D♯m6

D♯1F♯♭3A♯5B♯6

A minor triad with a major sixth added, which is why it is not simply a minor chord with a flat seventh.

Written the other way round it is E♭m6 — the same twelve keys on a piano, a different piece of notation.

on guitar on piano the scale

Every fingering that fits a hand

Fig. 2

x323

easy · no 5

Fig. 3

8686

hard · no 5

Fig. 4

8a89

moderate · barre

Fig. 5

868x

easy · no 5

Fig. 6

8689

hard · no 5

What is true of it

D♯m6 is D♯, F♯, A♯ and B♯ — 1, b3, 5 and 6 counted from D♯.

These are also the notes of Cm7♭5/D♯. Which name is right depends on what is underneath and what came before — the notes alone do not decide.

On an instrument that cannot reach all 4, the 5 goes first, in that order.

The easiest of the 5 fingerings below is x323: 3 fingers, held at the 2nd fret.

None of them uses an open string, so this chord moves up the neck unchanged — the same shape 1 fret higher is the chord a semitone above.

1 of the 5 need a barre.

It leaves out the 5. 4 strings cannot carry 4 notes, and the 5 is the one this chord can lose without changing what it is.

1 string stays silent.

Where its notes are on the neck

Fig. 7 — first 12 frets

The brass dots are D♯, the root. Everything else is a chord tone with its degree printed in it.

With a different note underneath

first inversion

D♯m6/F♯

x686

second inversion

D♯m6/A♯

3323

third inversion

D♯m6/B♯

5666

An inversion is the same chord with a different note lowest. The name changes to a slash name because the bass is what a listener hears as the foundation.

D♯ in other shapes

D♯6major sixth D♯major D♯mminor D♯dimdiminished

Cm6 C♯m6 D♭m6 Dm6 Em6 Fm6 F♯m6 G♭m6 all 374