10 things The Circle of 5ths Teach Us About Music 

I have taught for over 20 years and have played keyboard since I was 9 years old. Since I first learned the circle of 5th's, I found it to be a very very important tool of musical knowledge. This man explains this extremely well. When I started teaching at just 16, and it was a student of some simple knowledge musically, I always taught them about the circle of 5th's. Charts consolidate so much information in a nutshell. It is an easy way to understand about chords and how they can be used easily and effectively without too much intense musical knowledge. It is so logical and with a little of chord and note theory , the circle is one of your best friends in understanding why chords work well. To me, it is an essential tool in learning music theory. It is really a short-cut. So, even though it hasn't always been aware to long previous composers and musical people, I feel this is a must to know and understand , how it functions, and your easy way into writing and creating your own music, and style of music. This circle and a full scale chart will truly be of the greatest help in any musical desire, Greg is excellent, but it is somewhat fast and it would help you out if you studied your scales a little first and got familiar with your note to note relationships.Thank you Greg. We would be great partners in music.This is an awesome video.. Joan

Hopefully this will save some viewers some time. 1: Major Keys 3:22 2: Enharmonic Keys 6:12 3: Sharps and Flats 8:09 4: Most Similar Keys 10:44 (Adjacent) 5: Most Different Keys 12:03 (180 degrees away) 6: Relative Minor Key 14:40 (90 degrees away) 7: Major and Minor Chords 14:40 (Fill in adjacent 5ths...) 8: Primary Chords 17:58 (Plot I II III... nearby... meh) 9: Secondary Chords 19:29 (Keys in the key of the dominant... meh) 10: Succeeding Chords 21:55 (P4ths sequence by dominant 7 relationships... meh)

We get the idea how it works in a nut shell now, very useful to see the point straight away, I always wanted to hear an explanation like this from a teacher. Big thanks for the video.

The best most complete tutorial in my search ..thank you🙏

Excellent work Greg. The only thing I would add to help aspiring musicians who may not know how to determine the notes in a chord would be to count in half steps using the 4 and 3 rule for major chords and 3 and 4 rule for minor triad chords from the root of the chord (at zero), so in a C major chord, you would count 4 half steps to an E and then 3 half steps to a G. For C minor chord you would count 3 half steps then 4 half steps and so on. Then a C7 major chord would be another 4 half steps above G and a C7 dominant chord would be 3 steps above G. Just my opinion. Cheers

So helpful. #9 and 10 are beyond my pay grade but you really taught me something new with #8 and the 90 degrees to find minor. Thx!

theoretical AND practical application / demonstration.

Very well explained, thank you!

One of the best videos on the circle of 5th I've watched.

I learned a number of new things about this circle. Thank you!

How everyone doing from covid 19, this is such a good time improving my piano techinic!

Thank you so much for this... It’s free to .. very generous... great explanation!

Really nice explanation, thank you!

Great job thanks

That was very informative. Thanks.

I think the best way to teach this circle of fifths is not to give to much info at once it should be broken down in small steps while at the same time playing along with an instrument doing it this way just leaves you feeling lost and confused

Thank you!

it would be great to use shots of you playing a piano keyboard to illustrate your points - show AND tell.

Just Superb!!!! Sir

This video was helpful. Thank you.

Points 8 and 9 were useful for me.

Good theoretical explanation. No need for keyboards to illustrate the inner working of 5ths. A person can do that later on using their instrument. People looking at youtube instructional videos can often find jam packed information in 20 or 30 minutes. Not all youtubers have tons of free time to hold someone's hand. This here video gets to the point fast and is concise. Thumbs up!

Simple and effective way to teach circle of 5th

Amazing music theory .. the first time in my life i understand music .. scale ..

at 11:30 you say adjacent keys on the circle are the most similar, and either adjacent key has just one sharp or flat - but is that statement from memory only or does the circle show you somehow which flats or sharps adjacent keys have?

Man, your explanations are so helpful. My kid is playing heavy metal/ progressive music. see Ethan Mckenna-band camp on youtube esp. improvisation#1

Bravo..... teaching as a professor

thank you so much

Wonderful video 5stars

for example, demonstrating on a piano how the key of B Major with 4 sharps equates to the key of F#/Gb, to continue the circle of 5ths.

