Tip

One of the biggest myths is that you don’t have to understand music to play by ear. You just play. That is the furthest from the truth.  While there are a lot of “gifted” and talented musicians out there that have no idea what they are playing (…they just play by listening), this is not the way you want to be. At least if you can help it. Believe it or not, understanding how scales are formed and how they create chords and progressions is one of the most important things you can learn. 

(By the way, major scales are a series of seven unique notes played one after the other. They are the basis of what we call “major keys” and everything is based on them. Chords are three or more notes played at the same time. These are the combined sounds you hear in songs. Chord progressions are no more than chords going from one to the other… a series of chords played one after the other). 

As you’ll learn in The Secrets to Playing Piano by Ear, scales basically create chords. Chords create progressions -and- progressions ultimately create the songs you hear! Understanding “how” and “why” is the difference between an average musician and a professional musician. 

Tip #2: Master the patterns rather than memorizing stuff. 

I always get asked, “How do you memorize thousands of songs?” 

The answer is: I don’t. I understand patterns. 

A couple dozen songs may follow the same exact patterns — so to a regular person, they think I know 36 songs but all I’m doing is playing the same pattern. Yes, the song may be in a different key (there are 12 keys but once you understand scales and patterns, you can instantly play ONE song in all TWELVE keys very easily). The song may have a different melody, but at the end of the day, it will almost always share the same chords and patterns as many other songs. 

Tip #3: Learn to listen. 

Playing by ear is not reserved for geniuses. It’s all about listening.

Do you hear tones going up? or down? Does a chord sound happy (perhaps its a major chord) or sad and serious (minor chord). Maybe it’s a scary chord… spooky (diminished chord). How about a blues chord… very soulful-like (dominant chord). 

See… all these chords have feelings attached to them. Those that play seamlessly what they hear and feel have simply learned how to unlock their ears. In “The Secrets to Playing Piano By Ear,” there are many ways to build your listening skills. 

Tip #4: Become a pro at recognizing intervals. 

“Intervals,” in music, are distances between notes. As easy as that. There are very small intervals out there like unison, seconds, and thirds and there are larger ones like fifths, sixths, and sevenths. These intervals actually help to name the chords that we play. When you say the name “major chord,” you’re actually referring to a particular interval in that chord that gives the chord its main sound quality. The same applies to minor and other chords. 

There are different kinds of intervals: melodic and harmonic. Melodic intervals are distances between single notes, played one after the other. Like “melodies.” Harmonic intervals are distances between notes played at the same time (i.e. – “chords”). 

Songs contain both melody and harmony (chords) so becoming a pro at recognizing these allows you to hear the stuff songs are made of! And if you can do that, then it’s just a matter of putting this interval with that interval and you get chords and progressions. More on this later. 

Tip #5: Practice and get some real-world experience 

You can study, study, study all you want but it won’t do you any good if you don’t put what you learn into action. Of course, this sounds a little cliché but it’s the truth. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Make sure to practice the right stuff. I’ve learned in music (and practically in life) that: 

1) You can do things right

2) You can do the right things 

There’s a difference. You can do things right… the WRONG things right. Focus on the right things and do THEM right and you’ll get better fast. The Secrets to Playing Piano by Ear gives you a lot of things to practice (scales, modes, chords, progressions, harmonization techniques, etc.). In the area of speed and finger independence, Hanon are great exercises. Focus on the right things and do them as best as you can, and you can’t go wrong. 

About the Author:
Jermaine Griggs is the founder of Hear and Play, the world’s #1 Music By Ear site on the net. If you’ve ever wanted to fulfill a life-long dream of learning piano, organ, guitar, drums, or any other instruments by ear, without reading sheet music, then look no further. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world how to play their favorite instruments with their down-to-earth online music lessons, video tutorials, resources and self-study courses. Get Free Lessons Today!

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Today, though, I want to slow down and go the other direction. 

I wanna talk to my straight beginners in this post! I want to give you guys some hope that if you know just two chords, you can actually sit around the piano or keyboard and have fun with your kids. 

And if you don’t know already, those two chords are the 1-chord and the 5-chord. 

Let me briefly explain… 

Every major key can be looked at using numbers. For example, the C major scale: 

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

For my newbies, these are played separately, one after the other. But the scale has a ton of other usages. And I’ll help you to understand one of them today. 

See those numbers? 

If you take the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones out of this scale, you’d get: 

C F G
1 4 5 

And what we do is play major chords on each of these tones: 

C major = C + E + G
F major = F + A + C
G major = G + B + D 

For my new readers, when you see me using the plus + sign to connect notes, that means to play them all together. It’s just my own way of breaking up each note of a chord. So the “C + E + G” would mean to sound all three of those notes at the same time, creating a C major chord. 

Moving on… 

These are what we call “primary chords.” These chords will appear the most in your songs. In fact, most songs could be written with JUST these chords. 

Composers use other tones of the scale to make the music more interesting. For example, I could have a progression that just goes from C major to G major and that would be fine. But if I wanted to add more variety, I’d employ maybe the 2nd tone of the scale to push me to the G major chord –but that’s another lesson. 

Now, primary chords are in every key. Just take the 1st, 4th, and 5th tones of any major scale and there you have it, the primary chords of that key. 

