Can I ask what do you guys think about the circle of 5ths (or 4ths depending on how you look at it)
In a search for more music theory I found a site for bass players that teaches theory, and found that cool little circle. (yes I know I play guitar, but theory is still the same) It seems to be a cheat sheet of sorts but a nice cheat sheet to memorize as long as you have the basic understanding of major scales in the 1st place.
I do have the basics down of the major scale and understand chords that go with that scale. It can be a real pain in my head to figure out how many flats and what notes are flat in a Db scale, this to me seems to make that easier on the old brain.
It seems to be a bit of a cheat like the CAGED system is for chords, but figuring out scales and keys is really easy with this thing. (kind of like figuring out different voicing for chords using CAGED) For me the circle is easy to remember too.
I hope I didn't walk into a mine field, just wondering what others think, it really made certain things easy to memorize. (almost to easy KWIM)
On a piano or other instrument without a neck, the circle of 5ths is relevant. On the guitar, you can move a scale pattern up and down the neck, giving you an instant look at ALL the notes and degrees in that scale. For that reason, I don't worry about the circle method.
Playing scales under the 5th fret is a different story. The patterns change. That's one of the reasons that most guitar players move up and down the neck. If you know one scale (major, minor, or modal), you know the others by finding the root note somewhere on the neck. For instance, go to the Db note (6th string, 9th fret). The 4th(Gb) is the same fret on the 5th string and the 5th(Ab) is two frets up on the 5th string. Find the note on the 6th string and the 4th and 5th are always relational to the root. You can do that anywhere on the neck until you get to the 3rd string root, then it's over and up one, then two up. It becomes automatic.
That's not to say that learning the traditional way is bad, for a guitar player, it's just easier to slide up and down. After all, players need to know the notes all over the neck, anyway. Some songs just don't sound right unless you play the same position that the original player used.
If I want to know the tonic, sub-dominant, and dominant, they are the root, 4th and 5th in the scale. The 1-4-5 can also be played with the root higher than the other two, i.e., the 5th string C note, followed by the 6th string F and G. Or, you can play the 5th string C, followed by the 4th string F and G.
