Even easier, forget the circle of fifths, just pick a key, find the 6 chords on the fretboard, memorize those six chords on the fretboard. Then pick another key and do it again. You'll notice that the same six chords just slide up and down the fretboard depending on key, so if you memorize for one key, you've memorized for all -- that's one thing nice about the guitar as compared to piano. You can learn to find the chords of every key on the guitar in *literally* about 10 minutes of practice.
Very true! Guitar is so hard to understand the fretboard at first, but if you figure it out the way you did, it's actually so good for visualizing theory!
Works on piano too...but really, you don't need to memorize much of anything. Simply being able to count to 4 and understand how triads are built usually gets people supercharged in their understanding..
Thanks! I suppose I can type it in music notation software, but my Mac doesn’t seem to support it ‘natively’. And then there’s the half-diminished symbol that I would also love to use, but alas I always end up typing m7(b5). 🙏
I hear you! And many people do learn to do all this stuff just by ear, and really the theory is basically just names and labels for everything! I hope you saw the circle of fifths part bc that’s the part where you can usually find the key without all of the calculating!
Wow, this was way too nerdy for moi. What a liar, I'm a music theory Geek and there is no such thing as too nerdy. My problem is that I was born with two left ears, and waited until 65 yoa to try and change. My ear training is limping along, and I would love to wake up one day with music in my head. I've talked about it with my piano teacher, and we are looking for a magic lamp to rub. We'll probably have to rub it in a Phrygian scale, though.
My theory was sort of less work than ear training for me as well! That’s funny bc my next video I just started writing is about ear training tips for guitarists! Keep at it and thanks so much for the thoughtful comment!
Thanks Dan! I'm just starting to make videos that are slightly less terrible in quality, and I'm starting to get some more views as a result, so hopefully I'm on the right track! I appreciate your taking the time to comment!
Thanks so much, and I couldn’t believe that trick existed when I learned it because I was already playing and being a theory nerd for like 20 years before I learned it and I couldn’t believe it was right there under our noses the whole time! Thanks for watching and for the nice comment!😊
Thanks for the really insightful point! It could just as well be Bb bc it’s parent scale, and actually maybe I should have said that way! bc I was trying to illustrate modal borrowing where it has chords from G minor mixed with chords from G major, so I was basically thinking “in G”, but I should have put Bb parent scale in brackets or something at least bc I keep going on about “parent major scales!” Good point!
Nicely presented. I simply play sharps until they don't fit then go back 1. I am 95% accurate this method. Since there is a Sharp order. Also circle of 5ths tells us how many sharps per chord. "A" at 3 o'clock has 3 sharps. etc.
True! That would work for sure, or even just fish around for the notes by ear until the scale sort of materializes through trial and error! And the key of A has 3 sharps, but an A chord could also potentially be from 2 sharps (A mixolydian/D major) or 4 sharps (a Lydian/Emajor) depending on the context, but if you do what you said I think you’ll find it, and I also agree to go by ears as final authority!
First of all, it’s very well done. I get it because I have a degree in music, but it’s like teaching math starting at counting to ten and ending at algebra and trigonometry. It’s great material, but it goes from beginner to advanced all in one setting. Maybe broken down into a series of videos with examples would be more digestible. Again, great video otherwise.😊
Thanks for that, and I know what you mean! I am slowly learning to put a half decent video together, but I think it’s better if I don’t try to cover ‘everything’! Thanks a lot for the thoughtful comment!
You're not teaching what is hard: knowing what notes to use over the chords you are just HEARING, in a serious JAZZ tune, IN REAL TIME. It's easy to know what scale to use over pop, rock, blues, ... you can find it on your guitar (or what have you) blindfolded, and don't have to think of the letter names of anything. It's also not hard to work out what notes to use over music that is written down, even if it is harmonically complex, when you're not doing it real time.
True, I didn’t go into that. I had to already cut so much stuff out for this topic which is just what scales fit over what chords. I have a diploma in jazz performance and so I know what you’re talking about like actually playing over the changes (and especially doing it well on the fly!). But my master’s is in classical, and that’s more my wheelhouse so I’m really unlikely to make any really serious jazz improv videos bc I’ll have too much imposter syndrome!
Can we just take a moment to appreciate that there's stock footage of a man in a business suit, playing air guitar on a hill that exists in the world? I mean that's kind of amazing.
@@fretboardIQ Thank you for bringing fire down from the mountain, Sir! Humanity may still have a chance if more people see this footage. It might stir something inside them that they thought was lost forever. They just needed a glimpse of what is possible. 🙏🔥🔥🔥
I play ukulele but have always found the most helpful information is usually contained in guitar tutorials. After self-teaching for 4 years and maxing out as an intermediate player, I finally decided to start in-person lessons at a music store. At the first lesson my teacher tossed the 7 modes at me and it threw me for a loop. I had been happy in pentatonic world. Long story short, I went back to every video I could find about music theory. Your video is one of the best. Trick for looking at chord order segments to determine key was terrific. Thank you!!
hey great video, I never thought about looking at the steps between a pair of major/minor chords an judging from that; most videos just focus on finding the tonic
First of all thanks for the thoughtful comments! I was hoping my approach was at least slightly unique and it makes me happy that you actually get what I'm talking about in there!
I'm basically expecting a mix, partially because I'm really just getting started making these and I'm trying to find my audience! But I do think I see your point that the theory seems kind of advanced, but then my idea was to show how cool it is that the circle of fifths trick kind of does it all for you! But I think I can learn something from your comment bc I can either make whole videos more clearly for defined beginners, or intermediate, or if I am trying to cover different levels, I can try to make the structure more clear! but honestly I just thought the video makes more sense if I went through the underlying theory first, and then give the 'hack' to kind of sidestep all that, so people feel relieved that they can just use the circle method instead or until they learn the theory! Thanks a lot for the comment!
Well. I come from 5 decades of violin. We don't have Chords or a circle of 5ths. So yes having picked up guitar 4 years ago and already published 2 songs I am beginner as many are of sorts. Many picked up guitar to learn a song and now want to learn the instrument.
I stopped watching the video after 2 minutes because of the amount of cheap and stupid stock footage. It seems to be a trend among youtubers to fill their videos with this crap
Fair enough, but this is one of my best performing video - sorry to see you go but this style does a lot better than just a shot of me talking apparently! Thanks for the comment!