So you’ve got three chords and they’re found in just about every song. Let’s explore them: 

The 1-chord 

The 1-chord is basically the same as the title of your major scale and key signature. If you’re in the key of C, obviously the first tone of the scale is C — therefore, the first chord is C major (since primary triads are major chords). This chord is most likely to begin your songs. It’s also most likely to end your songs. Even in the middle of songs when they tend to go back to the beginning (like the second half of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”), 1-chords are used. So when you feel like the song is at a permanent “home base” or even a temporary one (as in the middle of the song), most likely, you’re looking for the 1-chord… in this case, C major. 

The 4-chord 

The 4-chord usually comes right after the 1-chord. The 1-chord finds itself always progressing to the 4-chord. It doesn’t happen all the time (of course) but it’s pretty frequent. And like I said above, if the composer doesn’t choose to go directly from the 1-chord (C major) to the 4-chord (F major), she’s probably using other tones of the scale that will eventually lead to the 4-chord. 

An example of this is in the beginning of “Amazing Grace.” 

“A-ma-zing grace how”
C major ~~~~~~~
(C + E + G) 

“Sweet the”
F major ~~
(F + A + C) 

“Sound.”
C major ~
(C + E + G) 

“That saved a wretch like”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G) 

“Me”
_______________

(What chord might you guess here?) 

You see how that works? We basically played the whole beginning part of Amazing grace with just the 1 and 4-chords. And where I left you off, the 5-chord would have come next. 

The 5-chord 

The 5-chord tends to come in the middle of the song or verse. It’s that thing that connects you back to the 1-chord. But if you think about it, the 1-chord usually comes in the beginning of a song or at the end of the song (or in the middle of the song when it appears to have start all over). So, if that’s the case, the 5-chord is that feeling that tells you the song is about to end or about to go back to the beginning. 

Don’t you feel that in the middle of Amazing Grace? 

“A-ma-zing grace how”
C major ~~~~~~~
(C + E + G) 

“Sweet the”
F major ~~
(F + A + C) 

“Sound.”
C major ~
(C + E + G) 

“That saved a wretch like”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(C + E + G) 

“Me”
G major ~~~
(G + B + D) 

When you sing “me,” that is the middle area I’m talking about. That is the part that lets you know something is about to repeat. That is where the 5-chord is best used–as well as, of course, at the end of songs. 

But you know what? Most songs you can play with just the 1 and 5 chords. Here’s an example: 

Mary Had a Little Lamb 

“Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb”
C major ~~~~~~~~
(C+E+G)

 “Lit-tle lamb”
G major ~~~~~~~~
(G+B+D) 

“Lit-tle lamb”
C major
(C+E+G) 

“Ma-ry had a lit-tle lamb, her”
C major ~~~~~~~~
(C+E+G) 

“Fleece was white as”
G major ~~~~~~~~
(G+B+D) 

“Snow”
C major
(C+E+G) 

The Wheels On The Bus 

“The”
G major (either you can play a G major here or you can play no chord here and come in on “wheels”). 

“wheels on the bus go round and round”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 “round and round”
G major ~~~~ 

“round and round. The”
C major ~~~~
(note: you can play a Gmaj chord on “the” if you want or you can leave it alone) 

“wheels on the bus go round and round”
C major ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

“all through the”
G major ~~~ 

“town”
C major 

So try this: 

Try to pick out your favorite nursery rhymes by just using the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords of a major key. It’s about trial and error in the beginning. If the 4-chord doesn’t sound right, just move to the 5th chord (and vise versa). Do this until you’ve mastered a good 4-5 songs. They all work the same way, trust me! See how many you can do! 

About the Author:
Jermaine Griggs is the founder of Hear and Play, the world’s #1 Music By Ear site on the net. If you’ve ever wanted to fulfill a life-long dream of learning piano, organ, guitar, drums, or any other instruments by ear, without reading sheet music, then look no further. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world how to play their favorite instruments with their down-to-earth online music lessons, video tutorials, resources and self-study courses. Get Free Lessons Today!

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2. Learn theory and how chords and scales are built instead of just knowing them! 

3. Find patterns to help you learn chords and how they change relations and roles in other keys. 

4. Learn all major, natural minor, melodic minor, harmonic minor, blues, and pentatonic scales. 

5. Take the scales and learn all major, minor, diminished, augmented, and seventh chords. Once you know your scales, you will find it quite easy to convert them into chords. 

6. Practice speed (play exercises increasing in speed as you progress!) 

7. When listening to songs, try figuring out the chord progressions in your head. Once you have an idea of how the song is played, start transferring your thoughts to the piano. It works! 

8. Try to learn as many songs, standards, and hymns as possible (especially, if you’re a jazz or gospel musician). Jazz musicians should know as many jazz standards as possible. Gospel musicians must know as many hymnals because you never know when someone wants you to accompany them! 

9. Exercise your gift – Show your gift off! Play at church, jazz clubs, festivals, gigs, and more! 

10. Never think you know too much. In music, there is never too much” to learn. Keep your mind and ears open to new techniques! 

About the Author:
Jermaine Griggs is the founder of Hear and Play, the world’s #1 Music By Ear site on the net. If you’ve ever wanted to fulfill a life-long dream of learning piano, organ, guitar, drums, or any other instruments by ear, without reading sheet music, then look no further. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world how to play their favorite instruments with their down-to-earth online music lessons, video tutorials, resources and self-study courses. Get Free Lessons Today!

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O Christmas Tree is a Christmas carol of German origin. O Tannenbaum is its original name in German. A Tannenbaum is German for a fir tree or Christmas tree. The melody to this Christmas song is an old folk tune and the best known lyrics comes from a Leipzig organist and teacher named Ernst Anschutz in 1824. 

