Why the Circle of Fifths is Important

the circle of fifths is a very powerful tool you can use to write great chord progressions though most people don't know this and they dismiss the circle of fifths as either something that's really confusing or even useless but since you're watching this video you are more clever and curious than the average person which is great because by the end of this video you'll have a solid understanding of the practical application of the circle of fifths how you can use it to compose compelling chord progressions that sound awesome in fact the real circle of fifths is so much cooler than how it's traditionally depicted as a Dusty abstract ring of key signatures that's meant to distinguish which notes are the accidentals or Sharps and flats in each key to start out we're going to take a quick look at how these key signatures are formed to gain a kind of x-ray vision which is a critical step to see past all of these symbols to really understand what the circle of fifths is actually showing us in order to use it as a tool for songwriting so the circle of fifths basically shows how all keys how all major scales are connected acted where they're all linked to form one big daisy chain pattern starting with the key of C for example the c major scale is made from a pattern of whole step and half step intervals to make and then if we take the second half of that scale starting on the fifth note G and repeat the pattern we get the G Major scale then continuing on starting on the fifth note D of that scale when we repeat the same pattern of whole steps and half steps it forms the D major scale foreign and so on where we can cycle through all 12 major scales until we eventually return to C major once again this is how the circle of fifths is created and why it's called the circle of fifths because it shows how each respective key how each new scale is built starting on the fifth note of the previous one looking at it like this you can see how this Loop is really just a big keyboard that Cycles through each key where C major is at the top which leads to the G Major scale then d and a etc and notice how the black and white keys explain all of the sharp and flat symbols in the traditional depiction of the circle of fifths the c major scale is played using all of the white notes on a keyboard so that's why in this diagram this key signature representing the key of C is empty because the c major scale has no accidentals no black notes of sharps or flats but in the G Major scale there's one black note F sharp which is why the key signature for G is shown with an F sharp likewise the D major scale has two black notes F sharp and C sharp as also depicted in the key signature for the key of D and continuing on in a clockwise Direction each major scale has an increasing number of Sharps just as each respective key moving in a counterclockwise direction from C has progressively more Flats the F major scale has one black note B flat depicted here in the old circle of fifths the B-flat major scale has two black notes B flat and E flat and so on moving in this direction that was just a quick look at why the circle of fifths is usually depicted as key signatures and if we were to stop there as most people do we would totally be missing the point because this old depiction really is and should be a museum piece today it's close and yet still so far away because this old depiction of the circle of fifths is key signatures emphasizes the differences between Keys rather than the important connections between them so forget about the sharps and flats they don't really matter instead notice how the circle of fifths is formed through a consistent repeating pattern of whole step and half step intervals where the second half of C forms the first half of G and the second half of G forms the first half of D and the second half of D is the first half of a all the way around the circle so that every major scale every key in music overlaps this connection between Keys is the Insight that we need here and to to picture these connections more directly more intuitively we can apply the color wheel like this to visually highlight the fact that g for example red orange is made from equal parts C red and D orange and that D orange is equal halves g red orange and a orange yellow Etc all around the circle just as all the keys in music overlap to form the circle of fifths all the colors bleed seamlessly into one another in the color wheel both patterns the color wheel and the circle of fifths illustrate the same thing and again this connection between Keys is really what we care about because these harmonic connections these relationships between keys and notes are what inform everything in music from scales and modes to chords and progressions as we'll look at next okay so now that we can see sound using these Colors Let's simplify things by reducing the circle of fifths down to the 12 basic notes of music and then rearrange these notes into the chromatic scale since this is the sequence of notes we actually use to play insta instruments only now with the colors we can see the harmonic relationships baked into the notes which will help us a lot here and from this pattern let's pick out say the c major scale again one two three four five six seven eight well in the key of C we can derive seven essential chords from the scale just by starting on each scale degree or interval and combining every other note to get C major or the major one chord D minor or the minor two E minor the minor three F major major four G major major five a minor minor six and B diminished or the diminished seven chord in the key of C as our example you can arrange these chords in all sorts of ways to create cool chord progressions like the popular one five six four one and the classic Pachelbel progression in a virtually endless variety of other progressions but what does this have to do with the circle of fifths we are getting there and it has to do with some special relationships between chords in a given key and a cross keys that are consistent that we can map in the circle of fifths to give us a framework of Harmony for example looking at these chords in the key of C notice how the colors of the different root notes highlight connections between them like C major the root note is red F major the root note is purple red and G major where the root note is red orange the root notes of these three major chords are neighbors in the circle of fifths which is why they sound good together like you hear in the common one four five one progression because the one four five one focuses on chords that are harmonically related closely related in the circle of fifths which again is easy to see with the colors here