Circle of Fifths

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Welcome to jazz piano skills. I'm Dr. Bob Lawrence. It's time to discover, learn and play jazz piano. Today you're going to discover the circle of fifths. And you're going to learn how to think about and use the circle of fifths when practicing and you are going to play 10 harmonic circle of fifths exercises. So as I always like to say regardless of where you are in your jazz journey, a beginner and intermediate player advanced player even if you consider yourself as seasoned and experienced professional, you are going to find this jazz piano skills podcast lesson, exploring the circle of fifths to be very beneficial. If you are new to jazz piano skills if you are a first-time jazz piano skills podcast listener, I want to personally invite you to become a jazz piano skills member. Visit jazz piano skills.com To learn more about the abundance of jazz educational resources, materials services that are available for you to utilize to help you develop into an accomplished jazz pianist. For example, as a jazz piano skills member, you have access to all of the educational podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the playlists that I produce, and I develop, and publish for every weekly podcast episode. These are invaluable tools that you're going to want to use to study and to practice with. So as a jazz piano skills member you also have access to the sequential jazz piano curriculum, which is bloated with comprehensive courses that use a self-paced format educational talks, interactive media, video demonstrations in all 12 keys, play along, and much much more. Also, as a jazz panel skills member you have a reserved seat and the online weekly masterclass, which, in essence, is an online lesson with me every single week. You also as a jazz piano skills member have access to the private jazz piano skills community, which hosts a variety of engaging forums, podcast-specific forums, course-specific forums, and just general jazz piano forums as well. And last but certainly not least, you have access as a jazz piano skills member you have access to unlimited, private, personal, and professional educational support whenever and as often as you need it. Again, visit jazz panel skills.com To learn more about all the educational opportunities and how to easily activate your membership. If you have any questions at all, please reach out let me know I'm always happy to spend some time with you answer any questions that you may have, and help you in a way that I can. Okay, so let's discover learn and play jazz piano let's discover learn and play the circle of fifths. So why is the circle of fifths so miss understood? In fact, I would argue that it may be it may be the most misunderstood concept in all of music, especially in the jazz era. Maybe second two voicings but it's it's it's a tough it's a I would be I would be challenged to pick one over the other but it's up there, right one or two. So why, why so much confusion about the circle of fifths? Well, here's my answer to that question. The circle of fifths is so misunderstood because it's so poorly taught. Right So to prove my point, to prove my point, just do a circle of fifths Google search and then look at all the different images of the circle of fifths. Enough set just a casual glance at all the various images

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will give you a headache and leave you scratching your head wondering what the heck I mean some of the circle of fifths diagrams look like hieroglyphics, others look like some kind of astrology diagram Well, while others have arrows pointing me in both directions to one side and to the other side of the circle, and on and on and on. So no wonder, there is so much confusion when it comes to the circle of fifths. So, my goal here today is pretty simple it is to clear up any misunderstandings and misconceptions that you may have about the circle of fifths. And in doing so, help you begin using it as a practice tool that will help you gain a command of essential skills and ultimately expedite your musical development. So I want to, I want to begin by explaining what the circle of fifths is not. Okay? The circle of fifths is not number one, it is not a cute way to organize in diagram musical keys. Right? You see it all the time key is C no sharps, no flats. If you go to the left key of F one flat and check this out, if you go to the right, key A G one sharp, isn't that's cute, right? God, two steps to the left, you get the key of B flat that has two flats and go two steps to the to the right and you get the key of D two sharps. That's very cute. But that's not what the circle of fifths is there to the circle of fifths is not a way to conveniently pair major minor keys together, you see that all the time in the images as well. Just another layer of confusion. Number three is the circle of fifths is not the circle of fourths. Right, you see this diagram. When moving to the left, that's the circle of fifths when moving knowing the way the diagram it actually is the other way. Moving to the right is the circle of fifths, which is completely wrong. And moving to the left the circle of fourths, right, is very confusing. And number four, it's it is not some kind of musical code to unlock to magically unlock and reveal all the secrets hidden within music, which is exactly what some of the Google diagrams inadvertently at least I hope inadvertently lead you to believe. Now don't get me wrong, the circle of fifths can be a convenient and organized way for you to get a handle on key signatures it can it can also help you establish the association between major and minor keys no doubt. But that is not the purpose of the circle of fifths. And in fact, if that is how you use the circle of fifths, or that is what you have thought as being you thought that was the main purpose of the circle of fifths, then you have truly missed the forest for the trees. Truly. So what is the point, the purpose, of a circle of fifths? Well, here it is. The Circle of Fifths illustrates harmonic motion. Common harmonic motion found in music, the magnetic pole that exists from one chord to the next, especially the five to one dominant to tonic relationship. And in order to begin understanding this, to begin seeing this, to begin feeling this to begin hearing this motion, you have to travel counterclockwise around the circle. Initially, it is important that you think of every letter on the circle of fifths initially, I think it's important that you think of every letter on the circle of fifths as representing the dominant chord, the five chord, so C is the fifth of F, C dominant resolves to F major five to one. F dominant resolves to B flat major. Again five to one, B flat dominant resolves to E flat major five to one and so on around the entire circle.

