Circle of 5ths: Unlock the Minor Scales

i received this question from one of my patreons and i thought it would be worth making a video to answer it because it's probably something that other people have been wondering as well now in my other video about the circle of fourth and fifth i show you how it can be used to figure out all the notes in all the major scales using the order of sharps in order of flats but this patreon is asking how do you use the circle of fourths and fifths to figure out the notes in the minor scales i'm going to be showing two different ways now one of his questions was about the order of sharps and flats and if they're still relevant when it comes to the minor scales and the answer is yes they are just as a side note i'm just going to be talking about the natural minor scale today so in today's lesson we are going to be using the circle of fourths and fifths to figure out the notes in every natural minor scale so the first thing you need to memorize is the order of sharps and the order of sharps is f c g d a e b and i always like to tell people that this is sort of just like a random series of notes i mean it's not random but if you're new to this it might seem random you know it's not in alphabetical order or anything like that but if you can memorize just this random order of notes f c g d a e b then that is really all you need to have memorized in order to be able to create the circle fourth and fifths and then in turn create all the notes and all the different minor scales and major skills so do whatever you need to do to memorize fc gdaeb you can use mnemonics whatever you want now we also need to memorize the order of flats but the order of flats is just the order of sharps backwards so the order of flats is what's this backwards it's b e a d g c f and some people say it's easier to first memorize the order of flats because it has the word bead in it and you just need to memorize bead gcf and then if you know the order of flats then you can just remember that the order of sharps is the order of flats backwards doesn't matter which one you memorize first i personally think it's better to memorize the order of sharps first because it's the bit more difficult one and if you definitely know the more difficult one then it just will make it easier and quicker to recall these you know orders of sharps and flats and all the notes and the scales et cetera et cetera but either one is fine just know that they are uh reversed of each other so this order flats it sort of sharps backwards and vice versa there also are a ton of different mnemonics people use to memorize them you feel free to comment some mnemonics that you like in the comments below like father charles goes down and ends battle etc now the first way we can figure out the notes in our natural minor scales using the circle fourth and fifths is to draw the circle first and fifths with the major scales on the outside and then our natural minor skills on the inside and i'm just going to show you how to do that uh quickly so here is my big circle and i'm going to first label it like a clock so i've got night 12 o'clock and six o'clock three o'clock at nine o'clock ten o'clock eleven o'clock one o'clock and two o'clock four o'clock and five o'clock seven o'clock and eight o'clock okay and i'm going to sort of highlight these three on the bottom because these are kind of a special area on the circle because we have actually two different keys on each of these three spots so those are just a little bit thicker okay but when we're first we're first going to write in the major scales or keys on the outside of the circle okay so when we're doing that we're going to first write in the order of sharps which is f c g d a e b because you memorized that um so we're going to start writing it in on at the 11 o'clock position so i'm going to put my f here and then i'm just going to write it in clockwise so f then c then g then d [Music] then a then e and then b okay then i'm going to write in the order of flats but i'm going to start here at this spot and i'm going to go counter clockwise now so i'm going to write b flat and i'm going to put a flat next to all these ones so b flat e flat a flat so b e a then i have d flat then i have g flat then i have c flat and i'm going to write b c flat okay and i'm going to stop at that point now i mentioned earlier that these three on the bottom have two keys or two scales in each one so do you see how this is b c flat so b and c flat are what we call an harmonic equivalent and if you don't know what those are i have a whole video that goes into them in depth and i will link that in the description below but and harmonic equivalents are just two notes that have different names but sound exactly the same they're the exact same pitch now what is the inharmonic equivalent of g flat so let's look at our piano so here's the note g and the note g flat is going to be a half step lower right so it's going to be right here so this is our g flat this black key and what's this note right here this is an f so this black key could also be called f sharp so we would say that f sharp and g flat are n harmonic equivalents because they're they sound exactly the same you know if i play this here on the piano it sounds exactly the same but we could call it either f or g flat so has two different