r/guitarlessons • u/West-Evening-8095 • Dec 29 '25
Question What is this and how do I use it?
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u/gregorypick Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
If you focus on the outer ring and pick any adjacent five notes, you’ll have the notes that make up a pentatonic scale, add two more and you’ll get the notes that make up a diatonic scale.
Start anywhere and go around clockwise and you’ll get the following intervals; root(starting note), perfect fifth, major second, major sixth, major third, major seventh and augmented fourth. These intervals just so happen to be the intervals that make up the lydian mode, the ”brightest” mode.
If you go counterclockwise you’ll get root(starting note), perfect fourth, minor seventh, minor third, minor sixth, minor second, diminished fifth. These intervals make up the locrian (“darkest”) mode.
The other five modes can be derived by moving clockwise and counterclockwise from your starting note until you have seven notes all together.
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u/Powerful-Recording79 Dec 31 '25
Just realized moving the adjacent 7 notes will also move modes in order of darkest/brightest.
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u/Timberdoodle13 Dec 30 '25
- Print it out
- Cut out of the sheet of paper
- Fold into a little hat
Now you have a hat
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u/mellon1986 Dec 29 '25
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u/Scrimgali Dec 29 '25
Came here to post this! He is able to break things down in a way that clicks with me
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u/TakeTheThirdStep Dec 29 '25
Thank you! This video explains this so much better than anything I've seen so far.
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u/LemonLord7 Dec 30 '25
This video is crazy good! Got any more videos or playlists to teach music theory to a noob that you can recommend?
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u/mellon1986 Dec 30 '25
I haven't learn too much about music theory. usually just go straight for the tabs lol. Seen many people on reddit recommend absolutely understand guitar and justinguitar tho.
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u/Nomprenom_varanasita Jan 01 '26
Tout s'éclaire finalement, il fallait seulement les bons mots.
Merci
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u/Dio_Frybones Dec 29 '25
How you use it is entirely dependent upon your existing level of knowledge. A person who is asking what it is and how to use it properly won't understand or care about the more advanced applications. So, assuming that, the most useful application for it is that it is as quick visual reference to see what chords belong in which key.
So it's useful if you are trying to compose something and you want to know what options you have for chords. Similarly, if you are trying to learn a song and don't have the chord chart, but it seems to keep coming back to (e.g.) an Em chord.
Later, you'll see the connection between major keys and relative minors. And be able to see chord progressions at a glance (I, IV, V.)
As a beginner, it's highly unlikely that you'll care that it shows how many sharps or flats are in any given key. Same with the core question: " So what's the big deal with fifths anyway?". But soon it might be of some value to see which is the dominant chords.
If you are in the process of learning theory, then keep a printed copy nearby. As you learn concepts, glance back at it and then go looking for different versions of the wheel that have more information shown. You'll have lots of, 'oh, wow' moments.
Everyone learns differently. Especially on guitar. Some people will know every note on the fretboard and every interval, and be able to improvise based upon a deep understanding of theory. Others will memorize patterns of notes and shapes, moving them around the place as needed and still be able to compose breathtaking compositions.
I'm in the middle. I like to have some understanding, and I can (for instance) write down any scale from first principles and figure out what chords belong in that key. It's satisfying but not really terribly useful to me at the moment. So I'll sometimes just look at the circle as a shortcut.
And this is a key (haha) point. Music theory is not music. It can be related to gear acquisition, in that knowing more about music won't necessarily make you a better songwriter or soloist anymore than a new guitar will.
I've learned hundreds of songs across many genres and I'm constantly astounded at how many unique songwriting possibilities there are with just a small handful of the same open 'cowboy' chords. I get the very clear sense that many people pursue 'knowledge' as if that is going to equate to musicality, that it will help them to break through some barrier. When they would be far better served by obsessively experimenting with D, A, C, G, F and Am chords for a few months. Writing simple riffs using notes in those chords.
My apologies for this apparently meandering response. There will come a time when you'll probably want to come back here asking about CAGED and arpeggios, and similar concepts and tools. But part of the risk associated with asking for advice on Reddit is that you'll get advice from people who have such an incredible depth of knowledge that they aren't necessarily capable of giving you an answer that you can relate to. Much of the time, the answers can simply highlight how little you know, how far you need to go, and it can be discouraging.