in in the same way you can also see how the root notes of the three minor chords in this key are also related the root notes of D Minor the minor two a minor minor six and E minor the minor three are likewise Neighbors in the circle of fifths so the circle of fifths is behind the scenes what's informing why these various chords sound good together it's the metaphorical electrical Powerhouse that's supplying the energy that lights up all of these harmonic connections between the chords in a given key which in turn is why you can arrange these chords in all sorts of ways and they'll sound good because of their shared harmonic connections through the circle of fifths but it gets even better because remember how the circle of fifths itself is formed by overlapping all of the neighboring major scales where the second half of C major becomes the first half of G major and then the second half of G major becomes the first half of D major Etc so that all 12 Keys bleed into each other well just as all scales share some notes in common all keys also share some chords in common since these chords are derived from those scales for example the seven chords in the key of C are again C Major D Minor E minor F major G major a minor and B diminished based on the underlying notes of the c major scale but since the G Major scale shares some of these same notes the key of G also includes some of the same chords as well the G Major scale is g a b c d e f sharp and G and the chords are G major a minor B minor C Major D major E minor and F sharp diminished where these chords G major a minor C major and E minor are also in the key of C and if we look at all 12 keys this same overlap is there where some of the same chords show up in multiple Keys due to the connections between keys in the circle of fifths but of course picturing all of the chords this way is a lot to take in it's insightful but not very concise so a more compact way to look at the chords in each key and how they're related and overlap is to use the circle of fifths to arrange the various chords in a circle of fifths structure and here's how if we take all of the major chords and represent each one by its root note like this and arrange them in order of the circle of fifths or the color wheel it looks like this then if we add all of the minor chords also shown by their root notes and align each one with its respective major chord so a minor is next to C major E minor next to G major and so on we have two concentric rings of chords with major chords at the center and minor chords around that and then around that an outer ring of of diminished chords where each is aligned with its respective major chord so B diminished is above C F sharp diminished is above G Etc all the way around the circle every ring of chords is arranged in a circle of fifths sequence the major chords in the inner ring the minor chords in the middle ring and the diminished chords in the outer ring but the respective rings are aligned so that the chords in each key are grouped together like the chords in the key of C and all the chords in the key of G and those in the key of D Etc this same grouping is consistent in every key since the circle of fifths is symmetrical and all the keys are formed from the same underlying pattern but what's especially cool is that this single diagram also shows how the various chords overlap and intertwine sharing some of the same chords between them for example while these chords are in the key of C and these are in the key of G these four harmonies appear in both like a Venn diagram you can see this overlap directly in the image likewise Keys G and D also have some chords in common as do Keys d and a etc so in one compact image the circle of fifths gives us this kind of bird's eye view of all keys in music and every chord within them including which chords appear in which keys so you have this All-Seeing Insight that helps you navigate the different keys to compose chord progressions informed by how the various harmonies relate to one another which chords go together like a palette of compatible harmonies you can use to paint your Sonic pictures it's good stuff for example the 1564 progression that we played earlier in the key of C looks and sounds like this foreign how these harmonies are related to each other no matter what key you're in since these relationships are consistent in every key and with the Pachelbel progression as another example you can see how these chords are connected in the circle of fifths as well which is super helpful so the circle of fifths is way more useful than if you just thought of it as a limited Dusty old reference guide to merely which Keys have certain sharps or flats the circle of fifths is actually very powerful for mastering chord progressions and in the video notes there's a link to a PDF in the community with these diagrams that you can soak in at your own pace and here we've only scratched the surface because it gets even better since the circle of fifths not only shows which chords are in what keys and where those keys overlap but it also clarifies in one single image how all of the parallel modes in music are laid out like the ionian Dorian phrygian lydian mixolydian eolian and locrian modes how they interact and which chords are found in each mode in all 12 Keys we look at parallel modes in the circle of fifths in another video because that's its own entire topic though it's powerful because with parallel modes you know where to borrow different chords to expand your songwriting palette to write unexpected and really interesting chord progressions getting into modal mixture and cool stuff like that which all the best composers do like the Beatles and others with parallel modes you can do some really cool stuff and just with the circle of fists this is an intro to the circle of fifths so you can wrap your head around it to make sense of how you can come up with some really cool chord progressions not just randomly picking chords out and hoping they sound good together but knowing how they're all connected how they're all related within a single diagram so hopefully this was helpful if so please let the algorithm know and I will see you in the next video

Channel: Mike George

Views: 85,205

Keywords: music theory, guitar, learn guitar, songwriting, colormusic, scale degrees, intervals, patterns, color wheel, geometry, key, scales, composition, circle of fifths, piano, learn piano, keyboard, music, learn to play, music lesson, guitar lesson, piano lesson, piano theory, guitar theory, chromatic scale, notes, chords, progressions, key signatures, music notation, I-V-vi-IV, Pachelbel

Id: CqEPCpYywVg

Length: 13min 32sec (812 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 27 2022