Author: musicalitywrld

Hi, this is Christopher Sutton, the Founder and Director of Musical U, and I’d love to share with you what’s new in Musical U this month.

You can watch the video below or read on to learn more.

This month, we implemented a fantastic new member dashboard to help you find the most important stuff within the site for you and also released the new Resource Packs for our instrument packs, this month on the topic of singing and audiation. Let’s dive in.

New Member Dashboard

Inside Musical U, there is a wealth of training material, discussions and all kinds of exciting stuff. After a week or two as a member, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed and you remember all kinds of interesting stuff that you’ve seen – but it wasn’t always easy to find your way back to the most important things.

So this month we totally revamped the member homepage and replaced it with more of a “dashboard”. The idea is to try and fit all the most important stuff on just one screen.

We have our member profile. If we click through, we can view or edit the information that’s shown to other members about us and our musical life. On the profile page, you can see what instruments someone plays, what kind of skills they’re working on, their favourite genres of music, and all of the training they’ve done inside the site, as well as finding a link to their progress journal, where you can learn a lot more about how their training is going.

Then we have the news section, which is where we put any important updates about the site, as well as linking to our most recent weekly updates. Our community conductor, Stewart, always does a great job of making these fun and interesting every week. He has a real knack for pulling out fascinating music trivia and music history that brings life to these weekly updates, but it’s also a chance for us to just celebrate all of the member accomplishments in a given week.

Then over here on the community box, we have links to all the new discussions since you last visited the site. That’s quite a handy one if you just want to catch up on what’s been going on. You can also go straight to all the discussions you’ve started, the ones you’re following, or the ones you’ve just been involved with. If I take a look here, I should get a list of all the discussions I’ve contributed to inside the community.This is an easy way just to get back into the discussions you were having with other members. You can also see the recent activities, what members have been up to. Here’s one of our team members, Andrew, getting involved in the discussion for the Approaching Improvisation module, for example.

We also made it super easy to just pick up with your training. This part shows the most recent module you were working on and the most recent lesson. So you can go straight back into the last lesson you were working on inside Musical U and pick up where you left off.

Then just down below, we have links to your training plans. We have a very flexible planning system inside Musical U to help you figure out which training modules to use and how that integrates with the rest of your musical life. Here are easy links to view those training plans and edit them if you need to and then a link to your Progress Journal. As I said before, this is kind of your home to keep track of how your training is going, share with other members any insights or questions you have along the way, or get help from the team should you need it.

Then here we have the modules list. This is handy because you can take a quick look and see how you’ve done on the quizzes for a particular module and just at a glance see which ones are in progress and you can click to resume that module and finish it up.

Then finally, we have a box for the Instrument Packs. If you’re on an Instrument Pack membership for guitar, piano, bass, or singing, this is where you’ll find a link to that. That leads neatly onto our next big update in Musical U this month…

Resource Packs: Singing and Audiation

Our Instrument Packs in Musical U are a way to bridge the gap between the kind of core listening skills we really focus on and the day-to-day instrument practice you’re probably already doing. They give you an easy, concrete way to connect up those two worlds and put into practice the kinds of skills we teach at Musical U, such as playing by ear, improvising, and having freedom and creativity on your instrument. Here in the guitar pack, you can see there’s various discussions going on but there are also the Resource Packs released every month.

The latest one is for audiation and singing. Audiation is the skill of imagining music vividly in your head. Obviously, this is powerful for improvisation, so that you can just imagine something and then play it directly on your instrument. It’s also great for playing by ear and memorization and all kinds of other musical skills. The topic of this pack was “audiation and singing” and how you can use those two to really connect to your inner instinct for music with what you’re actually doing with your fingers on the guitar.

As always in our Resource Packs, we have a tutorial video of about 10-15 minutes. Then we have a quick reference guide with the top-line important stuff from the video to remember it by and any tab or detailed instructions you might need for the exercises. Then we have a few audio tracks to help you practice those exercises.

We won’t dive into the videos now but we do publish preview videos for every Resource Pack now on our YouTube channel. If you’re interested to get a peek inside and see what’s been going on in these Instrument Packs, please do head on over to YouTube where you can take a look at the Resource Packs for audiation and singing that came out this month.

Thank you for joining me for this look at what’s new inside Musical U this month. We have our new snazzy member dashboard, which, based on feedback so far, is really helping people feel more organized and find their way around the site a bit more easily and goes straight to stuff that interests them most. We also have an exciting set of new Resource Packs for our instrument groups on guitar, piano, bass, and singing to help you use audiation, the skill of imagining music in your mind, to be a more free and creative musician on those instruments.

Thanks for watching and I hope to see you inside soon!

The post What’s New in Musical U: July 2017 appeared first on Musical U.

And that’s fine – eventually you get better at it!

The problem is that any audience that doesn’t consist of your mom and two best friends (if they’re not already in the band) rarely cares about your lack of experience and expects you to be exactly who you want to be from the first try. This is, of course, both frustrating and terrifying.

You know what usually helps? Help. No, it really does!

You need someone to tell you whether you sound good. Just ask. Embarrassed? Fair enough, but think of it this way: there’s no way in the world you’ll get good at music fast if you rely solely on your own senses (unless you’re someone like Mozart). Assuming you are not a rare prodigy, here are a few tips to help your progress:

1. People you know

Know any musicians? Asking them would be a good first step, of course. Especially the ones that are ahead of you. Asking the above-mentioned best friends or your relatives, however, can be a double-edged sword.

First, it’s a really good way to make yourself feel good if you expect to get mostly compliments. But that doesn’t really help you make your music better. If you’re easily pleased, your mom’s opinion would probably make you think you’re better than you actually are.

But asking people close to you to tell you what they think of your work is not an inherently bad idea.

For example, if your dad has been a hardcore stoner rock fan for the past twenty years and you’re trying to get that Kyuss sound, he may just be the perfect person to turn to. And if your friend Terry is a real jerk but you trust his judgment and taste in music, he may actually tell it like it is.

And if you’re scared your family members will give you a hard time or make fun of your music, you should probably run away and find a new family. No, please don’t do that.

2. Ask complete strangers

Years ago, a random guy stopped me on the street and handed me a set of headphones. “This is my music,” he said, “If you like it, I have some CDs you can buy.” I put the headphones on and immediately loved it. I ended up buying two of his albums, which I still listen to sometimes.

The thing is, I didn’t know this person. He wasn’t my friend. I didn’t owe him anything. I could have just refused and walked away without feeling bad about it, and he knew that. But I didn’t walk away, because I liked what he had created and since I opened up my wallet for it, he obviously got the feedback he was looking for. Impartiality is just one benefit of asking people you don’t know for their opinions.

The other benefit, of course, is that you don’t know them. The opinion of a random person on the street would probably have less emotional impact on you than that of a close friend – especially if it’s a negative one – and you can still get some good free advice. If you’re not the extroverted type, just think about bothering your family and friends with your music, and strangers suddenly become more approachable.

3. Ask online, duh

I mean, come on. These days, there is an overflowing abundance of online places where you can talk to people about anything. Drooble, of course, is the obvious pick if you’re looking for a large number of fellow musicians from different countries to ask about your new song, but there are plenty of options on the web with varying focus and different structures.

