Circle Of 5th's - Easy Piano Theory Lessons

pianolessons.com the number one name in piano lessons online hi my name is nate bosh with pianolessons.com today i'd like to talk to you about the circle or the cycle of fifths now the cycle of fifths is all 12 notes in the chromatic scale so there we have the chromatic scale and they're arranged in fifths separated by fifths going up or down from c now let me show you we take c and we go up a fifth we got g up a fifth d a e b on the way down down a fifth f b flat e flat a flat d flat now you're saying okay that's nice what is it what does it do for me well two things as we go up we can think of each of those notes as representing a key now in each key if we have the key of c it's based on the c major scale it's all white keys there's no sharps or no flats now if we go up a fifth which is just to the right on the circle of fifths we get the g now in the key of g there is one black note let's play the g scale so the f is raised so we call that an f sharp so in the key of g there is one sharp now on a piece of music that'll be indicated on the staff and that's called a key signature so the key signature for c is that there's no sharps no flats so let's first go to the right on the circle of fifths and we'll go up by fifths from the c we get g now we already saw that g has one sharp in it which is f sharp now if we go up a fifth from that we get d now the d major scale has what well let's play it there's an f sharp the c sharp and then the d so two sharps are found in that key so in c we had no sharps we went up a fifth we get g we have one sharp now we go up a fifth we get d we have two sharps f sharp and c sharp now if we go up a fifth from d we get to a now you can probably already guess by the pattern which sharps there's going to be three sharps in that key signature in the key of a so if we play the scale so the f sharp and the c sharp like in the key of d arrays but now we've raised the g sharp now if you look at the circle of fifths look at the pattern that's starting here in c there's no sharps flat when we go to g there's one sharp now it's the f sharp look what's just to the left of the c that's right an f now so far the f sharp c sharp g sharp is found in a can you guess what the fourth sharp is going to be when we go up to e you're right d sharp see how that's working we can use this circle of fifths to show us exactly what our key signatures are going to look like now we keep going all the way from e's got four sharps b has five sharps f sharp has six sharps and c sharp has seven sharps now that's going to the right on the circle of fifth now if we go to the left we start at c again we go down a perfect fifth what do we get we get f now let's play the f major scale so in the f major scale the fourth note is lowered so the b is not a b it's a b flat so we see that well let's go to c again c no sharps no flats the key signature in f we have one flat well if we think about what happened going this way up the keyboard and looking at all the sharps so if we've gone down a fifth for f if we go down another fifth to b flat so f had one flat so b flat is going to have you've got it two flats so we've got b flat and e flat now if we go down another fifth we get e flat so in the key of e flat there is three flats now if you look at how the notes are arranged in that circle of fifths that same pattern we saw for the sharps which was telling you what notes were to be sharp going up you can find that same pattern for the flat going back down there the other way so as we keep going down a flat has four flats d-flat has five flats g-flat has six flats and c-flat which looks like b has seven flats so hopefully that gives you an idea of what the circle of fifths is and if you look at it it can help you identify in a nutshell key signatures what key you're playing in so if somebody says to you hey we're going to play this song in a you know if you've got that circle of fifths you know right off the top a has three sharps in it and those three sharps are going to be c f and g sharp and as you get familiar with those and you really start to memorize how that works you can snap to it quickly if somebody says hey we're going to play an e flat you know three flats or we're going to play an f sharp you're like that's six sharp notes in there but then you understand it so there you have the circle of fifths

Channel: Pianote

Views: 355,801

Keywords: Circle Of 5th's - Easy Piano Theory Lessons, circle of fifths, piano lesson, piano lessons, circle of 5ths, piano theory, music education, circle of fifths piano, online piano lesson, sharps and flats, music theory, key signatures, music theory for beginners, circle of fifths explained, piano lessons for beginners lesson 1, music theory in 16 minutes, piano lessons for intermediate, the circle of fifths, piano scales, major keys, music scale, music theory piano, piano 5th

Id: WWjK5EASCQw

Length: 6min 33sec (393 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2009