The Circle of Fifths Depicts the Blueprint

1:24 What's good, everybody?Scoobert Doobert.Here today we are going to talk about the circle of fifths.The circle of fifths is like literally the cheat code to all music theory, composition,and I'm going to make this interesting for musicians and non-musicians alike, I promise.It's also a concept that trips up a lot of people.This is usually as far as people get, like literally, I'd say the vast majority people

1:49 hit the circle of fifths.They see the complex nonsense, and they go, I'm out.That's as much music theory as I want to handle.So I'm going to try and make this as painless and fun as possible and give reasons why thecircle of fifths is worth it.And then for non-musicians, explain like some of the quote unquote geometry that goes intomusic making, which is interesting, I think.

2:15 And again, this is not like prescription rules.That's not how music theory really works.That's how that's the misconception of how music theory works.These are instead tendencies.These are traditions.These are like, it's like learning grammar, right?Learning grammar for a language unlocks the ability to write in certain ways.

2:39 But it doesn't necessarily say that every single sentence has to follow all of these rules.Some of these rules are weird for you to not follow.Then you speak like Yoda, right?You start flipping things around, but you can still understand it.And sometimes that's like a vibe, right?There's a reason why Yoda speaks the way that he does.It's because he's trying to add this sense of otherness, of sage wisdom.

3:04 But by understanding grammar, you can manipulate it.You can lean into rules or break rules.The circle of fifths is like the bedrock of the whole thing.So I think my very first episode of this podcast,which I would recommend checking out,even though it was a little more rough,because I didn't know what I was doing in the beginning,but that doesn't mean the content is older or anything.

3:25 That first one talks about water notes.And I actually did it on my sub-stack.I did a post recapping that and looking at water frequencies,water notes, and then how do you derive the 12 note scalefrom just this general idea of how do we order music?How do we take frequencies and turn it into orderor something that we consider beautiful culturally?The answer for Western music is in the perfect fifth.

3:55 So it's basically just using the simple ratio of three to twothat ends up creating relationships between notes.And that is kind of the bedrock of the whole thing.And that's why it's called the circle of fifths.It's using the perfect fifth, that ratio.Just this, multiply this by this ratio,you get the next note and they sound nice to each other.It's also a power chord, so it sounds like this.It's a fifth.

4:23 If you've heard like blues music or early rock and roll,perfect fifth, going up to six, but whatever.But like this is the rock, you know?Power chord.That's the bedrock of all Western music.And the reason why I feel that wayis that we derive the 12 notes out of perfect fifths.So my guitar does not have the amount of notesthat it would require, so I'm going to have to jump down

4:52 and octave, so first I should explain what an octave is.So octave is the sense of when you double something,that's a two to one ratio, it sounds the same.Why is that?I don't know.But it's just like, here's an E.Here's another E.Here's another E.Here are there higher, but they all kind of soundlike the same thing.They blend together.It's that two to one ratio, it's the octave.

5:17 And so through that concept, we can move thingsup or down higher or lower and they retaintheir essential value.It's like a color or something like that.Like if you consider this to be green,it's green up, it's green down,and it's green all together.They reinforce each other.But because I'm playing a stringed instrument,it's really easy to conceptualize.You have one string, you cut it in half,

5:41 it'll be the same note, it's just up and octave.You take one string and you double its length,same note, it's just down the octave, it's lower.Going from here, down to there.The perfect fifth is the three to two one.So it's the same basic concept of we are applyinga very simple mathematical adjustment to the string.So let's do that.Let's derive all 12 notes.Again, I'm going to have to jump down the octave.

6:09 And these are all the 12 notes.You're going to notice that we're going to start at Eand we're going to end at E againbecause we're going to go all the way around.So let's hop on that journey together.We're going to start on at Eand then we're going to go up to Bwhich is a perfect fifth away.So listen to these fifths, remember this is a fifth.Play together, it's going to go from then from.

6:35 Do you hear how all of those are the samelike essential value, they're not the same notesbut you can kind of tell like this.They all have something kind of in commonand that's the interval between them,the amount of distance that you are changingthe length of the string.Let's keep going.And then from there, I'm going to have to go down the octavebecause I don't have enough notes on my guitar.