Just look for the right one or, if you’re feeling energetic today, hit all of them. What you’ll get is a variety of tastes, backgrounds, and viewpoints – which is exactly what you need, even if you’re not ready for it.

Anonymity is the perfect excuse for people to treat others horribly so if they hate your music, there’s a good chance they’ll let you know. And if they love it, they have no reason to be mean to a stranger.

Another good thing about online music communities is the context. People go to social networks and forums to write stuff and express their feelings and opinions. This means they’re willing to take the time to write an answer or comment and go into detail – if not to help you, simply to show off and try to convince others they’re smart.

Seriously, if you haven’t asked an online community by now, you literally have no excuse. Just do it now.

No, really, I’ll wait.

4. Paying for opinions is always an option

If you’re a fan of Karl Marx, you probably won’t understand this, but paying a person who’s working for himself to provide a service he says he’s good at can actually work wonders.

Contrary to what you might think, detailed feedback that makes real sense takes real time. A first listen is never enough and a good musician will take as much as is needed to dissect your song, point out what’s good about it, what makes it bad, and how you can make it better.

You know, listening to music and sharing your first impressions may seem like a pretty easy job that you can easily abuse, but it’s not. If you’ve ever met a musician in your life, you’ll know we take music very seriously.

Helping people become better musicians is what we do at Drooble, and we enjoy it immensely. But there’s no doubt that it’s also a great responsibility. Giving good, in-depth feedback is not a way to take people’s money. It’s a matter of pride and honor. As I often say to my friends, if I wanted to be rich, I wouldn’t be a musician. A good website I can recommend for this is Audiu – check it out and tell us about it on Drooble.

5. Just go for it!

Here’s the scariest, yet most effective tactic. Sometimes you just have to take the plunge. A leap of faith, if you will.

Whatever other people tell you, even if they’re right, you alone know what you’re trying to achieve. When all else fails, just go on stage and play the darn song.

People will either love it or hate it; at least you’ll know.

The worst that can happen is that you’ll have to do better next time, which is basically what musicians aim at every day.

The first time is always the hardest but it gets easier the more you do it. This sudden act of madness can lead to bravery, which is the first step to confidence. And if there is anything crowds like, it’s confidence. Well, that and good music, but the whole point is to find out how good yours is. In any case, one leads to the other so go out there, give it your best and people will appreciate it. In the words of the late Chris Cornell, to be yourself is all that you can do!

Drooble is an online social platform for musicians that enables its users to search for and connect with other musicians from all over the world, present their work, receive and give feedback, promote their music and develop their talents. They can also find bandmates and form bands together.

Drooble features include content customization, showcasing original music and video, an advanced search algorithm, online radio including your original music, social networking and more.

The post 5 Ways to Get Early Feedback in Your Career appeared first on Musical U.

New frontiers opened by aviation, recording technology, and telecommunications channeled to artists stimulating ideas and materials from all over the world. Global intersections resulted, speaking volumes about an ever-shrinking world, where message and tone were refined to specific purposes, and composers worked to reconnect with disengaged audiences.

New Frontiers

Historians consider 1945 a turning point, when an obligation toward progressive processes and exploration of new technologies gained momentum. Each composer seemed to have his or her own story to tell, and most relevant compositional trends can be further explained by artists taking deliberate actions related to rejection, opposition, reinterpretation, and reinvention.

Elliott Carter (1908-2012) lived during and through World Wars I and II. Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943) suffered the stranglehold of Communism, while others found fresh liberty via social reform associated with the feminist and Civil Rights movements; women like Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953) took their rightful place in the fabric of American cultural life, and William Grant Still (1895-1978) boldly became the first black musician to conduct a major symphony orchestra.

The same technological advancements that made it possible to record and share music across the world inspired composers to merge pre-recorded sound with live performance, as well as to explore the manipulation of raw electronic noise into musical patterns and textures. Other composers sought to alter existing instruments, or to extend typical playing techniques to pioneer new sonic results. Debates raged about control versus freedom in regards to artistic elements and performer constraint. Still some artists seemed to crave a return to simplicity and accessibility, never surrendering fully to the past, but admitting finding motivation and guidance in it.

It’s impossible to assemble a collective of like-minded composers in this post-1945 era. Instead, let’s explore a selection of available platforms and threads occupying composers, where individual practices and idiosyncratic results are more realistic.

It’s also difficult to broadly summarize a consolidated musical language via a checklist related to melody, rhythm, harmony, and form; the examples to come instead provide a survey of varying inquiries and experiments made through musical means, to include chance and indeterminacy; electronic music and mixed media; and, extended techniques. In this light, we will consider where composers sourced sonic materials, and what relevant precedent and influence affected how they worked with those elements.

John Cage: A Pioneer of Indeterminacy in Music

John Cage, by WikiArt.org

John Cage (1912-1992) wanted listeners to re-think the long-standing definition of music as organized sound—unambiguous with definite melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic components. After rudimentary training (with Arnold Schoenberg, no less), Cage set about a series of experiments to assert his revolutionary notions about music and performance.

He explored extended techniques on piano and re-imagined ambient sounds as musical, forever altering the course of musical composition. While the general public easily dismissed Cage (or never really knew much about him at all), composers and academics couldn’t remain ambivalent. They acknowledged Cage’s experimentation, deeming it valid enough to face head on, process, and then judge, either advancing through or past his mid-century theories.

The Manipulated (“Prepared”) Piano

One of Cage’s monumental achievements is his set of Sonatas and Interludes (1948) for prepared piano. Included are 16 sonatas (in standard binary form and ternary form), plus four episodic, free interludes. As a comprehensive venture into prepared piano, the piece is legendary.

Basically, Cage manipulated the instrument from the inside, placing objects like screws and erasers in between strings to alter the sonic outcome. Not all of the strings are altered: he specifically targeted the higher register, so when the piece calls for notes from the piano’s lower range, the piano still sounds “normal.”

Spend a few minutes watching Stephen Drury’s video about how to prepare a piano, which surveys how the instrument must be manipulated before one can play the piece:

Music for the Prepared Piano

John Cage’s Sonata No. 1 for the prepared piano plays out as an AABB structure (where the A and B sections repeat). The piece opens 10 seconds into this video performance and lasts only about 2:20—compact, but packing a lot of punch.

The piece toggles between bold punctuated chords right in the mid-range of the keyboard at [0:08] and a distinct descending melodic motive [0:19-0:22]. These ideas are countered with a passage of hollow, percussive sounds at [0:26-0:32]. This opening A section closes out with an almost melancholy—and definitely more linear and melodic—passage from [0:33-0:52].

At [0:53], the pianist honors the repeat signs so expect a return to the opening material. This stand-by form, borrowed from sonatas of the past, breeds familiarity; in fact, Cage likely assumed a listener would appreciate the chance to engage in and process the radical musical content one more time.

At [1:34] comes the contrasting B section. Notably, this section shares some ideas with the A material (like the punctuated chords), so there is unity and a sort of prevailing organicism, meaning that one idea grows out of another. A fuller texture prevails in the more homophonic, almost choral sounds from [1:53-2:01] and at [2:07], the tinkling melodic passage sounds almost like electronically produced sound, another area of experimentation in which Cage was interested.

