December 20, 2024 • 30 mins
Podcast Episode: Keys and The Circle of Fifths
In this episode of our music theory podcast, we dive deep into the fascinating world of musical keys and the Circle of Fifths, two fundamental concepts every musician, composer, and music student must understand. Whether you're a beginner or an advanced player, mastering the Circle of Fifths is essential for enhancing your music theory knowledge, improving musical ear training, and navigating key signatures with ease.
We'll break down how the Circle of Fifths helps you visualize key relationships, and how it serves as a powerful tool for modulation, chord progressions, and composition. Learn how to use the circle to identify major and minor keys, understand the pattern of sharps and flats, and explore its impact on harmonic function and scale construction.
This episode is packed with practical insights for musicians, music students, and anyone interested in music history and music commentary. Whether you're working on jazz improvisation, classical theory, or songwriting, understanding the Circle of Fifths will unlock new possibilities in your musical journey. Tune in now for a deep dive into one of the most powerful tools in music theory!
Keywords: Music Theory, Circle of Fifths, Key Signatures, Musical Keys, Music History, Musicians, Music Students, Chord Progressions, Modulation, Ear Training, Scale Construction
Linear Music Theory Learning For Everyone!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
UNKNOWN (00:00):
music music
SPEAKER_00 (00:44):
Holiday season to everyone out there.
Welcome back to The HarmoniousBlacksmith, a podcast on music
theory exploration.
I do appreciate you guys tuningin and listening in.
I hope you're enjoying theseries and learning a lot.
(01:06):
This is episode 10, and I amyour host, Kevin Patrick
Fleming.
Oh, wow.
That's beautiful.
You're too kind.
You are way too kind.
I do appreciate your love andsupport.
(01:26):
Today's episode is all aboutkeys.
key relationships, and thecircle of fifths.
If this is your first timetuning in, I do want to let you
know this is a cumulativepodcast, meaning everything
starts from a building block atthe bottom and everything builds
(01:49):
on everything else as we go.
So if you're just discoveringthis for the first time, my
recommendation is to go back tothe beginning and catch up with
us when you can.
And of course, we do welcome youand we are happy that you are
joining us on this music theoryexploration.
Quick recap of the previousepisode, episode nine, which was
(02:12):
an introduction to ear trainingand aural skills by way of
learning interval sounds.
We learned the 12 main intervalsin ascending fashion, meaning we
were going from a low note to ahigher note, creating a unique
sound between between each ofthose notes, which is what we
(02:33):
call intervals.
And basically, we created alist, and hopefully you've all
done this by now, at least inyour head, where you have a list
of those interval sounds so thatyou can pull and relate, like
from a filing cabinet, forexample.
The idea that, oh, theinformation's there in my filing
(02:55):
cabinet in my brain.
I just need to make theconnection with other music that
it's similar or the same.
But today's topic is all aboutkeys, which I have touched on in
a previous episode, but we'rejust going to go a little more
in depth and we're going to tieit into the circle of fifths.
So let me start with expandingmy previous definition of what
(03:19):
is a key.
A key is the group of melodies,harmonies, triads, chords, and
chord that all work together tomake a pleasant and logical
sounding realm of music that isall derived from one scale
(03:43):
pattern originally that producesa diatonic scale or a Greek
mode, for example.
Now, that may sound like anelaborate definition of what a
key is, but when you reallysimplify, a key is really just
seven pitches of a diatonicscale that are created by those
(04:06):
original formulas.
So of course, the two we knowbest are major and minor.
And if you recall, major isIonian in terms of Greek modes,
and minor is Aeolian in terms ofGreek modes.
So think of a key as a nice,pleasant, and agreeable realm of
sound where all the pitches worktogether to create a musical
(04:30):
music narrative that iscomfortable, pleasant, doesn't
really have any curveballs,doesn't really do anything that
sounds like it's extremely outof place or in another place or
another realm.
And basically everything I'mdescribing now, I'm talking
about key changes andmodulation, which I'm going to
(04:53):
have an entire episode on keychanges and modulation coming
up.
But for now, we're And for thoseof you that have listened to all
of my episodes so far, think ofthis as a culmination point of
everything you learned, right?
(05:30):
skipping method and how chordsand extended harmonies could be
created from there.
Think about this as theculmination of all of that.
You take that scale, you takethose harmonies, you take the
triads, the chords and the chordprogression, and all of them
work together to create themagic that we know as music.
So the real creativity inwriting within a key, for
(05:53):
example, is how can youmanipulate the seven pitches of
the diatonic scale to createsomething magical, beautiful, or
just something that has anintention that you have in mind.
But after all of that, a key isjust seven notes, people.
That's really all it is.
(06:15):
So from a songwriterperspective, how creative can
you be with those seven pitches,both horizontally and
vertically, all of it together?
How creative can you be withinthat one one space so now that
i'm done waxing philosophicallyfor a moment let's come back
(06:37):
down to earth and let's startwith one of our original keys
again c major so let's go aheadand build it like we did in the
beginning i'm going to go aheadand start on the root note c and
then you know we go a whole stepup which is a d whole step up to
e half step to f whole step to gand whole step to A, whole step
(07:02):
to B, finally a half step backto C.
