Songs that use 6th Chords

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Sixth chords are a less common type of chord but still very useful in adding extra colour and diversity to your chord progressions. The term "sixth chord" can also be unexpectedly confusing due to various conflicting and overlapping definitions and usages of that term!
And, an extra special thanks goes to Peter Keller, Douglas Lind, Vidad Flowers, Ivan Pang, Waylon Fairbanks, Jon Dye, Austin Russell, Christopher Ryan, Toot & Paul Peijzel, the channel’s Patreon saints! 😇
This video was edited by David Hartley. Check out his KZbin channel here: / davidhartley94
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0:00 What is a sixth chord?
0:50 The Beatles sixth chords
2:25 Sixth chords on guitar
3:58 Jazz & Swing
4:33 6/9 chords
5:05 Minor 6th chord
7:03 Pianote
8:04 Inverted 6th chords
10:33 Classical 6th chords vs. Modern 6th chords
13:00 Piano outro

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Try Pianote FREE for 30-Days: www.pianote.com/affiliate/davidbennett 🎹 and consider subscribing to their KZbin channel: kzbin.info 🎼

[@Arycke]

Hey quick question, this was uploaded one hour ago. How did you get this comment pinned 4 days ago? I'm not familiar with delayed uploads if that is a thing that can be done when publishing videos Thank you. I love all your videos and teaching style.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

@@Aryckeno worries! So all my videos are unlisted before being published, so the date you see on this video is the date I chose to publish it, not the date it was uploaded. 😊

[@Arycke]

@DavidBennettPiano Hey David thank you for getting back to me sir, I appreciate it a lot. I understand now :) keep up the great work man, I really love your content

[@zimmejoc]

Is it my playback or is the audio out of sync with the video?

[@cookicha]

David you seem to put a lot of work in each of your videos. I want to thank you for that, I appreciate it a lot. You are blessing, brother ❤

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thank you 😊

[@yverickdast1765]

⁠@@DavidBennettPianothank you mr bennett

[@Jimmyjames738]

@@DavidBennettPianofix the audio being out of sync with the video! It’s unwatchable.

[@YourLoyalDeserter]

@@DavidBennettPiano Seems like you cut out a bit about Pyramid Song from the audio but not the video, and now everything after that is out of sync. Should probably reupload.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

@@YourLoyalDeserter thanks for the heads up. It is because I made a cut to the video whilst online. It will sort itself out but it sometimes take a while. Try watching on a different device. Sorry!

[@jeantapsa]

That ending piece was hauntingly beautiful

[@gregoryhaddock5395]

Right??? It's soooooo good! 💔🖤

[@endoflevelboss]

"hauntingly beautiful" wtf does that mean

[@endoflevelboss]

​@@gregoryhaddock5395Right? Right? Right?

[@charlesdartagnan8788]

@@endoflevelboss have you never heard that phrase before

[@FeedsNoSliesMusic]

@@endoflevelboss You know, we've got websites now that act like dictionaries, so you could just look up "haunting" and "beautiful" and piece it together yourself.

[@eatingsound373]

Such a beautiful composition at the end. You are extremely talented, David.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thank you!

[@aldocort3418]

Yeah the line at 13:56 kinda reminded me of John Lennon's Beautiful Boy or Debussy's Arabesque

[@mccartney7108]

6th chords are some of my favourite tonally. my hot take is that 6th chords sound best on guitar.

[@adityanadgauda]

Not a hot take. 100% agree

[@GizzyDillespee]

More Hot Club than hot take

[@sebastianschweigert7117]

I've heard so many people say "X sounds best on guitar." No it doesn't. You just play guitar

[@spindriftdrinker]

@@sebastianschweigert7117 Yup. I've played guitar for 50 years. It's a hard instrument. Many chords on guitar are very hard to play cleanly without contorting your fingers into very difficult spots. This is much less of a problem with piano.

[@spindriftdrinker]

@@xcx8646 Depends on the piece and the arrangement. You can take a Bach piece and put it into a key that works very nicely on guitar. But if you put it in the "wrong" key, it can become very difficult to play smoothly. This is true to varying degrees with any instrument.

[@NeonWhirlwind]

6/9 chords are the best

[@theaver6ge]

I agree, it sound *Nice*

[@bobsmith3291]

Your ma loves a 6/9 chord

[@uriahlegutki2257]

Cant tell if your being serious

John Mayer introduced them to me

[@mrnogot4251]

That is actually the exact sound you hear in your head during the act

[@yorgle]

Is the audio sync off on this one or is it just me?

