The Circle Of Fifths For Guitarists

    Circle of Fifths for Guitarist Explained

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    Circle of Fifths, music theory for guitarists. #musictheory #guitarists #dofe #guitars #beginnerguitarist #electricguitar #acousticguitar #music

    ♬ original sound – Alex Partington –

    What is the Circle of Fifths/fourths?

    The first thing to note about the circle of fifths is that it can also be known as the circle of fourths which I’ll explain in a bit. You can use the circle of fifths to work out  major / minor key signatures, the order of sharps and flats and discover which chords will work well together in any given key. The Circle of Fifths could also be known as the circle of fourths. Working from left to right is a 5th a part and working from right to left is a 4th.

    If you’re a guitarists that has recently decided to look into music theory you’ll have probably discovered the Circle of Fifths.  The circle of fifths can understandably look intimidating so I hope this article will break down for you what it is, how to use it and how to apply the Circle of Fifths to your guitar playing. 

    How to remember the order of sharps

    To remember the order of sharps we can start at F and work clockwise all the way around to B. The Sentence you need to remember the order of sharps is: Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle.

    The order of the sharps is the first letter of each of these words. F# C# G# D# A# E#

    How to remember the order of flats

    To remember the order of flats we start at B and work anti clockwise to finish at F.  The sentence you need to remember the order of flats is: Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles’s Father.

    The order of flats is the first letter of each of these words. Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb Fb

    Learn how to find the relative minor / major

    You can have both major and minor key signatures for either sharps or flats. Major keys are on the outside of the circle and minor keys are on the inside of the circle. If you wanted to remember to be able to work out the major key without using the Circle of Fifths, first remember the above sentence for the order of sharps. 

    Assuming we have one sharp in our key signature this sharp will be F sharp. To work out our major key signature we go up one letter to G. G Major. To work out our relative minor, we need to go back three steps to E, (E minor). G, F, E. 

    Visually we are moving from the outer circle to the inner circle which is easy when we’re looking at the diagram.

    Find the I IV V chords in any key

    Just incase you’re not familiar with the roman numerals system: 

    I = one, IV = four and V = five. 

    In the key of C Major chord C will be our chord I, to the right of C will be our V Chord and to the left of our C is the IV chord. We can now use chords C Major G Major and F Major. 

    If you want to compose a tune in the key of G Major, our I chord would now be G, our V chord would now be D and our IV chord will now be C. So for the key of G major we can now comfortably use chord G D & C major.  

    Using these same three chords all the time isn’t going to make for interesting listening. So you can also use the relative minor chords from the inside of the circle.

    How to create a major or minor chords in any key

    To create a major chord we need degrees 1 3 and 5 from the scale of the key it is you’re in. For C Major, the 1st and fifth degrees are C & G. The third degree is note E. Notes C E & G create the chord of C major. To create the minor alternative we lower the third degree by a semi-tone.

    It’s the same method for any chord in any key regardless of whether you’re in a key signature that has either flats or sharps. If you wanted to make a major chord from a minor chord, we’d raise the 3rd degree by a semitone.

    We can make these chords more interesting by adding any degree into the basic triad. To create a 7th chord for example we would add the 7th note of the scale into the triad.

    Complete your music theory grades with ABRSM

    Would you like to have good general knowledge about music theory which you can then apply to your guitar playing? Interested in receiving certification at the end of each grade from a world-wide exam board? Contact me today to organise online or in person lessons. 

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