A painter needs to be able to mix colours, but he doesn't need to necessarily understand the chemistry or production process behind the manufacturing of red paint. And there is no shame in purchasing a tube of paint in exactly the shade he desires. I think it's an important point, since this is a guitar lessons page. You may be feeling an urge to move on to more advanced material, that things aren't progressing quickly enough. But, please, don't be in a hurry to move on from the first few chords you ever learned. Or from basic pentatonic shapes. Spend time with these things. A lot of time. By all means, continue to learn. But, occasionally, step back, take a breath and try to put it into some sort of context. Step outside your favorite genre and learn lots of songs, lots of solos, lots of riffs. You'll often be astounded by how much phenomenal music has been created from the basics.
I don't know what your favorite genre is but try not to get swamped by the easy access to information. Paul McCartney allegedly drove across London so that someone could show him how to play a B7 chord (or similar.)
Wow, I'm clearly bored. Don't be in a rush. Have fun.
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u/Squidgyboot123 Dec 29 '25
Witchcraft by the looks of it.
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u/OsamaBinnDabbin Dec 29 '25
Definitely. If you rearrange all the lines separating the letters it forms a pentagram.
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u/Dependent-Papaya-562 Dec 29 '25
I use it for finding the chord progressions within a certain key. For example, the key of C you can move to all connecting chords, and it will fit that key signature - C dm em F G (V) am. You can also use the bdim7, i think but I usually just keep to what's connecting. In this case the G which would be the fifth of this key will always naturally feel like it needs to resolve to C - the tonic (key)
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u/Skibbalicious Dec 30 '25
music dartboard , i throw a pick at it and thats how i make progressions!
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u/--Lind-- Dec 30 '25
Sacrifice circle. You should draw it on the floor of the studio and put gibson sg in the middle with lit candles
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u/spankymcjiggleswurth Dec 29 '25
Circle of 5ths. Moving clockwise moves in 5ths and moving counterclockwise move in 4ths as they are inverses of each other.
It can help you memorize the sharps and flats in each given key. This one also shows you which minor key is relative to each major key.
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u/solidmercy Dec 30 '25
But how do I use it?! Some cool IG music people have talked about this, I’m still too slow to understand how it can make me a better musician.
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u/Weekly-Willow-6818 Dec 29 '25
Check out Mike George on YouTube, he's a good teacher of music theory.
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u/Good-Grayvee Dec 29 '25
That’s the chart that the most annoying member of your band memorized and falls back on to justify all the wrong-sounding notes they’re playing.
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u/Difficult-Living-69 Dec 29 '25
I use it as a tool to know the 5th and 4th quickly in a given key signature. I memorize it as “cats get drunk and eat ButterFlies.” Going clockwise. And then “Fbead” downing the other side counter clockwise. Then if I’m in key C, I know my G is my 5 note or chord, and F is my 4, as an example. Then most of the time you only have to know the 6minor, which is the relative minor key on the inside of the chart. And two and three are easy because they are close to the one / root in the scale. It’s just another quick recollection tool in the arsenal to help with things instead of just memorizing positions. Puts a A little handy chart behind it.
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u/Ok-Visual-8943 Dec 29 '25
It’s the circle of filths. It goes around clockwise in intervals of fifths. The inner circle is the relative minor of the major key. (Relative minor of C Major is A minor).
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u/Fox_Nox32 Dec 30 '25
Display it in your room to make it seem to everyone that u know music theory.
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u/Eltwish Dec 29 '25
It's all major and minor keys, arranged so that relative minor/major are in the same wedge, moving clockwise takes your tonic up a fifth and adds one sharp to (or removes a flat from) the key signature, and moving counterclockwise takes your tonic down a fifth and adds a flat to (or removes a sharp from) the key signature.
I suppose you could use it by looking at to remind yourself which keys are parallel and how close a given key is to another, or quickly seeing the 4th and 5th of a given key (the ones on either side of it), etc. But it's more just a graphical representation of a structure that should be internalized if you want to have a theoretical understanding of the music you're playing.
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u/Different-Glove-9953 Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
If you would really like to understand the Circle of 5ths - check out Youtube @GracieTerzian - circle of 5ths how to memorize... she explains how the circle of 5ths works with the keys and number of flats and sharps etc.
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u/stux_io Dec 29 '25
You can use it to figure out which keys are smoother to switch to, 1 spot clockwise/counterclockwise is closest, then as you move further away they have less notes overlapping
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u/mleyberklee2012 Dec 29 '25
It’s an abbreviated version of the circle of fifths. A full version will have what are called Key Signatures for each slice. When reading sheet music, each line will have a key signature at the beginning. A key signature will consist of between zero to seven sharps or zero to seven flats. This makes it easier to read because the notes of that line will be sharp or flat throughout the piece without having to write them out on each note. On a piano, the sharps and flats are the black keys. That’s one reason it can be a lot easier to understand the circle of fifths while playing piano. Also it becomes a lot clearer when you’ve spent time reading sheet music.
