Circle of 5ths: Easiest Way to Memorize and Understand It

so the first thing you need to memorize is something called the order of sharps which is f c g d a e and b so you just need to memorize that however you want to just say it over and over again s c d a e b f c g a e b until you get it in your head now if you know the order of sharps then you also know the order of flats because the order of flats is just the order of sharps backwards so let's write out the order of flats as you can see with the order of flats we have the word bead at the front bead and then gcf and as i said it's just the order of sharps backwards so if you know the order of sharps you also know the order of flats now to draw the actual circle of fourths and fifths we're going to draw a big circle and we're gonna label it with tick marks like a clock so if i were to draw a big circle i'm gonna do my 12 o'clock right my six o'clock my three o'clock and my nine o'clock then i'm gonna have my one o'clock and my two o'clock my four o'clock and my five o'clock seven o'clock eight o'clock ten o'clock and eleven o'clock so just like o'clock we've got our 12 tick marks now i'm going to fill in to the circle the order of sharps first and the first note is an f in the order of sharps and you might think that we're going to put that f right there but actually we're going to start it one over to the left so we're going to put the f right here now that's because we want our c to be right at the top right here because c is our key with no sharps and no flats and so we want it to be at the very top position so fc and i'm just going to keep filling in the order of sharps around so fc g d a e and b just like that now i'm going to fill in the order of flats going this way so i remember i said it's just the order of sharps backwards so i'm going to start with the very last one which was b this is the first note in our order of flats and i'm going to put it right here and i'm going to write b flat because these are going to be all flatted b flat then e flat then a flat then d flat then g flat and then we could keep going and write c flat which is also the same as b b is the same note as c flat and we're good there now what's another name for g flat another note that's the same as g flat it's f sharp right because f sharp and g flat are the same note so we could write f g flat f sharp and then there's another note that d flat could be as well that's a sharp what is the sharp note that d flat could also be a c sharp so we have d flat or c sharp so the cool thing is as long as you have that order of sharps memorized you really can recreate this circle by memory um now the circle isn't very useful unless we know what to do with it so let's talk about some of the cool things that go on within the circle so for one thing when we move clockwise we're moving up in fifths so what i mean by that is g is the fifth degree of c so let's think about our key of c major c d e f g g is the fifth degree in the key of c therefore the fifth of c is g now what is the fifth of g well let's think about the key of g major g a b c d d is the fifth degree of g major so there we go and lo and behold it's the next it's the next note in the circle and guess what a is the fifth degree of d e is the fifth degree of a and you could go around a whole circle like that b flat is the fifth degree of e flat f is the fifth degree of b flat c is the fifth degree of f so forth so it's we're always going to be moving in fifths in that direction now if we go the opposite way we're moving fourths so check it out what is the fourth degree of c c d e f f is the fourth degree of c so boom now what's the fourth degree of f b flat the fourth degree b flat e flat so if we move this direction we move in fourths now this circle also tells us our key signatures and how many sharps and flats are in each key which is important to know so as i said our key of c major has zero sharps and zero flats so that's cool nice and easy now the key of g has one sharp the key of d major has two sharps key of a has three sharps guess how many the q b has four sharps how about the key of b five sharps the key of f sharp has six sharps the key of c sharp has seven sharps now we have the same thing happening on to the left except with our flattened keys so the key of f has one flat the key of b flat has two flats the key of e flat has three flats the key if a flat has four flats the key of d flat has five flats the key of g flat has six flats the key of c flat has seven flats now with these keys down here where we've got two two notes obviously the sharp go the sharps go with the sharp key and the flats go with the flat key so what i mean by that is the key of f sharp has six sharps the key of g flat has six flats this key of c sharp has seven sharps because they're both sharps right the key of d flat has five flats because they're both flats so keep the flats with the flats and the sharks with the sharps so the key of c5 has seven flats and the key of b has five sharps now it's all fine and dandy to know that the key of a major has three sharps but if we don't actually know which three notes are sharped in that key we can't do too much with it however we can easily know what those notes are if we go back to our good friend the order of sharps and the order of flats so let me show you we have the key of c we have no sharps and no flats so that one's nice and easy c d e f g a b right what about the key of g well we know we have one sharp but what is that sharp so we're going to go to our order of sharps and it's just going to be the very first note in the order of sharps so in the key of g what's the first note in the order of sharps it's an f right so the one sharp in the key of g is going to be an f so i have g a b c d e and f sharp just like