Neal, interesting Circle of Fifths picture. A couple of questions for you. My favorite diagram goes the opposite direction with the flats on the left side of the diagram. Is that a circle of fourths? Have you seen Jamey Aebersold’s discussion of scales. It’s very thorough.
Cheers,
Jim
Hey Jim,
Actually, I think it’s more common to think of it as the circle of fourths. Hadn’t realized that it actually went the opposite direction in other diagrams, thanks for letting me know about that. The whole moving in fourths happens more in music, so it sounds more natural to go in that direction. What happened was I originally learned it as being the circle of fifths for whatever reason, maybe it just was easier for me to think of moving in fifths.
I’ve seen the Jamie Aebersold material on it, but I’ll go look and it more closely.
-Neal
I am frustrated because I hear or play music by ear strictly and I have tried over and over to learn how to read music but I feel I end up playing from memory opr by ear again. How do I overcome this. I have been playing for about 10 years.
Hey Karen,
It’s good that you can play by ear, some people have the opposite problem.
You probably want to force yourself to start with simple music- get a book of etudes, I like the jazz ones by Lennie Niehaus.
Using a metronome helps a lot too. Let me know how it goes.
-Neal
I am so confused by the Circle of Fifths. I don’t understand it, what to do or where to start. I need the notes written out that I am to play and why.
Basically the there is movement in fourths in one direction around the circle and movement in fifths in the other direction. It might seem somewhat arbitrary that we choose to move in fourths instead of chromatically and sequentially, but there is a reason.
It happens that many songs have chords that move in fourths. The first one that comes to mind is the blues. If you move from the I chord to the IV chord, you have moved up a fourth. It’s a chordal movement that happens in other places in music too. A very common movement actually.
How to practice it- since the movement in fourths happens naturally in many songs, it can make sense to practice different things using the circle of fourths. You could practice the major scales moving around the circle – so playing C major scale, then F major scale, then Bb major scale, etc. Or a certain musical phrase with the first note starting on the note as you move around the circle.
Hi Neal , Would explain the II, V I concept in jazz music
Thanks..
Hey Erskine,
The ii V I progression ‘pulls’ your ear towards the next piece. It moves towards ‘resolution’ as we hear it. You may want to try playing the ii V I progression on a piano or guitar to get a better feel for it. Though, almost invariably, you have heard the ii V I progression in music.
If we break the components down, the roman numerals correspond with numbers, but it gives us another set of numbers to use (more options for notation).
If you take a major scale, you can use a number (roman numeral) for each note. And you can build chords and scales starting from each of the seven notes in the major scale.
The progression of ii V I would have chords built on the second note, fifth note, and first note. In C major, that would be D, G, and C respectively.
Those chords only use the notes from the original major scale.
Because of the intervals between the notes in the chords, the movement seems to flow right from ii to V to I, this has to do with the closeness of the notes.
If we look at seventh chords, notes with four chords, here are the notes for the ii V I in C major.
ii: D, F, A, C
V: G, B, D, F
I: C, E, G, B
The C in the ii chord is a half step away from the B in the V chord. The F in the V chord is a half step away from the E in the I chord and the B in the V chord is also a half step away from the C in the one chord. (the other two notes stay the same).
That’s part of the answer at least.
Thanks
-Neal