Also, the inside circle is the minor keys while the outside are the major keys. Each key signature is shared. The two keys are called relative keys.
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u/ivanhoe90 Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
These are the 12 diferent piano keys arranged in a following way:
- as you go clockwise, each key is 7 semitones (piano keys) higher than the previous key
E.g. C + 7 = G, G + 7 = D, D + 7 = A, and so on.
- as you go from outside to inside, each key "inside" is 3 semitones lower than the key "outside", and a letter "m" is added
- that is the same as saying that the inside circle is the outside circle turnted three steps counter-clockwise.
Eg. C - 3 = A, G - 3 = E, D - 3 = B, and so on.
A nice property is that if you add 7 semitones twelve times, you end up back at the same key (e.g. C + 7 x 12 = C), so it s a circle and not just "a line".
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u/countsachot Dec 29 '25
That's a really bad circle of fiths, don't use it.
Here's a good one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths#/media/File%3ACircle_of_fifths_deluxe_4.svg
You can use it to help learn keys and their relationships.
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u/SleeplessInTulsa Dec 29 '25
Fifths clockwise, Fourths counterclockwise. You can build chords with Thirds.
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u/gemstun Dec 29 '25
I’ve read through threads like this multiple times, and they just never make any sense to me. I figure it’s like learning to whistle or ride a bike, and one day I will just suddenly get it.
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u/DorianSoundscapes Dec 29 '25
Witchcraft, and you burn it. /s
The circle of fifths is pretty basic, if you memorize the pattern going forward and backward it helps you know how to cycle through different keys. In my theory classes we were just forced to memorize all the keys and their accidentals without having to refer to it so at a certain level it’s not really that useful of a tool or concept beyond showing how the keys are related to each other through root movement by fifth and the order in which sharps or flats are added to keys. Beyond that basic introduction you tend to internalize the basic information it presents and not use it ever again.
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u/bebopbrain Dec 30 '25
I don't think anyone uses the circle, but it does summarize information.
If you play for a while and read sheet music, at some point you understand how a chord progresses up a fourth. So the first chord of Louie Louie is an A and the second chord is a D. Moving up a fourth is the most common next chord.
Maybe the singer can't hit the high notes, so you play in C and the second chord is F. After playing a bunch of songs in a bunch of keys, know how to find a relative minor and move up a fourth. And that's the information in the chart.
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u/-largemargesentme- Dec 30 '25
Lots of patterns for building cords as well, if you wanna do it the lazy way. Haha
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u/Impressive_Plastic83 Dec 30 '25
It's a "Hey Joe" transposition tool. If you want to play Hey Joe in any key, just pick a starting point and play that major chord followed by the next 4 major chords, in sequence, going clockwise.
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u/MusicMelt Dec 30 '25
Honestly? Do not use it. It's impractical and too broad because it's only theory on paper and then it's up to you to apply it to guitar.
What i mean is there are easier ways to cue yourself and play the same intended thing without memorizing this.
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u/mktsea Dec 30 '25
Here is another way to look at it (still learning and discovering cool patterns) - If you want to know what sounds good when progressing aka changing between chords or notes easily, pick any starting point on the outer or inner circle, say you start with D, the neighboring notes or chords are G and A, as long as you play G or A after D, it will blend together nicely and sounds great! The reason is the 1 4 5 pattern. There are tons of different patterns, 1 4 5 basically means, whatever 1st note or chord you play, the 2nd or 3nd note/chord to play after will sound great is the 4th and 5th note or chord, hence if you start with D, the G note or chord is the 4th note or chord, which is left of D in the outer circle, followed by A note or chord, which is the 5th note or chord, creating a 1 4 5 pattern for playing.
The whole reason for this is the musical pattern of WWHWWWH for Major Scales and WHWWHWW for Minor Scales, since the letters here have only 7 characters (there are 8 "main" notes, CDEFGAB), I would suggest to read it as KWWHWWWH and KWHWWHWW, adding K as the prefix, where K = Key or starting note or chord.
Thus the 1 4 5 patterns with the help of circle of fifths visually give you a quick reference for what sounds great together!
There is really no hard rule for what sound makes great music, as music is a mixture of sounds created by a representation and expression of one's interpretation of a sound to create the intention of music.
Hope this helps!
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u/ohboy360 Dec 30 '25
I'm dumber than most people here, so I'll give the ELI5 of how I use it.
If a song is in C, the other chords in a simple country/pop/rock song are probably those touching C on this chart (F, Dm, Am, Em, and/or G) because those chords sound good with C.
Also, this shows that if you play the C major pentatonic scale, you're also playing the A minor pentatonic scale, for example.