So again, we have C, D, E, F, G,A, B, C.
Again, seven pitches with theoctave at the top, and that is
literally the entire key of Cmajor.
If you didn't know that andyou're having sort of a
(07:24):
mind-blowing experience rightnow, I understand.
In other words, it sounds likeit's a lot more, like it's a lot
more pitches and chords andharmonies and things that do
this and that.
Nope, it's just the sevenpitches I just played and every
key is built that way.
And we're going to go through afew more as we go, but let's go
(07:45):
ahead and progress to buildingour harmonies and our triads in
the key of C major.
So Remember, that works byskipping notes.
Anybody out there remember howthe Roman numerals are laid out
in a major key?
And I do mean any major key,because they are all built
(08:07):
exactly the same way.
Do you all remember?
One is major.
Two is minor.
Three.
Three is minor.
Four is major.
Five is major.
Six is minor.
Seven is diminished.
(08:28):
And then we're back to one.
of those chords I just playedare available in the key of C
major only because they arestacked vertically.
They are notes that are stackedvertically originally.
(08:49):
They are notes that are stackedvertically from the original C
major scale using the skippingprinciple of triads that we
learned in a The idea is that ifI start on scale degree one C,
skip two and take three, skipfour and take five, I get C, E,
(09:14):
and G.
And when I stack those on top ofeach other, I get a C major
chord, right?
So all of them work that way.
All of them pull from the sevenoriginal pitches of the diatonic
major scale and just skipping,using the skipping method of
triads to get all the chords.
So again, it all just goes backto those seven notes.
(09:36):
But when you put them together,you can get melodies and
harmonies that yield really niceresults.
I'll give you an example ofsomething like this.
So that's, of course, Ode to Joyby Beethoven.
(09:59):
And I'm kind of just playing itin C major as an example.
And it just uses the first fivescale degrees of C major.
One, two, three, four, five inthe melody.
And it starts on scale degreethree.
And ends on scale degree oneeventually for it to sit down
(10:22):
and rest a little bit on thetonic scale.
chord, and then the chords usedto harmonize against it were, of
course, a I chord, which is a Cmajor, and then I went to a V
chord, which is a G major.
I also used a VI chord, which isan A minor, and I used an F
(10:43):
chord, which is a major IVchord.
So I'm using a 1-4-5 with a 6 inthe key.
And all of those chords containjust pitches from the original
diatonic scale that we fleshedout originally.
So now let me transition just alittle bit so we can discuss a
(11:06):
very important topic on sharpsand flats.
So what are sharps and flats andwhy do they happen?
As you know, a sharp looks likea number sign or a hashtag
symbol and a flat looks like alittle lowercase B symbol for
flat.
(11:27):
A sharp indicates that a note ishalf step higher and a flat
indicates that a note is a halfstep lower.
So in your mind right now, whatis it that causes sharps sharps
or flats to happen within a key.
Again, there's a reason that westart with C major, because C
(11:50):
major has zero sharps and zeroflats.
That way we can just read offthe letters of the music
alphabet and the order that theycome within the key of C major,
which goes, of course, C, D, E,F, G, A, B, C.
But let's go ahead and move toanother key, and we're going to
(12:11):
graduate towards how the circleof fifths works by the end of
this.
So I'm going to go ahead andmove to another key, and we're
going to do G major.
Here is a friendly reminderbefore we build G major
together.
All diatonic scales have everyletter of the music alphabet.
(12:34):
They are all in order.
We do not skip a letter, and wealso do not repeat a letter.
Those rules right there shouldtip you off as to why we get
sharps and flats.
But let's dive into G major.
So let's start on root note G.
A whole step from G is A.
A whole step from A is B.
(12:57):
Half step to C.
Whole step to D.
Whole step to E.
Whole step to F sharp.
Half step back to G.
So a full G major scale would bespelled G, A, B, C, D, E, F
sharp, G.
(13:18):
Now, why does the F sharp comeinto play?
It's because the formula for adiatonic major scale dictates
that we require a sharp on the Fnote.
In other words, if I just gostraight through the pitches and
I go G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G...
(13:38):
it deviates from the formulathat is required for the major
scale, whole, whole, half,whole, whole, whole, half.
All of a sudden you get whole,whole, half, whole, half, whole,
whole.
And then all of a sudden it'snot the formula for a major
scale.
It's a different formulaaltogether.
Remember, that original whole,whole, half, whole, whole,
(13:59):
whole, half, that is etched inthe stones of time forever and
ever.
Well, you know, things evolve.
But as far as our system goes,That's what we evolved to at
this point.
Who knows what we'll evolve to100 years from now.
But at the same time, that onestuck for a while.
So all major scales are going tobe built that way.
Now, as we continue to go intoour first key that contains a
(14:24):
sharp, which is G major, I doneed to explain one important
concept, which is called thenatural half steps.
