Note: A big thank you goes out to visitor “A Burnett” for spotting a mistake on the circle of fifths page. The error has been corrected. If you spot anything else wrong, please feel free to leave a message via the contact page.
Another note: thank you to a visitor called “Changing a String” (?!) who has pointed me to some animated discussion on the ultimate guitar forums. It looks as though I’ve been a bit sloppy in writing this article, and I need to improve the explanation of the interactive circle of fifths. Please make of it what you will and watch this space for an updated and more accurate version soon. And just to clear up a small point…. “The Guitar Master” is more what I aspire to be, rather than what I am. It’s just a cool name for a website!
Memorising the circle of fifths is an incredibly worthwhile endeavour. Imagine being able to just know straight away what notes are in a particular major or minor scale, or what chords are in a particular key, or even which modes work over various chords and keys.
Memorising the circle of fifths is the shortcut to knowing this stuff, but it can seem very daunting. So how would you go about making this task less painful?
Well, really, you only have to learn the order of 7 notes. Take a look at the circle of fifths, and move clockwise from the top. In the key of C, you should be seeing the notes, C,G,D,A,E and B, followed by F if you cross the magic line.
Memorise this sequence. Try playing those chords on the guitar as it will help to embed them in your mind. If you then continue around the circle rather than cross the magic line, you will see that the notes continue round in the order C,G,D,A,E,B,F#,C#,G#, D#,A#, F.
So if you remember the sequence, F,C,G,D,A,E,B, you actually have all you need to know, as the sequence repeats itself, but with each note being sharpened. Try not to get to confused when you notice the following:
When you try to work this out in your head, there is no E#, it is F. And there is no B#, it is C! So the letters repeat themselves but only up to A# and then you finish at F. If you didn’t finish on F, but wrote down an F#, you would be forced to continue like this:E#, B#, F## (G), C## (D), ad infinitum, adding an extra sharp each time you go round the circle! It’s kind of like a moebius strip, or a Phi (Golden Ratio) style spiral into infinity, like a snail shell, or a spiral galaxy….
And there you have it! You’ve memorised the circle of fifths!
OK, there is more to it than that. But once you memorise that order, you can rotate it visually in your mind until the key that you are interested in is at the top. The next thing you need to remember is where the magic line falls and what it represents.
Useful things about the magic line:
- It separates notes that are in a scale.
- It separates chords that are in a key (if you can remember which ones are major, minor, diminished etc…)
- If you play the notes in alphabetical (scale) order, crossing the magic line represents the location of the two semitones (or half steps) in the scale.
Then, you should try and remember which chords in a key are major and which are minor. This can be done by playing the chords in alphabetical order as illustrated in the circle of fifths, and making sure to play each one as either major, minor or diminished. Once you are comfortable with this, you should be able to quickly identify the exact chords in a particular key by visualising your circle.
Next, try to remember the position of the mode names. This will mean that if you can visualise your circle in a particular key, you can quickly figure out which scale to play in order to achieve a particular mode.
in memorising the order of notes in the circle of fifths, you will have memorised the amount of sharps or flats in a particular key (or scale). And you did this without even realising! Just position your major key name at the top (or your minor key name at 3 ‘o’ clock) The sharps / flats are all labelled nicely for you!
Want to know what chords are in a minor key? Well I touched on this just a second ago. Just position your minor key name at three ‘o’ clock in the circle of fifths. Now the relative major will be at the top and the chords / notes will be correct for your minor key / scale.
What tools are out there to assist you in memorising these patterns and rules? The obvious answer is the interactive circle of fifths of course! But for more useful tools, check out the previous posts…
All for now.
The Guitar Master
Tags: circle of fifths
0