the circle of 5ths for the piano.

Question

Hi everyone. I’m a self-taught amateur pianist.

I’m trying to make sense of scales— beyond just memorizing them— and understand the patterns. I was under the impression that the circle of fifths would help understand scales and why they are what they are.

Eg:

*Why is a C scale absent of sharps, when the G scale isn’t?*

I’ve been trying to learn to read music and understand theory through a combination of watching YouTube videos and studying sheet music, but the ads on Youtube are totally intrusive, and I keep seeing explanations that seem to contradict each other because of my limited understanding of the background information. There is so much information out there and most of it seems to hinge on context that I don’t understand.
To learn and apply information, I generally need to watch people do something or look at thorough diagrams/charts; as well, I really benefit from actual conversations with other people in which they’re talking to me and I am able to ask them questions directly. I want to start taking lessons as soon as I can afford it so I can have one on one conversations with a trained teacher.

Edited for clarity!

Thanks so much♡

*Edited again: THANK YOU, really, I wish I could give all of you a million reddit awards. Seriously, so many of you have given me totally thorough answers that have still been easy to understand. I love it.*

In: 12

Answer 1

One useful thing about the circle of 5ths is that it can help you remember how many sharps and flats each key has.

Take C (no sharps or flats), go a fifth up to G (one sharp), then another to D (two sharps) and so on (E has three sharps, etc.).

Additionally, if you go around the circle counterclockwise you can do the same for number of flats per key. You’re moving by fourths now.

C (no sharps or flats) up a fourth is F (one flat), up another is Bb (two flats) and so on.

Quickly knowing what note or chord is a fourth or fifth away from whatever note or chord you’re currently playing is really useful itself. That’s another reason for memorizing the circle if you haven’t already. Most music you will encounter is written with chord changes that move up (or down) a fourth or fifth from one chord change to another, and it’s really good to be used to that as a player mentally and physically.