Gm6 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 Gm6 — shell voicings
Gm6 is G, Bb, D and E — Gm 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.
Gm6 notes and formula
| G | Bb | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ♭3 | 5 | 6 |
Minor tonic — an ending chord in a minor key.
Also written Gmin6, G-6 or G minor 6. The same chord either way; which spelling you meet depends on who wrote the chart.
How to play Gm6
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.
Gm6 has 7 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 14th — all in one inversion, so the bass note never moves. The one to learn first is the G shape at the nut, which is the easiest grip here.
Start with xx5756 — no barre and low, at the 5th fret. None of the shapes for Gm6 uses an open string, so every one of them is movable; the lowest sits at the 2nd fret. 4 of the 9 need a barre. Together they cover the neck from the 2nd fret to the 15th.
| Frets | Where | Bass | Top | Hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3x2333 | 2nd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| 355353 | 3rd fret | G, root position | G | barred |
| xx5756 | 5th fret | G, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-10-8-9-8-10 | 8th fret | G, root position | D | all fretted |
| x-10-12-9-11-x | 9th fret | G, root position | Bb | all fretted |
| x-10-12-x-11-12 | 10th fret | G, root position | E | all fretted |
| x-x-12-12-11-12 | 11th fret | D, 2nd inversion | E | barred |
| x-13-14-12-15-x | 12th fret | Bb, 1st inversion | D | all fretted |
| 15-x-14-15-15-x | 14th fret | G, root position | D | barred |
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 Gm6, root, third and seventh, leaves a string free, and the tones that belong over it are the 9 (A) and the 11 (C).
How to use Gm6
How you get to it. The turn that lands on Gm6 is Am7♭5 to D7♭9: the ii and the V of G minor, which is where a minor tonic is usually arrived at rather than simply begun on.
In which keys. Every note of Gm6 belongs to D minor (the iv, the subdominant) and F major (the ii, the supertonic).
What to play over Gm6
Every note of Gm6 is in G dorian, G melodic minor and G half-whole diminished.
Chords near Gm6
Change one note of Gm6 and you have Gm (drop the sixth), Gdim7 (the fifth becomes a flat fifth), Gm69 (add the ninth), Gm7 (the sixth becomes a flat seventh), GmMaj7 (the sixth becomes a major seventh) or Gmadd9 (the sixth becomes a ninth).
Gm6 is a minor chord — root, minor third, fifth. Minor chords on every root.
On Gm6’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.