Rethinking “Music”

In a way, this second Cage piece featured here speaks for itself… or does it? In the 1950s, Cage boldly posed a number of challenges to other composers, performers, and even to listeners.

He asked, “What is music?”

He wondered if music had to match a pre-conceived notion about melodic sounds matched with harmonic devices, moved by some regular metrical pulse and realized by conventional, well-defined instruments. Cage suggested that music could instead be everywhere—existing and evolving in the environment and in the ever-changing soundscape of everyday life.

Cage even gave the performer some amount of freedom in deciding how musical components would be organized (letting them mix up the multiple pages of a score, for example, to play the sections in any random order). He went further to ponder if one could hear music in silence.

Silence and Noise

With all of that in mind, tackle Cage’s 1952 masterpiece 4’33”. Note the role of indeterminacy, where the artist relinquished control over the musical results and ensured that no performance of this piece would ever match the next.

Edgard Varèse: Music as Organized Sound

Edgard Varèse was a Frenchman whose artistic production happened mostly in the United States. He was a visionary, never satisfied with the conventional and always seeking a new portal to explore—and to challenge performers and listeners.

Even though Varèse famously declared in 1952 that he was “only interested in recorded music” (like many others he was into the absolute control that the medium offered), he was open to combining conventional orchestral instruments with the processes and sounds that modern technology was providing.

Live Orchestration with Electronic Tape

Varèse’s “Déserts” calls for 15 live performers on brass, percussion, winds, and piano (no strings– Varèse wasn’t into them) to play along with a pre-recorded, two-track tape (previously produced by Varèse in Pierre Schaeffer’s famous Paris studio). The piece is built across four acoustic instrumental “Episodes” which toggle against three inserted tape “Interpolations.” It premiered in 1954 but wasn’t met with hearty applause from the Parisian audience—maybe because of its perceived peculiarities at the time.

There is no trace of a main melody, and beyond it being obviously athematic, the pitch content has no “home”—it is atonal. On top of that, the listener is treated to no regular, discernible beat for toe-tapping.

Episode I presents a static effect, where disparate sound masses are juxtaposed against one another. In fact, the very structure of the piece (Episode 1/Interpolation I followed by Episode 2/Interpolation 2) represents juxtaposition, as performers play conventional instruments on stage (Episode), then the tape takes over (Interpolation) while the acoustic instruments sit silent.

Music Beyond Melody

With little defined melodic, harmonic, or metrical interest, Varèse calls on listeners to target how the instrumentalists attack each sound: think carefully about how intense one sustained pitch is versus an opposite, more mellow tone. Note, too, the duration of a sound, and how carefully Varèse manages dynamics across a phrase between the start of the sound and when that sound, like those of the flute or clarinet, gradually dies out.

Irregular chimes (first a pair, then single attacks from [0:01-0:08]) seem to announce and welcome winds into the texture: note here how the flute and clarinet basically match the chime’s pitch, so what are really distinct timbres bleed imperceptibly into one another. All of this is built over a murmuring brass foundation.

Listen carefully at [0:49] as the trombones initiate a melodic motive, but instead of developing it into a cohesive theme, it fades out by [0:58], replaced by a shimmering gong strike and muted clarinet utterances in dialogue with dry snare hits by [1:02]. Another brass fanfare seems to take shape at [1:10] but again dies away by [1:17], confirming Varèse’s insistence on stagnant versus dynamic musical events.

Atmospheric Music

While Varèse indeed associated the piece with desolate landscapes related to a desert (the music was initially associated with a film), he also leaned into a parallel urban soundscape; the sounds of city life, in fact, proved inspirational for many mid-century painters, writers, and composers.

It’s not too far-fetched to associate certain sounds of the electronic taped portion with such an existence, and this becomes relevant in the first Interpolation at [3:08]. Maybe you hear footsteps on a sidewalk at [3:12-3:15] or the screech of overhead streetcar lines at [3:29-3:32]. A pause at [3:39] gives way to what one might associate with a ship’s horn at [3:40], which sets in flight a scampering flock of birds almost simultaneously.

Later, space and silence ease the tension (or build more in) from [4:45-50], but soon enough squealing brakes (of car or trolley trains) assault the ears at [5:21], and then it seems like we’re all in on the revelry, complete with whistles and catcalls, of a sporting event from [5:36-5:50].

One of the most fascinating aspects of this Interpolation segment is that Varèse assembled the sounds for it—sequencing, splicing, and re-organizing the aural glimpses in a studio. This section, then, is representative of Varèse organizing sound rather than composing music.

George Crumb: Reimagining String Instruments

George Crumb (b. 1929) resembles many modern experimentalists in his unceasing quest for new sounds, and he often takes available instruments and conventional techniques past their norms—and arguably to their extremes.

Political Inspiration

His Black Angels: 13 Images from the Dark Land (1970) is best understood in the context of the Vietnam War, which caused sharp divides between communities and aroused in him an urge to speak about political strife through art. The piece was commissioned by University of Michigan, but Crumb more specifically admitted to reacting to this dark time in America’s 20th century, when as he put it, “there were terrifying things in the air [and] they found their way into Black Angels.”

Black Angels calls for amplifying the standard string quartet (Crumb calls it the “electric string quartet”), made up of two violins, viola, and cello. Crumb realized unique timbral combinations by melding these chordophones with gongs and crystal glasses (tuned by differing water levels); each of the four string players is assigned additional tasks (like the cellist playing gong or the first violin playing maracas), so Crumb also re-imagined what a string performance traditionally entails.

The main divisions of the piece are structured around a vague sequence of events: Departure—Absence—Return. The emotional chronology, which Crumb further described as a “voyage of the soul,” travels a “fall from grace” in the five sections of Departure; “spiritual annihilation” in four parts to Absence; and “redemption” in four more parts of Return.

The 13-movement composition opens with “Night of the Electric Insects” (you may recognize it, since it’s included in The Exorcist soundtrack). “Danse macabre” is the fifth section of Departure.

Sinister Strings

Crumb wanted to pull listeners out of their comfort zone: instead of lush and lyrical, the violins sound raw, percussive, and eerie (thanks to special bowing techniques or hitting the strings with a thimble). The maracas’ dry shake adds a percussive layer to the movement’s ever-shifting beat pattern at [0:11]; when it shows up again at [0:21], it’s paired with the well-known Dies irae chant, a medieval melody traditionally used in a mass for the dead.

Crumb appropriated the tune, as many composers have over the centuries, since it matched the mood and message of the piece. Listen for its 7-note contour, plucked on the cello, from [0:21-0:24], and note that the pattern repeats from [0:31-0:34]. The violin’s limited burst of lyricism here is interrupted by violent bowing that creates clashing dissonance at [0:38].

As much as Crumb is channeling darkness and evil in “Danse macabre,” the music doesn’t come across as particularly scary. Instead, he seems to be putting evil in its place, allowing a sort of satirical poke at the power of darkness.

At [0:49], as the brief movement comes to a close, the instrumentalists simply chant, under their breath, the numbers 1 through 7 in Hungarian (throughout, the performers speak in many languages, including German, Russian, Japanese, and Swahili). It should be noted that Crumb was fascinated by numerology, but that topic is really beyond the scope of this tutorial: suffice it to say that 7 represents good and 13 represents evil.