names it could go by but it sounds exactly the same that's what an inner harmonic equivalent is so g flat or f sharp okay now what's the n harmonic equivalent of d flat d flat we could look at our piano where's our d here's d d flat is right here and this note right here is a c so this note could go by the name d flat or c sharp okay so this is d flat or c sharp so we just write in the enharmonic equivalence on these bottom three okay now we're going to write in the relative minor scales on the inside of the circle okay and a relative minor scale is well i have a whole video that goes into it in depth if you really want to learn more about it but i'll just briefly say it's um there are two scales that have the exact same notes in them they just start at different places this video isn't really about relative scales and relative keys so i don't want to spend much time talking about it but if you want to learn more about them go watch that video i will link it below moving forward what i'm going to do is i'm going to take every scale that's on the outside or every key major key that's on the outside and i'm going to move it three spaces counterclockwise and write it in so let me just show you what i mean by that so here's we're gonna start with a okay and if i move a three spaces counterclockwise one two three i get here so i'm gonna write a minor on the inside of the circle just like that because c major and a minor are what we call relative keys okay now let's look at e we'll move e three spaces counterclockwise one two three okay we land here at g so i'm going to write e minor here so e minor and g major are relative keys okay what about b i'm going to move b over 1 2 3. all right i get b minor here b minor and d major are relative keys okay what about f sharp i'm gonna move that over three spaces one two three f sharp minor now why did i choose to write f minor here instead of g flat minor well the reason is because these scales that are on the right hand side of the circle have sharps on them and this side on the left has flats okay so this is our world of sharps this is our world of flats and i want to keep the sharps with the sharps and the flats with the flats i wouldn't want to write g flat here because i'd be throwing a key with flats in it into this whole world of sharps this sharp territory so i would want to put f sharp minor here instead okay now let's do c sharp we're going to move that over three spaces one two three and i can put c sharp minor right here c sharp minor and again i chose to move the c sharp over instead of the d flat because again this right hand side is the world of sharps and i want to keep sharps with sharps and flats with flats okay so c sharp minor goes there next we have a flat and i can actually move a flat over three spaces because we're allowed to have a flat just in this bottom three because remember these three spaces are special so here let's move a123 i'm going to write a flat minor okay and that's okay because we're going to write the enharmonic equivalent of a flat as well which is a sharp so even though it's on the right hand side it gets a pass because it's on one of these bottom three remember i said these three on the bottom are sort of special because we have two in each of them it's like they have their inharmonic equivalents written out so because of that we can have a flat minor here on the right and what is the inharmonic equivalent of a flat minor let's just figure that out right now so here's a flat this note right here is a g so it's going to be g sharp g sharp and a flat are the same note g sharp and a flat are n harmonic equivalents so i'm going to write g sharp minor so because as i said these three on the bottom we put whether it's the major scales and the outside or the minor scales on the inside we're always going to write the two and harmonic equivalent keys or scales in each spot got it now this next one e flat we can move this one over one two three we've got e flat minor okay and then what's the inharmonic equivalent of e flat here's e flat here's e here's d this note in between them is either e flat or d sharp so i'm going to write d sharp minor okay then next we have b flat we're going to move that over 3 spaces one two three i can write b-flat minor or what's the inharmonic equivalent of b-flat here's b-flat this is b this is a so what's in between them this is b-flat or a sharp so b flat minor or a sharp minor and we did those bottom three okay we can keep going so here's f we're gonna move that over three spaces one two three we've got f minor okay now we have the c we're gonna move that over three spaces one two three got c minor okay now we have g we're gonna move that over three spaces one two three we've got g minor now i've got d we're going to move that over three spaces one two three d minor and voila that is it so now we have drawn out the entire circle of fourths and fifths with the major scales major keys whatever you want to say scales or keys it doesn't matter on the outside and the minor scales and minor keys on the inside now we want to actually figure out what the notes are in these minor scales that are inside the circle because that's what this video is about right that's what i told you at least so we are going to first identify how many sharps or flats are in each of these minor scales okay