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Circle of 5ths Made Clear

Added Sep 14, 2017 •

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All you ever need to know about learning the circle of fifths.

Show Transcript

imagine if we could find a way to visually represent all the different keys and how they are related to each other we could find which keys with similar which keys are further away from each other find out which Sharps and flats are in each key we can even use this representation as a map to find out who's between different keys luckily for us someone who's ready to understand the Greek philosopher Pythagoras in fact he of the triangle Fame maybe if Pythagoras was around today rubs and calling him a philosopher we might call him I'm at the magician Humana what mathematics is got to do with music the answer is quite a lot actually sound isn't very mathematical phenomenal violin string vibrates is it his boat vibrates the string generates pressure changes in the air which areas pickup and interpret the sound Stephane dentist with to play the note a above middle C the string vibrates at 440 times per second if you were to play the aid an octave above that the string vibrates at 880 times per second besides fee twice the number of vibrations Second City before enough about that and the string vibrates at 1760 vibrations per second again twice the number of vibrations per second has it on the previous thankful it's not surprising that someone with the mathematical mind like Pythagoras might think of turning his hand to music as well haven't had success with triangles web for Cyrus Chinese attention to music who decided that the best shape to use this circle became known as the circus if you, number semitones in an octave you'll find it there 12 in all show me toys includes all the black notes on the piano to what Pythagoras did with two ladies 12 note around the circle like a clock in a special order Pythagoras did not record the notes like the notes we know today he went with numbers what we now cool see he cooled zero and divided he's circle into one housing 200 pieces or sense that for each of the 12 positions on his circle is 100 cents for the round of circle from the previous how often Houston business semitones and the creation of the second V Lies very Foundation of western music theory because the circle of fifths is a sort of road map for western music it is incredibly useful to refer to when trying to attack a things like what key or in if you're in hey Jackie it's helps you find the relative minor Kate and vice versa it tells you what chords are available in which key it helps you to transpose your music into a different key and move between teeth within a song reason it's called the circle of fifths is because of the way it's laid out as you move around the circle in a clockwise Direction the next night you encounter will be a v above the notch before it so for example position we have Sea move around to the one position and we find G in the key of C G is the fifth note of the scale Newsround against position how many fine dead is the fifth note of the G Major scale about in-depth explanation of how the different scales work and how to find the different degrees of each scale like V can be found in the podcast next track if I play Old 12 tunes of the circle on the piano you can hear the melodic progression c g d a e b F sharp d flat a flat E flat B flat ass and finally back to see how does the circle of fifths help us find out what key we're in KFC has no sharps or flats in it notice how it is it the 12:00 position old is zero position the key of G has one shop in it no she's how G is it the one the key of D has two shops in it notice how the key of D is it the to position and so on all the way around the circle to the key of C shop at the seven position with seven shops in the Keys I meant the stuff that I just for the moment and now having a good the keys with Flats in their key signatures if we go back to see at a position and now instead of clockwise around the circle video anti-clockwise the key of f has one flat and its key signature moving another step anti-clockwise the key of B-flat has two Flats in it another and eat that has 3 Flats in it and so on just as when we were going clockwise around the circle assigning key signatures with shops and then we stopped at the 7 o'clock position if we do the Merit of this now without Flats can anti clockwise around the circle we find we will stop at the 5 position this means that three keys at the bottom of the circle can be written with two different key signatures Two Flats but still sound the same he told depends on what we want to call Aki C sharp and d flat Springs and Pulaski the same note have it to keep things simple if we say that we are in the key of C Shah then we will tend to put shops in the key signature and if we say that we are in the key of D flat we will tend to put Flats in a key signature so the first thing the circle of fifths tells you is how many sharps or flats are in the key signature new song to Ben but that's only half the story so you want to do a song to be in the key of E major we know from East position on the circle at 4 then there are four sharps in the key signature which phone at the shop and to find out we think we start the 11 position and can round the circle in a clockwise Direction writing down each note we encounter until we have the number of notes we know softened in the key signature to the key of E major has 4 Sharps and they are F sharp C sharp G sharp and D sharp that's all well and good for Keys containing shops and that key signatures who wants about Flats the circle is symmetrical so we just went backwards so you want to write you a song in a flat major if we stop sea to get a flat we have to move anti-clockwise by four steps so we know that a flat has four plants in its key signature which notes of flattened will this time we start not the 11 nation which of the five position with be so counting around for flats from being we have B-flat E flat a flat and E flat how many Francis songwriters the usefulness of the circle doesn't stop that remember in this podcast we talking about called the circle of fifths tells us which cool Triads are available to us in each P so if we composing a song in the key of C we can easily see which chords we can include in a song his how you can get see on the circle but we know that in the key of C major quote C major will be one of the quotes available now we look at the two calls either side of C on the circle these rfg C&G will be the you quotes available in the key of C turning around the circle in a clockwise Direction the next 3 codes Dane will give us all the minor chords available in the key of C the seventh and final available chord in the key of C is the diminished chord of B safe we now