Here is the first verse in the English version: 

O Christmas Tree O, Christmas Tree

Your branches green delight us!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

Your branches green delight us!

They’re green when summer days are bright

They’re green when winter snow is white

O, Christmas Tree, O, Christmas Tree

Your branches green delight us! 

The first thing we will do is to locate the middle C on your keyboard. On an ordinary piano keyboard it is located in the middle of the keyboard sometimes near the keyhole if there is one. 

On a common piano keyboard you will find that the notes C-B are repeated along the keys. One such row of notes are called an octave and since the middle C is located in the fourth octave on an piano it is sometimes called C4. 

Even if your keyboard is smaller with less octaves middle C is still called C4. 

We will now take a look at the melody to O Christmas Tree and the chords you can play with your left hand. We will begin with the melody together with the lyrics: 

O (F)Christmas Tree O, Christmas Tree 

C4 (F)F4 F4 F4 G4 G4 G4 G4 

The (F) in the lyrics and melody indicate that you shall play an F-major chord with your left hand together with the note after the chord. How then do you play an F-major chord? 

There are many ways to play an F chord but here is an easy example for your left hand:

F: C3 F3 A3 

C3 means that you play a C in the octave to the left of the C4. Play the three notes in the chord together as you play the following right hand note. 

Time for the next line: 

Your (C7)branches green de(F)light us 

A4 (C7)G4 A4 Bb4 E4 (C)G4 F4 

The note Bb is the black key immediately to the left of B. 

As you can see it is time for a new chord, C7. Here is a suggestion for that piano chord: 

C7: C3 E3 Bb3 

Now you have to repeat the previous lines before we proceed with the next part: 

They’re (F)green when summer (C7)days are bright 

C5 (F)C5 A4 D5 C5 (C7)C5 Bb4 Bb4 

C5 is the C in the octave to the right of C4.

Time for the next line:

They’re (C7)green when winter (F)snow is white 

Bb4 (C7)Bb4 G4 C5 Bb4 (F)Bb4 A4 A4 

Now we only have to repeat the first two lines and we are done! 

O (F)Christmas Tree O, Christmas Tree 

C4 (F)F4 F4 F4 G4 G4 G4 G4 

Your (C7)branches green de(F)light us 

A4 (C7)G4 A4 Bb4 E4 (C)G4 F4 

I suggest that you learn this little song by heart one line at a time. Practice every line first with your right hand melody until you master it. Then it is time to add your left hand chords. When you know a line by heart with melody and chords it is time to proceed with the next line. 

Before you know it you have completed the song and can contribute to the Christmas spirit in a new setting! 

About the Author:
Peter Edvinsson is a music teacher, composer and musician. He invites you to download your free piano sheet music at http://www.capotastomusic.com

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When I was quite young and still learning to play the piano I remember watching someone listen to a song on the radio and then quickly walk over to the piano and play what was on the radio. It was very impressive. I remember thinking how amazing that was. The thing that I’ve learned since then is that if you spend time with music, listening to it, playing it, paying attention to it, that things start to stick out. By this I mean certain chords start to become familiar, certain melodies that then go along with those chords. Probably the most important aspect of this is that chord progressions that start to stick out. These are the fundamental parts to playing by ear.

One thing that happens quite often with piano is that when someone starts their piano education they are usually taught how to read music first, then to play off sheet music. So when it comes time to play something that isn’t written down they have great trouble. I know, this was how it was for me in the beginning.

To really learn to play music by ear you need to have at least some knowledge about chords and chord progressions. Once you know a little more about chords (major and minor and what they sound like) you can start learning to play by ear. The first thing to do is find a song you really like and would like to play. The second thing is to do is make sure it’s an easy song. (You will probably find out pretty quickly how difficult it is to play!) If there are a lot of chord changes then it might be a good idea to pick another song. The thing about learning by ear, when you first start out, is that it will take a while and you will need to be patient. When I first started it took me quite some time and I had to work through quite a lot of frustrating moments but it’s much more rewarding.

Some people will be able to pick up music by ear much easier than others. This is just a fact of life. Some people’s ears are just more tuned to music than others. Quite often though, these people are the ones who listen to the most music.

The key is to experiment with playing along with music and give yourself time to learn to play by ear. You will find that the more you that, the better at it you will become, and after a while it will come naturally and you will be able to play with whatever is on the radio.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ashley Southam (The Piano Guy) is a pianist with years of experience behind him. Piano is his passion and he is also the drive and inspiration behind Rocket Piano – the Ultimate Piano Learning Kit. If you want to take your piano playing skills to a new level take a look at the step-by-step instructions–complete with audio and video lessons– in the Rocket Piano Kit where you can get instant access.

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The first thing to do to look after you piano is make sure its stored in a suitable place. This means finding somewhere that isn’t too damp. Keep your piano away from heaters, air conditioners and fire places. Also try and keep your piano (if it’s an upright) away from an outside wall of the house. Keep the piano out of long periods of direct sunlight too, as this can damage the finish and also affect the tuning. This all sounds very particular but anything to do with heat and moisture will put your piano at risk of going out of tune and have other long term negative side effects. Ideally you want the piano somewhere that the humidity and heat levels are at a nice constant level. The contracting and expanding of the wooden parts will affect the quality of the piano.