The natural half steps arebetween E and F and B and C take
out your piano take out akeyboard image or look at a
piano or picture one when youlook at the piano and you see
(14:47):
white keys and black keys everynow and then there are two white
keys right next to each otherthose are the natural half steps
and they are B and C and E and Fwhich means there's no sharp or
flat between B and C there is nosharp or flat between E and F a
quick way to remember rememberthat those are the pitches is
(15:10):
big cat extra fat bcef i have afat little calico that i love
very much so that saying goesvery far with me so for the
purposes of study andsimplification i'm basically
going to stay in the realm ofsharps from here on out in this
episode and we will get to flatsmore and more later but what you
(15:33):
need to know right now is nowthat you know bcef big cat extra
fat are the natural half stepswhere there's no black key in
between or no sharp or flat inbetween.
What happens anytime you're in ascale formula where you're on a
B note and you need a whole stepup from B?
(15:55):
Can you think of what mighthappen?
You probably guessed it prettyquickly.
Basically, instead of playing aC, a natural C, you're going to
have a C sharp, which is a halfstep higher than a natural So if
you need a whole step from B,it's going to be C sharp, not C
natural.
So in the case of the G majorscale that we just built, we got
(16:19):
to the letter E in the scale andwe needed a whole step above
that E, which is actually an Fsharp, not an F.
So going forward, you want to nolonger think of sharps and flats
just as, oh, I'm just raising orlowering a note when I need to.
you want to think about it moreas a mechanism that ensures that
(16:45):
our scales sound the way we needthem to sound therefore making
the chords and the keys soundthe way we need them to sound so
they are a mechanism to makesure everything fits correctly
and there is of course a longevolution on how sharps and
flats came to be i don't feelthe need to go over that right
(17:07):
now um i I do encourage youlooking it up, but it's
basically just a long evolutionof how things came to be.
But now that we've discussed thebasic concept of keys, now that
we've discussed what the naturalhalf steps are, B, C, E, and F,
and why sharps and flats comeabout in order to fulfill the
(17:29):
requirements of the formulas forthe scales, it is now time to
introduce what we call thecircle.
circle of fifths.
The circle of fifths is aconceptual and organizational
tool that is used to understandthe number of sharps and flats
(17:50):
that are contained in every key,to understand what letters
specifically get the sharps andflats in those keys, to
understand relative major andminor keys, which means they
contain the same exact pitches,and to understand what keys are
closely related related to eachother for the purposes of
(18:12):
modulation and key changing.
And all of that can becalculated and organized using
the magic interval of a perfectfifth, hence the name Circle of
Fifths.
I am definitely going toencourage you to Google an image
of the Circle of Fifths, and youshould save an image somewhere
(18:37):
on your computer or your phoneor whatever you use for that
type of thing.
I'm going to hold on the audioexamples for a moment so that we
can go over how powerful thecircle of fifths is as a tool of
organization for our minds sothat we can understand keys.
So here's how I'll start youoff.
(18:58):
The circle of fifths and allkeys start with C major.
Surprise, surprise as I wasdoing that one for a reason
because it contains zero sharpsand zero flats.
So where does the interval of aperfect fifth come in, and how
do we use it to understand keys?
Well, I went over the key of Gmajor not too long ago, and that
(19:22):
was not by accident.
That's because that is the verynext key on the circle of fifths
after C.
Why?
Because G contains one sharp,whereas C has zero, right?
So we're Here's the kicker.
(19:42):
From the letter C to the letterG is an interval of a perfect
fifth.
So once you have your circle infront of you as an image of some
kind, you'll realize that whenwe go clockwise around the
circle, we're going to start at12 o'clock at the top, which is
(20:02):
C.
And as we start to go around 1o'clock, 2 o'clock, for example,
as we start to go clockwisearound, we're We are going to be
going by an interval of aperfect fifth.
And basically what it is, isevery time you go up a perfect
fifth, you add a sharp to thekey.
I'm going to say that one moretime because it's really
(20:24):
important.
Every time you go up a perfectfifth from the previous key, you
add one sharp to the next key.
So C major starts with zero.
We go up a perfect fifth to G.
think about that c d e f gthat's five letters right that's
(20:44):
a perfect fifth so from c to gis a perfect fifth up we have
one sharp now we keep going aperfect fifth up from g just go
g a b c d would be the key of dmajor which will have two sharps
a perfect fifth up from d willbe a that has three sharps a
(21:05):
perfect fifth up from a will bee that has four sharps and you
can just keep Keep going arounduntil you're at a full seven
sharps, which is C sharp major.
The second component of thecircle of fifths that works in a
really cool and brilliant way iscalled the order of sharps.
(21:30):
So not only are the keysorganized by the interval of a
perfect fifth, but so are theorder of sharps.
Let me give you an example.
First of all, C has zero, as wehave reiterated over and over.
The very first key in the circleof fifths that has a sharp is G
(21:50):
major, which is a fifth above C,as previously explained.
That sharp that is containedwithin G major is on the letter
F So F is the first sharp.
So can you think on your ownright now of what the next key
would be around the circle offifths to the right?