Excellent video

This is a more in depth look at how to find the notes of a song using the Circle of 5ths but for a beginner it may be too much. It started out like trying to walk but ended up doing Olympic track sprints

The logic behind the layout is start at C at 12 o'clock position, count 7 half steps and that will give you the next point. Keep going with 7 half steps between each point, continuing clockwise and you will arrive back at C at the 12 o'clock position. Memorizing it doesn't give you the foundation as to why is is laid out like it is.

Gracie Terzian sets this out much simpler and, I think, explains it very well.

This is the best explanation!

Super video

again, demonstrating on piano why the sharps continue around the top of the circle at 8:40 would be helpful

TONAL HARMONY with an Introduction to Twentieth- Century. Music is intended for a Two -Year course in music theory / harmony..Please recieve .this plus i like Roland Keyboards..

no better way to confuse and frustrate someone with musical talent/ desire than try to cram them into a box full of techno-jargon and tell them they can't play till they understand it. Lots of greats became greats without understanding this first.

I thought I understood this until you started explaining it .

Technically speaking its more of a spiral as it goes up and down the octaves.

after oving around the cyrcle for a Thousand times u start to memorize it easyly

it gets confusing why you draw out a circle of 5ths, then at 9:00, add sharps to each one, why? also, why does the circle of 5ths suddenly become the circle of 4ths when you move counterclockwise through the flats? weird. its this kind of mystery crap that munged up my understanding of this originally when i was in high school band.

Excuse me for being a troll but if you went up an octave you would get double the vibration but if you went down you won't get half you get two halves less the vibration you started out with. E3→E4 =double E3→E2 =double; not half. Half would be around G# or A

Instead of counting 5 diatonic, to get the circle, you should count 7 semitones chromatic, because this way you get the sharps and flats.

Cats go down alleys eating baloney? That’s great. So’s the video. Well done.

It's not a Circle of Fifths - it's a Dodecagon of Fifths. :)

the link to the free color guide didn't work....

Cb, B#, E#, Fb do not physically exist. Trying to add those in there is like saying I can make a left on a red light because it's more convenient. Nevermind the confusion and fender benders that will be caused from breaking the rule.

This Your. Video Presentation. Is right w/ one major Resource WORKSTUDY BOOK:Third Edition. Tonal Harmony.With an. Introduction to Twentieth-Century Music. Stefan Kostka & Dorothy Payne( at the risk of getting in trouble. Copying rights im sending an excellent. Reference) As a studious friend. Thank you

The Circle of 5ths actually shows every single thing in music...all musical concepts, theory, relativity, chord progressions, keys, scales, all modes and much more. However, you must need to know what it is that you are perceiving otherwise it remains an unknown confusing issue. Learning about the musical concepts and all basics will help learn how to use the Circle in the best ways to reveal all of the other musical data. I have even created a MODE CODE simply by perceiving how and where you can find every single mode in a very easy way rather than having to learn it by altering a scale . It's not where you think it is. People will tell you that modes are just scales but they fail to tell you WHAT chords they are and how and where they can be found. This is a profound concept that you can only comprehend with in depth studies of the modes and their usages. Once you discover the way to find them, it will all become quite obvious and easy to access. Music doesn't have to be difficult to learn but you must learn the language and formulas of how music is put together and from there you will find the journey much easier.

It does not introduce the circle in the clock form that is so valuable telling us every diatonic key. The video seems to imply that all progressions are from the Dominant 5 assuming that the viewer actually knows what that is. In fact progressions can come in any sequence within the diatonic scale plus they can switch out to relative dominants and when one moves to chromatic or the 6th diminished scale they can go anywhere so long as you remember where home is i.e. the Head of the song. As a demonstration of how the Circle can be formed useful perhaps for a beginner not good at all. I hoped to find something I may have missed not so. C'est la vie!

Us Aliens Are Learning Piano.

at 10:20, showing on a keyboard how the circle of 5ths shows you your sharps and flats for a key, i.e. flats - BEADGCE/Fb and HOW the diagram actually relates to something physical (a keyboard) would help idiots like me TREMENDOUSLY. or those who follow.