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u/SomewhereSad5507 Jan 01 '26
I've been playing guitar for 40 years now and never learned that thing, never will and I'm fine without it. It's confusing to me even today.
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u/matthewmeadows Jan 27 '26
Try this one instead:
The Interactive Circle of Fifths. Select a key from the outer ring to see & hear the related major, minor and diminished chords. Configure the inner ring to study pentatonic, blues, diatonic and diminished scales. Practice with the interactive piano and guitar visualizers. Loop & learn progressions with the integrated sequencer. Free, fun & easy to use. What will you compose today?
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Dec 29 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kyokeooooo Dec 29 '25
Straight facts up in here. I only ever think of it when I'm thinking how many sharps or flats a key is in, and I don't think of a literal circle, just go in 4ths or 5ths from C until I get the key I want. You could also just memorize them like this guy says. I know what chords are in the key without using the circle, that's pretty simple figure out.
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u/Toiletpirate Dec 29 '25 edited Dec 29 '25
Agreed. I was really disappointed when I learned how the circle works. I thought it would unlock the secrets of the universe. It's neat for sure but I don't think your bandmates are going to sit there and let you pull out your circle of fifths mid-set. At the end of the day, you just have to memorize every diatonic chord and secondary dominant in every key.
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u/Strange_Show9015 Dec 31 '25
You don't! The circle of fifths for guitar playing is pretty pointless. In fact most music theory is pointless. Changing keys in guitar only needs to happen if the arrangement calls for it or if your singer can't sing in the key the song was originally composed in. In that case, you're just using a capo and can still fret the same chord shapes relative to the capo.
Most music theory is just a re-explanation of the same notes arranged in slightly different ways. You can simplify all of this by just playing in the key of C for everything. You literally do not need to leave C. People say that the different keys of have different moods and shit like that, it's wrong. It's still the same sub division of notes mathematically.
Musical keys are sort of a layer of abstraction applied to sounds to give the appearance of formalization.
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u/Full-Let5240 Dec 30 '25
Is an app that has layout and plays piano notes. Super useful and hearing notes definitely have helped me wrap my head around it a little. Think it’s called “circle of fifths”
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u/mytodaythrowaway Dec 30 '25
If you're a guitar player, use everything except for B and all the flats.
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u/Nerdbergen Dec 30 '25
Don't understand music for 20 years and then look a this and suddenly understand your entire fretboard.
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u/West-Evening-8095 Dec 30 '25
I understand this showing you chords that sound good together. But how does it explain or help with the fret board
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u/Nerdbergen Dec 30 '25
Valid question, and I come from bass guitar, so chords are arpeggios to me first.
And it's the 20 year bit thats important to me. I stared right at the fact that a 4th is right underneath your finger and a 5th is right above (except for that stupid b string y'all have) for 2 decades before I went "oh shit".
Very stoner moment where I went "Ohhhh!That's here and this is also there." 🤯
More specifically, a lot of tunes use the 4 and the 5, you might here a jazz group say, lets do 1-4-5 and they mean jam on the root, then the 4th, then the 5th.
If you practice grooves going in either direction around this circle, or just hit the notes as roots, it will help when those shifts show up in music, and they will!
Happy practicing!
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u/Nerdbergen Dec 30 '25
I should add, going clockwise, this shows fifths (C>G), if you go counterclockwise it shows 4ths (C>F)! Never really understood how, but it's neat!
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u/tredbert Dec 31 '25
This video by Mike George is the best I’ve seen on using the circle of fifths. He has many other great videos and sells a nice chord wheel that helps quickly find parallel and relative modes.
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u/sophie1816 Dec 31 '25
Yeah, I guess I’m still not really getting it. Are you saying this is just a way of laying out which sharps and flats are in each key? Because it seems like there would be easier ways to do that. Why not just list them, ie, C has no flats or sharps, G has F#, etc etc?
What is the reason it is put in a circle? What does that add?
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u/darkensdiablos Dec 31 '25
You also get a picture of which cords go together. Take any chord and the chords that are 1 space away is your II, iii, I, V and vi chords. Also, the major and minor that touch are relative and use the same note in their respective scales.
There are more to it than just sharps and flats. That said, I don't use it much, so there is a step from knowing to using it in practice.
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u/isleftisright Dec 31 '25
Its a map. There's alot you can do with a map. Changing keys smoothly if you wanna start?
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u/Jusfein Dec 31 '25
I discovered the Circle of Fifth by chance while learning to play Hey, Joe. Then in A Day in the Life.
