The Circle of Fifths | How to REALLY Use It (guitar and piano)

The Circle of Fifths is the most important pattern in music, but it can seem confusing at first.
In this video, I explain exactly how it works -- and how you can use it to play both the guitar and piano. The Circle of Fifths clarifies the way you see and understand notes, chords, and entire keys. It's beautiful.
If you'd like to see more videos like this, please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE. And if you know someone who needs to see this, be sure to SHARE it with them. I want to know what you think, so please COMMENT.
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[@daveperry5477]

What's more impressive than your knowledge of the Circle of Fifths is the way you can explain it to others in a way that people can understand. Well done!

[@prd.christmas4703]

Yes nice explanation

[@Andrew-cu9lf]

I'm not sure if I'm seeing a mistake, or if I'm misunderstanding something, but @2:51 there seems to be several spots on the circle of fifths diagram where there should be a letter "A", but instead there is an "F" - like the key of G, for example.

[@guilhermemonteiro5276]

Same here! Someone can help? @mikegeorge360… scale of C = C D E F G A B C… there is an F after G, not an A

[@thegolfnut812]

Yes, several places where F appears and should be A. Wonder why Mike hasn't addressed this adding a note ;-).

[@hollyavillella554]

When you rotated the color wheel to form the chromatic scale, the complementary colors positioned side-by-side: red/green, blue/orange, etc. In painting, complementary colors are used to illustrate shadows. For ex. to darken the shaded side of a red apple, you mix a bit of green in your red to darken the red. 🙂🎹🎶🎨🎶✨

[@mikegeorge360]

Very cool.

[@carlosaldana6039]

i have been to many youtubers to help me understand guitar better. they're all good but you're the best ive watched

[@Redheadedlady55]

~The color coding helps sooooo-much....thank you Mike....love you video teachings

[@alnorman4802]

absolutely Perfect, colors, and shift the 5ths 180 degrees,, genius

[@brjplummer9415]

Blaa Deee Fantastic ! I love your extensive use of graphics. They reveal so much. I always thought the Circle of fifths was a Wedge board and now I know it is. It is full of Magic.

[@Alleellaa]

I just wanted to say thank you for helping my creative brain understand music for the first time in my life. The notes on paper made me not want to pursue music because it never made sense to me. But after discovering your color method, I printed out a 12 color rainbow for my ukulele and it took me several days to cut them all out and tape them to my instrument, but now I’m actually excited to learn again. If I had sufficient income I’d be all over your teaching course, but for now I’m just grateful for the opportunity to learn what I can from you via KZbin. Anyway, just thought I’d share this because it’s clear your lessons are effective and deserve a lot more recognition. Thank you 🙏😊

[@99rb54]

Thank you so much Mike for your amazing videos! They have helped me understand music in a way I always hoped too! All the best!!

[@Rmanpc2323]

BEADGCFBEADGb I put this in my brain using the clock circle a few years back, but now I can see the forest in the trees! Thanks for your work, I think the music education industry from the past were wonderful at building job security, I always knew there was a better way! Keep at it!

[@ronaldlatour5317]

X 15:05 My understanding of music has leaped a great deal, thanks to you Mike!

[@AdrianOlivas_]

You are an excellent teacher, really. I have always struggled to understand theory but you made it so simple and very easy to understand. I like your content a lot and will probably sign up for more.

[@greggarite8530]

You are appreciated! The clarity and thoughtful explanation, not to mention impressive production value, put you heads above the rest. I don't know why this video isn't spreading like wildfire. Truly a hidden gem! Thank you 🙏

[@mikegeorge360]

Thank you so much. And I’m glad this is helpful! I definitely appreciate you. Cheers!

[@sadhappy8860]

Some really beautiful graphics, best video I've seen on this yet!

[@rrcollig]

This is unbelievably well explained. Thank you!

[@wtdenton4090]

Great circle of 5ths description!

[@tonynitzke]

I think the best way to understand the circle of fifths is to play scales and chords in each key. Then picture the notes from each key in your mind. And learn a few simple relationships between notes like tonic, dominant, subdominant, and leading tone.

[@petecolorado5387]

Brilliantly explained. Thank you Mike.

[@glennlopez6772]

A really special video. Also most impressed with your graphical taste and presentation!

[@cliftontorrence839]

Wonderfully written and shared. that's why i signed up and support you. Thank's so much MG.

[@kachiyoungsoul9690]

You’re opening my mind bro!

[@mikegeorge360]

🤘

[@franklopez3274]

Thanks brother you have made the circle of fifths so easy now bringing the modes into play, I had an idea but always doubted myself 🤟

[@rogeralo12]

OMG this is such an amazing explanation. Love it !! You should a million + subscribers already.

[@miriame3hope93]

Wow! Amazing!

[@sharkshaaayy]

thank you! you made the concept very simple to understand!