(22:12):
C is zero.
G is one sharp.
What's a fifth up from G?
It's D.
So D has two sharps.
And every time you add a sharp,you can go a perfect fifth up
from the previous sharp youadded on the previous key and
(22:35):
add that note to the sharps.
That may sound a littleconfusing.
Let me explain.
So G major has one sharp.
It's F.
D major has two sharps they aref and c so notice f is still
there but c is added which isexactly a perfect fifth above f
(23:01):
So anytime you're organizingkeys that contain sharps on the
circle of fifths, F is alwaysgoing to be the first one.
So if you have one sharp, it isgoing to be F.
If you have two sharps, it isgoing to be F first.
And what is a fifth above F,which is C.
(23:21):
So two sharps are going to be Fand C.
So if I keep going around thecircle, we said C has zero, G
has one, and it's F.
D has two.
They are F and C.
Can you think of what the nextkey would be and what the added
sharp would be?
(23:41):
Let me give you a second.
After the long pause, did youcome up with it?
So the next key on the circle offifths above D would be A,
right?
Because A is a perfect fifthabove D.
And it's going to have threesharps instead of two, right?
(24:06):
And the sharps are also going tocontain that order of sharps.
So remember, it starts on F.
F will be the first sharp.
A fifth above F is C.
That's the second sharp.
And a fifth above C is G.
That's the third sharp.
So now A major contains F sharp,C sharp, and G sharp.
(24:30):
You may have to go back on theaudio a few times just to let
this all soak in, and that isperfectly okay.
It is a lot of little mathtricks to really get there.
So now let me show you how thispowerful tool can help you learn
to spell out scales and keysusing just the five fingers on
(24:54):
your hand in order to count yourintervals.
So let me give you an example ofwhat I mean.
We know that C major has zerosharps because it's at the top
of the circle, 12 o'clock, so tospeak.
So zero sharps, we can spell thewhole scale starting on C going
C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.
(25:14):
Then to get the next key, we ofcourse go up a perfect fifth
from C, which is G.
So now we are on G major, whichis going to add one sharp.
And the first sharp in the orderof sharp is always F, as we've
described before.
(25:34):
So now I can spell a G majorscale, just use all the natural
letters except sharp F.
So it would be G, A, B, C, D, E,F sharp, G.
Now let's go one further.
So if G has one sharp on thecircle of fifths, what is going
to be the next key up that hastwo sharps?
(25:55):
Well, it's of course going to bea perfect fifth above G, which
is D.
So D major is going to add asharp, and now instead of having
one, it's going to have twosharps.
But remember, the order ofsharps always starts with F, but
if we're going to add a secondsharp, we need to go a fifth up
(26:15):
from F, which is C.
So now the key of D major isgoing to contain F sharp and C
sharp.
So spell all the rest of theletters D to D and sharp those
two notes.
D, E, F sharp, G, A, B, C sharp,D.
And you have the key of D major.
(26:36):
One more to help it sink in.
Let's go one more around on thecircle of fifths.
So we did C was zero, G was onesharp, D was two sharp.
And our next key, a fifth aboveD is A.
And we're going to add a sharpagain, which is going to be
three sharps.
(26:57):
So what's your first sharpalways?
F.
So what's a fifth above F?
C.
What's a fifth above C?
G.
So now if you have a three-sharpkey, it's going to contain F, C,
and G-sharp.
So now we spell the letters fromA to A without skipping or
(27:18):
repeating, and we add the threesharps we just named, F, C, and
G, and it would be spelled asfollows.
A, B, C-sharp, D, E, F-sharp,G-sharp, A.
And we have now established thekey of A major.
So now that you've establishedmultiple keys using the
(27:38):
principles in the circle offifths and the basic math that
goes with that, you can alsounderstand the chords and chord
progressions that are going tobe predictable within these
keys.
I'm going to take the mostrecent example we went through,
which was A major.
If you recall, it had threesharps and they were F, C, and
G.
(27:58):
So the key is spelled A, B, Csharp, D, E, F sharp, G sharp,
A.
Now recall back to your Romannumerals in A major key.
We know that one, four, and fiveare major, two, three, six are
minor, and seven is diminished.
So now you can name the entirekey, not only the scale, but the
chord qualities as well.
(28:19):
So A major will have pitches A,B, C sharp, D, E, F sharp, G
sharp, A, and the chords will beA major, B minor, C sharp minor,
D, D major, E major, F sharpminor, G sharp diminished, and
back to A major again.
Okay, phew, I do realize thatthere was a lot of stuff to
(28:42):
process in this episode aboutkeys, and I wanted to talk more
about key relationships, but myGod, did I run this episode all
the way up in time, and I liketo keep pretty tight and regular
on my time, so I'm going to savesome time to do a part two of
this of keys and keyrelationships so that I don't go
(29:07):
on for too long.
So let's go ahead and breakthings down.
Today we started off with whatcomprises what a key is.
We talked about how sharps andflats come about based on a need
(29:31):
to adjust within a scale patternto create keys correctly.