[@AgressiveElevatorMusic]

I play lap steel in C6 Hawaiian tuning. A ton of Hawaiian and, by extension, old country have that sixth sound all over them. A lot of the steel in SpongeBob was recorded in this tuning as well.

[@MikeS29]

I play lap and pedal steel too (inexperienced, but learning), and since I only have a single neck pedal steel, I especially like to voice my E9 tuning to sound like the C6 tuning of my lap steel.

[@AgressiveElevatorMusic]

@@MikeS29yeah that A+B pedals down is basically A6 tuning. You can really fake a C6 sound in E9 tuning.

[@lecleto]

At lap steel the 6ths are very useful tool when you want play minor chords without slants. This why lot of 6ths tunings are soo common on lap steel however the 6th signature sound always sound like a Hawain Music then, in some cases, this sound can be something that you don’t want.

[@alonkatz4633]

You should make a video about German, French and Italian sixths as well. They deserve their time at the spotlight.

[@FaMinore]

Paul McCartney musically quoted "She loves you" in "My brave face", where the opening vocal harmony on the line "My brave, my brave, my brave face" lands on an E6. When they sing it at the end of the choruses, the voice on the C# then resolves on a B, going from E6 to E major

[@johnpriceuk]

Joni’s use of open tunings and unusual chord voicing is absolutely inspired. What a guitarist.

[@rodmac8358]

Great video, David. Can you please make one explaining the Neapolitan, German and French Sixth chords? Thank you.

[@chmendez]

I second that

[@SpaghettiToaster]

Those are augmented sixth chords, that's something very different from a regular 6th chord.

[@patemblen3644]

What a great teacher! Calm, concise yet thorough. Lovely piece at the end too.

[@Cephlin]

That was one of the most beautiful songs I've heard you write before David! Love it! And I learnt a few things that needed clarifying regarding the classical notation.

[@dustbunnys]

The audio isn’t syncing up properly for me???

[@JayMonk595]

Thank you. Really appreciate these videos you produce, succinct, informative and easy to follow. Wonderful composition, so moving. Thanks for performing it to us.

[@unacuentadeyoutube13]

I can't believe that this video came out right now, as I asked for it in the comment section of the previous one. Apart from an amazing musician and educator, you seem to be able to read minds too David!

[@chmendez]

Love your piano piece at the end. The 6th adds a mystery flavour.

[@ILoveMagic15]

I loved that you spoke about the different usages of the 6 labelling in pop and classical music. Moreover, I wasn't consciously aware that minor 6th chords had a major 6th, so that was great to learn! Your videos are really well done!

[@maxblatter]

As logical sequence, the next video should be about the Seventh Chords 😉! And I am looking forward to it, because on of my all-time favorite songs "When You Sing" by my all-time favorite band "School of Seven Bells" (SVIIB) contains lenghty, dissonant chords which I used to describe as just "horribly beautiful", until I (as a musical layman) was able to analyze them as seventh chords. By the way: You may find the song here on KZbin under kzbin.info/www/bejne/b6CXhGWtr5x-apY

[@parodygm]

For sure, sixth chords and major 7ths are all over dreampop and shoegazer music.

[@chrisjeffrey7570]

@@parodygmno he needs to explore borrowed chords, and then next vid after that explore how they can be a introduction to jazz

[@sbingham1979]

Thank you Max for introducing me to "School of Seven Bells" whom I had never heard of until today, sadly. But thank you for directing me to the beautiful song "When You Sing"

[@derekrakestraw4561]

Excellent as always. I sure learned something new in that last segment. That's so crazy.

[@whytheturtles]

Great Job David! I'm a music teacher and I always share your channel with new students. You are so concise with your explanations as well as examples for context. Really appreciate your hard work.

[@AlDunbar]

I agree completely. I just wish I had had access to his videos decades ago when I was starting to play guitar.

[@dannybonsai7102]

Your channel is an oasis of wonder and learning. Youve done well not to lean into any controversies in an alienating way, keep it up. Do not stop what youre doing, the way youre doing it

[@jakubnowak649]

this Joni Mitchell fragment kinda reminds me of how you play the simplest 12-bar blues on guitar: you play the fifth, then the sixth and so on

[@DavidBennettPiano]

True!

[@AlDunbar]

There's a name for that, but I forget what it is

[@garethevans2650]

I've heard it called a "ride". It's used a lot in blues/rock. Maybe David doesn't highlight it because it often leaves out the third?