[@DG-wz7qg]

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you

[@SunsetCondo]

Thank you for taking the time to create this video. Enjoyed watching very much. Terrific graphics!

[@GODWITHHISPEOPLE]

THANK YOU

[@vinz9741]

Thanks

[@Juliano_DJOL]

This shld be good

[@jaymic1]

I have only been trying to play guitar for a couple years but I have never heard anyone explain this until now.

[@amrutatalwalkaramu6036]

This is so well done!! As someone who stopped playing music when I was a kid out of not having a great teacher to explain theory like this, I'm so grateful to have come across this video and your page. I was wondering about the labels - why are some of them squares and other circles?

[@mikegeorge360]

I'm so glad you're here! My video "Music Theory in 19 Minutes" explains the shapes in detail. (P.S., thank you for joining the community and your labels are on their way.)

[@prd.christmas4703]

The circle of fifths is so important

[@DreidMusicalX]

I never did learn to read music. For some reason I just could never remember the chord names and everything or the notes up down the neck. When I taught myself I learned patterns, shapes, and then numbered the neck before I ever even knew of tabs because we were poor and never could afford the books or guitar lessons. My mother finally got a good paying job in Las Vegas and I ended up at Vesely's Music store and taking lessons from Mark Slaughter for about 4 lessons, I think it was. Well, those ended up being the only lesson I ever took in about 36 years, before he took off with Vinnie Vincent's Invasion. I basically sat at home listening to cassettes, later cd's or albums and figured that shit out by ear the best I could. Way later after I was able to afford books I started just looking at tabs in books, not really knowing a damn thing about notes or how they work. But I have to say, if this works for you, great!~ But those colors really get me confused. ha! But I always watch videos like this and still have really gotten nowhere with learning to read music itself. I'm not sure if I am not capable of remembering it? I mean, I have no problems playing stuff or writing my own songs. But the technical parts of it, I am just still lost.

[@nandakumarkulandaivelu8967]

Hats off Mike..If Pythagoras,,penetrated to profound theoretization..Mike you,,you have spoon-fed-the music lovers into practicalisation..,,Salute...DrNanda..India

[@mikegeorge360]

🙏 🖐

[@darcyballantyne8290]

​@@mikegeorge3600:48

[@darcyballantyne8290]

Where do ,I go to order the wheel and sticker's?😊

[@d.josephaho9079]

This is very helpful content!

[@jonasventresca2298]

brilliant thank you

[@7775Kevin]

Great lesson, thanks

[@georgehiggins1320]

As a jazz pianist, I vote that all musicians adopt the circle fifths as our cult insignia.

[@sheiladuke3289]

Thankyou again 😅😅😅very informative Wow sheila Duke😅😅

[@jimbinger]

Very well done! I don’t entirely understand the use of circles and squares on the circle of fifths. Could you elaborate. Love the videos and great graphics!

[@chovuse]

Best explanation of the Circle of Fifths ! Thanks.

[@shailendraparamwar7245]

Just you knowledge is unique. Brother how to choose a strumming pattern for a certain song

[@lannytoups1428]

Thank you. The best explanation I ever seen

[@kanrup5199]

I have been tone-character-deaf until right now. Recently I tried to align colours of the colour wheel to the notes, so that I can visualize the note in my head as I play it. I also made a table of : [ note name ] [ feeling expression ] [ pain-pleasure output ] [ tone and texture ] , and tried to hear the note very hard and describe them in detail. I met this video in the process of doing some research. I've had some very good success (have played on guitar, and had some strong emotional impact on myself) : I aligned them like this : C(orange) G(Red) D(purple) A(blue) E(cyan) B(green) F(yellow). There is some ambiguity whether I should set C to red / yellow / orange. But this setting puts A at blue, which makes a lot of sense to me, and B also seems harmonious with green. I put C at the warm part of the colour cycle because it has that 'happy sounding' major chord. But C does not feel like a red to me (idk if that's wrong). The thing is, I'm so insensitive to the character of each note, I could convince myself almost any note to have the character of almost any colour. I know my colours well. I made an oversight : I didn't consider the #/flat notes!! So now I have to order those into the colour wheel too. And there is ambiguity as to how I should align the full note wheel to colour wheel. There is an additional problem. C D E etc are the note names. But, the sound ' C ' and sound ' D ' etc, have their own character. (e.g.- D / Der has a rocky, heavy, dark, bold character). This means that the Character of the note, and the character of the note name, are not aligned. This is an obstruction and confusing (in musical terms). Who ever made the musical system had not considered this at all. I've been able to assign consonants to notes, after I have described the notes to myself in detail on paper. I can go over my alphabet and pick the sounds that feel aligned with the description of the note. ( C: H-L (hala) , A: Y-D (yada) , B : The-B (dthamba) etc). This is all very subjective, and assigning of note names will be different for each person by character. But the guitar is set up in CDEFGABC, so I have to translate from one set of sounds to note-names, which is an obstruction and confusion. Do you have any thoughts on this?