Speaking about the work in 2004, Crumb said he believes the piece is timeless, and while it’s unfortunate to find resonance in the music’s message, indeed the world continues to cycle in and out of times of conflict and horror. Perhaps in it we can see and sense something of ourselves and our capacity to recognize and overpower dark forces.

Avant-Garde Sounds

Classical music post-1945 saw composers reimagining the very idea of music, often using instruments in new, unconventional ways, and blurring the line between music and sound. Countless approaches to this innovation were seen, from Cage’s use of musical “silence” to allow for ambient noise, to Varèse’s atonal use of conventionally melodic instruments.

This departure from tradition gets listeners to think about the interactions of sound with each other, and with silence. With melody taking a backseat, the listener is free to open their ears to elements such as duration of sounds, repetition, timbre, and the ways in which different sounds interact with one another.

The post Exploring Classical Music: The Modern Era, Part 3: 1945 – appeared first on Musical U.

The cover we’ll take a look at now is a perfect example of that. Pieter Schrevens is a musician who performs on a Belgian TV show called Café Corsari. In his spare time, he makes covers of famous songs. These performances are captured in amazing music videos, where he often loops himself playing different instruments over and over again, combining and overlapping them in a spectacular one-man performance.

In this installment, he covered Tame Impala’s “Let It Happen”. The original song is already a fascinating example of looping applied to psych rock. Like Schrevens, Kevin Parker (the mastermind behind Tame Impala) is also quite fond of looping and sequencing as a compositional tool.

So let’s take a look at the original first, then we’ll check out that amazing cover version Pieter did.

Before: Tame Impala’s Original Version

In case you’re not familiar with the music of Tame Impala, they’re pioneers of modern Australian psychedelic rock, and are one of the biggest acts in indie rock right now. However, you may be surprised to find out that it’s a solo project more than anything else! Kevin Parker originally started it as a side thing, just recording stuff at home. Even now with their growing popularity, he still records, mixes, and masters everything at home.

Somewhat unconventionally, Parker uses Ableton Live as his DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) of choice. Ableton Live is not the rock musician’s typical DAW of choice; it’s mostly used by DJs and electronic music producers precisely because of its looping capabilities.

The Perfect Opener for 2015’s “Currents”

In his latest and third album, Kevin Parker opens with “Let It Happen”. This nearly eight-minute-long piece beautifully blends psych rock with electronic music:

Parker allegedly felt like with his third album, he wanted to stray further away from rock and try and conquer some dance floors. To an extent, he did with this song, thanks in big part to the looping of a four-on-the-floor breakbeat, and some incredible bass lines.

The song starts off pretty straightforward, doesn’t it? A verse, then the first chorus, then another verse, and a synth-lead bridge after the second chorus. After this, however, things go haywire.

From the [3:48] mark, Parker seems to have looped a whole section of the song. Then he adds those ominous strings on top of it, slowly filtering everything away, and begins drumming on top of it before breaking everything down into a dance anthem that re-states the bridge’s melodic theme.

Whew! Then he even adds some vocoder! Amazing song.

After – Pieter Schrevens’ Creative Loop Cover

In his version, Pieter adds loops one-by-one into the mix to build up to a full-bodied sound, using interesting elements (including claps and the sound of him knocking the body of his guitar with his hand), along with some old TV sets. This may sound weird, but this arrangement has amazing results. See for yourself below:

More than ever, I recommend just pressing “play” on the video, and listening and watching for yourself. Then, pay attention to the following:

The Versatility Of The Acoustic Guitar

What struck me most about this cover is how many things Pieter is able to do with his acoustic guitar. Multiple uses of acoustic guitar aren’t that uncommon with looping, with musicians often using the guitar in percussive ways. In fact, there’s a whole genre of singer-songwriters who do this. However, few of them manage to create such a seamless and perfectly-synced song.

To a close observer, the unusual element in this is not the typical electro-acoustic looped to a pedal, but the condenser microphone in front of him. It must be feeding into some sort of looping software. It’s of course not all done live in one take since the bits are then looped and go into the TV sets behind him.

To start off the song, he creates some sort of click-track by plucking the strings while muting them. Then, he creates his own sample of a clap (a staple in electronic music) in real time. He pounds the body of the guitar with his fist, generating a bass drum-like sound. Pieter manages to create a full-bodied percussion section by using only an acoustic guitar and his hands, albeit in three different ways.

For the melody, he plays the little guitar riff from the beginning of the original on the high strings. After that, he lays down the bass line with the low E string. To finish up, he plays the song’s main chords and voilà! The song has a life of its own.

Other Elements

As the song progresses, Pieter is able to devote himself to one thing at a time thanks to looping. Drums are added, although they were recorded in a different frame. When the time comes to sing, he can focus solely on reaching those high notes without having to keep the beat with his right hand and the harmony with his left. The “past Pieters” are taking care of that, aided by the wonder of looping.

Similarly to the vocals, you may have noticed that the keyboard and synth parts are not looped either. They are played live over the whole thing with the little MIDI controllers hooked up to his left. Most likely, they are wired to some plugins within a computer.

Creative Looping

Apart from the creative use of an acoustic guitar, looping is also used in other interesting ways. You can hear this with the additional vocals in the choruses, but most notably with the part near the end of the song that emulates a vocoder. Whether it was an intentional choice or just plain lack of a vocoder, Pieter managed to create a similar sound by layering and processing his vocals. This happens at [3:45].

For the most part, the structure is the same as in the original, only shortened via the instrumental parts and the number of times he repeats certain things. Pieter’s version omits the string arrangements and the whole breakbeat looping that we hear in Tame Impala’s original.

Another noteworthy difference is the feel of the cover as compared to the original; Pieter’s version is obviously not as danceable as Tame Impala’s. I suppose it made sense to skip that whole thing and dismiss any attempt at a dance break.

Going Loopy

Overall, Pieter took the concept of looping as a compositional tool quite far with this video. It is worth mentioning that if you got any desire whatsoever of covering a song or writing your own music, looping might be a handy tool for you to do it by yourself.

It’s easy to get your hands on the tools; there are loop pedals that go for $99 USD or even $69.

Of course, there’s also the option of doing most of it “in the box” (that means within a computer) with tools like Ableton Live. There are even some cool apps for phone or tablets like the Figure by Propellerhead or Native Instruments’ iMaschine.

The post Before and After: Covering Tame Impala appeared first on Musical U.

As do any other lovers, we musicians consume all our heart, mind, body, and soul with the music we love. But sometimes, like in any other love relationship, that’s not enough to move us forward. We wonder, “With all that time, love, and attention – why aren’t we growing musically?”

Often, with all our focus on our beloved, we neglect the other areas in our lives that sustain that relationship and made it possible in the first place.

In the musical realm, that means practicing, ear training, career, and – gasp – music theory.

So this week in Musical U we tamed the dreaded theory beast, known as the Circle of Fifths. We also learned how to home in on those under-the-radar gigs and how to really hear those minor chord progressions.