You should have your piano tuned twice a year. Also, it helps to get it “re-conditioned” or “regulated”. This is when a trained professional piano technician will fix and adjust any wear and breakage. It’s a very good idea to keep a piano properly maintained and your piano will love you for it.

Try not to put drinks or vases on your piano either. It’s very easy to have an accident and very difficult to clean up the mess it will make inside your piano. Sometimes the damage can be irreversible. Also be careful of objects that may scratch or damage the finish on your piano.

When cleaning the piano use a feather duster first. The dust that accumulates can cause tiny scratches when you polish it. Then use a soft damp cloth. Don’t use polish, despite what the labels might say, because this can also sometimes damage the wood. Just get the excess moisture off with a dry cloth. This process can be used on the actual keys as well. However use separate cloths for the black and white keys.

If you really want to get more thorough with cleaning your piano there are some products that are designed specifically for pianos. Go down to your local piano shop and talk to the people. They will undoubtedly have the right products and advice for you.

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One of the great things about having so many different keyboards to choose from is that you can find one at a suitable price. The first thing is you want to make sure the keyboard actually works. The problem with keyboards is that as they get older they tend to decay a bit. So be careful buying a keyboard before you’ve actually played it and checked the keys, all the buttons and so on.

The next step is looking at how many keys it has. I’m often asked “how many keys should I get?” The answer is really down to personal preference and what exactly you’re using your keyboard for. My advice is to get a keyboard with the full 88 keys. But 76 and even 61 will usually be enough. If you have the choice I think either 88 or 76 keys is best. If you were just using a small range of the keyboard and it’s more for recording interesting samples and so on, then fewer keys is fine. Most professionals will use 88 keys.

The next thing to look at is weighted keys or “synth” action. This means what the feel of the actual keys is like. This again really depends on personal taste. Weighted keys: this means that the keys on the keyboard have the same feel and weight as keys on a standard piano. A lot of trained pianists will go this route, myself included. I don’t like to use synth style keys but that’s entirely my personal taste. One of the benefits of playing on a keyboard with weighted keys is that if you never played an acoustic piano before you should easily be able to adjust quickly because your hands will be used to it. Synth style keys also have their advantages. Because they’re not weighted it’s a lot easier to play them faster.

Another important aspect is the velocity and after touch of the keyboard. Velocity refers to whether how hard you hit the keys affects how loud the sound that comes out, so that if you lightly touch the keyboard you will get a nice quite sound. Similarly if you hit down hard you will get a nice loud reaction. After touch refers to the sensitivity to the sound and touch after you hit the note and hold it down. If you play a note and you want it to ring the way an acoustic piano does, after touch is very important. Personally I believe that velocity and after touch is VERY important and any keyboard you have should really have these things catered for.

So there are a lot of things to consider when looking at keyboards. Ultimately I believe a lot of it comes down to personal taste and what your instincts tell you about the keyboard itself. Remember, you want it to be something that you can spend a lot of time on so make sure that you are completely happy with what you end up with.

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Dude, you are incredible. Your knowledge of theory is on another planet. Thanks for what you do man, for real.

I’m trying to learn all 12 keys and I happen to be a member of the Gospel Music Training Center where you talked about using the circle of fifths to learn every key.

I do know the circle of fifths but I don’t think I totally understand how to use it to learn every key. Do you mind shedding some light on this in the next Q&A teleclass?

Again, thanks man. Tell JP and all the staff they are doing an awesome job.

Tyler

>>> My Comments and explanations to Tyler
(Lots of good info… read carefully)

Yo, Tyler!

Thanks for the e-mail! Glad to hear you’re enjoying the material!

I believe you’re referring to our last Gospel Music Training Call that just past, where Jon and I talked about the circle of fifths and how it can help you to learn any song in all 12 keys. I can definitely help you with that. But before we delve in, let’s back up a bit and talk about the ‘circle of fifths’ concept itself.

The circle of fifths is a very powerful discovery in music because it pretty much describes HOW MUSIC WORKS in one simple chart. If you want to see an example of the circle, here’s an example: Circle Music Chart.

You see, music moves in fifths and fourths. And if you really think about it, there’s a fine line between “fifths” and “fourths.” (that’s why you hear some people calling it the “circle of fifths” and other folks calling it the “circle of fourths.” Let me demystify this first.

Both names are correct. Here’s why:

If I ask you to go up a fourth interval, that essentially means to move up 5 half steps from whatever note you’re on. (There are many ways to think about it but this is the most straightforward…)

And for folks that don’t know what half steps are, remember this poem:

“Half steps are from key to key with no keys in between, Whole steps always skip a key with one key in between.”

So basically, if you’re going from one key directly up or down to the key directly next door, that’s a half step. Doesn’t matter if it’s a white key, a black key, a purple key, a broken key (some of you haven’t fixed your piano in years)… if it goes from one key right next door, it’s a half step.  [C to C#], [E to F], [G to Ab], [Bb to B]… All of these pairs are half steps. [C to D], [E to F#],
[Ab to Bb]… these are whole steps because they are skipping one key. Easy.

Back to fourths. So if I start on C and want to go up a fourth, I simply count 5 half steps up…

C to Db is 1 half step… Db to D is another… D to Eb is the 3rd half step, Eb to E is 4, and finally E to F. So “C” to “F” is a fourth.

Now, on the other hand, a fifth uses 7 half steps. So if you do the same thing starting at C — except, this time using 7 half steps — you’ll arrive at G.

So “C” to “G” is a fifth.

“C” UP to “F” is a fourth.  ”C” UP to “G” is a fifth.

