MASTER the Guitar Using The Circle Of Fifths 

You know this guy is a legend if he taught Marty 😱

When Chris teaches, its like he goes into your brain, flips the switches that you didnt know about and the lightbulbs starts glowing ; )

I've been playing two and a half years, but I've never done this exercise. When he said his brain turned off somewhere at the top of the neck, I was like, "Exactly!" But when he walked us down the fretboard, I could follow easily. What an awesome tutorial!

This dude is incredible

A welcomed "aha" moment from this video. Thank you for the clarity and straightforward approach. Looking forward to more...

I never seen this explained so clearly and simply. You obviously know what your talking about

Another great foundational lesson! I recently bought a small poster of the circle of fifths and had it laminated. Keep it close by while I'm practicing for lessons like this.

Marty has been lucky to have his own jedi master to teach him :D Randomly got into some videos about the 5th circle of hell today and ended up finding myself here in Martys awesome channel as I always do =) I've spent the last year playing alot of guitar, trying to learn some theory every now and then and have been struggling with memorizing the fretboard, but today was a real game changer!! Thanks for this amazing video!

Next do a video on the modes. So many people still struggle with simply because it is taught in a way that confuses instead of showing how easy it is. When I first learned them I was off for weeks exploring all the cool sounds especially the Lydian mode which throws me into the future...lol.

I finally sat myself down in front of the internet and said "Teach me the guitar" instead of saying "Teach me a song". I consider this the first milestone video in that journey of learning, not *where* a chord or note is, but *why* it is where it is. I haven't had a breakthough like this on the guitar for a long time. I sort of plateaued as we do sometimes on this instrument. I don't want to take up too much time but I just wanted to ask a small favor of you. If you could get a message to Chris for me, if this comment reaches your attention at all. Tell him this, if you would please: I have come to learn that when I can **really** connect with a song that it's the most power feeling I can generate within me, second only to pure love itself. What you do, Chris, Marty, and other teachers of this instrument, or any instrument, is a gift that cannot be measured because it's a gift we can perpetually give to ourselves and to others. I really just wanted to say thank you in an impactful way. Please continue to inspire others to further their skills so they too can bring joy to themselves and everyone within earshot. Thank you.

This is why I watch. Explained in such a way that you can easily understand and not be left more confused than when you started. I've been playing for 40+ yrs and have never had a lesson that made instant sense like this did. Great Job and thank you.

Hands down the best guitar teacher I have come across on RU-vid. I still love you too Marty. Thank you both for the lessons!

🤯 I have tried to learn the circle of fifths for 4 years but in 10 minutes he made it make sense thank you unbelievable

I have been playing for a decade and have played all of those cords, obviously, but this exercise was still somehow incredibly helpful for me. It really does feel like a confidence booster and I think it forces you to think in intervals in a way that is remotely learning, or at least seeing (if you choose to be conscious of the other intervals when running through by 5ths like this) all of the intervals. I’d file this under “seeing the theory rather than the fretboard” which is like saying seeing the forest instead of the trees. Great job! Hope to see more of you on this, the greatest guitar channel ever. And thanks for giving us Marty, he has probably helped more people accomplish their guitar goals than anyone on the planet.

Great explanation as usual Chris. I learned minor chords a harder way by moving up one semitone at a time and committed them to memory in 1976! I learned the relative majors three frets up as well. I learned the “ flavours” of minor chords. F#m was heavy rock, Em was sad, Dm was sadder and C#m was E major in drag!

This is dope. I started learning guitar since the beginning of RU-vid. I've been a huge supporter of Marty since WAAAAAYY back when he first started uploading. The first two solos I ever learned where from Knockin' On Heavens Door. I think I was like 12 or 13 at the time, but I felt like such a badass playing along to a frikin' Slash solo 🔥🔥🔥

Was confused figuring out why it was in the key of A with an E Minor chord and that led me into an hour or so journey in which I started learning about chord and mode relations. In a nutshell, Louie Louie is in A Mixylodian which uses a minor v chord, hence the Em. Off to learn more!

Been playing for a little over a year. Starting to get my feet wet with chord connections and relations. This blows me away. Thanks, Marty. And Chris. Will be watching a few times.

Just want to say thanks for giving me the knowledge to teach my kids not just a song, but an artform. Happy New Year!

awesome drill. helps learn fret board in logical way…thank you

I've been watching music theory videos for the past 3 years trying to understand circle of 5ths; this is the only one that is clear, concise, and perfectly explains the concept. I can't believe I finally understand it after all these years

Whoah! I've been playing for over 30 years (ugh that's friggin old) anyway I never saw this pattern before. This is powerful stuff! Thank you for sharing this!

From Argentina Great lesson!

Excellent lesson! Marty should have you on more often! Very helpful and insightful.

Love this. Was thinking about something crazy. If I would do the same thing on the D & G I would learn all my triads as well. I know “dah”, but it just became a revelation to me so I guess I own it now. Just got to do the work.

Awesome. Opened my eyes. Going to practice this.

I have just started to learn bar chords and was totally confused but this has made everything fall in to place thank you great lesson

Just watched him yesterday and subbed. You had a great teacher there Marty 😉

I'm finally starting to get this! This guy is GREAT!

OK Chris you got me hooked and now I see why Marty is such an amazing guitrist and teacher. Thank you both !!

Holy shit, literally crying with the simplicity of this. Major confidence boost.

THANK YOU

I think he is trying to say "learn notes on the fretboard". Thanks to all teachers on youtube who repeat that again and again. This is really the most important to be able to go to next level.

