmadd9 (the sixth becomes a ninth).
Ebm6 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Ebm6’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.