Here’s the tricky part. Notice I used the word “UP” because if you count the same number of half steps down, you’ll get different answers.

If you count 5 half steps DOWN from C, you’ll get G. And if you count 7 half steps DOWN from the same C, you’ll get F.

In other words, C up to F is a fourth. C down to F is a fifth.

And in the same way, C up to G is a fifth but C down to G is a fourth.

Basically, they are ‘inverses’ of each other. Opposites. One does one thing going up and another going down. The other does the exact opposite.

Any time you take a fourth interval and “flip” it, you’ll get a fifth. If you do the same to a fifth, you’ll get a fourth.

Try it. Hold down C and the higher G together. That’s a fifth. C is the lowest note and there are 7 half steps between C and G. But if you take the C off the bottom and put it on the top (and now “G” on the bottom), now you’ve got yourself a fourth interval. Just that easy.

Oh and I should add… these are called “PERFECT 4ths” and “PERFECT 5ths.” Sometimes, for short, folks leave off the “perfect” part but if you want to be very specific, add that.

Why did I choose to tell you all this?

Because, there are two ways to look at the circle of fifths chart. Check out the Circle Music Chart and print it out.

If you thought of this circle as a clock, “C” would be at 12 o’ clock.

G is at 1 o’ clock.
D is at 2 o’ clock.

Get it?

That means on the other side, F is at 11 o’ clock, Bb is at 10 o’ clock, Eb is at 9 o’ clock and so forth. And like I said, there are 2 ways to look at this circle. You can look at it going clockwise from C to G to D to A and so forth.

Or you can look at this chart going counter-clockwise, from C to F to Bb to Eb and so forth.

Some people say when you go counter-clockwise from C to F to Bb to Eb… that you’re going in “fourths.” But, of course, now you know better. You’re going in fourths only if you’re looking at this as going UP from C to F. And UP from F to Bb… and UP from Bb to Eb.

But as you just learned, going from C down to F is a fifth too! That’s why some people still choose to look at this WHOLE circle as a relationship of fifths because if you go clockwise, C up to G is a fifth. And if you go counter-clockwise, C down to F is also a fifth.

Put another way, “G” is the fifth of C. And “C” is the fifth of “F” — and so on.

But either way, here’s the golden nugget. Go counter-clockwise! This is the flow of music. This
is how 80% of songs move. What do I mean?

THAT’S WHAT I MEAN!

If you analyze the chord patterns of songs, you’ll find them moving like this:

Some kinda “C” chord to some kinda “F” chord to some kinda “Bb” chord to some kinda “Eb” chord, depending on the key you’re in. If you’re in a key like “G” major, you’ll find the same counter-clockwise movement at work — just at the other end of the circle with chords moving from some kind of “A” chord to some kind of “D” chord to some kind of “G” chord to some kind of “C” chord (just to give an example).

I say “some kind of chord” because depending on your key, some chords will be major, some minor, some dominant, some diminished, etc… and we really don’t have time to talk about that right here. Easily another 5 pages if I go there. So the circle really explains the flow of music.
Ever heard of a “2-5-1″ progression? Guess what? Highlight any 3 notes on the circle that are neighbors and there are the keynotes of your “2-5-1″ progression! BAM!

Don’t believe me? What’s a 2-5-1 progression in the key of C? Well, the 2 is “D”… the 5 is “G” and the 1 is “C.” Where do those notes just “happen” to appear on the circle of fifths chart?

D is at 2 o clock. G is at 1 o clock. C is at 12 o clock. Counter-clockwise! Neighbors too!

Like pulling back time (ever wish you could pull back time, counter-clockwise???) Lol, get out of the past!!!!!!!!!!!! Except in music, that is! Cuz moving against the clock, when it comes to the circle, is how you will find most of your songs arranged. Counter-clockwise…

EXERCISE: Take songs you already know and compare them to the circle of fifths. For example, if the song you know goes from C major to A minor to D minor to G major to C major, then compare where those notes C, A, D, G, C appear on the circle and the type of movement you notice.

So, here’s the entire circle but in a counter-clockwise arrangement:

C > F > Bb > Eb > Ab > Db > Gb > B > E > A > D > G (repeat)

WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO TO LEARN THIS, DO IT!

Memorize it, chunk it, tape it to your dashboard. If you can say this in one breath really fast, you won’t believe how helpful it can be to you.

Why? Because all songs move in this direction. You can literally highlight any 3 or 4 notes straight off this circle and find many chord progressions that use those same exact notes in the same exact order. You can find entire songs using this order of notes and just repeating over and over. Wash, rinse, repeat.

And since chords and patterns move like this, it makes sense to learn and practice chords in this same order. When you learn chords in this order, you further reinforce the circle. Plus, when it comes time to play real songs that move in fourths anyway, you’ve already done it so much in your own practicing so it’s not that hard to apply it when needed.

(Oh, by the way, I’ve been saying ‘circle of fifths’ AND ‘circle of fourths’ up until this point. But now, I’m going to choose to call this “fourths” since most people consider C to F a fourth, unless you tell them C “DOWN” to F. But from now on, to keep things consistent, I will mainly say FOURTHS to represent the counter-clockwise direction of the circle.)

I realize this could still be over some folks’ head so let me break it down. (My fingers are getting tired but I’ll keep going, as long as you’ll keep reading).

You can either learn chords by fourths like I’m advocating, or you can learn them chromatically in half steps. Let’s talk about the latter method first.

