What is a German Sixth?

Hinzugefügt: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]If you were to play this chord devoid of any greater harmonic context, it sounds exactly like a dominant seventh chord. So, the question arises, why in the case of this German sixth, built in this example above the note C, do we write an A sharp instead of a B flat when the resulting chord sounds exactly the same as a dominant seventh chord?

[00:00:30]The answer is in how the German sixth resolves, which is not the same as a dominant seventh chord. With a dominant seventh with B flat, we can resolve to its respective tonic, the F major triad.

[00:00:46]Or deceptively to either D minor or D flat major.

[00:00:51]But, what if we want this chord to go somewhere else, like, say, E minor?

[00:00:59]Well, if we left the current dominant seventh spelling, the orthography becomes not only somewhat messy with B flat resolving to B natural, but also the dominant seventh is no longer fulfilling its purpose as a dominant chord, but rather is merely functioning as a chromatic stepping stone to another harmony.

[00:01:16]Therefore, the B flat is written as an A sharp to indicate it is moving chromatically to the B natural of the next chord.

[00:01:24]Another reason is that chordal sevenths typically resolve stepwise downwards in the rules of harmony.

[00:01:30]Therefore, having the chordal seventh of B flat resolve up to B natural is typically not acceptable, which is remedied by changing the spelling of the interval to that of an augmented sixth, and augmented sixths like to resolve upwards.