[@kanrup5199]

I just realised that the way to get over the note naming problem. Use a two-word name. But keep the first word as a ' hook word '. Eg. if A is assigned to blue, using name : ' Ash-yadda ' . You use image of an Ash tree. You know Yadda means 'blue'. So the image of ' Ash-yadda ' is a blue(ish)-leafed ash tree. This way you can access your memory awareness of the note-character, from the instrument note-label. Others : Bone-Damba (a green(ish) skeleton ), Ox-Hala ( an orange furred Ox). Etc. You then have seven images which refer to both note-label (which everyone learns), and note-character (which is personal to you). You then only need to be able to visualize these images at each relevant place in the fretboard. You can also merge two or more images together (i.e. making a chord image). E.g.- An orange furred ox grazing under a blue ash-tree (C-A - orange-blue). (or a green skeleton hanging from a blue ash 💀- (A-B - blue-green)).

[@SomaticSamurai]

Great video

[@Derducci]

Thanx very helpfull

[@mikegeorge360]

Cheers.

[@ahappydude2151]

Very cool

[@mikegeorge360]

Cheers.

[@MTriggs73]

Mike, outstanding explanation on the circle of fifths! You mentioned a link to downloadable diagrams in the comments. I don’t see the link. Can you please post? Thank you for sharing this!!

[@mikegeorge360]

Thanks for your feedback, Mark. And good catch! I've updated the video notes with a link to the PDF. Cheers.

[@thetinkercook5430]

Nice!!

[@Derducci]

Any chance for a vid on a practical way to connect the circle of fifths with the modes and mode chords??? Thank you very much for all the hard work... Cheers from Greece...

[@mikegeorge360]

Definitely. (And thanks!) This playlist shows how the circle of fifths informs all the modes, with practical examples of how the chords in each mode form various progressions. Lydian is the next video in the works. Cheers! kzbin.info/aero/PLBO2iP5zSYD5UVNqrIZQLnU3EaQqnBZE9

[@Derducci]

Thanx so much

[@mikegeorge360]

Hey Dim -- later today, I'll be posting a video on TikTok that answers this exact question. Cheers.

[@zyphoxx]

Amazing video. Super clear explaination. I have never seen that way of color-coordinating the circle of 5ths. Is this your original idea? It's groundbreaking!

[@mikegeorge360]

Thank you so much. Yeah, it's my original idea. I've been developing it for a long time through an intense love of music. I'm glad it's helpful!

[@zyphoxx]

@@mikegeorge360 that's so awesome, you should patent it or something!

[@andreasihlen6244]

@@mikegeorge360 Are you familiar with the Harmonagon project? They do similar but use the rainbow colours for the chromatic scale, rather than the circle of fifths. Well done for helping clarify this stuff! I've been working on similar things but am not yet ready to put it into videos.

[@guilhermemonteiro5276]

@@mikegeorge360 I'm not sure if I'm seeing a mistake, or if I'm misunderstanding something, but @ 2:51 there seems to be several spots on the circle of fifths diagram where there should be a letter "A" but instead there is an "F" - like the key of G, for example.

[@yeetboy8671]

take all of my like

[@neudiem1165]

Is there an explanation of the way Mike chose to align the color wheel with the circle of 5ths? As in, did he just pick red for C and let it fill in from there? And do the circles and squares just alternate to help break things up visually? (I’m very visually oriented, so have wanted to assign color & shapes in an intuitive way to music, but haven’t put in the time to work out a system yet.)

[@AlexAllin1]

Is there a typo ? Surely A follows G in the C major scale or am I mis understanding the material presented at 3:10 i.e the circle of 5ths diagram.

[@brynnarosenberg9361]

Oh it clicked

[@ToanTran-ky6ij]

Hay quá...dịch sang tếng việt...cám ơn

[@HunnitAcreWoods]

Here from TikTok!

[@mikegeorge360]

Hey! Very cool, man -- welcome.

[@lit2021]

@@mikegeorge360 Omg, you're on tiktok? :D I'm following you asap! :D

[@mikegeorge360]

@@lit2021 Right on -- thank you. That's where most of my latest videos have been posted, and I'll be posting more here too. Cheers.

[@poison_corpse3140]

Tiktok🤮

[@commandofaku]

great hair!

[@rodbrittner6524]

Could you do a session on the mathematical relationship of the fifth? Fretted vs say a piano. Harmonically the 5th is 1.500x the root. Yet a fretted instrument approximates the 7th fret as x^7 = 1.498. The human choice of 12 half steps per octave leads to x = 12th root of 2. You seem to have the chops to lift this ancient science into a modern day conversation. I hope you decide to. Anyway, nice work!