But first, let’s see how to make your practicing deliver the musical goods you crave:

Business Lessons from the Practice Room

Busy busy busy. When do you practice, and how? Looking back, it was a lot easier when mom and dad were squeezing those 30 minutes out of your whiny feelings of injustice. But now the luxury of watching the second hand tick down the last 30 seconds of your practice time is gone, gone, gone and never to return.

And now that you really want to practice, when are you going to do it? And how do you get the most out of that practice time?

Musical U founder Christopher Sutton answered these questions and more in a fascinating conversation with Steve Palfreyman of Music Launch Hub – Mastermind Tribe. In the process, they discovered that extracting the most musical bang for your buck from your practicing isn’t all that different from what it takes to the career moves that support your musical habit…. uh, relationship.

Read more about what happens when Musical U Meets Music Launch Hub, Part 1: Practicing Music, Practicing Business.

Minor Ear Training for Major Results

Ear training is another one of those practices that may seem like an “extra” – but that will fundamentally transform your musicianship. In a short series on Hearing Chord Progressions, Musical U author Ramona Cojocaru mixed up a powerful brew of solfa (aka solfege) and music theory to supercharge your hearing of major chord progressions. Now she addresses the rich minor sonorities in Hearing Chord Progressions, Part 3: Minor Keys.

Music Theory can seem complex, with so many rules that the musician must remember to properly build chords, scales, and harmony. What if we could break it down into something much easier? Kennis Russell put together this quick video to show how Major and Minor chords can be simplified:

Minor keys can greatly impact the tonal variety of your music, introducing new colors and texture. When using a minor key, the chords that correspond to the melody will change as well. But, what chords can you use? Piano Keyboard Guide provides this breakdown of C# minor that will have you playing in no time.

Learning the theory behind minor chord progressions is one thing. Being able to apply it directly to your instrument is another! Guitar and Music Institute has a quick lesson on using minor chords progressions all over the fretboard to take your playing to the next level.

The lesson ended by briefly discussing how tonality is further expanded through the use of harmonic and melodic minor scales. These exotic scales can add a great deal of interest to your melodies and open your ear to more tonal possibilities! JamPlay has published this guide to Harmonic Minor Modes that will get you started on your minor journey.

Circle of Fifths, Unveiled

What if you could fit everything you ever could possibly want to know about scales, harmony, chords, and chord progressions into a small diagram that fit in the palm of your hand?

The Circle of Fifths is that magical musical master tool. While the mind-boggling possibilities of the Circle are infinite, there’s no longer any need for your own mind to be boggled or intimidated or to hide under a small rock quaking in fear – for this week, Musical U unveils The Ultimate Guide to the Circle of Fifths.

With this guide, you can go for the whole thing at once, or you can easily break off bite-sized chunks, coming back again and again to the Ultimate Guide and the free downloadable Circle of Fifths PDFs. Once you’ve grasped this precious musical Ring of Power, you will never let go.

The secrets behind the Circle of Fifths are vast. Diving into this subject will greatly improve your capabilities as a musician. Perhaps you still have some questions, though. Music is Win answers questions from their message board to point you in the right direction:

Patterns are everywhere in music. The Circle of Fifths is a prime example of how music theory and understanding these patterns can greatly increase the musician’s ability to hear and play the music. Join Theta Music Trainer in exploring the patterns behind the Circle of Fifths.

So, now that you know about the Circle of Fifths, what are you to do with it? One way to start is through chord progressions. With Jazz Tutorial, see how to build the chords within any scale using the circle of fifths:

You may be thinking that boring subjects like music theory and the Circle of Fifths don’t matter to you. But, every musician benefits from understanding and using this amazing tool. Sound Girls provides us with insight on how songwriters and music producers can use the Circle of Fifths.

Under the Radar Gigs

Ever dream of leaving behind the “day job” and devoting your whole life to what you love the most (aka music!)? There’s a whole world of gigs, lucrative gigs – perhaps even an entire music career – lurking in places you never thought to look. Dave Ruch stumbled upon this discovery for himself, and is now helping others do the same – hopefully minus the stumbling part.

Find out how to Discover Your Unexpected Music Career, with Dave Ruch.

Such a fascinating journey! Dave found his passion by accepting a gig from an unexpected source, playing for an unanticipated audience. By expanding your search for gigs, you may find something similar. The Female Musician Academy has some tips on where you can find paying gigs in less traditional venues that may open these doors.

Gigs can come from many unexpected places! As you build your network and repertoire, continuing to expand your search can help to yield better-paying gigs, in more preferred venues. MondoTunes starts you off with five ways to get more gigs.

Being a performing educator has required Dave to approach live performances differently than a “normal” musician. By embracing some of the best practices of music education, he has been able to reach audiences in new, exciting ways. The Musician’s Way has a fascinating article on attributes of effective teachers that will help you find your inner music educator.

Looking for a new audience for your songwriting talent? Grown ups that look like you aren’t the only people who listen to songs. Meet Kate Whitley, a composer that writes music for young audiences, and find out how to expand your own audience – and creativity.

Inspired to try your hand at educational songwriting? To help get you started, composer Jonathan Dove offers his top tips for writing music for children.

Look Around You

Sometimes we’re so focused on the music we love that we forget to give attention to the aspects of life that will bring us even closer with and deeper into our musical understandings and expressions.

The post Find Gigs, Circle of Fifths, Better Practice, Minor Progressions appeared first on Musical U.

The Facebook group Music Launch Hub represents a vibrant community of musicians and bands that are out there helping each other to make it happen. Members of this growing Mastermind Tribe work with each other on everything from the musical nitty-gritty to large scale sophisticated marketing campaigns.

So many musicians assume that they know how and what to practice, but wonder why they’re not getting the results they desire. In this installment, Christopher answered the community’s questions about the best practicing mindset for optimum musical growth:

Christopher: First off, it’s just great to ask this question because there’s a lot of musicians that don’t give any thought to how they practice. Maybe they’ve been learning with a music teacher. They get their homework each week and that’s basically all they do and they feel satisfied if they check the boxes.

As you well know, Steve, there’s more to it than that. You’ve got to think through a bit more about what you’re trying to accomplish and how to get there.

I’m coming at this from maybe a different perspective from a lot of music teachers and a lot of musicians who’ve learned in the traditional way. For me, this was a discovery – that I could take responsibility for my music practice in this way.

I’d love to unpack this into a few pieces because it’s just such a big question. One area is about time: “When should you practice music? How do you schedule it into your day? How much time do you need?”

Another area is about what you should be using that time for: “What are the important things to cover in your practice time? How can you make sure the time that you do have is really effective and is going to give the best bang for your buck?”

When to Practice

To dig into the first of those: once they get past school, a lot of musicians really struggle to find time for music.

I think a lot of people in your community are in this situation where music may be more than a hobby – maybe they’re doing it on a part time basis or they’re earning some money with it. But it still has to exist alongside a lot of other interests and responsibilities.

Three Practice Time Tips

In our community at Musical U we have a lot of people coming to it as adults. They might have kids. They might have a nine to five job. And so that time is really precious and it can be hard to make sure you really protect it, and you guard it, and you actually get it done each day.

1. Ambition is Overrated

So I have a few tips I give for this. First off, just don’t be too ambitious with it.

You know, as far as music is concerned, it’s much better to set aside 15 minutes a day and do it every day than to try to set aside four hours on the weekend to do a mammoth session.