To learn chords chromatically means to master chords one half-step at a time. In other words, you learn a “C” major chord first, then you take every note up a half step to learn the “C#” or “Db” major chord. Then once you learn that chord, you take every note of your chord up another half step to learn the “D” major chord. And so on.

In real life, this looks like this:

CHORD = G + B + C + E (which is a C major 7 chord in 2nd inversion by the way).

Say I wanted to learn this chord chromatically. All I gotta do is take every finger up a half step and that will give me the SAME chord in the next key up.

A half step up from C is Db so by taking EVERY tone of the chord up a half step, I’m essentially learning that SAME chord in the key a half step up. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck… it’s a duck.

So let’s do it…

G + B + C + E.

Move G up a half step to Ab.

Move B up a half step to C.

Move C up a half step up to Db.

Move E a half step up to F.

The new chord is Ab + C + Db + F. And since the old chord was a “major 7″ chord in 2nd inversion, that means THIS IS ALSO A MAJOR 7 CHORD IN 2ND INVERSION. Nothing changes about the quality or quantity of the chord. If it’s major, the quality will be the same. If it’s a seventh, the quantity will also be the same. So, if the first chord was a C major 7, this new chord up a half step is simply a Db major 7. Got it?

So you could essentially learn every chord this way. It’s the easiest because it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to move every finger up one note. But it’s limiting because music doesn’t move chromatically like that. I mean it CAN, but it isn’t commonplace like fourths and fifths.

FOURTHS and FIFTHS are everywhere. They are the most common movement. So remember the circle of fifths order I told you to memorize?

C > F > Bb > Eb > Ab > Db > Gb > B > E > A > D > G (repeat)

If you want to really get the “flow of music,” learn chords in fourths and also practice them in fourths. Let’s take this same example:

G + B + C + E.

This is a C major 7 chord in 2nd inversion. If I were taking my own advice and learning this same chord in fourths, I would seek to learn an “F major 7″ chord next. Why? Because it’s a fourth up from C when using the circle order above.

So it’s simple… let’s take each of these notes and determine what’s a fourth up from each one.

G + B + C + E.

This is easy because a fourth up is whatever note is “NEXT” in the circle. Just do this with EACH note.

A fourth up from “G” is “C”
A fourth up from “B” is “E”
A fourth up from “C” is “F”
A fourth up from “E” is “A”

We’ve just learned the F major 7 chord by taking each note up a fourth. So essentially, the same circle we use to play chord patterns is the same circle we use to learn CHORDS. That’s why I said to do whatever it takes to memorize the circle. These shortcuts are everywhere.

C + E + F + A is an F major 7 chord in 2nd inversion.

(For my beginners, yes, I know C is on the bottom but when you invert a chord, you basically change the order of notes.)

This same chord is F + A + C + E in the normal “root” inversion. If you take the “F” off the bottom and put it on the top, you get “A + C + E + F,” which is 1st inversion. If you then take the “A” off the bottom and put it on the top, you get “C + E + F + A,” which is 2nd inversion — the one we just learned.

So here’s your homework.

Take these chords below and learn them in fourths using the same steps I took above. You can also start all over and learn them chromatically too but the real “connection” comes in learning them in fourths.
C major = C + E + G

C major 7 = C + E + G + B

C minor = C + Eb + G

C minor 7 = C + Eb + G + Bb

EXTRA CREDIT: Invert the chords by taking the current note off the bottom and putting it on the top. Do this again to get the next inversion. If the chord has 4 notes, do this AGAIN to get the final inversion.

Post your answers on the Hear and Play blog.

Again, you’re taking all 4 chords above and learning each one in all 12 keys USING the circle I talked about above. If you can’t do this, you need to print out this lesson and re-read it. This will result in you knowing 48 chords by the end of this exercise. If you’re serious, you’ll do it.

If you get this one concept, you’ll skip at least 6-8 months worth of lessons… and that’s only if your teacher knows how important the circle is to playing BY EAR. Sight readers use this to figure out key signatures and ’sharps & flats’ but all that stuff is NOTHING compared to the real value of
the circle. The real value of the circle involves patterns, song movement, and stuff like that, if you’re an “ear” player.

If you want to get a real good introduction to all this, my $17 course is a steal. If you’re a reader, you have everything here. I sure didn’t hold back. If I wanted to hold back, I would have stopped 4 pages ago. The $17 starter course just takes it further by giving you 2 hours of instruction in my own voice with live demonstrations and examples.

So if my written words are cool for you, then I can promise you my voice is easily 3 times better. And at $17, you have nothing to lose. Check it out here: 17 Dollar Course.

If you were a bit helped by the words I’ve written here, then this audio course will REALLY be helpful because you’ll hear me talking about all this stuff for 2 whole hours, reinforcing every little concept over and over. You’ll like it. (You can even get the downloadable digital version and start learning right away).

Talk soon,
Jermaine

About the Author:
Jermaine Griggs is the founder of Hear and Play, the world’s #1 Music By Ear site on the net. If you’ve ever wanted to fulfill a life-long dream of learning piano, organ, guitar, drums, or any other instruments by ear, without reading sheet music, then look no further. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world how to play their favorite instruments with their down-to-earth online music lessons, video tutorials, resources and self-study courses. Get Free Lessons Today!

