12 - BAR BLUES (4) (4) (5) 8 - BAR BLUES (5) (1) (5) RHYTHM CHANGES I GOT RHYTHM BRIDGE

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2 12 - BAR BLUES (4) (4) (5) 8 - BAR BLUES (5) (1) (5) RHYTHM CHANGES I GOT RHYTHM BRIDGE HONEYSUCKLE ROSE BRIDGE

3 DIATONIC PROGRESSION For example, in the key of C, going UP C Dm Em F G G Or, going DOWN: F Em Dm C Classic examples: Here, There and Everywhere (1 st 8 bars) Lean On Me Like a Rolling Stone (1 st 8 bars, then later in the tune, descending progression)

4 12 - BAR BLUES (4) (4) (5) 8 - BAR BLUES (5) (1) (5)

5 DEMYSTIFYING THE CIRCLE OF FIFTH You ve probably seen the circle of fifths pictured above (well, minus the Sokolow Music logo I put in the center), and maybe there have been attempts to explain it to you. It really is a great tool with many uses, but most explanations sail right over people s heads. I m going to try to demystify it and show how it can help your playing and your understanding of music. Here are some reasons why this is worth your time: 1) Once you grasp what the circle is about, you ll know how many chord progressions work which will make it easier to learn new songs. You ll see the patterns that are repeated in song after song. 2) You can use the circle to transpose (play a song in a different key than the one in which it s written), and to play a song in any key. 3) You can use it to find and memorize chord families, which ultimately leads to hearing chord changes. 4) All the above will help you get to the place where you hear and play music with some real understanding of how it works, rather than just memorizing things. Before all this can happen, you need some basic music theory. If you already know about the numbers system, chord families and relative minors, skip the next three paragraphs!

6 The Numbers System The language of music is often expressed with numbers rather than letters. Musicians say, Go to the 4 chord, or Go to the 2 minor. The numbers refer to the major scale. Since C is the first note in the C major scale, a C chord is the 1 chord in the key of C. D, or D7 or Dm is the 2 chord; E is the 3 chord, and so on. In the key of D, E is the 2 chord. No matter which key you re in, going from the 1 chord to the 5 chord has a certain sound. So does going from 1 to 4. It s the spaces between chords the intervals that give a chord progression its unique sound. Once you can recognize the sounds of the various intervals (1 to 4, 2 to 5)*, you understand how music works, and you can play a song in any key. You re not just memorizing letter names; you re feeling the song s structure. * In the numbers system, two minor is written 2. The Chord Family Regardless of a song s key, the 1, 4 and 5 chords are the usual suspects the chords that are most likely to occur. Millions of folk, country, blues, bluegrass and classic rock songs consist of just those three chords. They can be in any order imaginable. It s helpful to have the chord families memorized: 1, 4 and 5 in the key of C is C, F and G, for example. Relative Minors Every major chord has a relative minor, a closely related chord that is a sixth higher. For example, D is the sixth note in the F major scale, so Dm is the relative minor of F. If you play an F chord and a Dm chord on the guitar or uke (the easy, first-position chords), you ll see how similar they are. If you strum the F and the Dm over and over in a rhythm, you ll recognize the familiar sound of the relative minor in context. If a tune has more than just the immediate chord family (1, 4 and 5), the next chords most likely to occur are the relative minors of 1, 4 or 5. In the key of C, for example, C, F and G are the immediate chord family, and their relative minors, Am, Dm and Em make an extended chord family. A song in the key of C is likely to include any one, two or all three of these minor chords. Now, let s look at the circle of fifths and how to use it: THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS GROUPS CHORDS IN CHORD FAMILIES Look at the C at the top of the circle. F (the note or the chord), a fourth above C, is one step counterclockwise. G a fifth above C, is one step clockwise. The same applies in any key. The chart says that if you re in the key of E, the 4 chord is A (one step counter-clockwise) and the 5 chord is B (one step clockwise). The chords inside the circle are relative minors, so the chart enables you to view any extended chord family at a glance. For example, looking at the key of G: G is the 1 chord, and Em is its relative minor; C (one step counter-clockwise) is the 4 chord, and Am is its relative minor; D (one step clockwise) is the 5 chord, and its relative minor is Bm. This is a good enough reason to get the circle of fifths tattooed on your left wrist (so you can look down at it while playing the uke) or to buy the vinyl stick-ons I ll pitch at the end of this article. Because after looking at the circle for a while, you ll start to

