D#m♭6 — D# minor flat sixth chord
A minor triad with the sixth flattened. The flattened sixth is a semitone above the fifth, which darkens the chord compared with the plain minor sixth.
- 1 = D#
- b3 = F#
- 5 = A#
- b6 = B
- Symbol
- D#m♭6
- Root
- D#
- Quality
- Minor flat sixth
- Family
- added
- Notes
- D# F# A# B
- Degree formula
1 b3 5 b6- Semitones from the root
0 3 7 8- Distinct pitch classes
- 4
- Interval structure
- Stacked from the root: 3 semitones, 4 semitones, 1 semitones
- Notation
- Written m♭6. Used as a colour chord on the tonic of a minor key and as a passing chord to a minor seventh.
- Key
- D# · Eb major / C minor key signature
Fingering charts
The library holds 3 fingerings of this chord and all of them are shown, in the library’s own order. Several fingerings of one chord is normal: the same notes can be stopped at different positions and on different strings.
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 | D# | 0 | Perfect unison |
| b3 | F# | 3 | Minor third |
| 5 | A# | 7 | Perfect fifth |
| b6 | B | 8 | Minor 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 | D# | 1 | D# – F# – A# – B | 0 3 7 8 |
| first inversion | F# | b3 | F# – A# – B – D# | 0 4 5 9 |
| second inversion | A# | 5 | A# – B – D# – F# | 0 1 5 8 |
| third inversion | B | b6 | B – D# – F# – A# | 0 4 7 11 |
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 | 11-9-9-11-11-11 | D# F# B F# A# D# | 1 b3 b6 b3 5 1 | D# | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | 11-13-13-11-12-11 | D# A# D# F# B D# | 1 5 1 b3 b6 1 | D# | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | 11-9-9-8-11-11 | D# F# B D# A# D# | 1 b3 b6 1 5 1 | D# | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | 11-14-13-11-11-11 | D# B D# F# A# D# | 1 b6 1 b3 5 1 | D# | 3 | 6 |
| 5 | 11-13-13-11-12-14 | D# A# D# F# B F# | 1 5 1 b3 b6 b3 | D# | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | 11-14-13-11-11-14 | D# B D# F# A# F# | 1 b6 1 b3 5 b3 | D# | 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 D#
- ScaleD# melodic minor (ascending)
- ChordD#m6
- ChordD#m
- ChordD#m7
Related
- ChordD#m6 — Minor sixth
- ChordD#m — Minor
- ChordD#m7 — Minor seventh
- ChordD#6 — Sixth
- ChordD#6/9 — Sixth added ninth
- ChordD#add9 — Added ninth
- DegreesEb — degree map
- Neck mapEb — note map