A little and often works much better than kind of big bursts of enthusiasm and finding the time and then two weeks pass and nothing happens. So try to be consistent rather than too ambitious with how much time you set aside.

2. Appointment with Music

Another thing that has helped a lot of our members is the idea of music time where you give it that label and you say “Look, from six until six-thirty is music time. That’s that. I’m going to be there every day.” It’s an appointment – like you’d treat a dentist appointment or requirement that you pick your kids up from school. Six to six-thirty is music time and that’s that. For some people that works great and it gives them that sort of rigidity to bother making it happen each day.

For other people their schedule is wacky and every day is different – so that’s just not realistic.

3. Make it Happen

So for these folks, the strategy is to accept that it’s just going to happen when it happens. You know it might be first thing in the morning because you’re going to be waiting for your ride share and you’ve got the time to spare, or you might be doing ear training on your phone while waiting for the bus. Or you might find that the day flies by and you’ve got to do it at 11 pm before you go to bed.

But you still have that determination. I will carve out my 15 minutes and I will do it everyday.

Some combination of those tactics tends to help people find the time on a consistent basis. Hopefully that covers when to do it and how much to do it.

For sure and you’ve touched on something important,  which is “What should you be practicing? Why is that passion, that energy, that enthusiasm is so important?”

How to Practice

If you find yourself in the situation where you’re not finding time for music, one of the first things to ask yourself is, “Am I lacking the enthusiasm to make it happen?” Because if you’re super bored with your repertoire, if you’re practicing scales for hours on end and have no interest in that, you’re not going to find the time to practice, right?

Be Honest with Yourself – and Make it Fun

You’re going to find time for things you actually enjoy. And that’s the reality of it.

So it is essential when you’re planning what to practice, that you honestly answer these kinds of questions: “What do I enjoy practicing? What is it about music that gets me pumped up? What’s going to make me look forward to that fifteen minutes each day rather than dreading it and feeling that it’s an obligation?”

That’s a great question. So this is a big part of the “how do you get more from your practice time” question because you’ve basically got a spectrum. You’ve got just sitting down and playing your instrument for fun, that you enjoy a 100%, but, realistically, is not going to really improve anything… And so that’s one end of the spectrum where it’s a lot of fun but not very productive, not very helpful.

Challenge Yourself

But on the exact opposite end of the spectrum, you have the kind of serious hardcore technique work that almost doesn’t feel like music but you trust that it is making you a better musician. And the enjoyment factor is probably zero – but it is going to make you a better musician tomorrow than you were yesterday.

Deliberate Practice

The main advice I give on this front is to try and nudge yourself toward that end of the spectrum. On the more uncomfortable end, there’s a concept called deliberate practice. There’s a formal scientific definition about the four things that make practice deliberate rather than just generally practicing. But the very loose definition is that deliberate practice means forcing yourself to spend practice time on the things you find most difficult.

To give a concrete example, let’s say I am learning to play “Let It Be” on the guitar. I can sit down and play through the song and maybe I’ll stumble in parts and there are bits that I find easy and I always struggle with that F bar-chord or whatever the case may be. If I just sit down and play it three times and call that a practice session, that’s okay. I’ll probably improve if I do the same thing day after day, I’ll get over those rough spots and eventually I’ll be able to play it fluidly without any problems.

But deliberate practice says that, if you want to improve faster, notice where those problem spots are and instead of spending your time playing the song three times, play the song once. Find those trouble spots and spend the rest of your practice session just working on those. And tomorrow you’ll probably find you’re three times as good as if you’d just played through the whole song a few times.

So deliberate practice is about that exact discomfort factor that you mentioned. It’s about that willingness to push yourself into situations that aren’t that much fun. But you’ve identified them as the situations that will help you grow as a musician.

Absolutely it is and it’s the kind of thing where if you’re 20% good at most of the song and then there are a few problem spots, your average ability is going to go way down because those problem spots are dragging down the overall quality. You can try and bring everything up a notch by playing the song again and again, and you gradually get better at everything – but actually, if you just knock out those problem spots, your average jumps up dramatically because you’ve got rid of those things that are really dragging you down.

And that’s why deliberate practice and the deliberate approach to learning marketing or teaching everything that you mention is so effective. It finds those points of leverage that are really holding you back, the bottlenecks, and it says, “Let’s just crush those, and then everything else will be easier.”

Tipping the Scales

We love music, we’re passionate about it. Music is where we want to spend our time. And it’s easy to want to put our time and attention on the music side of life – until we get hungry.

The post Musical U Meets Music Launch Hub, Part 1: Practicing Music, Practicing Business appeared first on Musical U.

This learning device has endured for hundreds of years since its invention, and for good reason; there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Or, apparently, any other circular entity.

“But is it for me?”, you may ask.

Though the Circle of Fifths is most commonly understood as a component of classical music theory, it’s certainly not only for the hallowed halls of the conservatory. It’s a valuable tool for any musician of any musical background.

Our guide is the Circle of Fifths made easy – very little prior musical knowledge is required, but by the end of this article, you’ll not only understand the mechanics behind the circle, but also how to apply it in music theory, transposition, singing, songwriting, and more.

This incredibly powerful tool will take you far beyond simply understanding music theory – it will help you write music, predict chords in a progression, and understand relationships between major and minor keys. It will serve you well, regardless of whether you are a classical violinist, jazz saxophone player, a bassist in a rock band, or aspiring DJ.

So fasten your seatbelt: we’re diving deep into this infinite pool of musical wisdom. As you will soon see, the magical mojo of this Ring of Power surpasses even Tolkien’s imagination!

Poster from The Odd Quartet Store

Table of Contents

So, here it is, the Circle of Fifths explained, in easy-to-understand bite-sized pieces!

1. The Circle’s Beginnings

2. Let’s Start With Some Theory…

3. Building Your Own Perfection

4. Introducing the Circle of Fifths

5. Modes and the Circle of Fifths

6. How to Use the Circle of Fifths

7. The Key That Unlocks the World of Western Music

The Circle’s Beginnings

So, how was the Circle of Fifths invented, and who is responsible for the discovery of this musical godsend?

Russian composer and music theorist Nikolay Diletsky set this whole wheel rolling in the late 1670’s. He intended his book Grammatika as a guide to composition, but with the rules of music theory in mind:

Diletsky’s Circle of Fifths

Since then, it has been expanded and improved-upon to yield the comprehensive circular diagram we have today.

Let’s Start With Some Theory…

Before we dive into the mechanics of the circle, let’s first understand some key concepts. Bear with us – this basic music theory will be a huge help in making sense of the circle.

Each “station” on the circle represents a note, a chord, and a key.

The Keys to What?

Let’s begin by answering the question: What’s a key?

In music, we define a key as the “tonal center” of a piece of music. The melody and harmony will revolve around this tonal center, which is simply a single note. This single note is also given the name of the tonic, and is given the scale degree designation “I”.

It is on this tonic that we build the scale or the eight-note sequence that is used to compose melodies and harmonies in the key of the tonic.

The most commonly-encountered types of scales in Western music are called “major” and “minor”. To retain the characteristic major or minor sound, scales in most keys require accidentals – sharps and flats that will give the scale the desired sound.