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It is this five to one relationship. It gives the circle its name, the circle of fifths, the fifth resolving to the one it probably should have been called the circle of five one relationships. In fact, if it had been called the circle of phi one relationships, there would probably be a lot less confusion as to what the heck is the purpose of the circle. But the circle actually goes much, much deeper than just five one relationships, I want to take a second and walk you through some more relationships that you need to see within the circle. Now, hopefully, you have a circle of fifths in front of you, or hopefully, you know it well enough to envision it in your head. So take a look at the letter D on the circle. Now we've established that the fact that if the D represents a dominant chord, D dominant, it's going to resolve to the next letter on circle moving counterclockwise the letter G, which would reset represent the five one relationship that we just discussed. But what if we make the letter D A minor chord and treat it as a two chord, D minor. Now the two chord wants to progress to the five chord, which would be G seven, G dominant. What's the next letter on circle moving counterclockwise from D? Em, G. And what a coincidence, right? What a coincidence. And the G seven the G dominant, as we know wants to progress to what chord the one chord, which would be C major, and what's the next letter moving counterclockwise in the circle? Wow, another coincidence, it's the note C, we now have a 251 progression D to G to C. And I know that if you've been poking around in jazz for a while, I know that you are already quite aware of the importance of the 251 progression. But wait, as the old saying goes, But wait, there's more. After the 251 progression, the most common progression in jazz is the 6251 progression. Six, go into two go into five, go into one, check out the letter A on the circle. Let's treat that letter A has the six chord in the key of C, which it is. Now unfold the rest of the progression moving counterclockwise on the circle. Amazing, right? A to D, D to G, G to C 6251. There it is, right there in the circle of fifths. Now, what's the next most important progression in jazz? It's the 3625. Right 36251. Now, check out the letter E on a circle. And let's treat the letter E as the three chord in the key of C, which of course it is. And once again, let's unfold the progression using the circle. Eat a A to D, D to G, G to C. Check out what we have 36251 Amazing. But I think you're starting to see how powerful the circle is when it comes to illuminating the harmonic motion that exists within music. Now, I want you to go to the bottom of the circle. Let's just jump to the bottom of the circle and look at the note F sharp. So what if we make this our starting point and move counterclockwise up to the note C we end up with F sharp to B, B to E E to A A to D, D to G, G to C or sharp four to seven.

