On Apr 9, 4:34 pm, Hacienda de Ville <ferrante276-
haciendadevi...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> What exactly is the purpose of the circle of 5ths and how essential is
> it to know?
>
> Also, can you recommend a good "beginners" book on music theory,
> something easy to understand for those of us who are newbies?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Haci
I am not sure what you are looking for but here are some on line
courses.
<http://www.dolmetsch.com/index.htm>
This is a site that has an extensive dictionary and a through
beginning theory course if you have the basic skills of music
literacy.
<http://www.teoria.com/index.html>
This one will help with the literacy and other basics if you need to
start here.
<http://www.musictheory.net/index.html>
This is another beginner site that may help with their basics.
Now the Cycle of 5ths:
I will not start with the influences of the Overtone Series yet, but
will start with chord movement that is associated with this and other
acoustical theories. For the moment, accept that once a tonic note or
home base is established, there is a tendency of the dominant 7tn (V7)
chords (major chord with a minor 7th) to resolve down to the triad or
root that is one 5th below it. Keep adding the minor 7th and the cycle
is formed that will bring it full circle through the 12 keys back to
the original root. This Cycle of 5th movement of the roots is the
Cycle of 5ths. There is a lot more physics that account for this, but
the end result is that the chords have a tendency to move through the
cycle of 5ths. This relates to the key signatures as the necessary
accidentals that are necessary to create the new 7th will produce the
accidentals in the same order as needed is the same as the flat that
is added to create the new 7th.
This is with all V7 type of chords (Maj triad, minor 7th) but the same
phenomenon occurs within each and every scale with the diatonic notes
as well, or at least convention has taught us to hear it this way. If
you start on the established tonic. Say in the key of Cmaj. we have
established the C maj chord as tonic. We then move away from this
chord to the Emin(7) chord (with or without the 7th) the natural
tendency is to return to tonic through the cycle of 5ths! The next
chord is likely to be Amin then Dmin than G7 and then back to Tonic.
These are all chords in the diatonic scale and they are all a 5th
below the previous one (except for the first movement to Emin) and
they will reach home of the key of Cmaj.
You may have noticed that I omitted the Fmaj chord and the bdim chord.
They could be used in the same manner, but they are often used as
substitutes for some of the others that is best explained at a later
time after you have understood a few more things. (This is the simple,
pragmatic explination!) This cycle is the basis of functional harmony
in the music of the Western tradition of European music that we
commonly call the classical period. (there are physical explanations
for this, it just doesn't matter so much in the beginning)
The way it works is simple. You move away from tonic and you come back
through the cycle of 5ths. You may use substitute chords like the F
maj for the Dmin and in some cases the Bdim for the G7 (and some
others as well) but this is what most of the music is about. Moving
away and coming back through the cycle of 5ths. The variation is
created both with the substitutions and the voice leading and the
melody and tricky little things that allow us to use these
substitutions as well as some of the physics involved in the V7 cycle
that is mentioned above that allow us to deviate from the Home Key to
other keys and add this to our tools for creating music.
This is the im****tance and some usage of the Cycle of 5ths from a
Functional Harmony approach. This is certainly not the entire story,
but it is some pragmatic ways of visualizing the im****tance of the
cycle. It is a matter of acoustical Gravity that makes it work and
that is the more complicated aspect of this, but is not really so
im****tant as the way that this Gravity and the physical aspects of the
tendency is actually used in music. I like to start with the music
first and then pick up the physics.
So, this may or may not sink in with this short introduction. I am
sure that others will have other approaches and they are all
(hopefully lol) valid and correct. Hopefully someone's explanation
will match with your particular learning style and you will be on the
road to using this information.
Tonic, move away from tonic, return to tonic through the cycle of
5ths. It really is just about that simple.
If you are a Jazz fan, listen or play the tune Autumn Leaves. It is in
Emin and it starts on the chord the furthest away from Emin by way of
the cycle that it can. It starts on the Amin or iv chord. It
continues:
Amin Dmaj Gma Cmaj F#dim B7 Emin. or in the numbers" iv bVII bIII bVI
iio V7 i. (or in Roman Numeral Upper Case Notation IV VII III VI II V
I. (in scale numbers: 4 7 3 6 2 5 1, that's the jazz musician's
telephone number! 473 6251. Notice that in each case, the next chord
or tone is a fifth below the previous one until we get back to 1
(there are only 7 different numbers, one for each note name ABCDEFG.
Maybe this will help
LJS
|