Each key will have its unique pattern of sharps and flats. However, if you examine the distances (known as “intervals”) between the notes of, say, every major scale and compare them, you will see that the interval pattern is exactly the same in all major scales (this holds true for minor scales as well, though they will have a different pattern from major).

→Learn more about intervals.

Build Your Own Perfection:

Now that you have a good idea of what a fifth is, it’s time to build your own circle! You can download this and extra Circle of Fifths worksheets to practice and teach everything we cover in this article in our free comprehensive Circle of Fifths Worksheets PDF:

Now count up the C scale five notes:

Write the “G” in at one o’clock. G then becomes the new tonic. Make sure that you are adding in the appropriate sharps or flats for each new tonic center as you continue around the circle. If you’re fuzzy on your key signatures you can look them up, or count your fifths in half-steps (semitones) – remember, a perfect fifth = seven semitones.

If you’re really feeling stuck, follow along with a guide to help you figure out those intervals!

How did it come out? Check your work with the diagram below.

Introducing…The Circle of Fifths!

By definition, the Circle of Fifths is a visual tool designed to illustrate the relationships between the 12 tones of the chromatic scale – the foundation on which Western music is built. The name derives from the fact that going clockwise around the circle, each note is a fifth (a perfect fifth, to be exact) above the previous one in the circle.

The result? This unassuming circle shows how all the musical notes, keys, and chords relate to each other. Let’s explore how the circle is built, starting with the absolute basics…

The Bare Bones

Let’s first look at the most simple iteration of the circle:

Starting with the note of C at 12 o’clock and moving clockwise around the circle, each new note is a perfect fifth above the previous one. The whole Circle of Fifths progression is simply perfect fifths stacked on top of each other, eventually coming back to C from F.

More Than Just Notes

This is one of the many reasons that the Circle of Fifths is important: the letters around the circle aren’t just note names – they also represent the corresponding key of each note. Therefore, we are starting with the accidental-free key of C major at the top of the circle, and working our way around through keys with accidentals in them.

Figuring Out Key Signatures

Here’s the circle with the corresponding key signatures of each major key represented:

Imagine the Circle of Fifths as the keys on the piano twisted into a circle. Middle C is at the very top, where 12 on a clock would be. Why is it at the top? Because C major has no sharps or flats so it is almost like a “neutral” key.

While the diagram may initially appear overwhelming, fear not! The addition of sharps and flats not only follows a predictable pattern when going around the circle, but the direction you’re heading in tells you whether you’re adding sharps or flats. Remember: no key signature has both sharps and flats.

Head clockwise around the circle starting at C major. G major has one sharp (F♯), D major has two (F♯, C♯) and so on. Soon you’ll notice that new sharps are added in the order F-C-G-D-A-E-B. Head counterclockwise around the circle starting at C major, and you’ll see that flats are added in the reverse order: B-E-A-D-G-C-F.

Making your life easier still: the number of steps you take around the circle tells you how many accidentals the key will have. If you’re trying to figure out the number of sharps B major has, count the five steps around the circle to determine that it will have five. The letter sequence will tell you that its sharps are F♯, C♯, G♯, D♯, and A♯.

If you want to memorize one thing about the Circle of Fifths, this sequence of letters should be it! A useful (and heartwarming) mnemonic for this Circle of Fifths pattern is “Father Christmas Gave Dad An Electric Blanket”. Come up with your own creative one in reverse for remembering the order of flats!

Understanding the key signature aspect of the circle may take some practice and figuring out your own methods of memorization. Check out this follow-along instructional video for a comprehensive explanation of key signatures.

What About Minor Keys?

So far, the circle we’ve presented to you has only contained major keys and their key signatures. The good news is, you don’t have to construct a second circle for the minor keys! You can fit them right into the circle by following the rules of relative minors:

A quick refresher: the relative minor of a key has the same key signature, and therefore all the same notes, as the major.

Here are two ways to quickly find the relative minor of a major key:

1. Work out the major scale on paper or on your instrument. The relative minor tonic will be on the sixth degree of the scale. In terms of intervals, that’s a major sixth up or a minor third down.
2. Using the Circle of Fifths, simply move three positions clockwise around the to find the relative minor! So, starting from C, count one (G), two (D) and then three: A is your relative minor.

If you’re paying really close attention, you’ll notice that the relative minors going clockwise around the circle are also a fifth apart!

The Circle is Complete

Aaaand there you have it! These components make up the full Circle of Fifths. We know that it’s a lot to take in for the newly initiated, so if you’re overwhelmed, don’t panic: try working with an interactive Circle of Fifths to look at a key-by-key breakdown of the diagram!

Also Known As…

The reason for calling it the Circle of Fifths should be fairly obvious by now: adjacent keys of both the major and minor quality are separated by an interval of a perfect fifth.

However, there is another way to think about all this.

You may have heard of something in music called the Circle (or “Cycle”) of Fourths. Good news: Circle of Fourths and the Circle of Fifths are not two separate concepts, but two different names for the exact same thing!

The Circle of Fifths can, alternatively, be named the Circle of Fourths because if you decide to go counterclockwise around the circle, each note is a fourth above the previous one.

Both names are equally “right”, and you’ll find that both are used in reference to the circle.

Modes and Circle of Fifths

Before we jump into the numerous uses of the Circle of Fifths, let’s check out how it relates to musical modes. For the uninitiated or for those wanting a refresher, check out our introduction to modal improvisation.

If you squish any seven adjacent notes in the Circle down to a scale, you wind up with the Lydian mode, rather than the major scale:

Compared with the major scale, the Lydian mode is distinctive in its floaty, perpetually unresolved demeanor. Its notes give it an almost magical quality.

Keep going, and you get a full chromatic scale.

Jazz theorist George Russell built his Lydian Chromatic concept on this quality of the Circle of Fifths – which he called “The Circle of Close to Distant Relationships”. Keep messing with the Circle and you’ll figure out that all the various modes can be derived.

How to Use the Circle of Fifths

Press on Circle of Fifths Tattoo, from Sokolow Music

Now that you know how the Circle of Fifths works, you must be wondering how you can apply the Circle of Fifths. This section really could be a full novel in itself. There are limitless uses of the circle. Some are self-evident, and simply require taking a close look at the circle, while others venture into territory of complicated harmony and all sorts of mental gymnastics regarding keys and key signatures.

If fact, once you see just how useful it is, you may have the inspiration for your next tattoo! If you’re not really that committed, you can always try a temporary circle of fifths tattoo or guitar vinyl stick on.

Here are a few of the more basic and useful applications of the circle.

Using the Circle of Fifths to find Key Signatures

Let’s work through an example of how to find a key signature. Say you are learning a song that is in F major and you want to know which sharps or flats to use. As you can see from above, the Circle of Fifths has the answer!

While reading through, keep in mind the F-C-G-D-A-E-B sequence we introduced earlier and that it shows the order in which sharps (and when spelled in reverse, flats) are added to keys around the circle.

In order to work out how many sharps or flats are in F major, we need to find it by moving round the Circle of Fifths. Remember we always start at C. If we were to head round clockwise once, we would land on G. This has one sharp in its scale, and if you consult the F-C-G-D-A-E-B sequence, you’ll know it’s F♯. If we head round once more, we would land on D, with the two sharps of F♯ and C♯. So far F is not coming up, which is what we need.

