Chords for Circle of 5ths: EASIEST Way to Memorize & Understand It

What's up my piano [F] friends, Zach Vincere here.
Today I'm [G] going to simplify [A] the circle of fifths
so easy that a [C] kindergartner can understand it.
First up I'm going to show [A] you a clever
mnemonic device [N] that'll allow you to memorize it in less than [A] 30 seconds and you'll know it forever.
Next up we'll cover how to quickly find chord families so you can build beautiful harmonies
using the 3-3 rule.
And finally I'm going to teach you how to literally write a [C] song in under two
minutes [B] using power notes.
Alright I'm ready to go, let's [Am] get started. _ _ _
_ _ Alright so to build the
circle of fifths we start with the note C and to find our next note we go a fifth away [Eb] because
it's called the circle of fifths which [A] is the note G.
Now if you don't know what a fifth is
don't worry about it for now just pay attention and it'll make sense.
Then to find our next note
we take our note [G] G and we go a fifth away so the note D.
Then we take our D go a fifth away it's A
a fifth away from A is [N] E and so on and so forth until we fill up the circle.
Now there's two ways
to memorize this there's the easy way and then there's the even easier way.
The easy way is to
use a simple acronym so the right half we remember with the sentence Charlie gets drunk and eats
butterflies and the left half we use Charlie finds beads where the word bead is spelled out B-E-A-D.
I know they're super weird sayings but trust me it makes you remember like Charlie is this wild
guy who gets drunk eats butterflies and finds beads all over the place and you'll remember this
thing [A] forever.
Now the even easier way [G] and the way I recommend is to actually just [A] go download the
cheat sheet and [C] put it by your piano because once we [Bm] go on to finding chord [A] families and power notes
[G] it's going to be a lot easier if you actually have it [A] there for reference.
So click [N] the link enter
your name and email hit submit and you can download this cheat sheet along with a few other helpful
[Am] ones here and I'll see you soon. _
_ _ [N] All right now I'm going to show you how the circle of fifths can be
a very powerful kind of map for finding chord families that automatically produce beautiful
harmonies.
So let's say you're writing a song and you want to start the song with a C [C] chord and you
think [N] hmm what other chords sound good with a C chord?
Well we have the sister chords and we have
the cousin chords.
All right so if we go to our circle of fifths the two chords right next to our
C chord on either side we call these the sister chords and they will always sound good with your
chord.
So we [C] have C [F] F [G] and G.
By the way if you don't know your chords yet you can find them on
the major and minor chords cheat sheets that [C] you just downloaded.
So if we take these three chords
C F [G] and G and I'm just going to play the root [C] note in my left hand [G] _ they will [C] always sound good
together.
_ _ [F] _ _ [G] _ _
_ And [C] so this is a way better way to write songs as opposed to just playing random chords
like this [B] and _ [Em] just hoping [N] they sound good together which they usually don't.
So this method of finding
sister chords works anywhere on the circle.
So if you want to start your song with an A chord for
[A] example you just take [D] the two sister chords on either side so D [E] and E and they're always going
to sound great [A] together.
_ [D] _ _ [E] _ _ And [Ab] better yet you can actually play these sister chords in any order
and they still sound good.
Like we could do A and then E and [A] then D _ [E] _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ [G] or we could do D then A [D] then E.
_ _ _ [E] _ _ _ As [N] long as they're sister chords they will always sound good together and we can apply the same
formula to any chord on the circle.
All right next let's talk about [C] cousin chords.
So let's go back
to our C chord.
We have our sister chords here [G] and if we [N] take the next three chords going clockwise
and we make them minor these are our cousin [C] chords.
So for our C chord the three cousin [Dm] chords are D
minor, [Am] A minor, and E [Em] minor.
Feel free to [Eb] find those on the cheat sheet.
So for writing a song we can
always add the cousin chords in with our other chords and it's always going to sound good.
But
just like a real family your cousin chords aren't as related as your sister chords right.
So we
typically use them a bit more sparingly than the sister chords.
