This article will attempt to explain the circle of fifths from a “practical use” standpoint as it pertains to chords in a diatonic function, and will not be an exhaustive, theoretical explanation of the circle of fifths. That’s what wikipedia is for.

No, no, this article will give you the visual cues you need to understand something about the relationship of chords as it appears in the circle of fifths. You will start to realize what it means to play “in a key” like in Back To The Future, when Marty McFly tells the band, “Alright boys, this one’s a blues riff IN B, watch me for the changes, and try to keep up.” Good thing Marty took the time to learn guitar chords.

What does it mean to play, think, or otherwise understand the concept of playing “in a key?” The circle of fifths provides the answer:

Pizza.

Well, that’s how I see it anyways. The proverbial slice of musical pie.

Look at the image below, and what you will begin to see is the arrangement of chord relationships as a slice of pie. Any chord found within the slice of pie is “in the key” of the upper middle letter. The example below shows the chords “in the key” of C.

Again, since everything in the shaded area “surrounds” the letter C, we say that this is the key of C. You could play any of these chords in any order and it would sound pretty good. That’s because each chord belongs to the key of C. It’s like all of the words in a sentence being in the same language, they make sense.

For a great way to learn lots of guitar chords, try the Learn Guitar Chords DVD available on our website or Amazon.com.

Here’s a picture of the key of E. It’s the same concept, but “different language.” The musical sentence will still make sense, but you’ll be speaking the key of E.

This simple visualization has many practical uses, for example, let’s say you’re writing a song, but you’re stuck on the three chords you already wrote for the chorus. How can you easily choose a good sounding chord for the verse or the bridge?

1.) Find the main chord you’re using in your song in the circle of fifths chart
2.) Visualize the slice of musical pie around that chord
3.) Choose any of those chords you haven’t used and see if it sounds good

Here’s another example, if you’re into listening to music and want to understand more about it.
1.) Google any song with the keywords “chords lyrics” added to the song title.
2.) Click on one of the search results.
3.) Look at the chord symbols above the lyrics
4.) Find those symbols on the circle of fifths chart and see if you can find the slice of pie that the song belongs in.

Usually, a song will either begin or end on the chord of the key that the song is “in.” Furthermore, you’ll start to see that the majority of songs out there mostly stay “in” a certain key. Sometimes you might see some “foreign” chords in the song, but hey, music is a great way to celebrate our differences, right?

So there you go, a simple way to visualize the circle of fifths.

The C-A-G-E-D system is a way of understanding where to find ANY chord on your guitar in ANY fret position (…waaaay up there on the 15th fret? no problem…) As a beginner, you start out learning the basic major and minor chords by way of convenience, as they’re easier to play. But did you know that these basic chord shapes can be used to play other chords? Let’s take a look at the A major chord.

When you play the A major chord in it’s normal spot, notice all of your fingers are in the 2nd fret.

But if you keep your fingers on the same strings and slide them (holding the shape they’re in) to the 3rd fret, that’s the A# (Bb) chord. If you slide it again to the 4th fret, that’s the B chord. If you’re a beginner, you might not yet understand why this is true, but for now, just absorb the concept that as you move up the fretboard, you’re changing the name of the chord by changing frets.

As you slide the shape up the frets, you’re going forwards through the musical alphabet by half steps, (which is explained in THIS POST) and now all of the sudden that one shape can be shifted around to get new chords.

I should say that it’s not quite this easy, because when you shift to new frets, you can’t play the same open strings you would on the original chord because the sounds will clash. But again, suffice it to say that the 5 major chords C-A-G-E-D, are the main chord shapes you can use to get to any other chord on the fretboard. The next posts in this series will cover each shape and how to tackle them.

Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox