▪ As discussed in the 6th chords chapter, all chords have a major or minor 6th chord presentation. Recap: a maj7 is a maj6 with a borrowed diminished note and can usually be played as a maj6, min7 is an inversion of a maj6, min7♭5 is an inversion of a min6, and for dominant chords we can play the min6 on the 5th scale degree.
▪ Every chord has 4 types of context:
1. The scale it is on.
2. The scale of chords it goes with. To find it: identify its 6-chord variation + the diminished chord that goes with it (a half-step below the 6th chord).
3. The family it belongs to (i.e. the fully diminished 7th chord it comes from).
4. Its function within the harmonic pattern (e.g: is it a minor ii within a ii-V-I? a borrowed chord? the I? the V? leading to the I, ii, or V? etc.).
▪ Dominant chords are on 2 scales: their own dominant scale and the major scale of their relative I (the dominant being a V, the major being the I).
▪ Major chords are on 2 scales: its own major scale and the major scale on its V.
▪ Minor 7th chords are on 3 scales: a major scale a whole step below, a major scale 2 whole steps below, and a major scale 3 half steps above. To know which of the 3 major scales it is on, identify the tonal center in which it appears. That is the one.
▪ The notes of a minor 6 chord are technically on a major scale, but we refrain from relating to this major scale as its context. The minor 6 chord should be seen in the context of the dominant it substitutes (as we saw earlier, a minor 6th can substitute a dominant chord, E.g: the context of a Cmin6 chord is an F dominant scale).
▪ Minor 6 chords can also be viewed as an altered minor 7th chord (playing the 6th instead of the 7th gives it color). This doesn’t mean it goes along with the scale of that minor 7th chord, it is just an altered chord.