[@InsArtTure]

I respect David for all his great videos and all of his content is golden but I can't but smile at this video being the epitome of David's YT career featuring SO many mentions of "SIKT"! :) All the best to you, David! Keep up the good work!

[@ericmather-burks7380]

When I turned on the closed captioning, it skipped over the part about the Pyramid Song by Radiohead. So the closed captioning moved onto the part about the end of "She Loves You" by the Beatles when David Bennett was talking about the Radiohead song. Ever since that happened, the closed captioning stayed ahead of what Bennett was saying. Who edits these subtitles anyway?

[@Neil_SM]

Yeah I had this same issue without closed captioning on. The audio track seemed to skip the Radiohead song and it therefore did not match up with the video after that point.

[@ericmather-burks7380]

@@Neil_SM "Without?" Don't you mean "with?"

[@chriswood426]

Great episode. You’ve taught me absolutely loads about music. Thank you for that

[@slyovin]

Thank you! I really loved your piece at the end of the video

[@bornaskracic8011]

Great video! Coming from the classical background, I was always confused about sixth chord notation in modern songs. Thanks for very nice clarification.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

I’m glad it was helpful 😊

[@ALF8892]

I cant really describe how great this video and your composition is. I can say that I love you David.

[@sbingham1979]

No, this is BETTER than great, because you are so clear in your explanations of these chords, their examples, and the ways that one could be confused by the naming of them. This is just so very helpful and appreciated by one is rather easily confused (i.e. myself)

[@AlyraMoondancer]

That piece at the end is *gorgeous.* Worth watching the video for that alone! (but the rest was excellent, too!)

[@ValenVillanueva]

Hi David, thank you for your videos and your generosity sharing this concepts.

[@mechanussunrise]

Glad you covered the confusions and the different jazz terminology versus common practice theory!

[@ecowman5224]

Great video, lovely tutorials and a wonderful piece of music too 👍🏻

[@thefoss5387]

Mr. Bennett, while I understand the accents that 6th chords, in isolation, gives to your examples, the classic rocker in me cannot help but see the 6th chords as a signature element of formative Rock 'n' Roll. A rhythm guitar playing alternate root and 6ths (with an occasional excursion to a 7th) in a blues progression, covers the bulk of Chuck Berry's catalogue. The major to 6th movement seems the very definition of early rock. You have great content, as always, keep up the excellent work.

[@pathaks1]

Oh, thanks a lot. I could understand and feel why on melody side moving from one octave higher, downward melody is more melodious than as passing note

[@peterhoglund9603]

Thanks David, luv your videos

[@ThePi314Man]

I think the main thing that distinguishes sixths from their minor seventh equivalents is the deliberate major second rub between the fifth and sixth notes of the scale. I've always heard Bohemian Rhapsody as starting on Bb6 because of this.

[@jean.marion]

Thank you so much for describing what the 6 4 fraction means. I've been wondering for a year. - Gorgeous ending song! But you knew that already 🥰

[@MomLAU]

Love your original piece at the end!

[@MikeS29]

Thank you, and beautiful original piece at the end.

[@Foxywaterable]

I love these videos! You do a fantastic job!

[@southsideronnie]

Nice piece to close out. Thank you David!

[@bmshala]

Lovely the piano at the end. Thnx!

[@random275]

Good research in finding examples of what you are demonstrating - excellent presentation ! you certainly know your music theory :-) Phil

[@Arycke]

Thank you for making the disinction of the m6 not having the b6 and the.mb6 being distinctly different. On inversions of the minor 6 chord variations: Dm6 is an inversion of Bm7b5 Dm6 D F A B Bm7b5 B D F A Emb6 is an inversion of Cmaj7 Emb6 E G B C Cmaj7 C E G B

[@fjodorcornelisson6874]

and thank you for giving these examples ... help me visualize the chords ...

[@mbmillermo]

Another very worthwhile lesson! I like that you added the bit about classical notation, which can lead to confusion. Your composition at the end was really beautiful. One thing I would have added: The Bm♭6 (B-D-F♯-G) is also a Gmaj7 in first inversion. Another thing worth noting, because it comes up a lot, especially in jazz: The Bm6 is very similar to the E9 and can be used as a substitution for E9. (An advanced idea that is probably too much jazz for this channel: The E7 is often used as the tritone sub for B♭7, so the Bm6 can be used instead. It turns out that the B melodic minor scale works well over B♭7 -- its 7th mode is called the B♭ altered scale because it contains all the altered tones for B♭7.)