So if I go back to writing a song
in C maybe we pick the chords C, G, and then the cousin chord A minor, E minor.
Gonna sound like [C] this.
_ _ [G] _ _
[Am] _ _ _ [Em] _ _ Sounds kind of cool right?
Or let's [F] pick C, A minor, D minor, and [C] G. _
[Am] _ _ [Dm] _ _ [G] _ _ [N] And actually since this is all a chord
family we actually don't even have to use the C chord if we don't want to.
As long as we stick in
the family it's gonna sound good.
So we could do A minor, F, G, E minor for [Am] example.
_ _ [F] _ [G] _ _ [Em] _
[D] And we could apply
the same process to any chord on the circle.
So if we want to start a song on an E chord
guess [N] what here are the sister chords and here are the cousin chords.
As long as we stick to those
chords all of these will automatically sound good together.
If we go to an A flat chord family all
of these chords will sound good [A] together.
Alright next up we're going to talk about the [A] power notes
and using the circle to find melody notes that [C] automatically sound good with your [A] chord family.
But first [F] if you like this video so far [G] hit that subscribe button and hit [Bm] the notification [C] bell.
I'd hate for you to miss out on an important video in the future.
_ [Dm] _ _ [G] Alright so now we have an easy way
to find chord families for writing harmonies for songs.
But what about the melody notes?
[Gb] Well if we
go back and take our C and just go the next four notes clockwise.
So [C] we have C, G, [A] D, A, and [Am] E. _
These are called our power notes.
So you can play these notes in any order and they always sound
[A] good as long as you're using the chords from the C chord family.
So let's take some of these chords.
So [C] let's take C, [G] G, [Am] A minor, and F.
[F] _ And let's just mess around with [C] these these power notes in the
right hand and see what happens.
_ _ [G] _ _ [Am] _ _
_ [F] _ _ [C] _ _ [G] _ _ _
[Am] _ _ [F] _ _ [C] _ It always works no matter what.
Well let's try [B] another one.
Let's
start with our B flat chord family.
Alright so let's take B flat, [Bb] G minor, E [Eb] flat, and [F] F.
And our
power notes [Bb] are B flat, [G] F, C, G, [Gm] and D. _
_ _ _ _ [Eb] _ _ _ [F] _
_ [Bb] _ _ [Gm] _ _ _ [Eb] _ _
[F] _ Now check this out.
Let me show you something kind of cool.
Let's go to
F sharp.
Alright so our power [Db] notes are F sharp, D flat, A flat, E flat, [Ebm] and B flat.
So all the black
notes right.
And let's take the chords E flat minor, [B] B, F sharp, [Gb] and D [Db] flat.
Check this out.
We [Ab] can play
the song All of Me by John Legend.
[Ebm] _ _ [B] _ _
_ [Gb] _ _ [Db] _ _ [Ebm] _ He's literally using this [N] method right.
Or we could take the same
chords and power notes and play Say Something [Ebm] I'm Giving Up On You by Great Big World.
_ [B] _ _ _
_ _ [Gb] _ _ _ [Db] _ _ _
[Ebm] _ Or how about
[G] the song Hey Soul Sister right.
Chords, same [Gb] chord family.
F [Db] sharp, D flat, [Ebm] E flat minor, [B] and B.
Same
power notes.
And we can play the song [Gb] Hey Soul Sister.
_ _ _ [Db] _
_ _ [Ebm] _ _ [B] _ _ _ _
[Gb] Or we could just make up our own pattern.
_ _ [Db] _ _
[Ebm] _ _ [B] _ _ [Gb] _ _ [Db] _ _
[Ebm] _ _ _ [B] [Gb] All of the best songwriters in the world use this method.
Why not use it for yourself?
So make sure you get your cheat sheet if you haven't already.
I'll put the link right up here.
Now if you thought this video lesson was super easy, the next one in the series is [C] even easier.
It teaches you the four [A] super chords.
Literally four chords you can use to play hundreds of
popular songs on piano.
Here's the link for [C] that.
And I'll see you in the next one.
[A] _ _