Chords, Intervals, and the Circle of Fifths
How a lowly interval helped me learn something new
I’ve been playing guitar for many years. I know what intervals are, and while I don’t have all of them memorized, I know how to look things up or compute what I need. That said, I’ve never actively used these in what I play.
While testing my recently added chord knowledge drills - a flashcard-like quiz tool - I realized how bad I am at identifying which notes are in chords, or what chord is the combination of notes. I do have all sorts of chord-charts memorized for the guitar, but, as a self-taught musician, I jumped right over the rote memorization and went straight for the good stuff - the charts!
Music has still been enjoyable for me, and I’ve still learned a lot, but I’m certain I could more clearly express myself on the guitar if I knew how to form a new chord-shape on the fly, or even just communicate to other musicians what this weird new chord I was playing is.
Back to the drills though - after realizing my lack of ability, I added both scale and interval drills. Both of these are ingredients in chord construction and a foundation that should help me. As I began testing these, I realized - once again - how much I did not have committed to memory. I blame guitar, because as a guitarist, I don’t think about notes like a piano player does. I know my scale shapes; I just need to know the root note, I position my hand, and away I go!
As I began using these new drills, I began to form little memory aids to help me find my way around, but the further away I got from the root note, the harder time I would have. the 2nds, 3rds, and even 7ths are not too hard, but the maj/min 6ths were the worst for me.
After talking it over with some folks, and giving it a think, I figured I should memorize the circle of 5ths. I’ve heard this is useful, but have never committed the time to do this. If I could readily reference the 5th, a minor 6th should be no more difficult than a minor 2nd is for me today.
All of this led to a silly realization I had about how I can remember the circle of 5ths on my fretboard. I don’t have a visual for this now, but basically, from the low E, I move one string and two frets higher (E → B), that’s a 5th. Next, I can move down one string, but keep the fret (B → F#), that’s also a 5th - from here the pattern repeats till we get back to E.
The specifics of my method aren’t really that important here though. What is important is that I had this realization on my own. I’ll remember this much better than just being told that this is how it is. Being told or taught things is helpful, but coming to one of these realizations on your own - as long as it’s correct - will be far more beneficial for your total understanding of a thing. In my case, better knowing 5ths helps my original goal of chord construction, as well as many other things.
The moral of the story, as I see it, is that even the simplest fundamental (if it’s the core of something you want to better understand), is worth knowing, practicing, or at least thinking about. When you spend time on these things, it gives your brain a chance to make connections that you might not otherwise make. This is just one of many times this has happened for me while writing, using, and testing.