We talked about natural halfsteps, E, F, B, and C with Big
Cat Extra Fat.
Then, of course, we talked aboutthe circle of fifths and how we
use the perfect fifth intervalto calculate many relationships
(29:55):
in keys.
We talked about the order ofsharps and how that falls under
the relationship of a perfectfifth.
And finally, we learned how tospell scales and triads to
understand what's predictablewithin a key.
(30:18):
I hope everybody has a goodholiday vacation.
I'm taking a few weeks off fromthe podcast to visit with family
and friends and do some travel.
I hope that you do too.
And we will see you back in2025.
(30:38):
Because I can't wait to continuethis music theory exploration
with all of you.
music music
SPEAKER_00 (00:44):
Holiday season to everyone out there.
Welcome back to The HarmoniousBlacksmith, a podcast on music
theory exploration.
I do appreciate you guys tuningin and listening in.
I hope you're enjoying theseries and learning a lot.
(01:06):
This is episode 10, and I amyour host, Kevin Patrick
Fleming.
Oh, wow.
That's beautiful.
You're too kind.
You are way too kind.
I do appreciate your love andsupport.
(01:26):
Today's episode is all aboutkeys.
key relationships, and thecircle of fifths.
If this is your first timetuning in, I do want to let you
know this is a cumulativepodcast, meaning everything
starts from a building block atthe bottom and everything builds
(01:49):
on everything else as we go.
So if you're just discoveringthis for the first time, my
recommendation is to go back tothe beginning and catch up with
us when you can.
And of course, we do welcome youand we are happy that you are
joining us on this music theoryexploration.
Quick recap of the previousepisode, episode nine, which was
(02:12):
an introduction to ear trainingand aural skills by way of
learning interval sounds.
We learned the 12 main intervalsin ascending fashion, meaning we
were going from a low note to ahigher note, creating a unique
sound between between each ofthose notes, which is what we
(02:33):
call intervals.
And basically, we created alist, and hopefully you've all
done this by now, at least inyour head, where you have a list
of those interval sounds so thatyou can pull and relate, like
from a filing cabinet, forexample.
The idea that, oh, theinformation's there in my filing
(02:55):
cabinet in my brain.
I just need to make theconnection with other music that
it's similar or the same.
But today's topic is all aboutkeys, which I have touched on in
a previous episode, but we'rejust going to go a little more
in depth and we're going to tieit into the circle of fifths.
So let me start with expandingmy previous definition of what
(03:19):
is a key.
A key is the group of melodies,harmonies, triads, chords, and
chord that all work together tomake a pleasant and logical
sounding realm of music that isall derived from one scale
(03:43):
pattern originally that producesa diatonic scale or a Greek
mode, for example.
Now, that may sound like anelaborate definition of what a
key is, but when you reallysimplify, a key is really just
seven pitches of a diatonicscale that are created by those
(04:06):
original formulas.
So of course, the two we knowbest are major and minor.
And if you recall, major isIonian in terms of Greek modes,
and minor is Aeolian in terms ofGreek modes.
So think of a key as a nice,pleasant, and agreeable realm of
sound where all the pitches worktogether to create a musical
(04:30):
music narrative that iscomfortable, pleasant, doesn't
really have any curveballs,doesn't really do anything that
sounds like it's extremely outof place or in another place or
another realm.
And basically everything I'mdescribing now, I'm talking
about key changes andmodulation, which I'm going to
(04:53):
have an entire episode on keychanges and modulation coming
up.
But for now, we're And for thoseof you that have listened to all
of my episodes so far, think ofthis as a culmination point of
everything you learned, right?
(05:30):
skipping method and how chordsand extended harmonies could be
created from there.
Think about this as theculmination of all of that.
You take that scale, you takethose harmonies, you take the
triads, the chords and the chordprogression, and all of them
work together to create themagic that we know as music.
So the real creativity inwriting within a key, for
(05:53):
example, is how can youmanipulate the seven pitches of
the diatonic scale to createsomething magical, beautiful, or
just something that has anintention that you have in mind.
But after all of that, a key isjust seven notes, people.
That's really all it is.
(06:15):
So from a songwriterperspective, how creative can
you be with those seven pitches,both horizontally and
vertically, all of it together?
How creative can you be withinthat one one space so now that
i'm done waxing philosophicallyfor a moment let's come back
(06:37):
down to earth and let's startwith one of our original keys
again c major so let's go aheadand build it like we did in the
beginning i'm going to go aheadand start on the root note c and
then you know we go a whole stepup which is a d whole step up to
e half step to f whole step to gand whole step to A, whole step
(07:02):
to B, finally a half step backto C.
So again, we have C, D, E, F, G,A, B, C.
Again, seven pitches with theoctave at the top, and that is
literally the entire key of Cmajor.
If you didn't know that andyou're having sort of a
(07:24):
mind-blowing experience rightnow, I understand.
In other words, it sounds likeit's a lot more, like it's a lot
more pitches and chords andharmonies and things that do
this and that.
Nope, it's just the sevenpitches I just played and every
key is built that way.
