My Guitar Notes

Gm6 — G 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.

Symbol
Gm6
Root
G
Quality
Minor sixth
Family
added
Notes
G Bb D E
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
G · G major / E minor key signature

Formula

The chord tones in order from the root, with the interval each one forms above it.

DegreeNoteSemitonesInterval from the root
1G0Perfect unison
b3Bb3Minor third
5D7Perfect fifth
6E9Major 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.

InversionBass noteDegree in the bassNotes above the bassSemitones above the bass
root positionG1G – Bb – D – E0 3 7 9
first inversionBbb3Bb – D – E – G0 4 6 9
second inversionD5D – E – G – Bb0 2 5 8
third inversionE6E – G – Bb – D0 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)NotesDegreesBassSpan (frets)Sounding strings
13-1-2-3-3-3G A# E A# D G1 b3 6 b3 5 1G26
23-5-5-3-5-3G D G A# E G1 5 1 b3 6 1G26
315-13-14-15-15-15G A# E A# D G1 b3 6 b3 5 1G26
43-1-0-0-3-0G A# D G D E1 b3 5 1 5 6G36
53-1-2-0-3-0G A# E G D E1 b3 6 1 5 6G36
63-1-0-3-3-0G A# D A# D E1 b3 5 b3 5 6G36

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

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