Circle of Fifths For Fun
Do you know and understand the Circle of Fifths?
When I learned the Circle of Fifths, it was in a workbook. I hated it. My teacher explained how to use Major chords to figure it out, but at that point, I didn’t even fully understand a Major chord. So, she backed up and began with chords first, teaching me the patterns using terms Whole and Half steps then ultimately WWHW. Yeah, that made no sense to me either.
By the time we got around the circle of fifths for the first time, I was confused, bored and unimpressed. I had no idea why I needed this information, or even why the piano itself was built around it. Music Theory was torture to me.
Key Signatures hidden within Circle of Fifths
When I got to my 3rd teacher, she required me to identify all the Major Key signatures on flashcards. I was not motivated until a master class happened in a game with peers. Then I noticed, all the students were fast on their answers, yet I was dead last each time so I quit trying altogether that day. But I did begin to memorize the patterns for identifying those key signatures. When I asked my teacher why this was important, she related it back to the circle of fifths. I was still confused.
College level expectations
In college I could play all kinds of music pretty well. My first theory class covered the Circle of Fifths. By this time I could fill in the circle and answer the questions, but it still lacked purpose in knowing or caring.
Making the Circle of Fifths a favorite theory lesson
Once I had students playing intermediate music I knew I had to teach this dreaded topic. I found that if I made it fun, students picked it up very quickly. I began with giving them a paper, pen and having them make an outline of a clock. Before moving on, I had them turn the paper over and try to do it faster, like within 12 seconds. It was fun from the beginning.
Next we use major chords and learn why “fifths” are used. I give them the first 2 answers and ask them to find the 3rd. As soon as someone does it correctly, I asked them to explain why. Then I ask for someone else to “predict” the 4th chord. We do this all the way from C to F#/Gb. Then we turn the paper over, find our original “clock” and see how quickly they can fill in the half of the circle.
Reinforcing, redoing, adding energy and enthusiasm makes learning the Circle of 5th SO much better than the work book approach. To this day, if I google a video on the Circle of 5ths, I cringe at all the lengthy explanations and how little time is focused on learning and application.