7:07 And then there, I just ended it back at E.It takes 12 notes to get around the circle.And so you might be saying, well,that's the way that the guitar is builtand you are right, that is true.It is kind of a self-fulfilling prophecybut that's what the circle of fifths actually is.It is not saying that this is the only waythat music can be made.It is saying that based on a fifth,you can get all the way back around

7:32 to the same note in time.And how many times does it take you 12?So therefore, how many notes should we have, 12?There's flaws in that logic, certainly.Mostly because the perfect fifth isn't quite perfect.You have to fudge the numbers a little bitto make the math work.But I like to think of this kind of similarlyto the heliocentrism and geocentrism idea.So does the earth revolve around the sun

7:58 or does the sun revolve around the earth?Like is the whole universe circling around the earth?Or is just the solar system going around the sunand the whole universe is circling around everything else?Obviously the latter is correctbut we say that from our perspectiveof modern people that can send stuff up into space.For a long, long time people thoughtthat it was more elegant and beautiful

8:20 for the earth to be the center of the universeand so they made the math work.In a lot of ways, that's what happens with music,Western music is that we make the math workbecause we find it more beautiful.So we're creating a universe onto its own.It's not perfect, but we call it perfect.And there are a lot of peoplethat have like a mysticism aspect around the circle.And that's cool, that's fun.

8:45 It's a beautiful thing, it's a great tool.But it's an artificial mysticism.It's not something that exists outside of human thought.It's also not something that really existsoutside of Western culture.So worshiping this is kind of like worshiping yourself.You know, anyway, but it's still a cool tooland I still really like, you know,it's just some caveats that it might not be as perfect

9:11 as the terminology makes it seem.So anyway, let's use this and seehow we can actually make it work.So we got 12 notes derived from these perfect fifths.The perfect fifth is, you know,the backbone ratio, three to twothat underpins all of Western music.From there, we can understand like the waysthat keys meld into each other.So you probably ask, what is a key?A key is just like a, you know, it's in the key of C.

9:40 It's in the key of D.It's a tonality, it's a vibe.So, for example, you have a F key and then you have a C key.Different keys, they're not too dissimilar.But they have a different vibebecause one is rooted around at this chordand another one's rooted around this chord.You know, they sound nice, they can be played together.There's lots of things that you can do.But basically, it's trying to think of,

10:08 we have all these notes, these 12 notes,how do we order them?And again, a lot of this stuff is pretty arbitrary.But it sounds beautiful and whether or notit sounds beautiful outside of cultural context,I don't know, but I am inside of the cultural context.And to me, a major scale sounds nice.That's good enough for me.So how do we organize these 12 notes in a waythat ends up being useful as a tool?

10:31 And that's where the circle of fifths comes in.So at this point, I need to plug my sub stackbecause there's, you know, article that breaks this down,you can actually see what the circle of fifths looks like.A little bit of the limitation of the audio podcast world.But you know, when you arrive at your destinationor if you're looking at your phone,definitely check out lovemusicmore.substack.com

10:51 and check out the circle of fifths.Substack article, the title is, it's the circle of fifthsand the picture is aligned because it's like blanking.And you'll see that these 12 notesend up getting arrayed in a circlebecause just as I was showing in that thingwhere I went back to E through all the fifths,oops, everybody makes mistakes.As you get, as you kind of go around,

11:20 every fifth relates the note back to the one previous.And because at the 12th step,you end up back where you started,it creates a nice little circle.Again, we had to fudge the numbers a little bitto make that work.But that's what it does in modernmusic intonation.So with that in mind,you're able to visually consider the proximity of keysand notes from each other.So if you look on the circle,

11:51 you see that there is a C on one sideand the next up is a G.That's the thing that's a fifth away.It's that means that things that are in the key of C,so like C major or things that feel like Care gonna feel close-ish to thingsthat feel like G.So, for example, I could play C major scale,and then I could play a G major scale.Not too dissimilar, there's really only one notethat's changing.That one.