7 memorize all the chord familes, and know all the relative minors by heart. Because so many songs consist of just the immediate chord family, this is valuable info! But, believe it or not, it s not the main reason the circle exists. THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS HELPS YOU TRANSPOSE Transposition means changing a song s key. If you find a tune written out in a songbook in a difficult key, or a key that doesn t suit your voice, you can change it to any key by looking at the distance on the circle between the given key and your key. For example, if a tune is in Eb and you want to play it in C: C is three clockwise steps away from Eb on the circle, so to transpose from Eb to C you move every chord in the tune three clockwise steps. Ab becomes F, Cm becomes Am, Bb becomes G, etc. Helpful, but still not the main thing about the circle okay, here it is: THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS HELPS YOU UNDERSTAND CHORD PROGRESSIONS Many chord progressions consist of (or include) circle-of-fifths motion. That means you leave the chord family and return to the 1 chord by going up by 4ths. This happens, for example, in these typical first eight bars of Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue, Please Don t Talk About Me When I m Gone and many other songs: C E7 A7 A7 D7 G7 C C The key here is C. You leave the C chord family when you go to E7. Then you go up a 4th to A7 (A is the 4th note in the E major scale), up a 4th to D7 (D is a 4th above A) and up another 4th to G7 (G is a 4th above D) and up still another 4th to C, finally resolving the progression (coming back to the home base). Look how this motion looks on the cirle: You jump from C to E7, then you go counter clockwise (up by 4ths) until you get back to C. As you ascend by 4ths, the chords along the way can be minors instead of sevenths. One of the most often-used circle-of-fifths progressions is the Rhythm Changes, named after Gershwin s I Got Rhythm. It s 1, 6-, 2-, 5, or, in the key of C: C Am Dm G7 Here s how that progression looks on the circle: You play C (the 1 chord); then jump out of the chord family, three steps clockwise, to A (the 6 chord) and play Am; then come back to C, going up by fourths: one step counter-clockwise to Dm (2-), another step counter clockwise to G7 (5 7 ), a last step counter clockwise to C (1). Countless pop songs include the Rhythm Changes. Some examples: Blue Moon, Be My Baby, Heart And Soul, Please Mr. Postman and Stand By Me. Sometimes the entire song is 1, 6-, 2-, 5, over and over again, as in Stand By Me. Play this progression (you can sing Stand By Me while strumming the chords) in every key; it s a great exercise because this sequence of chords will happen in so many songs. Notice that when you go two steps clockwise (e.g. from C to D), you re going to the 2 chord. Three steps clockwise (C to A) takes you to the 6 chord. Four steps (C to E)

8 takes you to the 3 chord. These intervals are the same in any key. For example, in the key of F, A (four steps clockwise) is the 3 chord. Some progressions consist solely of circle-of-fifths movement, and in some songs only part of the song goes up by fourths, and the rest of the progression just randomly combines the chords in the immediate chord family. There are other types of chord movement as well, but that s the subject for another article! In the meantime, here are a few exercises to help you understand and use the circle of fifths: 1) Take a simple two chord song like Jambalaya or Down in the Valley, both of which consist of 1 and 5, and play it in as many keys as you can. As you change chords, think Now I m going to the 5 chord or now I m coming back to the 1 chord. 2) Do the same thing with a three chord (1, 4 and 5) song, like You Are My Sunshine or This Land Is Your Land, and be aware of which chord you re playing: the 1, 4 or 5. 3) As mentioned before, play the rhythm changes (1, 6-, 2-, 5) in lots of keys, while singing Stand By Me, and be aware of the interval of each chord as you strum it ( Now I m on the 6- ). 4) Find a song you like that s written in a songbook, and use the circle of fifths to change it to a different key. 5) Play along with the recording of Anytime, a song Emmet Miller made famous in 1924 that has been recorded by countless artists. The progression is written out below (in the key of F) with letters and numbers. It mostly consists of circle of fifths motion, especially s, with one instance of (which goes one step farther back on the circle than ). Then use the circle to play it in many other keys, always being aware of the interval you re playing ( Now I m on the 6 chord, going to the 2 chord, ). ANYTIME in the key of F D7 D7 G7 G7 C7 C7 F F Bb Bb F D7 G7 G7 C7 C D7 D7 G7 G7 C7 C7 A7 A7 D7 D7 Gm Gm C7 C7 F F

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