[@elmerexpress]

What a wonderous tone in that little melody of yours!

[@mocoSaladoRico]

man, I am sooooo into these videos... they are fire!!!

[@mvrabreu]

Thanks, man. You are the best. Love your channel.

[@redactedhoptional]

Been following along with these videos in GarageBand and it was interesting to see how similar the piano samples (like at 0:15) sound to the default instrument in GarageBand that I was playing along using. Cool video, especially the outro music!

[@davidmochen]

Bravo, and beautiful song of yours!

[@jakubnowak649]

Btw damn I love the sound of a iim6 resolving to I, and I love finding out about different things from your videos, thanks!

[@jakubnowak649]

it kinda sounds like a perfect cadence, probably because it shares three notes with a V7 chord

[@STERNWAERTS]

brilliant stuff as always!

[@davidjohnson1654]

Thank you, once again, Mr. Bennett! And I LOVE your composition at the end, in all Sixth chords. It sounds very mellow, soothing, reflective. Serious, but not sad. Like it would fit lyrics of someone reflecting on their many years of a relationship together, while they're still together. It has that kind of vibe. ;) ... David J.

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thank you 😊

[@smallhumble]

I have a problem with this video. Audio and video are not synchronised. 0:53 I see a Radiohead score while you are talking about She loves you. Anyone else who has the same problem?

[@TinyBolts1]

10:09 i love how casually you say that

[@NomeDeArte]

Love this videos, thank you!

[@axlhyvonen461]

Making such videos really must be time consuming and not to mention fatiguing😊😊Besides You do it such a perfection😊😊Today I learned something new again, or relearned,I started to watch Your videos in October 2021😊🎉

[@danielmateovargas3796]

Wow i was thinking yesterday about sixth chords and here is the video, thanks David!

[@sirB0nes]

These last few videos are feeling a lot more like David Bennett Guitar than David Bennett Piano. I like that you're talking more about how the instrument on which a songwriter composes leads naturally to different musical choices (similar to the discussion about how voice leading is a natural choice to make when you're writing a song on piano).

[@HowlingFretFumbler]

Wow that piece at the end is bliss!! ❤

[@bsiems_willieaugustproject]

First off, cool piece at the end. Very Keith Jarrett-esque dreamlike quality. Regarding the confusion over which 6th to add to a mi6 chord, it might be useful to mention at some point that in contemporary theory, absent special notations (#5, MA7, b13, etc.), the default scale for extending major triads is the mixolydian mode, while the default for minor triads is the dorian.

[@ambientideas1]

It’s the little nuanced enhancements that can turn the prosaic into something richly unique and interesting. Thanks for another great lesson. 👏

[@iraklismoschonas5214]

Great video once again David, thank you! Another example of a sixth chord is the very first chord of The Killers’ song, “When You Were Young”. 😀

[@jasonscott2862]

That all 6 chord piece at the end was pretty cool experiment. Sounds great

[@elishasharp1]

In Спокойная Ночь by Кино (Calm Night by Kino) there is a very nice use of a Dm6.

[@unacuentadeyoutube13]

I've found the A6/9 to C6/9 resolution to be particularly good sounding when using voice leading. For example, on the guitar: x22222 (muted sixth string) to x32233. Am I naming those chords wrong or what is it? Two seemingly unrelated chords sounding really good together just because of a quartal way of playing them (a lot of fourths intervals between the notes)?

[@capacle]

Great piece at the end!

[@by_antony]

Love the explanations

[@uchihauzumaki8789]

Yooo thanks man your videos are really helpful

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Glad you like them!

[@benruniko]

The sixth always makes me think of relaxing soft music playing while I lay on a plush couch in a cozy room with an old grandfather clock ticking away nearby. Its very pleasant in a very specific way.

[@kayleebaginski]

David on the guitar was my favorite part of this video

[@sbingham1979]

This is great, thankyou so much

[@TheDrewjameson]

Love the piece you wrote; it reminds me of the background of a sad anime episode. The hero just defeated a new enemy they never thought they could defeat, but at a terrible cost. Now they have to live with their choices, while watching the rain outside the cafe windows...

[@theowijdeven2201]

my classic music theory teacher very much disagreed about these chords, and I still follow when teaching: though C6 in fact is a Am7/C, and a Cm6 is a A half diminished/C in the second reversal...

