Is The Circle Of Fifths Useless? (Piano Lesson)

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Once you start learning and studying music a little bit you're bound to come across the Circle of 5ths.

It sounds so official and important, but WHY does it exist.

I'm here to tell you what it is ... BUT it will be up to YOU to decide whether you think it's something that can be useful for you.

Here is a breakdown of the lesson:

- Why use the circle: 0:13
- How to use the circle: 0:48
- Moving through the sharps: 1:31
- Moving through the flats: 2:16
- My final thoughts: 3:44

The Circle is great at showing patterns which helps make it easier to learn and remember.

Let us know if you like to use the circle or if you think it's overrated!

And we'd love you to come and follow us on our other social channels, where we post every day!

[tristanbach]

I think the Circle of Fifths is interesting (Coltrane's "Giant Steps, " for example), and maybe useful to beginners or as a quick-reference guide. However, once a musician becomes very familiar with the major/minor keys, I don't see much practical use.

Also, a _slightly_ quicker way of determining a key's relative major/minor is by counting up/down three semitones.

e.g., if you're in C _Major_, simply count *_DOWN_* 3 semitones to find that A Minor is its relative key. If you're in the key of D _Minor_, simply count *_UP_* 3 semitones to find that F Major is its relative major key.

Great video! I appreciate you, and so many others do, too! :) <3

[RamMusicStudios]

Hello Ma'am my name is Ramgopal and I am 17 year old from India aspiring to be a Musician. I know five instruments all of which are self taught.


I just want to say your videos are I mean seriously superb. Pretty sure you get this a lot! But I just wanna say it!!!! It has helped me write songs! And the way you explain it!!! Nothing is more easily understandable than this!!!! Thank you so much for this amazing channel!, You really do help kids like me have a huge growth in music! Thank you so much



Regards
Ramgopal

[andraepalmer]

I love your explanation. I use the circle of fifths to practice chords. Playing the chords with a metronome helped me learn how to play all basic chords in all keys.

[michaelwagner]

For absolute beginners: From the number of signs, you can not only see how many # or b the corresponding scale has, but also which black keys are. Example: G maj has 1 # and it is on the F line so the G maj scale has F #. I hope it's fairly understandable
because my english is not very good.

[pamsimpson]

Right now, I am practicing country piano walk ups and walk downs around the circle of fifths (and fourths). It has broadened my understanding of how keys are connected to each other and my ability to quickly know which sharps/flats I need to play in each key. I was totally lost trying to play around the circle until I began to see a pattern of how the keys were connected.

[robertdawson]

Great job!!! The Circle of 5ths/4ths is useful in so many ways: understanding chord progressions, transposing music, and understanding many aspects of music theory. Thanks for reducing the intimidation of such a useful tool.

[Woodyaktx]

I use the circle of 5ths written on a blank CD (so I can spin it to what I want on top (the I chord)). I then wrote IV I V ii vi iii vii on the CD case above. With C being the one A (vi) is at 90 degrees on the dial to the right and Eb (bIII) is 90 degrees on the left. Ab (bVI) is below Eb and Bb (bVII) is above Eb. So I can see all the possibilities in a moment when I look at the Circle of 5ths dial. If the song is in Am then I quickly note that the Major chords associated with Am are the Eb Ab and Bb. Also I can see what chord can be substituted so D (ii) G (V) C (I) can be seen as D (ii) then (following the circle of 5ths to G) the opposite of G is Db (so use Db instead of G) then the opposite of Gb is C. Following the Circle of 5ths Db to Gb but use the C 180 degrees across on the circle of 5ths.

[Alexagrigorieff]

These relationships are very easy to memorize.


Two sharps move the key the whole tone up (two flats - whole tone down)
Three sharps move the key *one and a half* tone (three halftones) *down* (three flats - up).
Four sharps - same as two times two sharps, two whole tones up.
Five sharps move the key a halftone *down*.
Six sharps or flats move the key by a tritone (six halftones).
Seven sharps move the key a halftone *up*.

[bratyma]

Some people were born with a gift, but you were born one! Thanks for doing what you do.

[mariopaolucci]

It’s really useful for practicing resolution and perfect cadences (V resolving to I)in dominant chords. For example you could start playing D, make it dominant 7 which resolves to G, then make that dominant 7 which will resolve to C, then again going to F etc etc. This kind of exercise is super helpful for getting comfortable with resolutions and it’s found everywhere in pop music and also useful for key changes. Also, taken any interval, the opposite will always be the remainder of 9. So a 5th backward is a 4th, a 3rd backward is a 6th etc etc

[paulpulati]

For me, it makes more sense to call it the Circle of Keys to eliminate the confusion of fourths and fifths, and also to construct the circle using degrees of the scale rather than semi-tones [half steps], which helps to learn and understand the major scale. It's probably most used by musicians who read notation, but it can be very useful for working through chord progressions around the circle, either direction, to learn various chord progressions and getting familiar with ALL the chords, as well as simply understanding how keys work. Perhaps this is most useful for chordal instruments, although musicians who play single-note instruments should learn about chords.

[dawmix]

Wow. I can’t believe you challenged the Circle of Fifths! I know it as a most practical view of the relationship between keys along with the accidents (sharps and flats). Having said that, I am an intermediate piano student and it has yet to come alive on the keyboard for me and your example is quite helpful.
For the record a most useful method for me so far is using note numbers as this flattens keys. A 1-3-5 is a 1-3-5 major chord in any key.

Thank you as always. I look forward to your videos and am happy with you as a piano guide. Your energy is wonderful.

[geoffreyhoney]

Yeah, the circle is great because it tells you what chords go well together in that key and what will sound good together as well as other stuff

[mrmaison]

I'm 2 years into my journey of learning how to play the keyboard/piano and I'm so glad I found lessons on the circle of fifths early on. After learning my musical alphabets, learning the circle of fifths blew my mind as it opened up the keyboard for me and brought me beyond muscle memory learning to see how it's all relevant and it's about traveling through "colors" (speaking from a visual artist point of view). I'm a new subscriber here since last week. Thanks for the awesome, to the point lessons!

[VClassBeatz]

Very confusing but got a better understand once you explained it. Thanks so much.

[ortiz]

Mind blown! That was the simplest explanation of the Circle of Fifths! And I have been playing piano for over 30 years!

[reaktiv]

Yes very useful for simple composing. Moving from keys related to each other on different part of a song, some adjacent, some far away. I like the circle of fifths as a beginner composer!

[deliusmyth]

You can also use the circle to see the notes of each scale. So in C, for example, you take a step back (to F) and 5 steps forward (the rest of the notes).

[TheSIGHTREADINGProject]

Thank you! I’d forgotten about it being 4ths after the ‘twilight zone’. I haven’t ever used it for anything. For music theory I knew the order of sharps and flats but I wasn’t consciously thinking if it as the ‘circle’. I had a mnemonic

[southsidesavage]

After much consideration i finally pulled the trigger on the yearly subscription plan last night. Yall offer more knowledge and skillset videos and a lot more stuff than I care to type out but I'm pretty excited to make the move from playground sessions.