Learning mandolin chord shapes can seem tricky but an easy start is to focus on some of the basic chord shapes. In this series, I’m going to cover various chord shapes of a particular type. You can see the full series here. Now that we’ve covered the basic major, minor, and diminished chords, it’s time to look at altered and extended chords.

In today’s review, we’ll look at the 6th chord. I mostly grouped these by which string the Root.

What is a 6th chord?

A 6th chord is an extension of the major triad using the 1 3 5 6 of a particular key. These chords are similar to 13th chords (just missing the b7) which I’ll discuss in a future post.

These chords often feel minor which makes sense since the notes in the 6th chord make up the relative minor 7th. Take G6 for example (G B D E) notes rearranged to (E G B D) or Emin7. As such, they can be good substitutions for minor 7 chords.

These chords are used a lot in jazz. Often it’s either as a replacement for the Root (like in Afternoon in Paris) or a resolution at the end of a song (like in Honeysuckle Rose) but definitely not limited to those uses.

3 note vs 4 note chords

In my diagrams I’ll mostly display 4 note chords, though I will explain 3 note variations in some cases. While you can certainly play just 3 note chords and be great (a la Jethro Burns for example), learning the 4 note variations gives you more bang for your buck. Understanding and knowing the 4 note variation allows you the flexibility to drop one note to get a 3 note variation – giving you a lot more options with less to memorize.

Morphing Chords

I’ve added a few ideas for how these shapes can be used to make chord changes a bit easier by moving one or two fingers a fret. Knowing how a single note can change the whole chord can really simplify chord changes. In some progressions, just moving the one or two notes and leaving the others in place will be fine. In others, you may find that you need to shift the chord shape itself to another position.

What’s the “starting fret”?

The shapes here are general moveable patterns – meaning there’s no specific starting fret. Simply find the root note on the fretboard and that will tell you what fret you should start on etc. Using a fretboard roadmap like this can help.

Wrapping Up
These shapes are a great easy way to start getting comfortable with chords. Aside from just memorizing the shapes, I strongly recommend you memorize the note function of each chord (i.e. where is the b3rd and b7th in the chord etc), the name of the note on each string, and how to spell chords. Longer term, this will pay off significantly.

A good way to learn these chords is through playing tunes. Just pick any song you like and try using these chords when appropriate. Use the chord diagrams above to create at least 2 variations of the progression – meaning you’ll use different voicings of each chord for each variation. Start with something simple like a I IV V song before moving to more complex tunes.

I hope this review helps! And remember – this is just the beginning, there’s so many other variations out there! Next we’ll be diving in to 9th chords.

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