The Circle of Fifths for SONGWRITING

the circle of fifths is a really useful tool you can use to write songs though most people don't understand this they assume the circle of fifths is complicated which it's not or they imagine it's just a useless diagram of key signatures with no practical application to songwriting which is too bad because the circle of fifths is so much more than that as a super powerful Aid that can actually guide you in the songwriting process to come up with some especially cool chord progressions so in this video we'll look at how the circle of fifths organizes chords into special groups to form chord progressions and you'll see how to use modes to create unexpected sounds that expand your palette as a songwriter alright so to begin you should know that the circle of fifths is not some complicated difficult thing and while most people picture it as a ring of key signatures like this to see how the various keys in music have different numbers of sharp notes or flat notes but the circle of fifths really shows is how all of the scales and music overlap to form one big loop where all keys are connected or or related for example if you start on the c major scale the second half of this pattern starting on the fifth note forms the first half of the next scale G major and then starting on G's fifth note D that leads to the first half of the next scale D major and so on where each respective scale overlaps with the next to make one big daisy chain pattern called the circle of fifths this is really what the circle of fifths is a pattern that shows how all the keys in music are connected which we can see more clearly by adding colors of the color wheel where for example g red orange is equal parts C red and D orange and where D orange is connected to g red orange and a orange yellow and so on in the same consistent way all around the circle now what's cool is that the same connections between these Keys also applies to all of the chords in those keys for example instead of picturing the circle of fifths as scales and you see it as a ring of chords it looks like this where all neighboring chords are related like c f and g and g c and d G and a all around the circle this is the circle of fifths using major chords which you can use to make simple chord progressions but to add more options we can also include all of the minor chords like this with each minor chord aligned with its relative major and also a ring of diminished chords around the edge like this to form groups where the chords in every key are grouped so you know which ones go together in a given key which harmonies are compatible and work well together in a song for example in the key of C we have these seven chords C Major D Minor E minor F major G major a minor B diminished and back to C or chords major one minor two minor three major four major five minor six diminished seven and again one in this key or in the key of G the chords are G major a minor B minor C Major D major E minor F sharp diminished and G or Again chords major one minor two minor three major four major five minor six diminished seven and one again and likewise the seven chords in every key form the same pattern the same grouping anywhere in the circle of fifths so we can use this pattern this diagram of chord relationships almost like a painters palette to select chords that go together that are harmonically related to create good chord progressions like in the key of C for example you can easily pick out the chords in the song Can't Help Falling in Love since they come from the same key in this grouping right here [Music] without the circle of fifths it's not as clear why these particular chords are used in this song C E minor a minor f and g on their own laid out like this the relationships between these chords the connections between them aren't obvious it almost seems like they're just randomly thrown together and happen to send sound good in sequence but in the circle of fifths you can now see these chords in context as major and minor harmonies that are grouped together into a single key in this example the key of C which is why they sound compatible where the progression of this song is specifically major one minor three minor six major four major one major five four five six four one five one and because all keys in the circle of fifths are symmetrical meaning they form the same consistent patterns we can rotate this diagram to play this progression in any key like in the key of D for example which is how Elvis originally recorded the song Only Fools Rush here but I can't help falling in love with you this is the same pattern the exact same progression of major and minor chords but shifted into a new key so the circle of fifths is helpful because it shows all of the chords in context that is not only how to play each chord on the instrument but also how they're all related to each other in any key in music which guides you in the process of creating cool chord progressions but what's really nice is that it also shows you more than just how to transpose songs into different Keys the circle of fifths also allows you to play a progression in any mode but what does that mean in music modes are just permutations of the major scale so if we take the c major scale for example and play the same pattern beginning and ending on each respective note to form different derivative patterns or permutations we get seven different modes the major scale itself also known as the ionian mode the Dorian mode which starts on the second note of the source scale in this example D Dorian the phrygian mode starting on scale degree 3 or E phrygian here the lydian mode F lydian in our example mixolydian on the Fifth Scale degree G mixolydian d e Olean mode or relative minor like this aeolian and the locrian mode like this B locrian pattern each mode uses the same set of notes all derived from a shared Source scale but they all sound unique since each has a different interval pattern a different sequence of whole step and half step intervals based on where it begins and ends this is what modes are they're just permutations of the major scale each with a different sound or Vibe and where each mode establishes a different note as its home base or what musicians call a tonic so in our example here