the Mickey Baker chord confusion thread

Help!I'maRock!

Help!I'maRock!

Mediocringly Derivative
I've been half-heartedly sawing my way through the Mickey Baker book, and every so often, I happen upon a chord that seems to not make any sense. This will be the the thread for such chords.

At the beginning of the book, we have a diagram for a G Major 6 chord:

x
3
4
2
x
3

If i move this shape up three frets, I get an Abma6 chord, which is used in the "new progression example 2 of Lesson 3.

Now for my question:
Immediately above the Abma6 chord, is an Ab6 chord in the "standard" progression. Since it doesn't signify major or minor, i would expect it to be dominant. Like how E7 is dominant, but Emaj7 is major. But when I plug "Ab6" into my chord finder, it comes up as major.

So is this just a misprint, or is there an actual difference between Ab6 and Abmaj6? I'm leaning towards misprint.
 
A "6" chord can substitute for a Major 7th or major chord in just about any chord progression. Kind of like the difference between light and dark chocolate. And "6" vs ma6" is nothing...they are the same chord...it's a major triad with the 6thnote of the major scale added. I actually prefer the 6 chord to a major 7th sound in a lot of tunes because it's not as strong sounding...

I just found this online which might also be helpful:www.opus28.co.uk/decipheringchords.pdf
 
...they are the same thing a 6 chord is a maj 6...

...edit- effin Mark...beat me to it :embarrassed:...
 
Mark Wein said:
A "6" chord can substitute for a Major 7th or major chord in just about any chord progression. Kind of like the difference between light and dark chocolate. And "6" vs ma6" is nothing...they are the same chord...it's a major triad with the 6thnote of the major scale added. I actually prefer the 6 chord to a major 7th sound in a lot of tunes because it's not as strong sounding...

I just found this online which might also be helpful:www.opus28.co.uk/decipheringchords.pdf
Click to expand...

that's what i figured. i just thought it odd that he'd write it one way on the top progression and another way on the bottom progression, so i second guessed myself. thanks.
 
Help!I'maRock! said:
that's what i figured. i just thought it odd that he'd write it one way on the top progression and another way on the bottom progression, so i second guessed myself. thanks.
Click to expand...

no problem. the nomenclature for jazz chords can be pretty confusing and there are several different ways of writing major chords in particular,.
 
I don't think I ever played a 6th chord intentionally... Actually, I don't think I have ever played a chord with more than a 1st and 5th... :tongue:
 
Hey, I just realized that the beginning to that "summer breeze, makes me feel fine" song is a 6th chord...
 
I need to work on it a bit too. The thing to do with this book is to have song jazz standards that you can apply the substitutions to. If you just learn the exercises the work isn't fully realized...
 
Between blues class and rock lead guitar class, I have a full plate... I think I'll just work through the exercises and save trying to actually play a jazz song for down the road...
 
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