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Seven to three to six the two to five to one, an entire progression of fifths, moving counterclockwise and outlining what could easily what could easily be explained as the seven notes. So the C Lydian mode, which by the way, is the major sound of choice Amongst many jazz musicians, including myself, right, F sharp the bead E to A, D to G to C. Wow, it's the entire scale the entire mode unfolding before our very eyes within the circle of fifths. See, see how amazing the circle is when you move counterclockwise and see it, as it is intended to be seen a diagram depicting the harmonic motion of fifths found within the 12 keys of music. Now, I'm using the key of C as an example today, but we can start anywhere on the circle and create a sharp 4736251 progression. How cool is that? So the educational agenda for today is as follows. Number one, I am going to present 10 harmonic exercises using the sharp 4736251 motion found in the circle of fifths number to each of the 10 harmonic exercises will focus on to five relationships in the key of C major. In other words, minor to dominant, sharp, four minor to seven dominant, three minor to six dominant, two minor to five dominant, and then finally resolving to the one major chord. All of which, all of which are very common progressions found in jazz found in the literature that you listen to in the literature that you play. And number three, each exercise will focus on various types of harmony or voicings. Traditional block voicings traditional three-note shells, contemporary three-note shells, and contemporary two-handed five-note shapes. In other words, we're going to use the circle of fifths to practice those voicings using the common progressions found within a key within the circle of fifths. Wow. And finally, I will be playing all demonstrations today all exercises using a pretty comfy Temple of 120. And you know, I give this little talk every week as well. Always begin at slower tempos When beginning to study and to practice any new jazz piano skill, right, start slow 7080 90 and work your way up. If you are a jazz piano skills member, I want you to take a few minutes right now to hit the pause button. And download access, download and print the illustrations and the lead sheets. For this podcast episode, you have access to all of the podcast packets, and you, should I remind you every week, you should be using them when you're listening to this podcast lesson. And of course, you should be using them when practicing. And if you're listening to the podcast on any of the popular podcast directories such as Apple or Google, Amazon, Spotify, I heart Pandora, on and on and on, then be sure to go to jazz piano skills podcast.com go directly to that site jazz panel skills podcast.com to access and download the podcast packets, you will find the download links the active links in the show notes. Okay. And one final but extremely important note. If you are thinking that the circle of fifths that we are about to discover, learn in play is in some ways or if you think it is in all the way over your head, then I would say to you chill, relax. It's okay. It's no big deal.

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Continue to listen, continue to grow your jazz piano skills intellectually by listening to this podcast episode this lesson because the fact is all skills are overheads when first introduced. And that is precisely why the first step we always need to take when we step out to grow musically, is we need to just listen. Right all musical growth begins upstairs mentally, conceptually, before it can come out downstairs physically in your hands. So listen to sit back and listen to this podcast lesson now to discover and learn the play as always, will come in time. Okay, so we're going to use the circle of fifths, right to work on our voice All right, we're gonna work on our voicings, and we're gonna use the circle of fifths to do so. And we're going to use our sharp 4736251 progression movement that we find moving counterclockwise, within the circle. So to begin, we're going to start with attacking our four-note traditional block voicings right that include the root, third, five, the fifth, and the seventh of each sound. And as I mentioned earlier, we're going to treat every voicing every progression within the circle, the sharp four going, the sharp four, going to the seven is a minor five relationship, the three go into six is a minor five relationship to go into the five, a minor five relationship, that then finally resolves to the one chord to the major. And this type of movement exists within the standards within the literature that you listen to, and that you play. So for example, if we start off, we're in the key of C, we're gonna start off with sharp four, which is the F sharp minor, going to the B, the seven dominant, an E minor, the three go into six $1, going to D minor, going to five G dominant, resolving to one. Okay. And we're starting intentionally starting the sharp for the two of each one of these pairings in root position. So F sharp minor is in root position, we're going to be dominant in second inversion, E minor root position, a dominant second inversion, D minor root position, G dominant second inversion, C major repetition. So in time, it sounds like this.

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You're probably saying yourself, Hey, I've heard that. I hear that. I hear that in the songs I listened to in the songs I play. And you are absolutely correct. So I want to bring the ensemble in. I'm going to play through this progression, sharp 4736251 Using my minor dominant relationships pairings. And I'm going to play it first in the left hand a couple times, and I'm going to play it in the right hand a couple of times, and I'm going to play it in the hands together a couple of times. Let's listen to it, then we'll talk about it here we go.

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Pretty cool, right. Now I'm gonna tell you why these four-note, traditional block voicings are so important to get under your fingers. It's I tell students all the time, it's really prepping you for improvisation, more than anything else. These voicings are nice and I use them but I actually use the traditional three-note shells and contemporary shells. I use them more frequently than I do these voicings. But really these are these sets you up these shapes these root position and inverted shapes set you up for improvisational development. So they're important not only harmonically but melodically is the point that I'm trying to make. So now, if we start our F sharp minor in first inversion, instead of root possession, right, so we start our F sharp minor and first inversion, then when we go to be dominant, the seven, that's going to be in third inversion, okay? And that's going to be the formula all the way down, that our E minor is in first inversion, a dominant third inversion, D minor, first inversion, G dominant, third inversion. Finally to the C major in root I'm sorry, in first inversion. Okay, so same, same progression sharp for 736251. Right, same minor dominant two, five Relationships, except this time we're starting the whole sequence, the entire sequence, starting it with first inversion minor with our sharp for F sharp minor. So let's bring the ensemble in, let's listen to it again, I'm going to play a couple of times in the left hand, play the progression a couple of times in the right hand, and then hands together, here we go. Let's check it out.