that now the key of d we have two sharps what are those two sharps well we're going to go back to the order of sharps and it's just going to be the first two notes in the order of sharps so f and c so those are our two sharps in the key of d are f and c so let's write out our d major scale d e f sharp right g a b and c sharp here we go two sharps f and c now the key of a major we have three sharps what do you think those three sharps are well we're going to go back to our order of sharps and we're gonna it's just gonna be the first three notes in the order of sharps f c and g so a b c sharp right because that's one of them d e f sharp because that's another one and g sharp so we just keep adding on a new sharp each time we go down and if you notice the new note that always gets added is that seventh degree so that g is in this in a major that that last note of g is our new sharp and this one c was the new sharp this one f was the new sharp it's always the last note as the new sharp in the key so now let's look at e major so it has four sharps in it what do you think those four sharps are go back to your order of sharps f c g and d just the first four notes in the order of sharps so we have e f sharp g sharp a b c sharp and d sharp just like that now we have the key of b major now we have five sharps in the key of b major so what do you think those five notes are it's gonna be the first five notes in the order of sharps f c g d and a so we have b c sharp d sharp e f sharp g sharp and a sharp just like that now we can keep going to the key of f sharp key of f sharp we have six sharps now so it's going to be the first six notes in the order of sharps f c g d a and e are all going to be sharped so we have f sharp g sharp a sharp b c sharp d sharp and e sharp so this one they're all sharp except for b in the key of f sharp then our last sharp key is the key of c sharp which has seven sharps and this one is actually sort of easy because everything is sharped so you just can write out like a c major scale and put a sharp next everything so c sharp d sharp e sharp f sharp g sharp a sharp and b sharp seven sharps so those are our sharps now let's look at the flats now let's look at our flat keys so we're going to start with the key of f major now f major has one flat we know but what is that flat well now instead of looking at the order of sharps we're going to look at the order of flats so what's the very first note in the order of flats b so that's going to be that one flat is going to be a b flat so let's write out our f major scale so we have f g a b flat right c d and e one flat and it's that b flat now let's look at the key of b flat so we have two flats so we're going to look at the first two notes in the order of flats so we have a b flat and an e flat pretty easy b flat c d e flat f g and a that's our b-flat major scale now let's look at that e-flat major scale so we have three flats in the key of e-flat now what would those three flats be well go back to the order of flats b e and a those are going to be our three flats so we're starting on e flat f g a flat b flat c and d just like that now let's move on to the key of a flat so the key of a flat has four flats so we're going to four flats in the key of a flat are going to be you guessed it the first four notes in our order of flats so b e a and d so we have a flat b flat c d flat e flat f and g just like that now the key of d flat has five flats so we're going to have b flat e flat a flat d flat and g flat those will be our five flattened notes the first five notes in the order of flats so we're starting on d flat then e flat then f then g flat then a flat then b flat then c so we have one two three four five there are five flats and they are the first four first five flats in our order of flats now let's move on to the key of g flat we have six flats now so what are our six flats gonna be one two three four five six all these notes will be flatted so all those except for f so we start with a g flat right then a flat then b flat then c flat then d flat then e flat then f so basically they're all flatted except for f now we'll move on to our last flat key which is c flat where we have seven flats so this one is also pretty easy because they're all flattened so we have c flat d flat e flat f flat g flat a flat and b flat pretty simple so hopefully you are able to now create your own circle of fourths and fifths and i really recommend you quizzing yourself trying to draw the circle on pieces of paper do your tick marks like a clock and try to fill in the circle like the notes f c g d a e b b buddy and so forth and just try to recreate the circle and make sure that you can do it by memory um and i think once you do that you'll be able to start visualizing it in your head more easily as well thank you guys so much for watching hopefully you found this video helpful if you liked it please don't forget to give a like leave a comment and subscribe have a good one

Channel: Gracie Terzian

Views: 424,629

Rating: 4.9446974 out of 5

Keywords: ukulele, ukelele, gracie terzian, harp ukulele, learn ukulele, beginner, uke, music, lesson, free, tabs, chart, circle of fourths, circle of fifths, circle of 4ths, circle of 5ths, circle of 4ths and 5ths, music theory, easy, learn the circle of fifths, learn circle of 5ths, how to draw, how to draw circle of 4ths and 5ths, basic, beginner music theory

Id: sWAaJF9Wk0w

Length: 16min 4sec (964 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 11 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/__ryz__]

Thanks for such a clear explanation! I have seen several similar videos but this order of sharps and flats was totally new eme. I definitely saved the video!

[u/justplaindoomed]

I've had BEADGCF in my head for years, not remembering why. 🤣