Because you're spelling Dm6 wrong.
All chords are named from the underlying major scale... since this has a D root, you use the D major scale to form chords:
D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D
A 6th chord uses 1-3-5-6 (D-F#-A-B) and making it minor only lowers the third (D-F-A-B).
It's a common misconception that minor chords are named from minor scales. But that logic doesn't work - because there are three different minor scales. In other words, whether the 6th is Bb or B depends on whether you're in natural minor (Bb), harmonic minor (Bb) or melodic minor (B).
The major scale comes in only one flavor, so we always use that for naming chords - it avoids any confusion.
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Wait.wait.wait
how do you know which chords match with certain scales? i know its a total newbie question but i'm flippen curious.
GIT SNAKE BIT
"I'm as free as a bird now. And this bird you can not change" Free Bird, By: Lynyrd Skynyrd
GIT SNAKE BIT!!!
stay safe
As NoteBoat said, chords are named from major scales. The root of the chord tells you which major scale.
So the chord C minor, for example, contains the notes 1 b3 & 5 in relation to the C major scale = C Eb & G
Any scale that contains the chord tones will work. So will any scale that conflicts with certain tones, like the blues scale over a major chord (where a major chord has a natural 3rd, and the blues scale a b3)
So if your chord is Dm6, you want to see D-F-A-B in the scale. That leaves you with E, G, and C... which can be natural, sharp, or flat in your scale and still work.
But it's a lot of work to figure out a new scale for every chord in a tune... so it's easiest to look at a progression or a series of chords and figure out what's good. If the progression was Dm6, Gm6, A7, you'd have:
D-F-A-B
G-Bb-D-E
A-C#-E-G
And lining those up you'd get eight notes: A-Bb-B-C#-D-E-F-G. So you'd probably use a scale like D melodic minor (D-E-F-G-A-Bb-B-C-C#-D), and be careful about where you're using B or Bb.
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Remember that what they call the chords (especially in online versions) may not be right. Change the names to F5, Bb5, Ab5 and Db5 and you get:
F-C-Bb-F-Ab-Eb-Db-Ab
Put them in order and you have:
Ab-Bb-C-Db-Eb-F
That's part of lots of scales. It's the F minor pentatonic (F-Ab-Bb-Eb-F) with a Db note added, the Ab major scale if you add a G, etc.
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If you want to figure out a nice scale to play over a chord one way is to figure out the extensions of that chord. For example:
Bm7b5
You already have four notes to start with: B D F A (the notes of the chord). Now you have to figure out:
- which 9 (C or C#)
- which 11 (E or E#)
- which 13 (G or G#)
If you do not know the extensions you can try playing one against the sound of the chord and see what sounds right to you. For a m7b5 however the usual extensions are: 9,11,b13 so: C#, E and G. Now form a scale:
B C# D E F G A and there you go -> it's a Dminor melodic scale starting from B! (In the first mail of this thread a locrian scale is suggested on m7b5 which has a b9, this might be more melodical but I prefer the sound of a natural 9 on m7b5)
Another more complictated example: G7b5 Cm
A normal V I progression in minor. Let's say you want to figure out a nice scale on the G7b5 (could also be a normal G7 and you leave out the fifth). You start with:
G B Db F
Now you a try a 9 an 11 and a 13. Let's say you feel a little adventurous and choose:
- b9 (Ab because it resolves so nice to the fifth (G) of Cm)
- you decide to skip the 11 here because there's already have a Db in the chord and the normal 11 (C) conflicts to much with the third
- b13 (because the normal 13 (E) is a bit akward in the key of Cm)
So now you get
G Ab B Db Eb F -> Ab minor melodic without the Bb. If you stumble onto an incomplete scale you could try the complete scale for sound and in this case you'll find it fits perfectly!
Remember that what they call the chords (especially in online versions) may not be right. Change the names to F5, Bb5, Ab5 and Db5 and you get:
F-C-Bb-F-Ab-Eb-Db-Ab
Put them in order and you have:
Ab-Bb-C-Db-Eb-F
That's part of lots of scales. It's the F minor pentatonic (F-Ab-Bb-Eb-F) with a Db note added, the Ab major scale if you add a G, etc.
My site's quite good at doing this step for you:
Put the notes into the scale finder, choose 'scales' and 'superset' in your search options and hit search (45 results for this one).
Saves me a lot of time at any rate - although it's as pretty good excercise to help learning different scales to try and pattern match all the ones you know.