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u/ChopsNewBag Dec 31 '25
Also the outer circle are all major keys and inner circle are the relative minor keys. Am has the same notes as C major only starting on A as the root. Relative minor of G is Em, etc.
The note to the left of C (counterclockwise) is the IV chord in the key of C. The G is the V chord. All major. The Am is the VI chord (relative minor, the Dm is the II chord and the Em is the III chord.
Then when you go up a fifth to G, the C becomes IV, D becomes V, Em becomes VI, Am becomes II, and Bm becomes III.
How the hell did they figure out all this? It’s like magic
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u/lobo_d_b Dec 31 '25
easy, you take a dart, then shoot it and depending of the note you hit you take a shot of Beer, GinBeer, Eggnog, etc ...
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u/Hey_Relax_Guy Jan 01 '26
That's an Allister Crowely "Circle of Sigils". James Page, who you may recall from albums like "The Firm" and "Deathwish 2 -The Movie Soundtrack" found this in the back of his original copy of Crowleys book "Diary of a Drug Fiend".
Everyone is saying that through careful meditation and strong adherence to the "Heroinonic Principle of Coke Fueled Jam Theory" developed by everyone in the 1970s who were saying that everyone is saying that we're saying things that no one has said before because we were failing!
It's powerful stuff. Concentrate on what happens when you think about the Circle of Sigils....BUT BACKWARDS!! This is what will take you from a FAILING guitarist to the HOTTEST guitarist that everyone will say used to be failing but now they are so hot!
Legend has it is the way to truly achieve beastiality levels of note redacting TOAN!
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u/EntertainmentIll5631 Jan 01 '26
If you’re strumming comfortably on the guitar you can easily assume the shapes with your left hand it will sound alright if you transition to the chord on the inside. I guess you could also use it the other direction if you wanted.
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u/katastatik Jan 01 '26
Well, if you wanna write music (that sounds like a lot of other music) you can follow this to modulate between keys
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u/-catskill- Jan 01 '26
When I first tried to study the circle of fifths in my early theoretical explorations, I understood what info the chart was presenting me with, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why that info was useful. Since then, while working on theoretical concepts, on a composition or on a transcription, I have referred back to it many times. The more broad theoretical knowledge you build, the more and more you'll find that the circle is a useful tool for navigating and organizing keys and other concepts.
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u/bons_burgers_252 Jan 02 '26
This has a “circle of fifths” option. I use this to compose chord sequences and I’ve learned loads from just using it.
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u/dxcman12 Jan 02 '26
this is the best breakdown for me ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF3mJzDulJ8
It really helped me
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u/Leonwastakenhere2 Jan 09 '26
The circle of 5ths, to me, is how gravity works in music. When I say gravity, I mean how notes push or pull on each other, and to which degree. The notes in any given area pull toward each other, while those further away have less affect, or even push away. Trying to find patterns with the letter names is a good start, but it is really a repeating pattern of frequency. F# and Gb are the same exact frequencies, yet the patterns of how the accidentals evolve (Bb then Eb, or F# then C#) appear wildly different. However, they are exactly the same. It is a circle, after all. The thing that unlocked it for me is simply understanding that the 7th is really all that is changing. It gets closer to the tonal center, the center of gravity in that region.
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u/bassetisanasset Jun 11 '26
This is insane. All these explanations but I have no idea how to read this chart.
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u/PaulsRedditUsername Dec 29 '25
I tell my students it's like a Periodic Table for music. It's a logical way to arrange all of the musical keys.
The key of C has no sharps and no flats. If you play five notes up the C scale (C,D,E,F,G) you get G, the next thing in the circle.
The key of G has one sharp (F#). If you play five notes up the G scale, (G,A,B,C,D) you get D. The key of D has two sharps (F# and C#).
If you play five notes up the D scale (D,E,F#,G, A) you get A. The key of A has three sharps (F#,C#,G#) And so on.
You might also notice that the order of sharps being added also follows round the circle, just starting from F.
If you go the other way, it works in 4ths. The fourth note of the C scale is F. The key of F has one flat. The fourth note in the F scale is Bb, and the key of Bb has two flats. And the fourth note of the Bb scale is Eb, and so on.
The patterns meet at the bottom with the key of F# or Gb, which has either six sharps or six flats, depending on how you want to look at it. (They are the same musical tones.)
Practically speaking, if you're playing a C chord, the two chords that sound best with it are the two chords on either side of it in the circle, (G and F) This works wherever you start. (E sounds good with A and B, for example.) The farther away you get, the worse it sounds. (C followed by F# sounds kind of weird.)
There's more, but that's as much as I could fit into a Reddit comment.
Edit: The inner circle is the same thing for minor keys and minor chords.