Music Theory: Lesson 6 - Circle of Fifths Part 3 Video Lecture | Piano Tutorials Course: Beginners to Advance - Class 6

hello everybody back again for another
theory lesson we're going to basically
be wrapping up the circle fist today
circle fists what it tells you is it
gives you kind of a out outline of all
the different key signatures so you can
play those I'll explain more in detail
in the lesson I've explained in the
previous lessons what that's all about
as well so I encourage you to go back
and see those if you haven't already
done so so here we go and here's the
lesson okay so back to the circle of
fifths if you've been if you haven't
watched I think theory lessons three
four and five I suggest you do that
since that's where I introduced the
circle of fifths what it's for and
basically how to interpret this thing
I'm gonna do a quick review right now
remember if you go back to I think
lesson three or lesson four of the
theory lessons you'll you'll find that I
asked you to memorize the order of
sharps and the order of flats the order
sharps was f c g d a e b and the order
of flats was b e a d g c and f if you
remember the reason I had you memorize
those is the order sharps is the order
in which you add the sharps so the first
key which it has a sharp which is G has
one sharp F the next one has FC the next
one has FC g FC G da FC ji Dae so each
one adds one to that order of sharps so
that's why we learn that same thing with
flats we have the first flat which has B
B flat B an E flat B e a b EA DB e a d g
and last one is B e a D G C oh wait
sorry one last ones here B EA D G C F so
that's the order in which you add the
flats before we talked about some of the
sharp key signatures you don't have to
memorize this circle of fifths if you
want to that
we'll be actually very helpful just so
you don't have to refer to it later on
and what this is useful for is is
determining so say you're in a band or
say you just have a sheet of music that
says a key of G on it well if you know
your circle of fish you understand
what that really is telling you the key
of g-major by the way these are all
major keys minor keys are a little
different so we have the key of G and it
has one sharp so that's why we learn
these things and you know that that
sharp is F sharp so just a quick review
the key of C has nothing so if you think
about to the C scale and the that all of
the songs we've been playing up till now
are in the key of C they have no sharps
or no flats so you're not going to be
using any Black Keys whatsoever unless
it tells you otherwise within a song
that's a little different and I'll show
you what that what that is later on so
the next one key of G has one sharp key
of D has 2 sharps F and C key of a has
three sharps F C and G key of E has four
sharps fcg D key of B has five sharps
fcg D and a key of F sharp has six
sharps fcg d a E and C sharp has all six
sharps fcg da EB so you so I'll post
this up on the wiki you can also find
this online I think somewhere other than
the wiki well the circle fist is very
common so you can probably find it
almost anywhere some version of it
anyway so that's all the sharp key
signatures so when you move to the when
you move clockwise around the circle of
fifths those are all the sharp key
signatures the ones with the flats go
around in counterclockwise motion so you
start with F has one flat what flat is
that going to be well think about your
order of flats and count to the first
one well that's B so B is flat and then
you have the key of B flat which has two
flats which is B flat and E flat and
then you have E flat key of E flat has
three flats B flat E flat and a flat key
of a flat has four flats B flight
b b:e a and D flat D flat has b EA D G G
flat has B e ad G C and C flat has all
seven flats B e ad G C F so I want to
point something out here something it's
pretty easy to memorize just memorize
that the key of C has 0 doesn't have
anything so your sharps or flats the key
of C sharp has everything sharp and the
key of C flat has everything flat so
regular C nothing C sharp 7 sharps C
flat 7 flats probably the hardest key
signatures to play with are the ones
with more sharps and more flats usually
but everybody's a little bit different
so how you figure out let me think about
this for a second so so how you figure
out which key has how many sharps and
how many flats so the order of sharps
only helps you to determine the order in
which you add the sharps but it doesn't
tell you what key like letter key that
you're in there's a couple different
ways of doing that one way to do it is
to find the sharp than the the last note
that's sharp in this case that's F sharp
and you think about what a so oh I don't
the keyboard on but here's F sharp what
you do is you find the last sharp the 1
all the way to the right and you go up a
half step and that tells you the letter
of the key so a half step above F sharp
is G let's take a look at this next one
to see if this this example holds water
so we have F sharp and C sharp remember
you're going to take the rightmost sharp
so that's C sharp let's play C sharp
here let's move this over right here on
