Bm6 — B minor sixth chord
A minor triad with the sixth added. Contains the same notes as the half-diminished seventh chord a minor third below it.
- 1 = B
- b3 = D
- 5 = F#
- 6 = G#
- Symbol
- Bm6
- Root
- B
- Quality
- Minor sixth
- Family
- added
- Notes
- B D F# G#
- Degree formula
1 b3 5 6- Semitones from the root
0 3 7 9- Distinct pitch classes
- 4
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 3 semitones, 4 semitones, 2 semitones
- Notation
- Written m6. Used as a tonic minor chord and as a passing chord towards a dominant.
- Key
- B · B major / G# minor key signature
Formula
The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.
| Degree | Note | Semitones | Interval from the root |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | B | 0 | Perfect unison |
| b3 | D | 3 | Minor third |
| 5 | F# | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| 6 | G# | 9 | Major sixth |
Inversions
An inversion is the same set of notes with a different one in the bass. The last column gives the distance of each note above the bass note, in semitones.
| Inversion | Bass note | Degree in the bass | Notes above the bass | Semitones above the bass |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| root position | B | 1 | B – D – F# – G# | 0 3 7 9 |
| first inversion | D | b3 | D – F# – G# – B | 0 4 6 9 |
| second inversion | F# | 5 | F# – G# – B – D | 0 2 5 8 |
| third inversion | G# | 6 | G# – B – D – F# | 0 3 6 10 |
Playable voicings
These shapes were found by searching the fretboard of a standard-tuned guitar (E A D G B E) rather than copied from a chord book. The search allows every string to sound or to be muted, rejects any shape with a muted string between two sounding strings, rejects any shape whose fretted notes span more than four frets (a five-fret window), requires every chord tone to be present, and then sorts what remains with root-position shapes first and the most compact, lowest shapes next. The shapes shown are the first six of that ordering; other orderings are possible at the same frets.
| # | Shape (low string first) | Notes | Degrees | Bass | Span (frets) | Sounding strings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7-5-6-7-7-7 | B D G# D F# B | 1 b3 6 b3 5 1 | B | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 7-9-9-7-9-7 | B F# B D G# B | 1 5 1 b3 6 1 | B | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 7-5-4-4-7-4 | B D F# B F# G# | 1 b3 5 1 5 6 | B | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 7-5-6-4-7-4 | B D G# B F# G# | 1 b3 6 1 5 6 | B | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 7-5-4-7-7-4 | B D F# D F# G# | 1 b3 5 b3 5 6 | B | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 7-5-6-4-7-7 | B D G# B F# B | 1 b3 6 1 5 1 | B | 3 | 6 |
Shape numbers run from the lowest string to the highest, so the left-hand number is the sixth string (low E) in standard tuning. Multiple shapes are listed because a chord can be voiced several ways, and because a lower position is not always the better sounding one.
Related chords and scales
- KeyEverything in B
- ScaleB melodic minor (ascending)
- ChordAbm7b5
Related
- KeyKey of B
- ScaleB melodic minor (ascending)
- ChordAbm7b5 — Half-diminished seventh
- ChordB6 — Sixth
- ChordBadd9 — Added ninth
- ChordB11 — Dominant eleventh
- DegreesB — degree map
- Neck mapB — note map