I love it when Marty has Chris on!

I love the lesson and life story to make it real.

I love how this is a lesson I knew, but haven’t practiced enough to have that confidence like you said. Great video

Chris' methods of reducing the cognitive load is excellent. He seems to use this approach absolutely everywhere, and it works 100% of the time. Best on the Internet, without a doubt.

Thank you! You are a good teacher.

I joined Chis Sherland’s Patreon a couple months ago thinking it was way over my head as a beginner. Lots was, hmmm, I guess I didn’t know much. Nothing embarrassing 😳 about that if I do something about it. What wasn’t over my head taught me that all of his material is within reach. I’m far better off for joining. I’ve put the effort in to listen to him and I patiently practice. The results speak for themselves in my better ability in my guitar learning endeavour I started 3 years ago at age 58. All of what I want is in reach, I enjoy practicing every day………lots of practice. I need challenging correct material to do so to progress, stay motivated and not just think I’m getting better.

Thanks for the lesson

Another super lesson. Chris, better to start with this drill or the minor triads drill first?

Thanks for posting. Very helpful.

This is super helpful. The. The circle of 5ths has baffled me and I put it out of my mind. Also helped with minor shapes on the E and A strings. Who knew? And I have been playing for years just memorizing specific chords. Wow! And thank you.

Awesome tutorial, thank you.

I've gone back to trying to learn the circle of fifths for years. U explained it so well and easy to understand. Thanks!

Thanks Chris I learned something new today!

These lessons with Chris are the Bomb in my head! Love this stuff.

This is so spot on

This is as easy as addition and subtraction in math but they are the gateway to the square root (jazz for ex). It is better to learn this perfectly before moving on to chords with more variants like 7, dim, maj, etc. After learning this everything is gonna be easier. Great lesson. Thanks so much.

I was looking at the circle of fifths last night lol. I definitely needed this

Chris, you are an amazing communicator! I’ve only watched two of your videos & a handful of Marty’s, but both of you have provided those “eureka” moments. I’m 56 in a few weeks, why didn’t I watch these sooner.. thanks again, Rod (Australia]. 😀👍

Thanks man. I needed this lesson. I’ll practice it. As a hobby guitarist that never had formal lessons stuff like this really gets missed. You’d think learning in relative 5ths would be foundational but I’ve been playing since I was a kid, and never even explored drilling with 5ths in mind.

Wow this was an eye opening event for me on the guitar. I have been struggling with learning the fretboard and this has showed me that I need to look at things differently. Now I need to go back and look at major chords in combination with minors and keep practicing so that I can get them all under my fingers. Much easier to remember than the piano as the finger positions are the same... very cool.

Fantastic. Really. Thank you Sir!

Smashing eyes opening TUTORIAL!!! Endless thanks!!!

Excellent lesson

I like how you kept it simple. You are a great teacher.

Thank you Marty sir for the great tutorial.

This was great refresher, thanks.

Great explanation

The coolest guitar teacher ever

Yes thank you Marty

Most excellent … dude 🎉 Righteous cords 🏋️‍♀️🎸

Yes I agree. I'm teaching myself guitar Im studying more and more of the circle of fifths. It's slowly unlocking info for me. Learning everyday thanks 😎👍👌💯🎸🎸

Thanks Chris!!

Please more short content like this

Brilliant lesson! So simply explained.

This will increase my skills exponentially. Thanks!!!

This was absolutely helpful. Thank you for this. Whether a lot of you know this already, I didn’t as a beginner/intermediate is very good to know ☺️

It's like a building: Add blocks, one by one and picture (building) grows. Thank you both.

Thanks so much for the lesson! It's a blessing to get some knowledge from the guy who taught Marty himself... 🙏🙏🙏

Great way of remembering fret positions for minor chords that fits neatly into music theory.

This guy is so good a teaching music theory

Thank you for this lesson. You did a very good teaching. I could follow every step and was able to understand the meanings quickly.

Brilliant 😂in teaching amazing.

One of the best lessons i had

Chris is an amazing teacher and this lesson was very helpful! Thank you Marty!

Chris amazing way with words. Guitar is as hard to teach as it is to learn. Very grateful to You and Marty for sharing.

Great lesson!

Wow! Super lesson. Such an incredible teacher. I wish I could take in person lessons from you.

Man. That was easy. I didn’t see that before. Thanks pal. ☘️🎸

Hell of a guitar teacher!!

Thanks for the key to the chords👏

This is incredible and is a bit of a lightbulb moment for me. Thank you

Thanks Chris and Marty, will practice CoF 's in minor keys...way cool!!! My soul desires minor key (Aeolian) songs like many of the RHCP's material, there so dramatic and that's what attracts me to them.

Teacher, YOU ROCK!

Your best Chris! Thx!

Great!!! Very Helpful!!!! Thank You Very Much!!!

Great lesson and what a gorgeous Les Paul! What finish is it? 😍

Chris is the man! Thank you for your insight and excellent teaching! Respect!!!

Wow you are a great teacher.

Excellent, professor! 😎

Thanks for this video

probably the most important lesson I've ever been taught

Amazing video! Thank you guys ✌🏼✌🏼

Great lesson. Keeping it simple in this way helps understanding. More videos like this would be great 👍

Can you upload a video of dim lights thick smoke and the solo

Great video, I have been learning the circle already playing modes in different keys, so this was super easy to follow and learn cheers bloke

Brilliant.

Very great video! Thanks so much!