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Hi Jermaine, 

This number system stuff is quite new to me but you’ve totally made it plain.  You certainly have a knack for breaking stuff down and I want to thank you for taking the time to do this. On one of your blog posts, you talked about primary and secondary chords. You also talked about how each tone of the scale has its own chord that is usually played. I’m having a hard time remember all these chords and where they go. Let’s not even talk about all 12 keys because I can’t remember even one key. Please help! 

Mark H Dallas, TX 

The Answer: 

Hey Mark, 

Appreciate your positive feedback! 

I have a really easy way for you to remember all the primary and secondary chords and it won’t take that long to master it. 

All it takes is for you to know your major chords. Like I teach musicians all the time, you can play both minor scales and minor chords by understanding major chords and their relationships to minor chords. 

Don’t worry, I’ll explain… 

Since you mentioned primary and secondary chords, let me touch on those for a minute.

Every major key has what we call primary and secondary chords. The primary chords of any given key are the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords. These numbers come from the scale. In the key of C, C is the 1st tone of the scale, D is the 2nd tone of the scale, E is the 3rd tone, and so forth. 

So the 1st, 4th, and 5th chords of the key of C major are C, F, and G (in that order). They are always major chords. These chords will occur in music the most. The 1st chord of the scale is the key that you’re in so it’s always going to feel like “home.” This chord will begin and end your songs. When a non-musical audience hears the 1-chord, they know to clap because the song feels at  rest, at home; at peace. It’s the end and they don’t have to be musically-inclined to know that. 

The 4th chord of the scale, the next primary chord, is like being away from home but at a close relative’s house. It’s ‘home away from home.’ There is a very strong connection between the 1st tone (real home) and the 4th tone (home away from home). That’s why countless songs go from “the 1 to the 4.” It’s one of the MOST POPULAR movements in music, hands down. 

So, if the 1 is ‘being at home’ and the 4 is being ‘away from home,’ then the 5 is ‘coming back home.’ The 5 has a strong connection and tendency to lead back home to the 1st chord. When you tell your kids to get in the car because we have to go home, that’s the 5 coming home to the 1 in music. 

So now that you have a good understanding of the primary chords (1, 4, 5), the secondary chords are EVERYTHING ELSE… 

That literally leaves the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th tones of the scale. And the good news is three of those are simple minor chords that can be played by understanding the three primary major chords we just covered. 

Let’s go to the key of C major: 

C D E F G A B C

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

You already know that C major, F major, and G major are primary chords. But what you probably don’t know is that the three minor secondary chords are relatives to the primary chords. They are like sisters and brothers, if you will.

(Now this is like 5 chapters of a music theory book covered in one e-mail but let’s go for it.) 

Every major key has what you call a relative minor. In other words, every major key has a minor key that “pairs” with it. This minor key has the same notes in its scale as the major key. It has the same sharps and flats as well. 

You can pretty much call them brother-sister scales. One being major and one being minor. They share EVERYTHING. 

For C major, that relative minor is ‘A minor.’ 

Now before we delve a little deeper into this, let’s look at the C major and A minor scales: 

C major 

C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7

A minor 

A B C D E F G A
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Do they use different notes or the same notes? 

Answer: notes 

Do they both have the same number of flats and sharps? 

Answer: Yes, because C has no flats/sharps and A minor has no flats/sharps. 

They are relatives, that’s why! They are closely related. They share the same house, sort of! Every major scale has one of these. In fact, you can create the “A minor” scale just by understanding the C major scale.  

Here’s what you do: 

(I started to make bullet points but this is too simple so I’ll just say it)… 

Just go to the 6th tone of your major scale. That’s it. Just play your major scale starting on the 6th tone until you get back to that same 6th tone.

C major 

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

Ok, this is the C major scale. I’m just going up an extra octave with this example (that’s why you see double the notes). 

What tone is the 6th tone? 

Answer: A 

So what do you do?

Answer: Play this same scale without changing ANY notes from A to A. Like this:  A B C D E F G A 

What does that give you? 

Answer: The “A minor scale” 

Bam! You’re done! Now you know how to play the “A minor” scale. And the best part is that you don’t have to remember any new scales. You can “piggy back” off what you already know. That’s why it’s important to know the number system because shortcuts like this are EVERYWHERE. This is what I cover in my Starter 702 course. If I were you, I’d pick it up. It’s only 17 bucks. 

So now let’s go back to this whole ‘primary and secondary chord’ stuff. Basically, just how you learned the “A minor” scale from knowing your C major scale, you can do the same with CHORDS. 

You just take a C major chord (C+E+G) and put “A” on your bass and you’ve got yourself an “A minor 7″ chord. How cool is that? 

Just how you piggy-backed on the C scale to play the “A” minor scale, you do the same to play the A minor 7 chord. Crazy, huh? You can do this with any major chord. 

F major chord = F+A+C

6th tone of F major = D

Playing D on your left hand as the bass and F+A+C on your right hand creates a D minor 7 chord. 

G major chord = G+B+D

6th tone of G major = E (if you were in the key of G, this would be the 6th tone — gotta know your scales and numbers like we talked about in my last article). 

Playing E on your left hand as the bass and G+B+D on your right hand creates an E minor 7 chord.

It’s simple. So if you know all 12 major chords, now you should easily know all 12 minor chords by doing this easy exercise. The magic number in this case is “6.”

Note: There are magic numbers for other stuff too. But for minor relationships, it’s 6. See my course below for details. 

So, if C major, F major, and G major are the primary chords of the key of C, then you can apply this same idea to learn your minor secondary chords.