And we're going to go through afew more as we go, but let's go
(07:45):
ahead and progress to buildingour harmonies and our triads in
the key of C major.
So Remember, that works byskipping notes.
Anybody out there remember howthe Roman numerals are laid out
in a major key?
And I do mean any major key,because they are all built
(08:07):
exactly the same way.
Do you all remember?
One is major.
Two is minor.
Three.
Three is minor.
Four is major.
Five is major.
Six is minor.
Seven is diminished.
(08:28):
And then we're back to one.
of those chords I just playedare available in the key of C
major only because they arestacked vertically.
They are notes that are stackedvertically originally.
(08:49):
They are notes that are stackedvertically from the original C
major scale using the skippingprinciple of triads that we
learned in a The idea is that ifI start on scale degree one C,
skip two and take three, skipfour and take five, I get C, E,
(09:14):
and G.
And when I stack those on top ofeach other, I get a C major
chord, right?
So all of them work that way.
All of them pull from the sevenoriginal pitches of the diatonic
major scale and just skipping,using the skipping method of
triads to get all the chords.
So again, it all just goes backto those seven notes.
(09:36):
But when you put them together,you can get melodies and
harmonies that yield really niceresults.
I'll give you an example ofsomething like this.
So that's, of course, Ode to Joyby Beethoven.
(09:59):
And I'm kind of just playing itin C major as an example.
And it just uses the first fivescale degrees of C major.
One, two, three, four, five inthe melody.
And it starts on scale degreethree.
And ends on scale degree oneeventually for it to sit down
(10:22):
and rest a little bit on thetonic scale.
chord, and then the chords usedto harmonize against it were, of
course, a I chord, which is a Cmajor, and then I went to a V
chord, which is a G major.
I also used a VI chord, which isan A minor, and I used an F
(10:43):
chord, which is a major IVchord.
So I'm using a 1-4-5 with a 6 inthe key.
And all of those chords containjust pitches from the original
diatonic scale that we fleshedout originally.
So now let me transition just alittle bit so we can discuss a
(11:06):
very important topic on sharpsand flats.
So what are sharps and flats andwhy do they happen?
As you know, a sharp looks likea number sign or a hashtag
symbol and a flat looks like alittle lowercase B symbol for
flat.
(11:27):
A sharp indicates that a note ishalf step higher and a flat
indicates that a note is a halfstep lower.
So in your mind right now, whatis it that causes sharps sharps
or flats to happen within a key.
Again, there's a reason that westart with C major, because C
(11:50):
major has zero sharps and zeroflats.
That way we can just read offthe letters of the music
alphabet and the order that theycome within the key of C major,
which goes, of course, C, D, E,F, G, A, B, C.
But let's go ahead and move toanother key, and we're going to
(12:11):
graduate towards how the circleof fifths works by the end of
this.
So I'm going to go ahead andmove to another key, and we're
going to do G major.
Here is a friendly reminderbefore we build G major
together.
All diatonic scales have everyletter of the music alphabet.
(12:34):
They are all in order.
We do not skip a letter, and wealso do not repeat a letter.
Those rules right there shouldtip you off as to why we get
sharps and flats.
But let's dive into G major.
So let's start on root note G.
A whole step from G is A.
A whole step from A is B.
(12:57):
Half step to C.
Whole step to D.
Whole step to E.
Whole step to F sharp.
Half step back to G.
So a full G major scale would bespelled G, A, B, C, D, E, F
sharp, G.
(13:18):
Now, why does the F sharp comeinto play?
It's because the formula for adiatonic major scale dictates
that we require a sharp on the Fnote.
In other words, if I just gostraight through the pitches and
I go G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G...
(13:38):
it deviates from the formulathat is required for the major
scale, whole, whole, half,whole, whole, whole, half.
All of a sudden you get whole,whole, half, whole, half, whole,
whole.
And then all of a sudden it'snot the formula for a major
scale.
It's a different formulaaltogether.
Remember, that original whole,whole, half, whole, whole,
(13:59):
whole, half, that is etched inthe stones of time forever and
ever.
Well, you know, things evolve.
But as far as our system goes,That's what we evolved to at
this point.
Who knows what we'll evolve to100 years from now.
But at the same time, that onestuck for a while.
So all major scales are going tobe built that way.
Now, as we continue to go intoour first key that contains a
(14:24):
sharp, which is G major, I doneed to explain one important
concept, which is called thenatural half steps.
The natural half steps arebetween E and F and B and C take
out your piano take out akeyboard image or look at a
piano or picture one when youlook at the piano and you see
(14:47):
white keys and black keys everynow and then there are two white
keys right next to each otherthose are the natural half steps
and they are B and C and E and Fwhich means there's no sharp or
flat between B and C there is nosharp or flat between E and F a
quick way to remember rememberthat those are the pitches is
(15:10):
big cat extra fat bcef i have afat little calico that i love
very much so that saying goesvery far with me so for the
purposes of study andsimplification i'm basically
going to stay in the realm ofsharps from here on out in this
episode and we will get to flatsmore and more later but what you
(15:33):
need to know right now is nowthat you know bcef big cat extra
fat are the natural half stepswhere there's no black key in
between or no sharp or flat inbetween.