that's the first thing we're going to do and it follows a pretty simple pattern so the scale that's at the very top has zero sharps and zero flats in it zero nice and easy and actually this goes for both the major scales and the outside and the minor scales on the inside so the c major scale has zero sharp zero flats and a minor scale has zero sharps and zero flats nice and easy now the key of e minor the scale e minor has one sharp in it okay so i'm going to write one sure the key of b minor has two sharps the key of f sharp minor has three sharps you starting to see the pattern here key of c sharp minor has you guessed it four sharps the key of g sharp minor has five sharps the key of d sharp minor has six sharps the key of a sharp minor has seven sharps and then we're going to stop there because there are only seven notes in a scale so we can't have more than that so that's the sharps now we're going to write in the flats okay so the key of d minor has one flat key of g minor has two flats the key of c minor has three flats how many flats do you think are in the f minor scale four flats pretty simple right b flat minor has i'll just draw a slash here five flats e flat minor has what does e flat minor have six flats and a flat minor has seven flats and that's it i know it looks a little crazy and chaotic down here hopefully it's not too messy if you want a printable pdf that has the circle force and fifths with the minor scales inside written out more clearly and just looking a little prettier and easier to read than this mess on my whiteboard i have a printable pdf of the circle of fourths and fifths that you can download in a link in the description below so now we know how many sharps or flats are in each of these keys or scales but that's not really that helpful and if we don't know which notes are sharpened and which notes are flattened in each of these scales so this is what we're going to do we're going to revisit our good old friends the order of sharps and flats i'm actually just going to erase these just because i want to reduce clutter on the whiteboard okay so the first thing we're going to do is we're going to i'm just going to show you because i think the easiest way to show you and then you're going to pick up the pattern okay so the first scale we're going to write out is an a minor scale a minor scale as i said nice and easy because 0 sharps is 0 flat so i'm just going to write out the notes in a minor scale it's a b c d e f and g scales are always moving in alphabetical order so a b c d e f g and no sharps no flats nice and easy all right now let's look at e minor so we're going to write an e minor scale so we're going to start with which note the note e right because it always starts with the root so e now we know this scale has one sharp in it okay but which note is sharpened well we're going to look at one of these orders of sharps or flats and since it's a key that has a sharp in it we're going to look at the order of sharps okay so we're going to look at the first note in the order of sharp and that's an f and hey that's the note that gets sharpened is the f all right so we have e then we have f sharp instead of f okay then i just keep going in alphabetical order e f sharp g a or we go back to a because the musical alphabet only goes up to the letter g so e f sharp g a b c d and that these are the notes in an e minor scale it's one sharp in it okay what about the notes in a b minor scale okay well look we know it's going to start with the no b right and we know it has two sharps in it but which two notes are sharpened well we're going to go back to our good friend the order of are we going to go to the order of sharps or order flats we're going to go to the order of sharps because this one has two sharps in it right we're gonna look at the order of sharps and we're just going to look at the first two notes in the order of sharp f and c right f and c so those are going to be the two notes that are sharpened in our scale so we have b c sharp because that's one of the first two b c sharp d e f sharp g a and these are the notes in a b minor scale b natural minor scale okay let's do the next one f sharp minor okay so we're going to start with f sharp and i can actually first just write in the letters before i even put the sharps in so we have f sharp then after f just a b c d e f g a b c d and e so these are the letters now let's figure out the sharps so how many sharps are on an f sharp minor scale three so we're going to look at the first three letters in the order of sharps and that's f c and g and hey those are the three that get sharpened so f sharp c sharp and g sharp and these are the notes in an f sharp minor scale okay now let's figure out the notes in a c sharp minor scale so i'm going to start with the note c sharp and i can first just write in the letters just if that makes it easier to see visually so c and d e f g a and b so those are the letters now we need to sharpen some of the notes how many notes get sharpened in a c sharp minor scale four right see four four sharps so i'm going to look at my good old friend the order of sharps and i'm just going to look at the first four notes in the order of sharps it's f c g and d and those are the notes that get sharpened so f c g and d and these are the notes in a c sharp minor scale okay now let's write out