Circle of Fifths

rcsnydley
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:22 pm

BigBear wrote:

Don't forget there is also a Circle of Fourths for all the flatted notes. But my pea brain can't assimilate that much info! LOL! :cheer:

Here's a link for the Circle of Fourths for comparison:

http://www.poffle.com/common/060212%20c ... 04ths.html
If you take the circle of fifths that suzanne has pictured above, it is the circle of fifths if you are going clockwise and the circle of fourths if you are going counterclockwise.

Ric


BigBear
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:31 pm

rcsnydley wrote:
If you take the circle of fifths that suzanne has pictured above, it is the circle of fifths if you are going clockwise and the circle of fourths if you are going counterclockwise.

Ric
That's correct- sharps clockwise, flats counterclockwise.


rcsnydley
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 1:33 pm

To expand on my previous post. Starting at C, G is a fifth above C and F is a fourth above C. This works no matter where you start on the circle, the clockwise is the 5th the counterclockwise is the 4th.

However, there is another way to look at it (you really didn't think it was going to be that simple, did you?). This is where dominants and sub-dominants come in. We''ll start with C again, the G is a5th above C (the Tonic) and is called the dominant chord. Going the other direction F is a 5th "below" C and is the sub-dominant.

So, even though F is called the 4th in the key of C counting forward it is also the 5th counting backward. So, the 4th of a key is not called sub-dominant because it is one less than the dominant, it is called sub-dominant because it is a 5th back from the tonic.

Hence, on the circle of fifths any note clockwise from your starting note is the 5th or dominant, any note counterclockwise is the 4th or sub-dominant.

Ric


pineappletrain
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 3:01 pm

Wow i have grasped how you use the circle of fifths and it seems like a great thing to know but somehow i cant understand how it works when i read it can someone please make a video explaining this cause i really want to learn how this wokrs. I have dyslexia so it might be that hahaha :D


TGSuzanne
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Thu Nov 05, 2009 5:43 pm

Practical application? As I mentioned before knowing how to play scales in the circle of fifths makes solo work more intuitive. If you listen to many pop, rock and certainly jazz tunes, they don't really stay in the same key all the time. Many will modulate for a bar or two, especially at the bridge of a song. Jazz tunes have been know to go through several modulations in a tune. Many of these quick modulations are jumps of a fifth or a fourth. Having the pattern for the scale of the next key up or down under your fingers make soloing much easier.


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