hey everyone my name is ixy and this is
part two of my video about the magical
properties of the flat six chord but
first what do i mean by flat six in a
major scale each note is labeled one
through seven ascending to designate its
position in the scale basically one two
three four five six seven so in c major
one is c but in a flat major one is a
flat when a scale is minor the third
sixth and seventh degrees are all
lowered or flattened so now it's one two
flat three four five flat six eh
flat seven the flat six chord is the
major chord that is built on top of the
flat 6 scale degree this chord is
naturally occurring or native to the
natural minor and harmonic minor scales
all right let's get going
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now that example from something i can
never have reminded me of the add nine
in a way this is sort of similar to the
example of the major seventh chord or
like a seventh
here we're gonna have a ninth the reason
it's called a ninth is because it goes
just past the octave which is sort of
like eight
can you feel the incompleteness that
creates
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if it were to resolve up
we might feel some kind of satisfaction
relief it can also resolve down
so a ninth is an extension it's a third
above a seventh so it's like if you just
kept going like
these are all thirds
which is an incredibly beautiful chord
right
oh and when you leave some of the notes
out it's even prettier so let's say
we're in c the add nine is going to be
d but you can also voice it down here
so to bridge this gap of like the
seventh the ninth here's an example from
the new halsey album that was predensed
predensed protrenst it was pro-trented
[Laughter]
it was
it was produced by trent resner and
atticus ross so the song i'm thinking
about is belles and santa fe which is
probably my favorite from that record
it's really really pretty
[Music]
maybe i could hold you in the dark
there's our 9th
[Music]
and now for a radiohead example this is
possibly my favorite radiohead song i'm
not sure but it's called reckoner and it
reckons my heart i'm about to get
wrecked
sorry i'm just in a mood today i'm
talking about my favorite chord
so reckoner starts off with the one
chord
there's our flat six
[Music]
oh
it's just for a moment but it's enough
it's enough to kill me oh my gosh okay
and then the lyrics when he goes
[Music]
[Applause]
you oh
there's the flat 6 port just over and
over again dedicated to all human beings
all human beings
is just flat six chord heaven all right
i've made my point it's incredible
before we continue i just wanted to find
something that i didn't define in my
first video which is what is the tonic
the tonic is the note that the key of
the song is in so if the key is c the
tonic is c when i say tonic chord and
when i say home i mean arriving at the
place where the song feels the most at
rest and resolved this is the chord that
typically the song would end on
[Music]
now you probably have noticed that most
of these chord progressions aren't just
the tonic chord the one chord and the
flat six chord there are other chords
usually one or two others around it and
they do have
some sort of influence on how powerful
the chord progression is for sure i'm
not saying that's only the flat six
chord
but i'm also saying that you can have a
chord progression with just the tonic
and flat six chord and you will not need
anything else because it's that good the
other chords can increase the potency of
the flat six chord it can also be
independent you know it's it's
interdependent it's a healthy chord
part of the reason the flat six chord
works so well with the tonic chord is
that they actually have two common tones
for this reason melodies that sound
really good over the one chord also
sound really good over the flat six
chord
they're so alike and so different at the
same time so here are some examples i
got a deftones i got another radiohead
and i got a bjork all is full of love
the first chord in the chorus and i just
did a whole video on that song so if you
want to learn more about that here's the
link
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[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
it is harder to sing than
wow bjork you are oh and she's belting
it
hear that nine
here's a deftone's example and i was
really excited to find an example from
tones because i love their music but i
wasn't sure if i'd ever heard the flat
six chord i was like going through in my
head and i was like i actually don't
think they really use it very often but
i found one and it's from white pony the
song knife party
[Music]
[Applause]
this one's less obvious because they're
not voicing the chord like a triad a
triad has a root third and fifth but a
suspended chord replaces the third with
either a second or a fourth in this case
the second or sus two this can make
things sound a little bit more ambiguous
and be a bit disorienting
what is that is that a tritone
ah
there is a tritone between the flat six
and the second degree of a scale
that's probably not heard very often
because the second degree it's a very
tense note and it wants to go down to
the tonic or sometimes up to the third
but it's not a place of rest deftones i
think actually hang out on the second
degree a lot which might be part of
their sound so we get to hear that
tritone
[Music]
[Applause]
oh there's the seventh all the feet
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oh my god flat six one flat six one you
don't need another one and another
radiohead example from a moon shaped
pool which came out in 2016 and it is so
good if it's something that you kind of
like i'm not into radiohead's new stuff
please go check it out the song i'm
talking about is called full stop the
beginning of the song is in some sort of
limbo where we're just kind of dancing
around the tonal center not really
having a chord progression but it's when
the song really kicks in and he starts
singing what i think is truthful
medicine
uh
[Music]
that major seventh chord
[Music]
oh
[Music]
okay so here's another second degree
creating a tritone
oh it's heartbreaking
because a tritone has to resolve well
it doesn't have to
but it wants to
[Music]
i'm i'm just out of words it's just so
beautiful i can't stand it so please go
check out that song and the last example
i have for this video of the power of
the flat six chord is as an unanswered
question
there are times when the flat six chord
is emphasized even more than the tonic
chord and that is a little unusual some
chord progressions even start with the
flat six chord and end with them and the
tonic is sort of just nestled in between
or almost like you just sort of
passed by it without noticing right on
the way back to this
question where you're like
and
but there really never is an answer so
the first example is rhubarb by a fixed
twin
[Music]
this chord progression starts and ends
with the flat six chord and i'll point
out where we get to the tonic so you can
hear that tension
[Music]
but
not for
long
exquisite right
the power of the flat six chord my
friends the power of the flat six chord
amen my last example is by an artist i
haven't talked about it all on this
channel and that's a little dragon they
have this song that just pulls at my
heart strings like no other called twice
[Music]
so this piano starts off of just doing
the uh tonic and fifth so we know we're
gonna get that major seventh and we do
[Music]
there it is
that's what we start with
and then
oh is that an add nine
i bet
[Music]
do you feel like even though we do hit
the tonic just for a second
it doesn't feel like it it feels like
we're just
left there and that's where i'm gonna
leave you for those of you that want a
little bit more information about like
how to find the flat six chord how to
voice it i'll have a little blurb here
after the outro but i just wanna say
thank you so much for watching and if
you have any examples of the flat 6
chord that you know and love please
leave a comment because i must know i
must find all the flat six chords
if you like the video like it subscribe
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what i'm doing okay so if you write
music and you want to find the flat 6
chord you can count semitones on a
guitar that's going to be frets on a
piano it's going to be individual keys
so let's say we're in c we're going to
count one two three four
four semitones down so the flat six of c
is a flat there it is and then we can
build a major triad
so many ways to think about it but
probably the easiest way is to put a
perfect fifth above it
and then fill it in with a major third
flat six chord achieved if you want to
add a seventh on top of it then you're
going to add another third essentially
it's a major third which is four
semitones as well or you can find the
octave above that bottom note
and just count down
one semitone there we go
ah
if you want to find the add nine
find the octave above that note that
root note and go up two semitones or a
whole step
also you can experiment with dropping
the fifth of the chord because typically
you don't need it as much as you need
the other notes to express the quality
of the chord
instead of
try inverting it try reorganizing try
spreading things apart okay i hope that
helped
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you