the tonic of C ionian is C the tonic or home base of D Dorian is D the tonic of e phrygian is e and so on for each separate mode so what does this have to do with using the circle of fifths for songwriting what is the practical application of all of this check this out if we take this table of modes again with our example being various modes of the c major scale and instead of looking at the individual notes of each mode we swap those out for the chords that are built on those notes it looks like this where each set of chords played in sequence sounds like its underlying mode but fleshed out so while C ionian sounds like this when played as chords it sounds like this and while the D Dorian mode sounds like this this is that same pattern in chord form [Music] and the same applies to all of the other modes where the chords in each one simply accentuate or give harmonic form to the underlying note pattern of that mode and what's cool is that just as the various modes share the same set of notes and are just permutations of a common source scale the same is true for the chords in each mode in other words all of the chords in our example whether they're in the ionian mode or Dorian phrygian lydian mixolydian aeolian or locrian it's all just the same group of quartz C Major D Minor E minor F major G major a minor and B diminished but with each of these chords serving as the tonic or tonal home base of its respective mode which we can look at another way using the circle of fifths in the key of C grouping within this diagram we have the C ionian mode which begins and ends on C major [Music] but within the same grouping packed within this same space are all of the other modes derived from the c major scale including D Dorian ephrygian f lydian g mixolydian aeolian and B locrian so what this means is that each grouping of chords in the circle of fifths contains not only the chords of each major key which again is the common name for the ionian mode but also all of the chords for Every mode that is a permutation of that major key so anywhere you go in the circle of fifths depending on which chord serves as the tonic you can play chord progressions in any key and mode it's beautiful and in every grouping the tonic of a mode is in the same position the tonic chord of ionian is always at the bottom center Dorian is Middle left phrygian is Middle right lydian is bottom left mixolydian bottom right eolian middle Center and locrian top Center anywhere in the circle of fifths no matter where you rotate this grouping these positions are consistent and the patterns are predictable and these relationships between chords allow you to experiment with different chord progressions for example let's take the popular Pachelbel progression in the key of D or more technically D ionian which is made from chords one five six three four one four five this progression centers around the major one chord and sounds great because all of these harmonies form a compatible set they come from the same key and mode and if we move to any other key any other ionian mode like this key of C for example where the major one chord now becomes C major we can play this same progression and it sounds just as good only using a different set of chords foreign and we could rotate to any of the other keys in the same way to play the same progression in any of the other ionian modes and it will sound identical only shifted to a different key which is cool the circle of fifths is useful in this way because it provides an easy way to transpose a song into any key but because this diagram also includes all of the other modes in every key we can also get more creative by morphing this progression or any progression into a different mode and the results are more interesting for example if we take this Pachelbel progression back to its original position of being played in D ionian with D major as the tonic it again sounds like this foreign sounds great in the ionian mode that is played in a major key with D major or the major one as its tonal home base we could instead play this progression in another mode of D like d e Olean or the minor key of D where the D minor chord becomes the one in this case a minor one the chord pattern evolves to sound like this [Music] this pattern sounds familiar because it's sort of like the classic Pachelbel progression in the ionian mode but played in the eolian mode in this example d e Olean which is a permutation of F major it's morphed into something new something unexpected with a more haunting or Melancholy sound [Music] actually it's mostly eolian but with a major five chord a major in this case borrowed from over here to give it a more solid feel since the minor V chord isn't as strong it's not as harmonically satisfying because it doesn't lead back to the minor one chord as well as I explained in other videos but you can see and hear with this example how the circle of fifths provides all sorts of options for creating and tweaking chord progressions to create any kind of sound you want by playing with different keys and the various modes within each key you can come up with a nearly endless number of song ideas all using the circle of fifths experimenting with different keys and modes morphing progressions to hear how they sound and how they change and evolve to create the music you want to make anyway the circle of fifths is such a powerful tool and it's much more useful for songwriting than I think most people realize so hopefully this was helpful please let the algorithm know if you liked it and there's a PDF in the community with all of these diagrams if you want to check it out thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Mike George

Views: 29,173

Keywords: music theory, guitar, learn guitar, songwriting, colormusic, scale degrees, intervals, patterns, color wheel, geometry, key, composition, circle of fifths, music, learn to play, music lesson, guitar lesson, piano theory, guitar theory, chromatic scale, notes, chords, progressions, key signatures, I-V-vi-IV, Pachelbel, 12-bar blues, sacred geometry, modes, Can't Help Falling in Love, Elvis, major key, minor key, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian

Id: EQMC6_N9y7U

Length: 13min 54sec (834 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 05 2022