Chris Parks · Stage 9: Sixth chords and the scales of chords
G6 and C6 diminished scale of chords
Chris lays out Barry’s major sixth diminished scale of chords on guitar in drop 2 voicings, fret by fret, for G6 and C6 across three string sets. The scale is a major scale with the flat 6 added, and its chords alternate the sixth chord with the diminished; these are the shapes he uses to comp on How High the Moon in the next episode, together with D6.
Step by step
- 0:00Goal: drop 2 voicings of Barry’s major 6 diminished scale of chords for How High the Moon (minor 6 diminished was covered earlier, on Yesterdays)
- 0:38G6 diminished is a G major scale with the flat 6 (E flat) between the 5th and the 6th; as chords it alternates G6 and the diminished. Frets below run from the lowest string up
- 0:38Strings 6-5-4-3: G6 at 3-5-2-4, diminished at 5-6-4-5, G6 at 7-7-5-7
- 1:22Strings 5-4-3-2: diminished 3-4-2-4, G6 5-5-4-5, diminished 6-7-5-7, G6 7-9-7-8
- 1:59Strings 4-3-2-1: diminished 4-5-4-5, G6 5-7-5-7, diminished 7-8-7-8, G6 9-9-8-10
- 2:45C6 diminished, starting with the fifth in the bass on strings 6-5-4-3: C6 3-3-2-2, diminished 4-5-3-4, C6 5-7-5-5
- 3:21Strings 5-4-3-2: diminished 2-3-1-3, C6 3-5-2-5 (a stretch; or take it with the root on string 6 at 8-10-7-9), then diminished 5-6-4-6
- 4:03C6 7-7-5-8, diminished 8-9-7-9; then strings 4-3-2-1: C6 5-5-5-5, diminished 6-7-6-7, C6 7-9-8-8, diminished 9-10-9-10
- 4:36Arrive back on C6 from the root at 10-12-10-12; for D6 diminished, play the C6 shapes two frets higher
- 5:13Why these keys: How High the Moon starts in G major, so get your G6, C6 and D6 scales of chords ready for comping
Chords and notes in this video
Tap a time to jump to it in the video.
Barry’s own words on this
In the course
Transcript
- 0:00Hello, and welcome to episode 15 of Things I’ve Learned from Barry Harris. Today we’re going to discuss, just for guitar players, some drop 2 voicings of six diminished, Barry’s scale of chords of major six diminished. We’ve done minor 6 diminished before in previous episodes, talking about yesterdays. Today we’ll do it keeping in mind the tune How High the Moon, which we were working on on the last episode. So the first 6 diminished that you’re going to need to know is G6 diminished.
- 0:38And remember, the scale for G6 Diminished is a G major scale with a flat 6 between the 5th and the major 6. So that’s his scale. And the scale of chords would be in drop 2, we’re going to call out each particular fret. So we’ll start on the 6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings. and we’ll say third fret, fifth fret, second fret, fourth fret. Next one’s a diminished, fifth fret, sixth fret, fourth fret, fifth fret. Next one is a six,
- 1:22seventh fret, seventh fret, fifth fret, seventh fret. We’ll change strings, we’ll go to the fifth, fourth, third, and second string now. Play our diminished, third fret, fourth fret, 2nd fret 4th fret now we’ll play our six fifth fret fifth fret fourth fret fifth fret next one sixth fret seventh fret fifth fret seventh fret next one seventh fret ninth fret seventh fret eighth fret next diminution changing strings now we’re on the fourth third second and first and we got fourth fret
- 1:59fifth fret fourth fret fifth fret and we’re back to back to G6 which would be fifth fret seventh fret fifth fret seventh fret we’ll do so we got diminished seventh fret eighth fret seventh fret eighth fret and one more six ninth fret ninth fret eighth fret tenth fret okay so these are your G6’s That’s G6 diminished.
- 2:45Now, in the song How High the Moon, you’re going to need G6 diminished. And you’re also going to need C6 diminished, which we’ll talk about. So, let’s do C6 diminished. We’ll start again from the 6th, 5th, 4th, and 3rd strings, and we’ll do with the 5th and the bass, starting off. So now this is C6 diminished, barriced scale of chords. 3rd fret, 3rd fret, 2nd fret, 2nd fret. 4th fret, 5th fret, 3rd fret, 4th fret. 5th fret, 7th fret, 5th fret, 5th fret.
- 3:21Changing strings. Now 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd. So we have 2nd fret, 3rd fret, 1st fret, 3rd fret. Next one’s 6th. That one’s kind of a stretch, but maybe you could do it on the other set of strings too. So it’s 3rd fret, 5th fret, 2nd fret, 5th fret. So that one would be here, if you can’t do it there. So on the 6th string root, it would be 8th fret, 10th fret, 9th fret. I’m sorry, 8th fret, 10th fret, 7th fret, 9th fret. So now, F to C6 we have diminished. Fifth fret, sixth fret, fourth fret, sixth fret. Next one.
- 4:03Seventh fret, seventh fret, fifth fret, eighth fret. Next one. Eighth fret, ninth fret, seventh fret, ninth fret. Next one’s back to six. Fifth, fifth, fifth, fifth. Next one diminished. 6th, 7th fret, 6th fret, 7th fret. Next one. 7th fret, 9th fret, 8th fret, 8th fret. Diminished. 9th fret, 10th fret, 9th fret, 10th fret.
- 4:36And then we’re back to C6 again, starting from the root, which would be 10th fret, 12th fret, 10th fret, 12th fret. So here’s your C6 diminished. Okay, so there’s C6 diminished. The other one you’re probably going to have to know is D6 diminished, but obviously that’s just you’re going to transpose it up a half step.
- 5:13Now, the reason why I pointed these out is because the first change in how high the moon, it starts with G major. So you’re going to need to know your G6s. You’re going to need to know your C6s. And you’re going to need to know your D6s. So now this is going to be a real short episode. And then I’m going to start episode, the following episode, where we’ll talk about how to use those. So anyway, I hope you enjoyed this brief episode. Keep the comments coming and suggestions.
- 5:46I enjoy them. and have fun practicing your major six diminished, your G6 and your C6. Thanks. In drop two.