The Shape of Music | The Circle of Fifths Part 1

12/03/20 • 18 min

Welcome back to “The Shape of Music,” a five-part series where we take you through the magic of music—how it works and what makes it sound so good. So far, we’ve learned about rhythm (the heartbeat of music) and melody (the “meat and potatoes” of music). We explored the musical alphabet through studying the keyboard. Finally, we navigated the musical language: how different families of instruments produce different colors of sounds. This is the first part of a two-part lesson where we dissect and analyze the circle of fifths, the treasure map to music theory.

Previous Episode

The Shape of Music | Color

Welcome back to “The Shape of Music,” a five-part series where we take you through the magic of music—how it works and what makes it sound so good. So far, we’ve learned about rhythm (the heartbeat of music) and melody (the “meat and potatoes” of music), and the musical alphabet which is used in these for understanding music. We specifically learned about the keyboard, and how it maps out this alphabet. Now that we’ve got the building blocks down, we’re going to expand on the musical alphabet and learn about the musical language!

Next Episode

The Shape of Music | The Circle of Fifths Part 2

This is the second section of a two-part lesson where we dissect and analyze the circle of fifths, the treasure map to music theory. In the first half, we started learning about how this diagram maps out the relationships among the 12 unique tones of Western music. We examined its history and how it displays key signatures. Join me as we take a look at a few more functions of the circle of fifths.