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The Circle of Minor Keys
Last
week we looked at the "circle of 4ths" or the "circle of
5ths," they are the same thing as the "circle of keys."
It just depends on whether you're moving clockwise or counter-clockwise
around the circle. All the major keys that you can
play in -- 12 of 'em -- are listed in this circle:
Major
Keys: C
F
Bb Eb Ab
Db Gb B
E A D G
But there are also 12 minor keys
in which songs can be written, so there must also be a circle
of minor keys. It's not as well known as the circle of major
keys, but it works the same way. Here it is:
It works the same way as
the major circle of keys, with one exception:
When figuring the 3 most
likely chords in any key, you still look left and look right,
but because of the fact that most songs written in the western
hemisphere use the harmonic minor scale instead of the natural
minor scale (which is much too involved to get into here
-- if you want to know about that in detail, you'll need
to get a course on scales), the chord to the left is usually
a MAJOR chord instead of a minor chord.
So
in the key of Am, the 3 most likely chords would be Am,
Dm, and E major -- not E minor! There are some exceptions
to that, but not many.
So what we come out with is
this -- the most likely chords in each minor key:
So
-- to repeat what I said last week:
Do you see what an
enormous advantage this gives you? You have a highly
educated guess what chords are going to occur in the song
you are playing based on the key that the song is written
in. Not only that, you now know that chords like to
either move up a 4th or a 5th (or down a 4th or 5th -- same
thing).
And so as we begin learning
chord progressions, this is the first step -- memorize the
circle above until you can say it forward and backward and
upside down and in your sleep! If I were you, I would print
it out and stick it up on your piano or bathroom mirror
or wherever you would see it often -- it's that important.
That's all for this time.
Next
time we'll see how you can quickly tell what key a song
is in, therefore telling you in advance what chords
are the most likely! Is that important?
It is huge -- monumental --
galactic! Don't miss it!
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