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Music Theory:

We are going to dive right into the Circle of Fifths.

The Circle of Fifths has a few functions so it is only right for me to introduce it to you. It may be a weird concept but honestly if you take a few minutes it's not so intimidating.

It's uses:

1. A guide to figuring out how many sharps or flats are in a certain key. This is called "Key Signature".

2. Chord Substitutions - If you want to substitute a chord in a particular chord progression then the chords closest to the one you want to substitute are the logical choices.

3. For figuring out the best transition (also called Modulation) to another key.

Click here for a visual of the Circle of Fifths. It helps to actually see it.

The Circle of 5ths starts with 'C' at the 12 o'clock position. It then moves clockwise by the 5th note of the major scale. Hence the name. It moves C to G to D to A and so on.

We start with C because it has no sharps or flats in it's scale. Then every scale after C (going clockwise) has a sharp added to it, keeping the last number of sharps.

So C = no sharps, G=1 sharp, D=2 sharps, A=3 Sharps...etc until we eventually get right back to C. Like a circle...of..5ths. Get it.

Now when we go counter clockwise (also called the circle of 4ths) we get the number of flats in the key the same exact way. The only difference here is that we are moving to the next note by the 4th note in the scale instead of the 5th.

So C= No Flats, the 4th note in the C major scale is F so F is the next note as we move counter clockwise and F=1 Flat and builds up the same way as when we were going by 5ths. I hope this is making sense. Now is a good time to re-read if you are confused because that's all I have to say about The Circle of 5ths.

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