12:25 So I'll play it rooted on the same noteas in starting and ending on the same note.Let's see, and then I'm gonna change that one note,turn it into G, but I'm gonna start and end on C.Do you hear?That's what's different.That little bit of difference is called adding a sharp,adding an accidental,changing one little thing from C in order to turn it into G.But the beauty is, is like because I see

13:01 that C and G are close to each other,it's really easy for them to go back and forth.So you will see a ton of songs, pop music,classical music, anything,that modulate from G to C or vice versa,modulate meaning changing keys.Super easy to do.You almost don't even have to do anything fancyto go from one to the next.They're so similar, there's only one note changedthat it just kind of can happen.

13:26 You can just be like, smack, we're a nookie,deal with it.And the listener's like, cool, not that different.When you look at the circle and you go completely opposite,that's when stuff starts getting a little weird.So, say for example, you got C,and then all the way, that's at 12 o'clock,and then at six o'clock you have F sharp.Those two are super different from each other.Cool, right?But a little dissonant,

13:56 it's a tritone away.But so that idea is like,basically I can tell what is going to be easieror like pleasing versus less pleasing.More dissonant versus consonant,consonant being good,dissonant being baddish, grating.Bad is the wrong word,because I like distance a lot.And it's everywhere in pot music.And you can sprinkle indissonancein really nice, like, lovely ways.So like, say, for example, I'm in C major,

14:31 it's pretty classic.But if I add in that little F sharp,it's like, whoa, why are you doing that?Why are you throwing in that moment of tension,that moment of change?And really what I'm doing is I'm goingfrom the pleasurable, not like, you know, close chords,the key chords.All the way over on the circle of fifthsto something that really doesn't belong there.But by adding something that doesn't quote unquote

15:01 belong to there, it highlights it.It makes it brighter.It makes it more of a statement.And basically everything around that circle,the proximity to the key that you're in,gives you that color palette.It's like, do I want to play within the linesor draw way outside of the lines?It depends on what the song's about.It depends on the moment.It depends on if it's kind of getting boring.You want to mix it up?

15:26 That's another tool in the toolkit.And that's what music theory is all about.Is it's not like saying, okay,you have to now modulate from one step away.It's saying it's easier to modulate from one step away.You can go to any of the things in between.Also, the cool stuff with music theoryis like when you kind of break out of the moldand you say, hey, yeah, you got the circle of fifths here.

15:46 You can do all sorts of dancing in between.And then you can also like, play with the idea of pitchyou can break it up into things other than 12 notes.You can slide in and out.You can use like bending, like, you know,so we're in C, right?And the weird note that we were talking aboutwas the F-sharp.So, say for example, I bend that F-sharpup to something more like pleasant.

16:15 You know, like, it's kind of interesting, right?It gives you flexibility.So you can reach into that bag, do things with itand then also play with the idea of like pitchthrough bends, through glisses, through, I'm slides.You know, like, there's all of these spaces in between.And just because it's what's expecteddoesn't mean that's what you have to do.Expectation is a beautiful thing

16:54 because it gives you something to push off ofor grab onto.And especially when you're making longer workslike we're talking symphonies or albums,you need to do that.Otherwise it gets so boring.Like, hey, I want to entertain you for 45 minutes.I'm going to play everything in the key of Cand there's going to be no tension.Nothing's going to change.I'm not going to bend in between notes.

17:15 I'm not going to slide in between notes.I'm not going to surprise you.You'll get bored.Circle of fifths is a tool for surprise.So, check out the sub-stack.See if you can kind of dig into it.And then in future pods and in future sub-stacks,I'm going to talk about like building majorand minor scales, ways that I like to modulate,as in going from one key to the next,and some like, you know, kind of like workbook,

17:44 worksheet kind of stuff that I really, really like,that can expose different pathwaysthan you might have thought of originally.By writing out all of the notes in one scaleand all the notes in another,identifying where the common tones are,where are the places that are shared between the two notes,and then building out strategies using the circle of fifthsto get from one place to the next.Super satisfying, really cool.

