SIXTH INTERVALS
In this current series, we’ve been looking at ways of exploring specific intervals within Mixolydian mode, and this lesson we’ve arrived at 6ths. Within the modes of the Major scale, 6ths will be one of two types:
• Minor 6th = four tones
• Major sixth = four and a half tones To illustrate this, Diagram 1 presents the notes of D Major and any of its modes (the A Mixolydian is its fifth mode). If you start from any note, and then move in any direction, clockwise or anti-clockwise, to another note that’s five notes away (in other words, with four scale notes in between both notes), the distance is either a perfect 6th (mostly) or a Diminished one ( b 6).
Sixths sound soft and melodic, similar to 3rds. In fact, a 6th is an inversion of a 3rd: for example, C# up to A is a Minor 6th, whereas C# down to A is a Major 3rd.
Stylistically, 6th intervals are used extensively, both in their single-note and
