How does the circle of fifths help in composing?
Answers
Answer:
1. The circle of fifths can show you where to take your chord progressions.
2. Diatonic voice leading
3. Instant resolution
Explanation:
1. Wayfaring chord changes might sound interesting, but it makes it difficult for the listener to feel that emotional sense of resolution (more on that below). For example, if you’re writing in the key of B♭ major, right off the bat you can see that your relative minor is the key of G minor, and that the keys of E♭ and F major are closely related.
2. You can easily spot the pitches in your key signature if you know how to read the circle using groups, and this will help you write diatonic melodies easily. In the major circle, your scale will always cover the area starting one pitch to the left of the root, and five pitches to the right.
3. Music is about tension and resolution, and the two most important chords of any key are the I (the root) and the V (the fifth), since the V resolves so nicely back to the I. This is called a perfect authentic cadence, and there are tons more cadences out there. In this very simple way, the circle of fifths helps you gain the immediate context of strong resolution when writing a progression in search of a home base.
Instead of memorizing them, the chords are right there! A♭ is the V of D♭, F# is the V of B, and G is the V of C