Let’s try moving the other way. Go back to C, then move counterclockwise once. A perfect fifth below C is F. This is what we’re looking for! Because we’ve moved round counterclockwise once to land on F, F has one flat. Recall the F-C-G-D-A-E-B sequence backwards (because we’re now talking about flats, not sharps), and you’ll see that F major’s key signature consists of Bb.

This isn’t just the pattern of notes around the circle of fifths. It is also the order in which sharps are added to each successive key when going around the circle clockwise.

Need to memorize the order of flats? Easy! Just take that seven-letter sequence and spell it backward, getting B-E-A-D-G-C-F. This gives you the order in which flats are added to each successive key when going around the circle counterclockwise!

Using the Circle of Fifths to Build Scales

Now that you know how to easily find the key signature of any key using the circle, figuring out the full scale is easy. You know the tonic you want to start from. Each successive note could be natural (accidental-free), sharpened, or flattened. The key signature will tell you the sharps or flats of the scale, and each other note will simply be natural.

Easy!

Read scales right off the Circle

Here’s a dirty little secret: you don’t even have to know the key signature (though you’ll want to!). To read any major scale, count seven notes clockwise, beginning from the note immediately counterclockwise in the circle (otherwise you’ll find the Lydian mode). Reduce them down to a scale order and there you have it:

Ethan Hein has more on reading scales off the circle.

Using the Circle of Fifths to Build Chords

Chords are simply clusters of notes played together for a sound that is consonant, or pleasant to listen to. They come in multiple flavours: major, minor, augmented, diminished, seventh, etc…

For the purposes of this guide, we’ll zero in on some common chords that our beloved circle can help you build within minutes; this section will be particularly useful to the guitarists in the house.

Major and Minor Chords

A major chord consists of three notes: the tonic, a major third above the tonic, and a perfect fifth above the tonic. The major third interval is found simply by counting up four semitones (or two whole tones) from the tonic. As for the fifth, simply travel clockwise around the circle by one step to find the third note of your triad!

This C major chord is fairly easy to find and play on most instruments. For example, seeing as the “blow” notes of the first three holes on the harmonica are C, E, and G, respectively, you can play a C major chord by blowing into the first three holes on the instrument.

You can rotate this shape around the circle and instantly find any major chord:

A minor chord is the same, save for a minor third above the tonic instead of a major third. Find the fifth in the same way as above, and count up three semitones from the tonic to determine your third.

Try this one yourself – draw a C minor triad in the circle.

How did you do?

Dominant Seventh Chords

These chords show up a lot in all kinds of music. The dominant seventh chord simply consists of a major triad with a minor seventh stacked on top.

Dominant sevenths are four note chords, leaving you three notes that you have to figure out above the tonic. You already know how to find two of these – use the same rule as described above, keeping in mind that dominant seventh chords will contain a major third.

As for finding the seventh, the circle can help you out once again. Simply count two steps counterclockwise from the key in which you’re building the chord to give you the seventh.

Give it a try: build a dominant seventh chord in F♯.

In fact, it’s possible to build a Circle of Fifths made up of dominant seventh chords! Jazz music commonly has sequences of dominant seventh chords whose tonics are separated by fifths. Jazz saxophonists: try playing your way around the circle by starting with a C dominant seventh chord and progressing up by fifths, building new dominant seventh chords on top of each new tonic.

Now, try building the Major Seventh Chord shape. Here’s a hint: replace the minor seventh interval with a major seventh!

Using the Circle of Fifths to Play Chord Progressions By Ear

Some chord progressions are a lot more popular than others, and certain chords within a key are also more important than others. Chord II is the most important, but chords IV and V are also very popular, since they are so closely related to I.

Our handy Circle of Fifths also show us the relationships between these chords. The closer they are in the circle, the more closely they are related (Remember George Russell’s Circle of Close to Distant Relationships?).

So it’s easy to find out chords IV and V of any key: just pick any letter around the circle and treat that as I. The letter to the left is IV, and the letter to the right is V. So chord IV of C is F, and chord V is G.

Any other roman numeral chord will have its own relationship in the circle, so once you work out that relationship, you can always use it to find that chord for a given key.

For example, another important chord is vi. The reason for this is because I, IV, V and vi are used in a lot of four-chord progressions. One common chord progression is I, vi, IIV, V which can be heard in literally hundreds of famous songs. Another is IV, V, vi, IV – in fact the Axis of Awesome even exploit this in their infamous sketch:

The Circle of Fifths for Songwriters

The circle contains plenty of tricks to make your life easier when writing music. When you get good enough at using the Circle of Fifths to identify chord progressions, you can start predicting what comes next and if you’re writing songs you will know which chords will work well together.

Chords that are close together on the circle are closely related, and tend to flow with each other. If you look closely at key signature patterns in the circle, you can see why this is.

Two keys that are adjacent to each other in the circle have six out of seven notes in their scales in common!

Therefore, using keys and chords contained to one side of the circle will help you craft melodies with consonance, or songs that are euphonic and pleasing to the ear.

In fact, that’s why the I – IV – V chord progression sounds so familiar and satisfying; look on the circle, and you’ll see that these three scale degrees appear clustered together on a side of the circle, with V found immediately to the right of the tonic, and IV immediately to the left.

Finding Your Way Home

Obviously, building a song using fifths will sound pleasant and “natural” – but you can’t do this forever!

Try this: compose a melody that ascends by fifths for a while. Then, jump across the circle to a key that doesn’t have that much note overlap with the melody you just wrote, but that you like the sound of. From this key, find your way back to the tonic any way you’d like; perhaps by continuing clockwise around the circle until you circle back to the starting note! You can “exit” the Circle of Fifths anytime you want, and find your way back in.

Crossing the Circle

However, this doesn’t at all mean you should stick to one side of the circle. Sometimes, you don’t want an easy, pleasant sound. Try experimenting with creating tension and dissonant progressions by leaping across the circle.

Using combinations of more distant chords tends to produce a more pronounced musical shift. There are parts in the song where this can be exploited for impact, such as in the bridge. You can use these principles to create innovative chord progressions that reflect the emotion in your lyrics.

Beyond Major…

Lastly, remember that the Circle of Fifths reveals there’s a world of modes and rich harmonic possibilities beyond the obvious major keys lining the circle!

If you play with the Circle of Fifths enough, you’ll find a place for any number of chords beyond the usual major triads.

Change a chord from major to minor to give a bittersweet quality to the progression. Add a seventh to another chord to highlight a point of change in your song. Exploring the relationships of various minor, seventh, and extended chords within the Circle of Fifths will add much more depth to your songwriting

The Key that Unlocks the World of Western Music

Whew! That was a lot of Circle Lore to digest! Thinking you’ll need some more time with the Circle of Fifths? Try the Circle of Clock.

You can also download a free PDF all the Circle of Fifths diagrams from this post.

Once you get the hang of the basics of the circle and understand the way the key signatures and relative minors work, there’s no limit to its uses. On-the-fly transposition and transcription, harmony writing, and sophisticated songwriting are only some of the faculties that await the musician that spends some time familiarizing themselves with the Circle of Fifths.

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