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Very nice, right, very nice. And by the way, if you need to brush up on these four-note shapes, and their inversions. As a jazz piano skills member, you have access to the courses. And in the first several courses deal with all these traditional four-note block voicings and their inversions. And there's also previous podcast episodes that you can look in online to look at the various episodes, and they are discussed and presented there as well. So that's the case with all of the voicings today, not with just these root position blocks. I mean, I'm sorry, with the traditional four-note blocks. But it's also the case with the traditional three-note shells, and the traditional and the contemporary three-note shells, you'll find courses and various podcast episodes that deal specifically with the shapes and these sounds. Okay, so now, we're going to again stick with the same progression sharp 4736251. And we're going to stay in the key of C, and we're going to start with our sharp four F sharp minor, but this time, we're going to start it in second inversion. So our F sharp minor is going to be in second inversion. And then we're going to go to that's going to go to our seven dominant in root position, and then E minor, second inversion, a dominant root position, D minor, second inversion, G dominant root position, and then C major second inversion, see how it just rocked back and forth between those shapes. So again, we're just getting familiar with the data looking at it from various perspectives when we're when we invert the shapes. So let's bring the ensemble back in. Going to approach it the exact same way I'm going to play the progression the minor five relationships sharp 4736251 and the left hand first a couple of times then the right hand a couple of times, then hands together. So here we go. Let's check it out.

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Okay, only one more variation to explore with these traditional four-note block voicings, we're going to start our F sharp minor now in third inversion. So it's gonna sound like this. Going to our B dominant seven or seven in first inversion, E minor third inversion, a seven, first inversion D minor third inversion. G dominant first inversion and then our C major finally resolving to the one in third inversion. So same progression sharp 4736251 lifted right from our circle of fifths, moving counterclockwise playing minor dominant relationships all the way through the sound in the key of C major, sharp 4736251. So again, bringing the ensemble back in got to play this variation in the left hand a couple of times, then in the right hand a couple of times and then hands together. So let's check it out and see what we think here we go.

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Okay, very nice. That wraps up our looking at the traditional four-note block voicings, using the circle of fifths, the sharp 4736251 progression found within the circle of fifths, to help us practice our four-note block voicings and their various inverted shapes. That's just good practice, not just from a harmonic perspective, but as I mentioned earlier, setting you up and prepping you for the shapes that you need to have a command of to develop into an improviser as well. So now let's move on to our traditional three notes shells, keeping the same progression key as C Sharp 4736251. But now we're going to use our traditional shells, we're going to use our 379 and 739379 and 735 shapes. So for F sharp minor 379 going to be dominant are 7735, E minor, 379, a dominant 735, D minor, 379, G dominant 735. Resolving the C Major 379. Beautiful, right. So if you notice in the circle motion, circle motion, 379735 voicings alternate, they're alternating back and forth. So I'm moving from 379 to 735379, to 735, and so on. So that progression again is going to sound like this

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really nice. So now let's place it in a musical context. Let's bring the ensemble back in and you're going to be hearing me play these voicings in my left hand the shells, you're gonna hear me play through it several times. Keep it pretty straight at first and then add some rhythmic variation as I get comfortable with the shape and get comfortable with the motion through the sharp force 736251 So here we go. Let's check it

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out. Very nice I love it. Great sounds the who shows these 379735 shells need to be in your arsenal, you need to have these shapes in your arsenal when playing jazz piano. So now we're just going to reverse it right, we started with 379 go into 735, alternating back and forth. But now, we're actually going to start with the 735, which will then go to 379. So now our F sharp minor is going to be a 735 voicing going to our B seven or seventh chord, and that's going to be 379, and so forth through the entire progression. So same shells, the exact same three note shells that I just played, except now, and instead of starting the progression, the movement the motion through the entire progression in the key of C instead of starting with the 379 shape, I'm going to start with the 735 shape. Okay, so let's bring the ensemble back and let's take another listen see how these three note traditional shell sound when using circle motion, and alternating from 7352379. So here we go. Let's check it out see what we think?