What happens anytime you're in ascale formula where you're on a
B note and you need a whole stepup from B?
(15:55):
Can you think of what mighthappen?
You probably guessed it prettyquickly.
Basically, instead of playing aC, a natural C, you're going to
have a C sharp, which is a halfstep higher than a natural So if
you need a whole step from B,it's going to be C sharp, not C
natural.
So in the case of the G majorscale that we just built, we got
(16:19):
to the letter E in the scale andwe needed a whole step above
that E, which is actually an Fsharp, not an F.
So going forward, you want to nolonger think of sharps and flats
just as, oh, I'm just raising orlowering a note when I need to.
you want to think about it moreas a mechanism that ensures that
(16:45):
our scales sound the way we needthem to sound therefore making
the chords and the keys soundthe way we need them to sound so
they are a mechanism to makesure everything fits correctly
and there is of course a longevolution on how sharps and
flats came to be i don't feelthe need to go over that right
(17:07):
now um i I do encourage youlooking it up, but it's
basically just a long evolutionof how things came to be.
But now that we've discussed thebasic concept of keys, now that
we've discussed what the naturalhalf steps are, B, C, E, and F,
and why sharps and flats comeabout in order to fulfill the
(17:29):
requirements of the formulas forthe scales, it is now time to
introduce what we call thecircle.
circle of fifths.
The circle of fifths is aconceptual and organizational
tool that is used to understandthe number of sharps and flats
(17:50):
that are contained in every key,to understand what letters
specifically get the sharps andflats in those keys, to
understand relative major andminor keys, which means they
contain the same exact pitches,and to understand what keys are
closely related related to eachother for the purposes of
(18:12):
modulation and key changing.
And all of that can becalculated and organized using
the magic interval of a perfectfifth, hence the name Circle of
Fifths.
I am definitely going toencourage you to Google an image
of the Circle of Fifths, and youshould save an image somewhere
(18:37):
on your computer or your phoneor whatever you use for that
type of thing.
I'm going to hold on the audioexamples for a moment so that we
can go over how powerful thecircle of fifths is as a tool of
organization for our minds sothat we can understand keys.
So here's how I'll start youoff.
(18:58):
The circle of fifths and allkeys start with C major.
Surprise, surprise as I wasdoing that one for a reason
because it contains zero sharpsand zero flats.
So where does the interval of aperfect fifth come in, and how
do we use it to understand keys?
Well, I went over the key of Gmajor not too long ago, and that
(19:22):
was not by accident.
That's because that is the verynext key on the circle of fifths
after C.
Why?
Because G contains one sharp,whereas C has zero, right?
So we're Here's the kicker.
(19:42):
From the letter C to the letterG is an interval of a perfect
fifth.
So once you have your circle infront of you as an image of some
kind, you'll realize that whenwe go clockwise around the
circle, we're going to start at12 o'clock at the top, which is
(20:02):
C.
And as we start to go around 1o'clock, 2 o'clock, for example,
as we start to go clockwisearound, we're We are going to be
going by an interval of aperfect fifth.
And basically what it is, isevery time you go up a perfect
fifth, you add a sharp to thekey.
I'm going to say that one moretime because it's really
(20:24):
important.
Every time you go up a perfectfifth from the previous key, you
add one sharp to the next key.
So C major starts with zero.
We go up a perfect fifth to G.
think about that c d e f gthat's five letters right that's
(20:44):
a perfect fifth so from c to gis a perfect fifth up we have
one sharp now we keep going aperfect fifth up from g just go
g a b c d would be the key of dmajor which will have two sharps
a perfect fifth up from d willbe a that has three sharps a
(21:05):
perfect fifth up from a will bee that has four sharps and you
can just keep Keep going arounduntil you're at a full seven
sharps, which is C sharp major.
The second component of thecircle of fifths that works in a
really cool and brilliant way iscalled the order of sharps.
(21:30):
So not only are the keysorganized by the interval of a
perfect fifth, but so are theorder of sharps.
Let me give you an example.
First of all, C has zero, as wehave reiterated over and over.
The very first key in the circleof fifths that has a sharp is G
(21:50):
major, which is a fifth above C,as previously explained.
That sharp that is containedwithin G major is on the letter
F So F is the first sharp.
So can you think on your ownright now of what the next key
would be around the circle offifths to the right?
(22:12):
C is zero.
G is one sharp.
What's a fifth up from G?
It's D.
So D has two sharps.
And every time you add a sharp,you can go a perfect fifth up
from the previous sharp youadded on the previous key and
(22:35):
add that note to the sharps.
That may sound a littleconfusing.
Let me explain.
So G major has one sharp.
It's F.
D major has two sharps they aref and c so notice f is still
there but c is added which isexactly a perfect fifth above f
(23:01):
So anytime you're organizingkeys that contain sharps on the
circle of fifths, F is alwaysgoing to be the first one.
So if you have one sharp, it isgoing to be F.