laters out in Pitch order Robin in the order they appear on the circle of fifths the codes available to us in the key of C C Major D Minor minor F major G major a minor and B diminished the reason being is the codes available is there made up of notes which exist in the c major scale you'll notice there are no sharps or flats in any of these chords as there no sharps or flats in the scale of C major if we look at another say the next key round the circle G major we simply use the same method to find out which codes are available to us in G major as well firstly the major chords which are found by taking the G major chord could you quote surrounding it on the Circle C major major then turning on around the circle we get the three minor chords A minor E minor and B minor I'm finally the diminished chord that shop the game all these quotes and made up of notes which exist in the G Major scale you can use the same method to find the codes available evica you want to write your song game the circle of fifths helps you work out the palliative called you have to work with in your song but the circles usefulness doesn't end even remember the second fix is laid out search away that it shows us the relationship between different keys this is especially useful if you want to transpose your song into another key so you just finished writing your song in the key of C room, vocal artist and you Sunny discover the sea is too low for them they would have preferred it if you would read new song in the key of E you hold your head in frustration you did and now you have to say the whole lot away and starts again and Yuki will don't worry you'll not be burning the midnight on this one off to rule as the circle of fifths gives you a time-saving way of easy transposing the codes home ready written C is the 12:00 position on the circle and he's on the floor position that means to go from C to e we have moved clockwise around Tackle by four steps each codon you transpose song that says exactly the same and F codes for example would become a as a is full stats clockwise around the circle from f a G-Code would come be and so on exactly the same is true if you move to a key that he's Auntie clockwise around the circle from your original key simply can the distance between the keys and shift old go to the song by the same distance in 5 minutes you transpose all the codes in your song talking transposition what about changing key in the middle song that interest in Vero composition went through two ways in which the circle can help me modulate between different keys and you'll song different Keys as to be closely related if their respective scales share many of the same notes good morning Chad but you scale the clothes are they related which major key has what is known as a relative Meineke associated with it that is a Meineke that she has all the same notes scale as the major key Bethel the closest key to any major key is its relative minor for example the key A minor she has all the same notes in it scale C major Turner shops of that City the key that for a minor is C Majors relative minor I'm second offense each Keys relative minor is written with a small letter on the inside of the circle same position is the major key in C major is written with a Capital C at the 12:00 position on the outside of the circle and a minor is written with a small a at the 12 position on the inside of a circle so why is it important for songwriters because it means the modulating between C major and a minor is very easy to do any song as each key contains the same chords so we can flip back forth between the two keys with ease I can play my tune in C major and then repeat it easily in a minor without having to do too much work to name the two parts of the melody together but once about something and it'll more complicated I just don't feel song in C major and at some point modulate to another Ricky Satch's G major will Beyonce is of course yes with the little work how much would it take to pends on how closely the two keys real working in are related to each other and a circle tells us exactly that C&G are adjacent to each other on the circle that for their said to be closely related the scales share many of the same notes pictures of the key of G only has one sharp in it and see has no shops in it they said all the same notes about from one at shop which exists in the key of G but notes in the key of C in order to modulate cleaning and musically between key in the middle song at the moment of modulation you have to trick your audience's air into thinking could be in any Vicky we do this by a code known as a pivot code a pivot code is a cold that exist in both keys by arriving in your starting key and then using it is a pivot to take those have off in a New Direction into Nuki you can the audience's air through the modulation into the new key I don't exactly have to do this in more detail in the podcast extra but for now I'm going to show you how to use the circle of fifths to find Bitcoins this is done by using the circle to find which codes are available in your starting King as we describe before then finding which codes are available in your new king and seeing which codes Dental in both keys he's eaten it between closely related Keys as closely related keys will have more codes this existing buzzquiz you have more flexibility in choosing which quote to Pivot into new key since we discovered before in the key of C the quotes available to his C Major D Minor E minor F major G major a minor diminished in the key of G the chords available to us are G major a minor B minor C Major D major a minor in the shop diminished watching these clothes together we find that the following codes exist in both keys C major E minor G major and a minor that for any of these could be used as your pivot quote the following example I'm going to use the a minor chord is my Pivot code again I go into this in more detail in the podcast extra but just to give you a taste of the end result is mighty Fortune which starts off in C major and modulates to G major here we are in the key of C the two editor trophy royalty perhaps we could modulates to Jean Nevada to New Age music born to lead into the UK Hibbett are named Rhino this is he has he leads us through these 7th and church now we need to confirm that we're in the key of G then we played in C only know where is the key of G this video is part of a larger podcast about quotes and harmonies cold striking a cold the full podcast beheaded www.net cast and go to podcast number one you can also gain free access to the podcast extra material by going to this way I'm clicking on the Subscribe button on the right-hand side of the page

Uploaded by Sherry Fuller.

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Circle of 5ths Made Clear

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