a half step above C sharp is which note
D so we're in the key of D and that
works with all the sharp key signatures
let's take a look at just one more
example so we have the key of hopefully
this is in frame we have the key of e
four sharps what's the last
well that's gonna be d sharp and what's
1/2 step above D sharp well that's going
to be e so that's one way of doing it
you can also do it this way you can
start by saying your order of sharps and
start counting at G so what I mean by
that is you're going to start you're
going to say FC ji Dae B but you're
gonna start counting at G & G is gonna
be 1 so you're gonna go FC G has 1 ds2 a
is 3 es 4 B has 5 and just remember that
it's going to go back into a circle so
so FC we're in the beginning but now
they're gonna be at the end with F sharp
having 6 and C sharp having 7 you can
think of it that way that might help if
you don't have the visual representation
right in front of you I assume most of
the time when you're at the keyboard you
can at least look at the keyboard figure
out what a half step above the last
sharp is that's probably gonna be the
easier method so the two methods is you
find the last sharp and you go up a
half-step that'll tell you what key
you're in or what you can do is you can
say your order sharps and start counting
at G so FC g d a e b F sharp C sharp
know that it goes back around again so
flats so how you figure out flats is you
can do it two different ways again the
one way is you can do it similar to the
way we did it before but with flats
first of all while CC has nothing it
doesn't work with the key of F you to do
this method you kind of just have to
memorize that F has one flat and that's
B flat but the rest if you're looking at
them you can figure them out quite
easily by this method so so say we have
the key of E flat we have two flats B
flat and E flat the next-to-last flat
not the last one not the one all the way
to the right but the one next to that
the right to the left of that tells you
what key you're in so let's take a look
at this well that's the last flat so we
go to the one before that and that's B
flat well guess what that's what key
were in let's take a look at the next
one
three flats B E and a flat we don't want
that a flat because that's the last one
we want to the one right to the left of
that which happens to be the middle one
and hey take a look at that be flat
let's take a look at the next one B e a
and D flat we have so take the next last
one oh hey that's an A flat a flat you
do D flat next to last one is D flat so
I think you might get the idea by now
so to recap with the flats you can do it
two ways oh yeah I didn't mention the
second way the second way is you say
your order flats and you start counting
at B flat this is the harder method but
probably decent if you don't have
anything in front of you so you start
your order flat so B and and remember
that you have to say flats with with all
the flats afterwards so B flat to E flat
a flat D flat G flat and C flat remember
has all seven so you start counting it
at just memorize that F has one flat and
then you start counting at B with two so
B flat E flat a flat D flat G flat and C
flat but if you're looking at the key
signature I'd say the easier method with
both of these sharps and flats is to
just look at four flats you look at the
next-to-last one that tells you exactly
what it is
so there's B flat B flat E flat E flat a
flat a flat remember with the sharps the
easier method when you're looking at the
key signatures is to take the very last
sharp the one all the way to the right
and you go up a half step and that will
tell you what key you're in so that
completes this circle of fifths just
remember that it's important because
you're going to be playing especially as
we go along I think next lesson actually
we have a song in the key of G so it's
just important to know that the key of G
has one sharp and that F sharp the key
signature tells you which notes are
going to be sharp to flat throughout the
whole piece unless it tells you
otherwise and I'll I'll demonstrate that
as we get a little more complicated so
there you have it that is I think the
last lesson I made
a quick review later on of the circle of
fifths so leave me any comments and
questions as always and thanks for
watching and I'll see you for the outro
alright everybody that wraps up Theory
lesson 6 what we talked about today is
we've wrapped up the circle of fifths
which tells you what each key is and
what sharps and flats each of those keys
has if you have any other comments or
questions you can leave those in the
comments section below
also I'm going to post this I think I
already have the circle of fists to the
wiki so you can study it you don't have
to memorize it but it is helpful to it
at the very least understand what it is
to be able to play those different kinds
of key signatures and things and in the
future lessons I think the next piano
lesson in fact will have songs in
different key signatures starting with G
the probably the easiest one next to the
key is C so we'll go from there so
anyway thanks for watching as always and
I'll see you guys and girls next time