I think something important is missing. It is not clear from this why going up 5 notes is important. Why not 3, 4, 6? Well maybe it will eventually become clear. Why would I want to find the most opposite key? I eventually gleaned that "fifth" isn't 1/5th (fifth) but: first, second, third, fourth, fifth -- an ordinal position, not a cardinal value. It is clear that the frequency spacing isn't consistent, some letters are spaced by a whole note and some by 1/2 note (equal to 1/12th frequency increment where each increment of frequency is multiplied by the 12th root of 2.

Takes someone with some music background or is a naturally talented musician to understand this circle of fifths ... I believe it's very useful when one understands it ... But yours truly was lost 😅 at the pace he was going. But if I pause n replay several times ... Maybe it'll eventually make a lot of sense.

I'm lost again.

I learned the circle for 5th that the 4th goes clock wise and the 5th goes counter clock wise

Thank you for the inspiration about the Circle of Fifths! In return, you may check out this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Bl41Yv9KtPQ.html

since the Circle of 5ths is 'geometric' in a way, they must relate somehow to Crop Circles. Tie those together

Most different key = tritone

Is it not when youre at B...... goes this way......C D E F....... so B to F should be and not Gb or F#?....... i dont understand.....please enlighten me guys

Starting 9:30 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lSekLFuyNZA.html the bit about flats is incorrect. You said B-flat has only one flat but it actually is F that has one flat only. The rest that follows, up to E-flat, the number of flats is also incorrect. The key with 7 flats is at B, which is C flat major (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-flat_major).

i actually like this lesson but you lost me on the 7th chords and how to find them in the minor relation

Very confusing. I believe that it requires some knowledge beforehand in order to understand how your teaching the Circle of 5ths. And you go over things that make me want to say "wait a second I have a question" needing to clarify something you said. On to the next vid.

“The Key of F has 1 flat.” Key of F F G A A# C D E or F G A Bb C D E or F G Bbb A# C D E or F F## A Bb Dbb C## Fb or......this can go on forever. I play guitar so I’ve always thought in terms of sharps bc I tend to bend notes “up” or sharp more often than not. A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# This is the musical alphabet I’ve used for 30 years. I do understand where I use sharps, a corresponding flat can be used (A#/Bb, F#/Gb, etc). When I first constructed this a few weeks ago, I used all sharps and was told I’m incorrect. Why am I incorrect I asked?? I was told the “correct” answer is using Bb instead of A#. My reply was that is subjective...we are both correct in reality as we are describing the identical pitched note. I was then told this model has stood for 4 centuries and nobody has ever discredited it so I should just memorize it and accept. Like the Earth being the center of the universe which was accepted for 1500 years until somebody came along and challenged its validity. What I found is simply that this cute diagram naming sharps/flats is subjective and only valid if one specific method of naming the flats/sharps is used. If the correct but alternative method is used, as I showed above, it invalidates this diagram immediately revealing its flaw and subjectivity...unfortunately. Thank You for video, you are a fabulous musician. The issue is only with this diagram and not you as a Teacher my friend.

I believe you made a mistake on the sharp/flat numbering. F is the starting place, but is 1 flat, C is zero sharps, and G#/Fb is the 6 flats, 6 sharps AT 6:00.

Anything else?.

😶🤷‍♂️

Now, play outside of that

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I've watched many videos about the circle of fifths. Happy to say that I fully understand it, finally. That being said, this guy is not a good teacher. His intentions are good but his execution is poor. If you're a total beginner, I'd avoid this video if you want to learn about the circle of fifths.

Could be clearer. Too advanced for me. I need to know how to get to each note.

Talking about fifths (as if there is only one type) without addressing diminished fifths and perfect fifths and augmented fifths is incomplete and misleading.

Your hair?

I’m terribly sorry, but there are much betters explanations of the circle of fifths on the web, eg music matters

I am sure this video will be useful to serious musicians but if you want to learn music for fun like me you will find it dry and boring. Couldnt continue watching it.

this whole thing can be taught much more easily ! so many informations in one shot will confuse people very easily. sorry ! DISLIKE

you promised a free download of circle of fifths chart but dont deliver dont like being deceived im unsubscibing