Many things about playing guitar are glamorous. Knowing the circle of fifth's is not one of those things. Maybe that’s why so many guitar players overlook it. But the circle of 5th's can provide you with a wealth of information that will help your playing in so many places. Before we take a look at the circle of fifths, here is what you can get out of knowing it:
1. The relative minor of every major chord/scale. Every major chord and scale as a corresponding minor scale that has the same notes. This is great to know because many beginning guitar players find the minor scale, or the pentatonic scale more “solo friendly” than the major scale shape. So what do you do if the song is in a major key? Easy. Play the relative minor scale over it. On the circle of 5th's the relative minor is at the thin part of each pie slice, towards th middle of the circle.
2. 4th and 5th intervals. As you go to the right of the circle, each pie slice goes up by a perfect 5th interval. As you go to the left the slices go up by a perfect 4th interval. This is a great composition tool as the V – I chord change is the most popular. So if you want to easily see what the V of your chord progression is, just go one slice to the right!
3. Number of #’s and b’s in any key. As you go up by a fifth (by moving one slice to the right) you go up by one sharp. As you go to the left you go up by one flat. This is great information for two reasons. One, if you are learning to read music the key of the song is indicate by the number of sharps or flats in that key, not by the actual key name. So if you see on the sheet music 4 # symbols in the beginning, you know you are in the key of E major or C# minor. Second, knowing how many sharps or flats are in a key will help you make sure you are building scales correctly. So if the circle of fifths tells me that Bb has 2 flats in it, and I try to spell out the Bb major scale and I have 3 flats, I know I messed up somewhere.
Now lets take an actual look at the circle of fifths. You can click here to view and download a PDF that you can print out for you reference!
Please feel free to post your questions to the comments (as usual).
Nice article on the circle. Any time I learn a new scale or lick I try it through the whole thing. Good point about playing it backwards too. That’s usually the way I practice because each scale resolves to the next. Like the site!
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