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Music Theory For Guitar | 04: Circle of Fifths (Patreon)

Published:
2020-07-15 20:15:16
Edited:
2022-08-12 22:20:02
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This is the fourth installment of my formal Music Theory For Guitar course. Be sure to check out the attached PDF.

Here are the homework and practice sections for this lesson:

Click here for the community forum post about this specific lesson to ask questions, post pictures or audio, or to see what other people are saying about this lesson.

More from this course:

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Once you're done with this series, you'll know enough to move on to:
Music Theory Monday & CAGED System Basics

Other helpful links:
Scott's Recommended Lesson Plan
Searchable Lesson Archive
How to Join the Community Forum
Scott's Jam Tracks
SPJ Live YouTube Channel
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Files

Music Theory For Guitar 4 | Circle Of Fifths

This is "Music Theory For Guitar 4 | Circle Of Fifths" by Scott Paul Johnson on Vimeo, the home for high quality videos and the people who love them.

Comments

Ben Poe

Cool! I understood most of the circle of fifths, but never realized where the sharps and flats came in relative to the adjacent scale.

prodbymarvv

When it comes to the F# major scale, why is the half step for E#: F#?

Scott Paul Johnson
>>120963045

Hi Prod - The first priority of every scale is to have every letter of the alphabet in order, without skipping. When it comes to an F# major scale, F# G# A# B C# D# E# F# If we went from D# to F, we'd be skipping a letter of the alphabet. So even though E# and F are enharmonic (ie the same note), we need to call it E#

Gemma Smith-Vondras

Why aren’t A#, G#, and D# on the circle of fifths? (Apologies if you mention this somewhere already….)

Gemma Smith-Vondras
>>126243717

Oh, I’m guessing it’s because it would require double #s. So you’re saying that no one ever does (or should) say “the key of G# maj”? Instead ppl will/should say “the key of Ab maj”?

Scott Paul Johnson
>>126243717

Yep you got it! The key of G# Major would require a double sharped F. Thats how the circle works, and thats why there is some "enharmonic" keys, where they technically contain the same sounding notes, but they are labelled differently, like the Key of F# Major and the key of Gb Major

Zzy
>>126243717

is it also because if keep going along after C# maj, you will get these G# maj, D# maj, two sharps will start to appear which will make things lot harder to label, two sharps will make the note up 1 (like from c to d), and you cannot keep adding these two sharps

Shelley Francisco

Bravo! This was the clearest explanation of the circle of fifths that I’ve seen! Thx Scott!

Nelson Sharp

in the middle of watching, but how can an E be #?

Scott Paul Johnson
>>40876429

E# is F, but if we’re playing an F# Major scale, we can’t have F AND F# AND no E at all. We call it E# in the key of F#

Nelson Sharp

In terms of playing E# in a progression, is it just an F chord?

Lyn Plumpton

Brilliant, thank you so much, great teacher

Konstantin

This is a fabulous explanation. I tried to read Circle of Fifths in Wikipedia . But I didn't manage to understand it at all. Using your explanation it took only a few minutes to get everything.

Konstantin

I've recently understood that "The I Iv V Blues Chord Progression" is from Circle of Fifths, isn't it?

Emma.T

Thanks Scott ! This was one of those scary looking theory things I couldn’t understand . Can’t believe how straight forward you made it !

Sweetness

Thank you for your great presentation on circle of 5th. Very well lesson, explained wonderful and simple to learn and understand clearly and easily.

Sean McClintock

So good! Thanks for all the time you put into this Scott. Was wondering if you could recommend an iPad app to use for the homework. Thanks!

OhioMike1987

Just watched this for the first time, great lesson btw! Why are some scales missing? For example, where is A#?

Scott Paul Johnson
>>51069046

A# major isn't really a scale because it would have to include notes that are double sharped. It would look like A# B# C## D# E# F## G## A#. Gb (G flat) is the same note as A# and that scale can be made without any double sharps or double flats

OhioMike1987
>>51069046

Totally makes sense. Once I actually sat down and filled out the accompanying circle of fifths worksheet it makes it pretty obvious you have to stop at a certain point!

DeDé

There are 3 types of people: 1. Strange people who write "G" backwards. 2. Funny people who lick their finger before start playing Guitar and 3. Genius people who are 1+2! 🙌🏻

Subtle System

Did I miss something? Do I need to go back? What are those sheets he is writing on that have a bunch of notes? What do they represent?

Scott Paul Johnson
>>53343145

Hi Sutil! Did you watch lesson 1 first? That might help! If you did and you're still confused, you may want to review previous lessons

Keenan Spencer

How does anyone grip a pick without licking their finger!? It's like opening one of those produce bags at Walmart with a mask on...

Sen Han

I found this class is very helpful. But I found 1 thing is a bit confusing. When I say C major scale. There are many C's on the fret board. And in my understanding, not all C's has the same pitch. One C might be the octave of another C note. How do I know which C to start with when we say a song is C major. Or put 1=C on the tab. Further more, when I make a chord (say C chord on C major scale), As long as it is C E G notes it is fine? even some C's have different pitch?

