Guitar Chords With Tab

A6 chord.

E|--x--
B|--7--
G|--6--
D|--4--
A|--x--
E|--5--

Here is a really nice A6 chord that sounds like it's a bit of a jazz chord that you can either use as the first chord in a progression in A Major or an A blues - or you can use it in other places to spice up your blues progressions.

For example: if you want to play a cool sounding jazz-blues progression, use the chords, E, A6 and B6 to create a progression. Play an E or E7 chord and then when you go to the IV chord, instead of playing an A7 chord, play this A6 chord instead.

To make this progression sound really cool, when you go to the V chord from the IV chord, play the B dominant 6th chord that was a previous chord of the week which you can find here: B Dominant 6. If you think about it you'll realize that you can slide from the A6 to the B6 chord without lifting your fingers off the fretboard. Guitar tab for this B6 chord is also shown below.

B6 chord.

E|--x--
B|--9--
G|--8--
D|--7--
A|--x--
E|--7--

If you want you can just move the A6 chord shape up 2 frets and play that as the B6 but adding the dominant 7th to the B6 chord gives it an even nicer sound.

Below is the standard E chord that you can play with the A6 and B6 chords above.

E chord.

E|--0--
B|--0--
G|--3--
D|--2--
A|--2--
E|--0--

If you are jamming with a friend (which you should be), one of you can play the progression and the other one can play an E Blues scale over it. The E Blues scale sounds good over all three of the above chords.

A Major 9 also written: A9

E|--7--
B|--5--
G|--6--
D|--x--
A|--7--
E|--5--

This is a chord I taught Mike McCreedy to play that he used on the Pearl Jam song Yellow Ledbetter.

This chord shape has it's root note on the low E (6th) string.

Hang your thumb over the neck to fret the A at the 5th fret on the low E string. Your ring finger plays the note E located at the 7th fret on the A string. The D string is muted which can be done by letting the flesh under your ring finger rest lightly on the D string while it's fretting the 7th fret on the A string. You middle finger is playing the note C# (which is the Major 3rd of the A9 chord) at the 6th fret of the G string. Your index finger is fretting the 5th fret on the B string. And finally - fret the 7th fret of high E string with your pinky. The 7th fret of the high E string is the note B. We call this B the 9th of the A Major chord. Thus you are playing an A9 chord.

Theoretically speaking an A9 chord would have a flat 7 (b7th) note in it as well. That is why I also called this chord an A Major 9 chord. i.e. it's an A Major chord with the 9th added. An A9 chord is actually an A Dominant 7th chord with a 9th added.

Theory shmeory!

We are more interested in the sound, not musical jargon.

Fact (unlike one of the comments I made in the opening sentence): Mike McCreedy borrowed this chord from Jimi Hendrix.

More Chords

C Dominant 7 also written: C7. Played with the Root note on the 5th string. Includes the D7 shape, movable from the C7.

B Dominant 6 also written: B6

E/G# or E with the 3rd in the Bass