If you have two sharps, it isgoing to be F first.
And what is a fifth above F,which is C.
(23:21):
So two sharps are going to be Fand C.
So if I keep going around thecircle, we said C has zero, G
has one, and it's F.
D has two.
They are F and C.
Can you think of what the nextkey would be and what the added
sharp would be?
(23:41):
Let me give you a second.
After the long pause, did youcome up with it?
So the next key on the circle offifths above D would be A,
right?
Because A is a perfect fifthabove D.
And it's going to have threesharps instead of two, right?
(24:06):
And the sharps are also going tocontain that order of sharps.
So remember, it starts on F.
F will be the first sharp.
A fifth above F is C.
That's the second sharp.
And a fifth above C is G.
That's the third sharp.
So now A major contains F sharp,C sharp, and G sharp.
(24:30):
You may have to go back on theaudio a few times just to let
this all soak in, and that isperfectly okay.
It is a lot of little mathtricks to really get there.
So now let me show you how thispowerful tool can help you learn
to spell out scales and keysusing just the five fingers on
(24:54):
your hand in order to count yourintervals.
So let me give you an example ofwhat I mean.
We know that C major has zerosharps because it's at the top
of the circle, 12 o'clock, so tospeak.
So zero sharps, we can spell thewhole scale starting on C going
C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.
(25:14):
Then to get the next key, we ofcourse go up a perfect fifth
from C, which is G.
So now we are on G major, whichis going to add one sharp.
And the first sharp in the orderof sharp is always F, as we've
described before.
(25:34):
So now I can spell a G majorscale, just use all the natural
letters except sharp F.
So it would be G, A, B, C, D, E,F sharp, G.
Now let's go one further.
So if G has one sharp on thecircle of fifths, what is going
to be the next key up that hastwo sharps?
(25:55):
Well, it's of course going to bea perfect fifth above G, which
is D.
So D major is going to add asharp, and now instead of having
one, it's going to have twosharps.
But remember, the order ofsharps always starts with F, but
if we're going to add a secondsharp, we need to go a fifth up
(26:15):
from F, which is C.
So now the key of D major isgoing to contain F sharp and C
sharp.
So spell all the rest of theletters D to D and sharp those
two notes.
D, E, F sharp, G, A, B, C sharp,D.
And you have the key of D major.
(26:36):
One more to help it sink in.
Let's go one more around on thecircle of fifths.
So we did C was zero, G was onesharp, D was two sharp.
And our next key, a fifth aboveD is A.
And we're going to add a sharpagain, which is going to be
three sharps.
(26:57):
So what's your first sharpalways?
F.
So what's a fifth above F?
C.
What's a fifth above C?
G.
So now if you have a three-sharpkey, it's going to contain F, C,
and G-sharp.
So now we spell the letters fromA to A without skipping or
(27:18):
repeating, and we add the threesharps we just named, F, C, and
G, and it would be spelled asfollows.
A, B, C-sharp, D, E, F-sharp,G-sharp, A.
And we have now established thekey of A major.
So now that you've establishedmultiple keys using the
(27:38):
principles in the circle offifths and the basic math that
goes with that, you can alsounderstand the chords and chord
progressions that are going tobe predictable within these
keys.
I'm going to take the mostrecent example we went through,
which was A major.
If you recall, it had threesharps and they were F, C, and
G.
(27:58):
So the key is spelled A, B, Csharp, D, E, F sharp, G sharp,
A.
Now recall back to your Romannumerals in A major key.
We know that one, four, and fiveare major, two, three, six are
minor, and seven is diminished.
So now you can name the entirekey, not only the scale, but the
chord qualities as well.
(28:19):
So A major will have pitches A,B, C sharp, D, E, F sharp, G
sharp, A, and the chords will beA major, B minor, C sharp minor,
D, D major, E major, F sharpminor, G sharp diminished, and
back to A major again.
Okay, phew, I do realize thatthere was a lot of stuff to
(28:42):
process in this episode aboutkeys, and I wanted to talk more
about key relationships, but myGod, did I run this episode all
the way up in time, and I liketo keep pretty tight and regular
on my time, so I'm going to savesome time to do a part two of
this of keys and keyrelationships so that I don't go
(29:07):
on for too long.
So let's go ahead and breakthings down.
Today we started off with whatcomprises what a key is.
We talked about how sharps andflats come about based on a need
(29:31):
to adjust within a scale patternto create keys correctly.
We talked about natural halfsteps, E, F, B, and C with Big
Cat Extra Fat.
Then, of course, we talked aboutthe circle of fifths and how we
use the perfect fifth intervalto calculate many relationships
(29:55):
in keys.
We talked about the order ofsharps and how that falls under
the relationship of a perfectfifth.
And finally, we learned how tospell scales and triads to
understand what's predictablewithin a key.
(30:18):
I hope everybody has a goodholiday vacation.
I'm taking a few weeks off fromthe podcast to visit with family
and friends and do some travel.
I hope that you do too.
And we will see you back in2025.
(30:38):
Because I can't wait to continuethis music theory exploration
with all of you.
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