Scott Paul Johnson
>>57565379

Hi Sen - great question. I don't often think about that because C is just C, but there are specific names, often associated with piano: check out this link: https://www.darkworld.com/mythos/school/Guitar-Fretboard-Notes-Middle-C.html A C chord will always be a C chord if it contains only C E and G, and different pitches don't change the fact that it is a C chord.

Magela Crosignani

Loved how you explained this, just mentioning the idea that this was created to organize scales by similitude clarified a lot about this map.

Daniel Julian Erickson

This lesson will take two weeks to "master." thanky ou for the circle of fifths infographics PDF. It's really nice.

Alejandro

I know you're keeping the letters of the alphabet, but B# would be C right?

Scott Paul Johnson
>>66248755

B# is enharmonically the same as C - yes! The same tone. But if you're in the key of C#, you'll have to call that note B#

Walter T

This is a lesson where using basic principles allows one to derive the schema of the circle of fifths. It's all based on the interval distances formula. Most people never truly go through the exercise. Great lesson Scott.

Walter T

Scott, what are your favourite books on music theory?

Walter T

The interesting thing is if we raise a natural note by either 5 or 7 half steps we always get another natural note. does not work for any other step from 1 to 11.

Scott Paul Johnson
>>69532895

Federer - I don't really read books on music theory. I did in college, but now I listen, write, and analyze music to keep thinking about music theory.

Scott Paul Johnson
>>69536973

Either or, but not both, right? Because 7 half steps from B would be F#, but 5 half steps from B would be E - so in that case, I would have to choose 5 half steps and not 7. Is that kind of what you're saying?

Walter T
>>69536973

The process almost generates almost all of the natural notes until we finally get to the B to F#. It's easy to see that this operation results in the wwhwwhw intervals which shows you always have to sharpen the 7th note which is initially not sharp. Hence we retain the previous sharps. As you would say "pretty cool and weird" :-)

Walter T
>>69532895

I guess an interesting lesson would be to pick songs to learn that use some notions from music theory implicitly.

Walter T
>>69536973

Just to follow up. What I meant to say one always goes up to the 5th letter including the one you started with when going up 7 semitones. If one tries this with 5 one always gets 4th letter including the one you started with, but for 3 do not get the same pattern. I am NOT including accidentals, just the letter names.

Flamecrew9 At roblox

Wow, for some reasson this is most interesting one, man its coo fricking cool. I keep coming back to it and I just realised how the other side of the circle works, its a p5th from the other side, it just clicked wow. Only took 3 watches. Thank you sir.

John

whats the electric guitar beside you in this vid? brownish one to your right

Scott Paul Johnson
>>76230535

I made it! I meant to refinish it years ago, but never got around to it. My brand was Wallingford Guitar Co. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.458107644215650&type=3 Here is a link to a few others I made!

Mocha

I already knew circle of 5ths and 4ths from jazz, but in all the times I have read and viewed it, no one but you has pointed out the most obvious "lightbulb" moment of them all! "Since C has no sharps or flats, then if you raise it a half step to C#, then everything else in the scale must also become sharp. Likewise with C flat." It seems so self-evident now, but this was like a slap on the forehead.

Alliot Alderson

When will or how can we apply this and the previous exercises into songs and improvise?

Eduardo Nascimento

You also have to take the initiative and do it yourself brother, just experiment with it

Wouter Driesen

Does an B# of E# even exist? Not on the piano right? I get confused with the a # major scale. Does not matter which # scale it is. I start sharpening an E... is that possible? The G# major scale is difficult.. I think I have it, but not sure.

Scott Paul Johnson
>>90544664

Hey Wouter - this lesson shows every possible major scale. All of them! The notes B# and E# exist, but they are not the root notes of any scales. Think of it like this: C Major has no sharps and flats: C D E F G A B C If you raise every note of the scale one step, you get a C# Major scale: C# D# E# F# G# A# B# C# If you play a G Major Scale: G A B C D E F# G, you can't raise every note of the scale, because you'd have a note that was double sharp, like this: G# A# B# C# D# E# F## G# Major scales with double sharps don't exist, because we can just use Ab instead. The overlapping scales in the circle of fifths show the few areas where the root notes can be a sharp or flat without having any double sharp notes or double flat notes.

Wouter Driesen
>>90544664

You can't have a scale with flats and sharps right? It is or flats or sharps. I have to look at it again! Thanks anyway for your fast answer. If I have more questions I will get back to you

Scott Paul Johnson
>>90544664

You can't have a Major scale with sharps AND flats. AND , you have to have every letter of the alphabet, in order, without skipping any or doubling any. So you can't have a major scale with G and G# or B and Bb for example. And you can't have a scale that skips any letter of the alphabet, like G# A# C Db Eb F G G# is technically following WWHWWWH but it's not a scale.