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Very, very nice love it. Again, these shells these traditional three-note shells. As jazz piano skills members, there are entire courses devoted to these shapes in the jazz panel skills curriculum. So spend time in those courses, if you really need to brush the shapes off or get introduced to them thoroughly for the first time. And there are also podcast episodes with that are devoted to these shapes as well. Okay, so now let's continue on. And let's move on to our contemporary three-note shells. The difference here, the three-note shells that we just finished up with always had a third an interval of a third contained within the shape. These voicings the contemporary three-note shells are built primarily on the interval of a fourth. So for instance, our F sharp minor, starting on the root would be voiced as an F sharp, B, and N E. All force, right. And then from there, we're going so that's root position, F sharp minor root position, then we're gonna go to a to the b dominant, starting with the seventh in our little finger, but again, A to D sharp, to G sharp. Again, all fourths. So sounds like this F sharp minor, to B seven, nice E minor, to a seven D minor, the g7. C major, write different sound, especially if you're not used to hearing fourth, but we're going to use this circle of fifths as a way to practice these shapes. As a way to practice this common motion going from sharp four to seven to three to six to two to five to one, and I'm going to play the minor the minor voicing off by starting with the root on the bottom, the dominant voicing starting with the seventh on the bottom, both built using force and then finally resolving to C major at the end with the third on the bottom, again built using all fours. So let's bring our ensemble and let's check it out and see what we think here we go.

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What a sound right? So very common contemporary jazz pianos. These are the types of voicings that you're hearing all the time. In fact, you're hearing a combination of all these voicings that we're doing today, right, but you're getting a heavy dose of these shapes built using force. So now we're going to do the same thing, we're going to continue to work through our circle of fifths sharp 4736251. And we're going to continue to use our contemporary three-note shells. But now we're going to start our minor chord on the fifth of the sound, right? So for our F sharp minor is going to be we're going to start on C sharp, F sharp, and B, right. Then when we go to our B dominant, we're going to actually go to the third of the B dominant. So our B dominant will be D sharp, G sharp, C sharp. Okay, so again, F sharp minor, to B should be dominant. And then we're going to work our way down, E minor off the fifth, a dominant third, D minor off the fifth, G dominant off the third. And then finally, C major of the seven. Wow, okay. So let's bring our ensemble back in. Uh, let's check this out, and see what we think. Here we

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go. What a great sound. So just to do a real quick recap with these quarter voicings, for the minor sounds we're starting, the primary shapes are starting the minor either on the root of the minor sound, or on the fifth of the minor sound on the dominant chord on the third, or the seventh of the sound. And then likewise, on the major, either the third, or the seventh, the sound, and those are alternating back and forth as we move through the sharp 4736251 progression. Right, just as with our traditional shells, 3792735 alternated. Same thing here, right. The minor route going to the dominant on the seventh is going to alternate those, those voicings or the minor on the fifth, alternating with the dominant on the third. Alright, again, there are courses within the jazz panel skills curriculum that will help walk you through all of this. I'm illustrating today how we can practice these shapes using the circle of fifths, and using the proper understanding of the circle of fifths in order to practice harmonic shapes voicings and harmonic movement at the same time. Smart practice indeed. So now we move on to our two-handed shapes. Okay, two-handed voicings that are split between the left hand and the right hand. So our F sharp minor, again starting on the root, going to our B dominant chord or a minor chord or a C, or D minor on our G on the C major. Again, sharp 4736251 wonderful sound Okay, so let's bring the ensemble in. Let's check out these two-handed voicings in a musical context using the circle of fifths and our sharp 4736251 progression. Very cool, let's check it out and see what we think here we go.

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Awesome, really awesome. I want to clarify one thing. However, the with that with those voicings, I was playing my F sharp minor starting with the root on the bottom going to be dominant I dominant shapes with the seventh on the bottom. So every minor had the root on the bottom, every dominant had the seventh on the bottom, root on the bottom, seventh on the bottom, and then the major with the third on the bottom. Now, we're going to just use another sequence where we're going to start with our F sharp minor with the fifth on the bottom. So C sharp on the bottom, going to our B seven with third on the bottom. So it's going to alternate like that all the way through the progression. E minor with the fifth on the bottom, a seventh with the third on the bottom, D minor with the fifth on the bottom, G dominant with the third on the bottom, and then C major with the seventh on the bottom. So it sounds like this

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try that one more time.