the notes in a g sharp minor scale so g sharp so after g we have a b c d e and f okay and how many sharps are in g sharp minor five sharps right i'm going to look to the order of sharps and i'm just going to look at the first five notes in the order of sharps one two three four five f c g d a and those are the notes that are sharpened f c g d and a and these are the notes in a g sharp minor scale next we have d sharp minor we're going to do all these feel free to skip ahead to the next section using the time stamps below if you get the idea and you want to jump ahead to the flats or just to another section of the video um if you're bored but i'm gonna go through them all because the more examples you see the more it will sink in so d sharp minor okay d sharp minor has six sharps in it okay well first we can write the letters d e f g a b and c okay and how many sharps are in a d sharp minor scale six sharps right and actually i always remember it's i think it's nice and easy to remember the the ones at the six o'clock position all have either six flats or six sharps in it so that one lines up nicely and same with three o'clock has three three sharps um at the three o'clock position it doesn't work at the nine o'clock position but at the three o'clock position in the six o'clock position we have three and six so six sharps in d sharp minor so what are the first six notes in the order of sharps are f c g d a e and those are the notes that are sharpened so f c g d a and e and there you have it last scale that has sharps in it a sharp minor let's just do this one so a sharp so we have a b c d e f and g and we're gonna look at okay how many sharps it has it has seven sharps in it and we're gonna look at the first seven notes in the order of sharps that's one two three four five six seven oh hey that's all of them right every single note in this scale is sharpened so we have f sharp c sharp g sharp d sharp a sharp e sharp and b sharp they're all sharpened cool and those are all our natural minor scales that have sharps in them now let's do the ones with flats now we could start with the a minor scale if we want to remember that's the easy one that has a b c d e f g nice and easy no sharps no flats now we're going to do d minor okay so d minor so we start with d and we know this scale has how many flats has one flat in it right so now instead of looking at the order of sharps we're going to look at the order of flats because we're working with a scale that has flats in it so what's the first note in the order of flats it's b so that's going to be our first flat note so we have d e f g a b flat and c okay and those are the notes in a d minor scale now let's do g minor okay so we're gonna start with g and first i can even write out all the letters without any worrying about the sharp spot so g a b c d e and f okay and we know this scale has how many flats two flats right so we're going to look at order flats order sharps we're going to look at the order of flats because it has flats right keeping flats with flats and sharps with sharps we never mix the two so what are the first two notes in the order of flats it is b and e and those are the notes that are flattened in our scale so b flat and e flat got it and this is our g natural minor scale all right now let's do c minor we have c and i'll first i'll just write in the letters c d e f g a and b okay and it has how many flats three flats so we're going to go to the order of flats and we're just going to look at the first three flags b e and a those are the flats b flat e flat and a flat you see the pattern now it's really the exact same thing with the flats and the sharps right it says we're using the order flats now instead of the order of sharps but we just keep going back to the beginning just keep adding a new one in each time okay so that's these are the notes in a c minor scale c natural minor all right now let's do f minor so we're going to first write the letters out f g a b c d and e all right so for f minor we have four flats right so we're going to look at the first four notes in our order of flats right which one two three four that's b-e-a-d spells out the word bead right so i'm gonna flatten this note b e a and d and hey these are the notes in an f minor scale all right now let's do a b flat minor scale okay so b flat minor so we have b flat and i'll just finish writing the letters b flat c d e f g and a okay how many flats do we have in b flat minor we have five flats okay so we're going to look at the first first five notes in the order of flats now b e a d and g and those are the notes that we're going to flatten b flat e flat a flat d flat and g flat got it so now we're going to do e flat minor so we start with e flat and i'll write in the letters e flat f g a b c and d okay and this has six flats in it right e flat minor has six flats so one two three four five six we've got bead plus g and c so b e a d g and c and these are the notes in an e flat minor scale where we only have one more minor scale left with flats in it actually one more minor scale in general and that's a flat minor okay so we're gonna start with a flat a flat what comes after a b c d e f and g okay how many flats are in a flat minor we have seven flats that's one two three four five six seven so that's every single note in the order of flats so we've got