Week 5: New Chord Challenge: 6 Chords

Hello Everyone! Thank you to all that participated last week:
nullnaught, telecrater, moshzilla1016

Every week for the next 8 weeks, we will choose a chord. In that given week, we will have to find someway to use that chord in a song, whether in be part of a progression, arpeggiated, fingerpicked, etc. Though we must write something that will use this chord shape in one week. I figured, why not let the rest of this board benefit from our undertaking.

So here's the deal:

1. Somewhere at the beginning of the week, I will select a chord for us to all learn about.
2. I will post a little bit of background on the chord, how it could be used or where it is being used.
3. You will all noodle around on your guitar with it.
4. Record your favorite riff, progression, lick, etc.
5. Post here and explain to us your mentality when you approached this problem (MOST IMPORTANT PART!!!)


I really urge more people to attempt these challenges each week! They have been a huge value to my guitar playing and have opened my eyes quite a bit in just 3 weeks of work. It benefits me to have more people doing this so I can see how they approach the same material as me!


This week, we will be looking at 6 chords. Any form of the 6 chord is allowed (Major, minor, augmented or diminished)

Background Information and Chords
minor 6 chord chart
Major 6 chord chart

Let's see what we can do with this one! Good luck!

Okay. So first and foremost, I want to make a few points here.

- This is my first time ever posting something here.
- I have never recorded myself before today.
- I have never used Audacity before today.
- My playing sounds considerably less awful through my amp and I have no idea how to improve the sound quality whatsoever. I have my guitar linked directly to the computer via a standard guitar cable, an adapter, and a mic input on the laptop.
- With two little ones, I have not had a ton of time to practice, please don't crucify me for my poor playing level!

That being said, here is the link to the little progression I played. I couldn't make a widget yet, because I need to wait for approval from soundclick for my artist page.

http://www.soundclick.com/player/single_player.cfm?songid=11338546&q=hi

So it is pretty simple really. I know the very common 2-5-1 progression. I did some research on some uses for 6th chords and it seems that they can be subbed in fairly easily for the corresponding chords. Meaning I can sun in a major for major and minor for minor. So what I did here was just use the 6th chord to add a little color. It is just one bar of each chord:

Dm7 - G7 - CMaj7 - C6
Dm7 - G7 - CMaj7 - C6
Gm7 - C7 - FMaj7 - F6
Gm7 - C7 - FMaj7 - F6

One thing I found interesting in my studies is that the major 6th chord is an inversion of a minor 7th chord. How it is used determines how it sounds to the listener. Take a look at the form of the F6 chord I used:

F6: 557565

If you dampen the low E string and play x57565, that is one of the most common fingerings for a Dm7 chord. In fact, you don't even need to dampen the low E string technically, because it is an A, which is the 5th of the Dmin7 chord structure anyways. I found this to be really interesting. The chord really is defined by the context of the progression, which should not be surprising, but is still pretty cool.

Anyways, thanks for these weekly lessons Jeff. I may try and do some of the previous lessons, but I am not sure if they are too advanced for me. At least I have a way to record myself now, which is cool.

@btimm..sounds good to me man. Glad you pitched in. That's a good observation of the F6 being relative to the Dm7. It works in other inversions also...

e---------10

B--3------10

G--2------10

D--3------10

A--3------12

E---------10

As far as the other lessons being too advanced, I think that may be what Jeff had in mind. To get the perspective of how to use these chords from every level of playing. To hear how each player will interpret the chords. So don't worry about being judged on your playing skills just share your imagination.

click here for tune
I believe im cheating by dropping the 5th on a couple of these chords. But here it goes anyway.
G, G.aug, (G6no5), G.dom.no5, C and G again.
--3-----3----3---3----3-----3------
--3-----4----5---6----5-----3------
--4-----4----4---4----5-----4------
--5-----5----5---5----5-----5------
------------------------------5------
------------------------------3-------

That's cool John. Reminds me of the intro to Kind Of A Drag by The Buckinghams. Try this...after C play a Cmin then resolve to G. Just an idea, it's your progression.

throwing that c minor in there is really beautiful moshZilla1016

Thanks man. Here's my attempt with a few mistakes. I did not feel comfortable strumming these chords so I approached with a terrible finger picking style(must practice). Like btimm said these chords are closely related to other chords so they have an unusual progression. i iv bV bVI

  Am6 Dm6 Am6 Dm6 Am6 D#M6 FM6 Am6 D#M6 FM6 Am6 D#M6 FM6 D#M6 FM6 Am6

e--5---7---5---7---5---3----5---5---3----5---5---3----5---6----8---5-

B--5---6---5---6---5---1----3---5---1----3---5---1----3---4----6---5-

G--5---7---5---7---5---3----5---5---3----5---5---3----5---5----7---5-

D--4---7---4---7---4---1----3---4---1----3---4---1----3---5----7---4-

A--------------------------------------------------------------------

E--------------------------------------------------------------------

4Shared WOULD NOT embed a wave file but worked fine with an MP3. Keep that in mind for future embeds.

whoaaaaa @justjeff this is cool as hell man....I never saw any of these lol.....I'm going to do all of them. Can i play a little solo over the chord progressions that i make???

@V3n0m3333
You can do whatever you want, as long as there is a 6 chord in there somewhere. As for the other weeks, you can do them whenever you feel like it as well!

awesome!!....ill hop to it