Interactive circle of fifths website
- KVRAF
- 10286 posts since 17 Sep, 2004 from Austin, TX
- KVRAF
- 3764 posts since 5 Mar, 2004 from Gold Coast Australia
Seeing that always makes me want to stop being a musician. It does my head in big time.
Rock & Roll is supposed to be about big hair, spitting on people and other exciting things and Circle of Fifths is none of that.

Rock & Roll is supposed to be about big hair, spitting on people and other exciting things and Circle of Fifths is none of that.
Benedict Roff-Marsh
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com
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- KVRian
- 711 posts since 8 Sep, 2005
Birds fly in geometric patterns, but that doesn't make me stop observing nature.Benedict wrote:Seeing that always makes me want to stop being a musician. It does my head in big time.
- KVRAF
- 3764 posts since 5 Mar, 2004 from Gold Coast Australia
Yeah but birds look pretty when they fly geometrically.
Circle of Fifths is just hard. I have never been able to get why it is important. I don't doubt that it is correct and in some way useful to Steve Vai but it always brings out the Punk in me and makes me want to not play. Maybe one day I'll get my head around it.
Nice site tho.

Circle of Fifths is just hard. I have never been able to get why it is important. I don't doubt that it is correct and in some way useful to Steve Vai but it always brings out the Punk in me and makes me want to not play. Maybe one day I'll get my head around it.
Nice site tho.
Benedict Roff-Marsh
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com
http://www.benedictroffmarsh.com
- KVRian
- 1209 posts since 6 Aug, 2005 from albuquerque NM
Awesome. I like it. When I was in audio school I was always coming up with memory tricks to remember the circle of fifths, key signatures, etc. etc... but I'm not to shy to use a tool or two when I can.
..::*Jack of all DAWs* brianbotkiller.com : OBEDIA.com::..
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- KVRist
- 132 posts since 22 Nov, 2006
Real punks play especially when they're turned off.Benedict wrote:but it always brings out the Punk in me and makes me want to not play
This stuff looks like rules, but it's really the opposite: this is a cheat sheet. I'm not good with this stuff, but one thing I've noticed is that every time I look at one of these I notice that something I've been working on recently falls into one configuration or another.
- Rad Grandad
- 38041 posts since 6 Sep, 2003 from Downeast Maine
a circle of fifths is as rock and roll as you can get, a fifth of jd, a fifth of the captain, a fifth of stoly, a fifth beefeater, a fifth of cuervo, ectBenedict wrote:Seeing that always makes me want to stop being a musician. It does my head in big time.
Rock & Roll is supposed to be about big hair, spitting on people and other exciting things and Circle of Fifths is none of that.
The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another's world. It requires profound, purpose‐larger‐than‐the‐self kind of understanding.
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- KVRAF
- 2070 posts since 2 Apr, 2004
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 10286 posts since 17 Sep, 2004 from Austin, TX
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Chuck E. Jesus Chuck E. Jesus https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=108246
- R.I.P.
- 7301 posts since 23 May, 2006 from in between a cornfield and a river
- KVRAF
- Topic Starter
- 10286 posts since 17 Sep, 2004 from Austin, TX
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- KVRAF
- 1585 posts since 13 Nov, 2005 from St. Paul
That's a nice visualization tool, Runny, thanks for sharing that.
It's all about math, innit? If you take a vibrating string and make it 1/2 the length, that's an octave. If you take a vibrating string and make it 2/3 of the length, that's a fifth. By taking progressive 2/3 segments of a string, you can travel around the circle of fifths until you come back to the beginning again. C-G-D-A-E is a circle of fifths cycle, it's also the five notes that make up a pentatonic scale. This was discovered in ancient Greece and China, independently. If you're into geometry or physics, it's really fascinating that it all works out like that. It's not an arbitrary convention in western music, it's a physical law, just like a major chord, which is based on the physics of an overtone series. Even cultures that don't do the math full on come up with the same basic scale patterns because it just sounds "pretty" for some reason.
Still, I agree for sure, it's really not very rock and roll--if you want rock you're better if the only circle of fifth concept you work with is a power chord. But there's a lot more to music than just rock and roll.
It's all about math, innit? If you take a vibrating string and make it 1/2 the length, that's an octave. If you take a vibrating string and make it 2/3 of the length, that's a fifth. By taking progressive 2/3 segments of a string, you can travel around the circle of fifths until you come back to the beginning again. C-G-D-A-E is a circle of fifths cycle, it's also the five notes that make up a pentatonic scale. This was discovered in ancient Greece and China, independently. If you're into geometry or physics, it's really fascinating that it all works out like that. It's not an arbitrary convention in western music, it's a physical law, just like a major chord, which is based on the physics of an overtone series. Even cultures that don't do the math full on come up with the same basic scale patterns because it just sounds "pretty" for some reason.
Still, I agree for sure, it's really not very rock and roll--if you want rock you're better if the only circle of fifth concept you work with is a power chord. But there's a lot more to music than just rock and roll.