a flat b flat c flat d flat e flat f9 g but every single note gets found in the scale cool so this is one way you can figure out the notes in your natural minor skills using the circle fourth and fifths and writing in the relative minor skills on the inside with the major scales on the outside so we used this method where we counted back three spaces right but there's another slightly simpler way that maybe would be more useful for you because this is a way where um rather than having to draw out the whole circle with all the major scales and then move them all three spaces to the left that's just sort of like a lot a lot of steps and if you're just looking to quickly sketch something out on a piece of paper so you could quickly just figure out the notes in a minor scale then this might be a little bit easier for you so what i'm going to do is i'm still going to draw the circle okay and i'm still going to label it like a clock and let's say you just really don't care about the major scales you just want to know the minor scale so i'm going to actually be writing the minor scales on the outside um rather than the inside so i know normally the majors are on the outside but if this is just if you just want to be able to quickly draw it out and figure it out as quickly as possible with drawing as little as possible i think it's easier just to write them on the outside so i'm still going to do the exact same thing where i first write in the order of sharps going clockwise but instead of starting the order of sharps here at the 11 o'clock space i'm going to start them here at the eight o'clock space okay so i'm going to start put the f right here at the eight o'clock space and if you can't remember where to but it's it's actually just threes i moved it three spaces counterclockwise so i'm going one two three and i'm going to put it right here now and then i'm just going to draw in the order of sharps so f c g d a e and b just like that okay so then we're going to take the order flats and we're going to write the order of flats in starting here counterclockwise so b flat e flat a flat d flat and g flat and we'll stop there okay now the next thing we need to do is we need to write in the end harmonic equivalence of these three on the bottom okay so b flat what's the inner harmonic equivalent of b flat a sharp okay so b flat or a-sharp what's the inharmonic equivalent of e-flat e-flat or d-sharp and what's the inharmonic equivalent of a-flat a-flat or g-sharp okay then the very last thing we need to do is we need to take these two that are right here and see how they're flats well we need those two to be sharps because we need the scales that are on the right hand side to be sharps and the skills that are on the left-hand side would be flats the only ones that get an exception are these three at the bottom because as i said those are special because we have the inharmonic equivalence we have two two of each of them so but these two need to get turned into sharps so g flat what's the inharmonic equivalent of g flat so if we were to look at the note g flat there's another note that sounds exactly like g flat but it has a sharp in it so that is the note f sharp so we're going to call this f sharp instead and we're going to call this d flat what is the harmonic equivalent of d flat so it's a note that sounds exactly like d-flat but it has a sharp name it is c-sharp so we've got f-sharp and c-sharp and that is it so this is a lot sort of quicker to do if you just wanted to really quickly write something out on a piece of paper to figure out your minor scales it's a lot easier if you just start the f here and write it in like that and then the order so you write in the order of sharps like that and order flats like that and then you're exactly where you were uh before with the other way i showed you and i can write minor next to all these just to so you're not confused thinking that they're major scales and major keys even though they're written on the outside these are still the minor scales and minor keys all i did was i just started the order sharp here instead and wrote them in and then i wrote the order flats in like that cool and just to make it clear this is really the exact same thing that we had earlier in the video too when i had both major and minor scales written out so this this is still the key that has zero sharp zero flats e minor has one sharp b minor has two sharps f sharp minor has three sharps c chart minor has four sharps g sharp minor has five sharps d sharp minor has six sharps and a sharp minor has seven sharps d minor has one flat g minor has two flats c minor has three flats f minor has four flats b flat minor has five flats e flat minor has six flats and a flat minor has seven flats so still the same and then it still follows the same rules with the sharps order sharps and order flats when we're trying to figure out which notes are sharpened or flattened in each of these scales so just just as a quick little example quiz thing let's let's try to create um two two scales okay so first let's figure out the notes in a c sharp minor scale okay so c sharp minor i know my first note's going to be c sharp right and then how many sharps or flats are in this key so here's c sharp we have four sharps right so what are we going to do we're going to look at the order of sharps right