[@johanneschristopherstahle3395]

Fretted should be the same as the piano as long as both instruments are in tune. You would have to play the harmonic on the guitar to get the perfect 3:2 ratio.

[@neumichel]

Thank you. A few things that I found confusing perhaps you could clear up as you said it was the crux of the video in terms of important concepts to take away. 05:17 "swap each pair of complementary colors"' Red-Green and Yellow-Purple (for example) are pairs of complemtary colors (according to wikipedia). I don't see how the rotation you did was a swap. 05:40 How is the E note intuitively added to the C an G notes to form the chord? Because its yellow? Again, the color theory connection is confusing. Why not orange? Im not getting how color makes finding triads intuitive vis-a-vis color. I'm obviously not getting something.

[@ZoranRavic]

The circle is wrong at some places 2:35 It should be "c d e f g A b c" instead of "c d e f g F b c" 2:43 You again replaced A with F. Should be "f g A b c" instead of "f g F b c" For people that don't get it, it should always be in alphabetical order: ABCDEFG

[@mikegeorge360]

Good catch. In my haste, my Illustrator file had that error.

[@science4charlie]

@@mikegeorge360 that's ok. Your illustration is awesome regardless!

[@EmilioAlbertoSoltero]

hi do you have all this images for download on members area thanks

[@lawrencetaylor4101]

I thought it was a great video, even though I am colour blind. I'm red-green colour blind with a disability for blues. So pastels are laughable. I've asked many people if there have been any studies about musical ability and colour perception. I always joked that I was born with two left ears. But I started learning piano after my retirement, which explains why I'm studying your excellent presentation on music theory.

[@brynnarosenberg9361]

It’s weird because the colors and their note assignments clash with my grapheme-color synesthesia but if I were to switch the colors to match the letters in my head the whole system would be moot 😂

[@HomeRunRealEstate-xi3rm]

I kinda of get it

[@seanisi]

I am in Taiwan,do you know where to get a（The Circle of Fifths）？Thank you.

[@sancho13sn1]

colour*****

[@kirtanmusica1999]

please music kirtan of india

[@kirtanmusica1999]

please kirtan sadhguru Dalailama paramahansa yogananda

[@anthonywandowicz8084]

It seems like your videos are being hidden from searches. I've search music theory topics dozens of times and you have never come up

[@Born2RiffRock]

Just rotate your mouse 180° you'll find all of his videos.

[@shoumeekbose4662]

@@Born2RiffRock 😅🤣

[@ZoranRavic]

I got here from search results

[@cskhard]

okay but what are the colours for? Clearly distance between colors don't mean anything since F-G and C-G are the same interval but totally opposite colors on your diagram. I don't understand either the use of the shapes. I mean, nobody think of those shapes when playing, right? It's useless

[@radiba007]

I need more slow explanation... must see this at 0,75 speed like two times again. :D

[@mikegeorge360]

Right on -- I just get so excited, but will pace myself more on the next one. :)

[@Harpoika]

There's truly some blac magic fuckery in this music theory because I always fall of the band wagon just before it all was supposed to come together. 😵‍💫 Thank you for trying. I can see from the comments that it's a good video.

[@donaldbutcher1260]

This is by far the most confusing explanation of the circle of fifths that I have ever seen. 😢

[@diegomerino9939]

Hi there, Mike. Your videos are fantastic and have helped me a lot understanding musich theory. I have made this "DIY Multipurpose Circle of Fifths" in cardboard. For me it is very useful: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h2bGopV_l7J1j5Y You are cited in the last page of the pdf!! 🙂. Many thanks for your amazing work!

[@gregmonks]

It's the "cycle" of 5ths, not the "circle" of 5ths. You can arrange the cycle in a circle, but it's still a cycle, not a circle.

[@kenwatanabe2599]

Color blind

[@HalJonesMD]

I don’t like to be negative- but we are all stupider for watching this.

[@sulevinuni]

Those guitar chord progressions are awfully boring. Boah, for a long time I have tried to understand the magic of this circle thingy, now it's time to give up.

[@darksalmon]

What??? Color makes this easier for you guys to understand?? For me it just made it worse

[@milkteaalliance1748]

I have learnt nothing

[@dbh7211]

Not sure how this is useful in anyway. Doesn’t really explain how to use it.

[@sleonse]

There should be H, I, J, K, L notes and chords instead instead of “b” and “#”. Much more practical.

[@ab9957]

I have an adult student who was asking me about circle of 5ths and what it means. I said if i explain it to you, you will not understand. It takes years to absorb this, and every few years you will unlock another secret about music. Just keep playing and it will come to you.

[@googlepigs7027]

Are you sure !?!

[@delphinazizumbo8674]

WHY should I care? none of this informs ANY part of creating music this is just a way to describe music after the fact i dgaf about this i don't need this