F6 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 F6 — shell voicings
F6 is F, A, C and D — F with a major sixth added on top.
It sounds warm, and finished without being sweet. It closes a tune as firmly as the triad does but without the maj7’s shine, which is why so many standards end on one.
F6 notes and formula
| F | A | C | D |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 3 | 5 | 6 |
Tonic — an ending chord.
Also written Fmaj6, FM6 or F major 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play F6
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.
F6 has 6 of them, on the bottom three strings, the low-middle three, strings 6-4-3 and strings 5-3-2, from open position up to the 12th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the F shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx3535 — no barre and low, at the 3rd fret. None of the shapes for F6 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 1st fret. 4 of the 10 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 1st fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1x3231 | 1st fret | F, root position | F | all fretted |
| 13x231 | 1st fret | F, root position | F | all fretted |
| xx3535 | 3rd fret | F, root position | A | all fretted |
| x8776x | 6th fret | F, root position | F | all fretted |
| x-8-10-10-10-10 | 8th fret | F, root position | D | barred |
| x-12-10-10-10-10 | 10th fret | A, 1st inversion | D | barred |
| 13-12-12-10-10-10 | 10th fret | F, root position | D | barred |
| 10-12-10-10-13-10 | 10th fret | D, 6th in the bass | D | barred |
| 13-x-12-14-13-x | 12th fret | F, root position | C | all fretted |
| 13-x-15-14-15-13 | 13th fret | F, 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 F6, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (G) and the #11 (B).
How to use F6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on F6 is Gm7 to C7 — the ii and the V of F — and C7 shares its third and seventh with Gm7, so the hand barely moves between them.
In which keys. Every note of F6 belongs to C major (the IV), D minor (the ♭III), F major (the I), G minor (the ♭VII), A minor (the ♭VI) and Bb major (the V).
What to play over F6
Every note of F6 is in F major pentatonic, F major, F lydian, F mixolydian and F lydian dominant.
Chords near F6
Change one note of F6 and you have F (drop the sixth), Fmaj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh), Fm6 (the major third becomes a minor third), Fadd9 (the sixth becomes a ninth), F69 (add the ninth) or F7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh).
F6 is a major chord — root, major third, fifth. Major chords on every root.
On F6’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.