[@hodgheg]

Brilliantly explained... I've always struggled to explain this clearly to my pupils.

[@sijousaboro5510]

I used Am6 in a recent composition of mine. It added a really nice flavour to the music.

[@douglaso6428]

David, you are so talented! Love the piece you wrote! Is there a way to purchase a copy? Beautiful!

[@danielvillalobos4265]

Love it. David Bennett Piano... and guitar 🎸

[@Bacopa68]

Just because his last name is Piano doesn't mean he can't play guitar. 🤠

[@thiagoskapata]

Minor sixth chords can be made from Dorian scale without borrowing. They are used a lot in ska after minor chords to add tension.

[@TigerRogers0660]

Thanks David!! I'll have to incorporate some more 6th chords into my songwriting.

[@daregularperson]

The way I’ve always thought about the 6/4 (or second) inversion notation is because I mainly play guitar. If I play an open G chord, and then do the folksy hammer on of the G’s 4th & 6th, the result is a C chord in the second inversion.

[@sheppsea4297]

Is there any reason why the naming of the 6 chord differs from 7 chord, so for the Cm6 chord we add the major 6 whereas with the Cm7 you add the minor seven, and would add the major seven to the Cm(maj7) chord… Is there any reason why it isn’t the Cm(maj6)?

[@paulhancock1530]

Nice tune you wrote at the end. Love it. Of course, Status Quo made a living off adding that 6 to their power chords. All comes from Chuck Berry I guess. The Quo rule lol. Great vid. Love your stuff.

[@jackmartinleith]

Hiya David. Glad you clarified the C6 / Am7 equivalence. I was already familiar with this but it isn't widely known. In a future video, could you do the same with, for example, Dm6 = an inversion of Bm7♭5 (also called B half diminished / Bø7 I think) and so on. People might find a lookup table useful. Thanks and best wishes from Bristol.

[@x1PMac1x]

That was totally sick-th.

[@collectitbydiyversity2442]

A question I am still trying to understand is what is the difference of a 7th chord in 3rd inversion and a 6th chord in root position since the notes are the same. And when to use one label over the other during a composition when it's not used in a pedal note or to create a melodic line with neighboring chords? Or is it up to the composer or performer to name them as they wish? Like the piano piece you play at the end demonstrating 6 chords can also be considered as min7 & min7b5 chords, which is more common?

[@wpfairbanks]

“Come and get it” by Paul/badfinger sounds like the epitome of 6th in my opinion Love the 6th chord. Reminds me of eating sweets as a kid but having a cavity in the tooth that stings slightly. It’s just a little too sweet to be

[@prepcoin_nl4362]

I've never heard of the convention of treating min6 chords as a dorian 6 by default, and I've definitely seen the same attitude in multiple pieces of academic literature. Considering how much more common these 'minb6' chords are and how the minor scale is default thought of as the Aeolian mode these days, it makes more sense to me to call them min6 by default and dorian 6's as either that, melodic minor 6, or min#6.

[@oldmatedave1]

Well... it really IS the convention! At least, in any kind of popular style of music. And those minor chords with the added 6th are WAY more common than min(b6). It's also comes down to how we name chords. We don't name chords based on scales but intervals. So a 6 in a chord name means a major 6th regardless of whether the base triad is major or minor

[@LuisSantos-nf9rs]

I believe that XTC also uses sixth chords several times, which seems to give that extra colour that distinguishes their songs from other more straightforward songs from their period.

[@qclod]

XTC is so damn good

[@DroomSpook]

Awesome. Examples?

[@brucearcher8872]

Wow! Good lesson!

[@DavidBennettPiano]

Thanks 😉

[@GAYAKRISTAL]

You’re just the best teacher on KZbin! ❤

[@kvvvy6359]

My favorite instance of 6th chords in The Beatles discography is "I'm happy just to dance with you". The Beatles themselves regarded that song as a throwaway, but it's still excellent cuz they're the Beatles lol

[@aaronp0324]

I'm learning when to use 6th and 7th chords. I found it's a great way to add color to the music.

[@tonemoreno763]

I wish you were my music theory teacher when I was in high school.

[@francescor.giusti2211]

In You won’t see me bridge there’s a D6, descending chromatically to a Dm6, that matches quite well with mood of the song

[@dgrblue4162]

The opening chords on that Joni Mitchell song, reminds me of the Faces song Stay with Me, sung by Rod Stewart.