I dont get it, I am trying to understand what is being said in the article in the lessons section about the circle. But it is pretty confusing. Like when they designate chord sequences to be minor or sevenths, how do you know which nes are? stuff like that.
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I dont get it, I am trying to understand what is being said in the article in the lessons section about the circle. But it is pretty confusing. Â ....
Just had a quick look at the article and I see what you mean. I'd suggest you simplify things a little before digging into the meat of that particular article as he's using the circle of 5ths in a little more advanced application. The circle is most commonly use (I think) to gain an understanding of the notes available in a given Key. I'd read thru this article that explains the circle from a key signature perspective:
http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/circle.html
Once you understand these concepts, search around for an article that explains the concept of intervals - that should explain what all this dominant, subdominant, tonic, etc. terminology is all about. I'd then look up an article on the "harmonized major scale" which should explain how to figure out which chords should be major, minor, or diminished in a given key. Once you've got all that under yer belt, I'd go back the the article here that you found so confusing and give it a try once again.
One thing that the circle of fifths will tell you is which key you're in. Look at a piece of standard notation and you'll see sharps or flats in the key signature. Knowing the circle of fifths will alow you to determine, from the sharps or flats, what key the passage is in.
If I see a key signature with 4 sharps, I know immediately (well, as quickly as my brain moves, anyway) that it is the key of E.
You can also use it to give you a quick reference to a I-IV-V chord sequence - find the note on the circle that is your root. Take the next position clockwise and you have the V, the next position anticlockwise is the IV.
The circle is constructed from tetrachords - the scale broken in half. Let's start with C, which has neither sharps nor flats - C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C and look at the last half of the scale G-A-B-C. If we take G as the new key, we get G-A-B-C (the upper C tetrachord)-D-E-F#-G. We now have the key og G with one sharp. Taking the upper tetrachord of G (D-E-F#-G) and starting with D as the root, we get D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D. The key of D has 2 sharps in it. You can carry this all the way up to 7 sharps.
You can also go the other way - take the lower tetrachord of C (C-D-E-F) and make it the upper tetrachord of a key ending in F (so obviously the root is also F) we get F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F. A new key with one flat, which again can be extended all the way around to 7 flats.
If you take a major scale and build a triad from the I-iii-V degrees, you get a major chord. If you build a triad, using the 2nd degree of a scale as the root position and building a 3rd and a 5th from there, you get a minor chord. Build a triad from the 3rd degree and you will also get a minor chord. You may understand it better in the form of a diagram:
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Are you referring to the "Circle Progressions" article? The author is concentrating on chord roots on this article to demonstrate how chord progressions tend to move in 5ths or 4ths (the inversions of 5ths). The quality of chords (e.g. minor, major, dominant, etc) is pretty flexible in tonal music so that's why there's a lot of freedom of choice there. Which qualities are ‘right' really depends on the context. He shows how you can string a bunch of dominant 7th chords together because they resolve properly, i.e. B7-E7-A7-D7-G7-C. You can see that every dominant 7th chord resolves to what would be its tonic chord, which is in turn another dom7th chord that resolves likewise. You can also stay more strict (in line with the scale) with a progression like Am Dm G7 C (vi ii V7 I). These chords are a circle of 5ths/4ths, and chord qualities are derived straight from the major scale. You could just as easily use A7 D7 G7 C – it will sound different, of course, but the relationships of the chords to each other will be basically the same (and exactly the same in terms of the roots).
The article is pretty good but this statement is misleading:
“Moving clockwise, each chord root descends in an interval of a perfect fourth (two and a half whole steps). This series of chords demonstrates the strong tendency or pull of the "V" (dominant) to "I" (tonic) chord.â€
The root descending a perfect 4th is actually characteristic of a plagal cadence (IV – I), not an authentic cadence (V – 1), which the author is trying to explain. Moving counterclockwise is a better example of a V- I cadence because the 5ths are descending (e.g. C – F). Whether you look at clockwise motion as descending 4ths or ascending 5ths, neither view will demonstrate a V – I relationship. Other than that, the article is very informative with lots of good examples.
BTW - I agree that the circle of 5ths is a good way to visualize key relationships, which is good to know when you're writing modulations.