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There we go. All right, so let's bring the ensemble endless drop these voicings, these alternating voicings, using the circle of fifths, the sharp 4736251 progression. Let's hear these shapes in a musical context and see what we think here we go.

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How very cool, right how very cool. We have used the circle of fifths today with our understanding of the circle of fifths, that it is there to illuminate for us common harmonic motion that exists within music within especially within the jazz literature that we play this 51251 relationship this circle motion Why is that so important? Because there are only really three types of harmonic movement that exist in music, circle motion, chromatic motion, and diatonic motion. By far, by far circle motion is the most important and found most frequently throughout all the literature that you're going to play. So the circle of fifths illuminates this very important motion. So we took the circle of fifths today and we unveiled within the circle moving counterclockwise we unveiled the sharp 4736251 movement. And we yanked it out of that circle for the key of C. And then we use that understanding of that motion to practice what practice voicings so we practice tradition. No four-note block voicings so that we can practice our inverted shapes. We practice traditional three-note shells so we can get our 379 and 735 voicings under our fingers. And then we practiced our contemporary three-note shells. So we can get that chordal sound under our fingers and in our ears. And then we practiced our two-handed voicings, our five-note shapes, to the left three in the right. So we took our, our voicings, applied them to the circle of fifths, and to the common motion is sharp, 4736251 motion that the circle illuminates for us, that is also found with on all the literature that we play. So there's a lot of really effective and efficient practicing going on. When you understand the circle of fifths, and you utilize it as a practice tool. Now, we could have done melodic exercises today with that same progression. We could also do rhythmic exercises with that motion as well. So today, I'm just illustrating using harmonic skills to practice with my circle of fifths. And even with just limiting ourselves to looking at harmonic studies today, using the circle of fifths never fails, right? We unpacked a ton of information. And today certainly, we do it every week, right and today, certainly no exception. I want to encourage you as a jazz piano skills member to check out the download and utilize the podcast packets, the illustrations, I have the circle of fifths illustrations in there and then what I call the diatonic circle of fifths which, which in essence what we were doing today the sharp 4736251 I call those diatonic because a standard we're staying within a key within a specific key and today we stayed within the key of C. So the illustrations have these paper practice templates for you to study and for you to utilize when practicing the circle of fifths, okay, so make sure that you use them the play alongs I have all 12 keys that you can access the progression, the diatonic circles that we use today is laid out for you in all 12 keys, right? Most importantly, I remind you every week to be patient developing jazz piano skills, whether they're harmonic skills, melodic skills or rhythmic skills, regardless of the skill, right? It takes time. It takes time so be patient. You'll see that if you practice the skills as I modeled for you today, you will indeed you will indeed begin to see and hear and feel your progress I guarantee it. Well, I hope you have found this jazz panel skills podcast lesson exploring the circle of fifths to be very insightful. And of course, I hope you find it to be very beneficial. Don't forget if you're a jazz panel skills member I will see you online Thursday evening at the jazz panel skills masterclass 8pm Central time to discuss this podcast episode lesson exploring the circle of fifths in greater detail and to answer any questions that you may have about the study of jazz in general. Again, as a jazz piano skills member, be sure to use the educational podcast packets, the illustrations, the lead sheets, the

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play alongs for this podcast lesson for all the podcast episodes, and be sure to use the jazz panel skills courses to maximize your musical growth. And likewise, be sure that you are an active participant in the jazz panel skills community. Get out there, get involved, contribute to the various forums, make some new jazz piano friends, always a great thing to do. You can reach me by phone 972-380-8050 my extension is 211 or by email Dr. Lawrence, Dr. Lawrence at jazz piano skills.com or by SpeakPipe found throughout the jazz piano skills website. Well, there is my cue. That's it for now. And until next week, enjoy studying and playing the circle of fifths. Enjoy the journey. And most of all, have fun as you discover, learn and play jazz piano