Forming Guitar Chord Progressions from the Circle of Fifths
The circle of fifths is the best way to write your own songs, or to find the key of a well known song on guitar without learning advanced musical theory and spending years of trial and error figuring out what guitar chords work well together.
The circle of fifths is a circular diagram with an inner circle and outer circle.
The outer circle shows all the major guitar chords. The inner circle shows the more important minor guitar chords. The circle of fifths is arranged so that related guitar chords are next to each other.
How to Use the Circle of Fifths
The circle of fifths is very straightforward to use. Choose the key you want to play in.
As an example you will use the key of A minor The 5 chords touching A minor on the circle of fifths diagram can be used with A minor to form a guitar chord progression. For A minor these chords are Dm, Em, C, F and G.
The second great thing about the circle of fifths is that the chord positioning is relative throughout the circle.
For example C is related to F the same way that D is related to G or E is related to A.
This is especially useful when you have problems playing certain chords (e.g. The F Chord) and you want to transpose between keys.
If you have a song with the chords C, F and G but you can’t play F yet you can transpose between keys using the circle of fifths. The C can be played as A, the F can be played as D and the G can be played as E.
Limitations of the Circle of Fifths
While functionally, the circle of fifths does what it is supposed to quite well, it is a limited tool.
The most obvious problem is that for any chord progression, the circle of fifths gives only six guitar chords, counting the root chord, but it is for keys that actually contain eight chords in all.
While the two chords it drops tend to be more problematic to incorporate, those chords can still be useful.
I love this Post. I am a beginner with Acoustic Guitar and the Circle of Fifths is a good starting point for me.
Thanks a lot for the post.