Once you can manipulate it in your mind, the doors are blown wide open for sophisticated songwriting. It can be used for tons of modes like your typical Ionian major scale, Lydion, Dorian, Phrygian, etc. Seeing it and working with it over and over is how mastery occurs, just like playing your instrument and writing songs.Īpply that same energy here and everything else you do musically will benefit greatly.Īlmost all Western music follows the following patterns, and even other cultural styles follow the same concepts in their own way. Knowing this tool exists is half the battle. You’ll find more isolated ways to understand key signatures, chord progressions, and other tricks to keep you on track.īut later, once you have a firm grasp on everything involved in our circular friend, there is no better organized way to sort it all out in your head on the fly than this. Here’s the honest truth: You may not use this initially.

So get ready for a wild ride made easy as we work our way from the foundations to the purpose and finally to the methods of exploiting the Circle of Fifths in your songwriting and music theory endeavors.

We’re going to keep it as simple as possible with explanations of any new terms.

Typical discussion about the Circle of Fifths is largely for beginners and intermediate music theorists, and the tricky part is there’s no way to avoid using other technical jargon that a beginner may not know when explaining it.

What is the order of the flats?