18:10 And the nice thing about music theoryis that it can lead your ear into new frontiers.That arrived.Lead your ear into new frontiers.That'd be a bad song.Maybe I'll make AI do it.So anyway, I hope that this made it a little less scarybecause it's not supposed to be scary.It's just the 12 notes arranged in fifthsbecause that's where the 12 notes come from.And then by doing that,

18:35 you can tell the relationships from key to key.You can tell the relationships from notes to notes.And relationships meaning how close, how related they are.Like, is this my cousin, is this my brother, is, you know,or is this somebody that's completely different than I am?And sometimes you can have a really great partyhanging out with people that are very different than you, you know?That's the spice of life,

18:55 and that's the same thing with that F sharp.Spicy.So yeah, check out the sub-stack.Let me know if you have any questions.Feel free to either leave a comment on the sub-stackor leave a comment on this episode.It's always fun to like dig into this stuff.And I love doing it with my guitar studentsbecause it is a tough subject,but a very rewarding one.Because once you can like really like just visualize

19:17 that circle in your head, get to know those colors.Then I think like, and I mean colors in the abstract sense,like the color of going from one key to the nextare the relationships of key to keyand the ways that those kind of like dance with each other.It's music, so it's like how do I describe it?Visual is the best I've got, but it's not visual, you know?Synesthesia.That concept though,

19:43 unlocks so much flexibility in improvisationand in composition.And improvisation is my favorite partbecause you can have the band doing one thingand then you can do something way on the oppositeinside of the universe and then come back.It creates this like real polewhere the gravity of the band and the gravityof the soloist can be on opposite sides of the universe.And then it's so satisfying when they reconnect.

20:08 So fun.That's what the circle allows you to do.It's a good tool.I'll talk more on how to use itand I'll dig deeper on the blog tooso that people that are non musiciansdon't have to like dig too deep into this stuff.But I think it's interesting because it's like,there's a joke where people that teach music theory go,it's not rocket scienceand then people that teach rocket science sayit's not music theory, you know?

20:35 It's a tricky weird subject.It's very esoteric and strange,but it's super useful and it's super fun.And it's also fun to like realizethat so many of the people that make musicactually do use this stuff.That's one of the things I'm trying to dowith this podcast with the conversationsis reveal to people that a ton of the musiciansthat are working on your favorite projectsactually went to music school.

20:59 It's not this like,like people made it seem cool to not know this stuff,to not practice it to just like,I've got the muse inside of me and it just goes.But what other profession do you not learn your tools?Like yes, it's great to have moments of inspiration.It's great to do things that people have never done,but why would you hold yourself backfrom accessing something that when you hit a brick wall,

21:26 you can have the, you know,like attachments and ropes to climb over itand then get to the next leg.Instead, I think a lot of peoplethat don't learn music theoryand that don't really vibe with this stuffend up just giving up on that songand moving on to the next one.And I think that's a little sad.It's nice to be able to overcome problemsand have solutions.It's nice to be able to break through writer's block

21:51 and all of these things are just toolsto get to the next leg of inspirationwhere most of the time I don't think of this stuff,but sometimes I do.And a lot of the times the reason why I'm not thinking aboutis it's internalized.I've been doing this for a decade, you know?It's like I've thought about this circleof fifths so many fricking timesthat I don't have to think about it anymore.I just know it.That's the goal.

22:14 The goal is to get to the other side of understandingso where you're not pulling out tricks,you are just applying the right toolin the right situation and making them your own,just like John Coltrane did,Coltrane did where he kind of reinventedthe circle of fifths a little bit.And I'm gonna do a post about that in the near-ish future.But, you know, got some more thingsto talk about before we get there.

22:37 Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this podcast.If you'd like to, you know, subscribeor share it with your friends, I would really appreciate that.Hope this made you love music more a little bit.And definitely check out that substack,lovemusicmore.substack.com.This, you know, got a bunch of free posts on thereand including this one where you can dig a little bit deeper.Here's some audio examples and, you know,

22:59 listen to people referencing the circle of fifthsas they're doing some solos and comping in a band.So you can see like it's not just theory,it's applied practice.Anyway, until next time.