not the order flats because it says sharps in it or to have sharps and we're going to look at the first four notes in the order of sharps that's f c g and d okay so those are the notes that are going to be sharpened so c sharp right then d sharp e f sharp g sharp a and b so the first four notes f c g and d those are notes that are sharpened f c g and d and those are the notes in a c sharp natural minor scale let's do another one let's do the notes in a g minor scale okay so g minor so i'm going to start with g i can write the letters first g a b c d e and f okay so how many sharps or flats are in the key of g minor well two flats right two flats okay so which notes are flat it's nice to know we have two flats but which two notes in the scale are flattened well we're going to look at the order of flats and we're just going to look at the first two notes in that order flat there's a b and e those are the two notes that get flattened so b flat and e flat and voila those are the notes in a g minor scale and that is it hopefully you guys have found this video helpful and hopefully you have a better understanding of how to figure out the notes in your natural minor skills using the circle of fourth and fifths now um there are other ways to figure out the notes in minor scales such as counting a certain number of whole steps and half steps but this is how to do it using a circle of fourth and fifths what i would recommend doing is just practice drawing out this circle of fourths and fifths and you could practice just drawing it with the minor scales on the outside sort of just this exact one that we have right here just try practice drawing that on a piece of paper to quiz yourself see if you can do it by memory really as i said all you need to memorize are these two order of sharps and order flats and once you know that you can really create the whole thing by memory and you could just start the f the order of sharps here at this eight o'clock position then clockwise right in the order of sharps then starting here at the seven o'clock do the order flats counterclockwise and write in your enharmonic equivalence for those bottom three change these two to sharps instead of flats and that is your circle of fourths and fifths with the minor scales written on the outside then the next thing you can do is you can try to quiz yourself by writing out notes in different natural minor scales by memory so you would just draw out this circle of force of fifth as quickly as you can and then try to write out the notes in different minor scales just to quiz yourself then the next step out on top of that after that once you feel like you're pretty good at that you can do all this pretty quickly try to do it in your head so not on a piece of paper and i think a really good time to do this is when you're going to bed at night like when you're laying in bed with your eyes closed trying to fall asleep just try to visually draw out this circle of force and fifth in your head and then say just quiz yourself and say hey i'm gonna let me see if i can figure out the notes in a g minor scale using the circle fourth and fifth and so you're gonna have to sort of visually figure out where g minor is on the circle of force and fifth first to figure out how many sharps or flats it has and you're saying oh okay all right i figured out two flats okay now i need to figure out um what are the two five the order flats b flat e flat okay so then the notes are g a b flat c d e flat f okay and working that through in your head is um actually very good uh there's something to be said for trying to do things in your head and not on paper people like to do that with certain math problems um it just sort of sinks it into your brain in this deeper way but you don't need to do that until you've spent a long time practicing it just on paper uh first just get comfortable doing it on paper first then you could try doing it in your head it's just sometimes if you have a hard time falling asleep maybe you'll find it so boring you'll just pass out easily and then then it's a good way to help yourself fall asleep anyway i hope you found this video helpful if you want to see other videos like this please consider subscribing to my channel i post one video a week and i would love to have you here be sure to like this video if you did share it with a friend if you found it helpful and turn on your bell notifications so you know when i post a new video please feel free to leave a comment with any questions you have or if you just want to say hey i always like to hear from you guys and that is it thank you guys so much for watching i hope you have a wonderful rest of your day or night and i will see you next week

Channel: Gracie Terzian

Views: 61,275

Keywords: gracie terzian, harp ukulele, learn ukulele, beginner, uke, music, lesson, free, tabs, chart, circle of fifths, circle of 5ths, circle of 4ths and 5ths, circle of fourths and fifths, circle of fourths, music theory, easy music theory, chord theory, melody, theory, beginner music theory, guitar, piano, ukulele, ukelele, music education, free lessons, 101, learn music, notes, harmony, rhythm, minor scales piano, minor scales guitar, minor scales piano explained, natural minor scale

Id: lj1FTWaeEok

Length: 33min 30sec (2010 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 07 2022