1st, 4th, and 5th = primary chords 

2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th = secondary chords 

And as you now know, the primary chords help you to play the secondary chords. 

2nd tone = D… but all you gotta do is play an F major chord over D to play a D minor 7 chord. Easy! 

3rd tone = E… but all you gotta do is play a G major chord over E to play an E minor 7 chord. Even easier! 

6th tone = A… but all you gotta do is play a C major chord over A to play an A minor 7 chord. Bam! 

So in other words… 

The 1st and 6th tones pair up.

The 2nd and 4th tones pair up.

The 3rd and 5th tones pair up. 

That takes care of EVERY tone of the scale pretty much. The only one left is the 7th tone of the scale. That won’t be a major or minor chord… it’s a diminished or half-diminished chord depending on whether you’re going to use 3 or 4 notes to play it. But unfortunately, I’ve spent way too much time on this and won’t have enough time to cover it. 

However, check out this very affordable course to get the low down on all this… 

To learn other unique techniques and strategies you can use to master chords and take your playing to the next level,  go to  the link below. I recommend either my 300-pg course or my Starter 702 audio course (or BOTH). The Starter 702 course is cheap…a steal…17 bucks and covers much of what I’ve talked about here… but with my VOICE and piano explaining everything. If you’re serious, check it out! 

If you were a bit helped by the words I’ve written here, then this audio course will REALLY be helpful because you’ll hear me talking about all this stuff for 2 whole hours, reinforcing every little concept over and over. You’ll like it. 

Talk soon,
Jermaine 

About the Author:
Jermaine Griggs is the founder of Hear and Play, the world’s #1 Music By Ear site on the net. If you’ve ever wanted to fulfill a life-long dream of learning piano, organ, guitar, drums, or any other instruments by ear, without reading sheet music, then look no further. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world how to play their favorite instruments with their down-to-earth online music lessons, video tutorials, resources and self-study courses. Get Free Lessons Today!

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His Comments: 

Jermaine, where have you been all my life? Since I purchased your GospelKeys 202 and have been reading through your online blog lessons and resources, they have really opened my mind up to the whole world of “numbers.” 

I was one of those folks who thought music was about letters. I thought chords used letters UNTIL God led me to your website. And now everything I thought I knew about music has been challenged and I’ve gotten to the next level because now I know how to think in terms of numbers. 

I don’t think about a C major 7 chord going to an F major 7 chord anymore (Well, I still do but it’s not the dominant thought like it used to be). Now I think about the 1st tone of the scale going to the 4th tone of the scale if I’m in the key of C or the 5th tone of the scale going to the 1st tone of the scale if I’m in the key of F major. 

And when I do this, I find that I can take the same patterns to basically any major key because I’m not stuck thinking about C going to F liked I used to be. Now I’m thinking a totally different way and with the numbers I can just fill in the blank, as the cliché goes, and am free to play anywhere I want. It’s really changed the way I do “thangs” and I gotta give you the credit for it. 

Keep it up man. I’ll see you at the top. 

Terrell S. 

My Comments (and explanations): 

Well Terrell, it looks like you TRULY get it. You’ve stumbled on to one of the greatest secrets of “playing by ear.” It’s numbers. 

When most people think about music, they think about “creative” stuff like notes and letters and sharp “(#)” signs and flat “(b)” signs. But music is highly mathematical too.

NUMBERS rule in music and when a musician truly “GETS” this, their playing explodes. 

I remember one of my earlier students, Royzell, and how fast it took him to start learning real songs on his own. I mean, this guy was up and playing in like 6 weeks. He was hungry for it, YES, but one thing I made sure he understood out the gate was the number system (i.e. – taking every major scale and learning each tone as numbers… “C” is 1, “D” is 2, “E” is 3… and so on). 

Then I taught him how to play chords using the same numbers (i.e. – “combine tones ‘7′ + ‘3′ + ‘5′ to play a nice-sounding major 7 chord in ANY key”). No, that isn’t the “regular” default way to play a major 7 chord. We were killing two birds with one stone by learning nicer voicings of the chords using the numbers so that we could literally take the same voicing to all 12 keys in minutes. 

Then we naturally did patterns and chord progressions next (i.e. – “6-2-5-1 chord pattern” … very common pattern). It’s the same numbers at work but this time entire chords are moving from one to the other using the numbers. Songs came easy after that. 

Fast forward several years and let’s just say he’s passed me up! And I don’t mind. He realized just how IMPORTANT numbers were in the beginning and now there’s virtually nothing he can’t pick up in minutes (and take to a new key without practicing).  He’s even played for celebrities and filled in at West Angeles, the mega church where the hit producers and musicians, Jason White and Michael Bereal, play. And to think, it all started with NUMBERS (I don’t want to discount him either because he had a lot of drive and passion and was serious about his craft). 

REMEMBER – You can do almost anything by understanding the number system. And most importantly, it’ll allow you to play in any key because you’re essentially not memorizing any of the specific chords of a song… you’re not really memorizing ANYTHING. You simply understand that a pattern, for example, is a chord off the 1st tone of the scale moving to a chord off the 3rd tone of the scale… then to the 6th tone, then 2nd tone, then 5th tone, then back home to the 1st tone again. 

AND GET THIS — once you realize that about 1 in 3 songs have that same pattern occuring in some way, shape, or form, then it really gets easy to learn and play songs off the top of your head because they all use the same patterns. Numbers allow you to do all this… and “then some” as mom would say. 

Talk soon,

Jermaine 

About the Author:
Jermaine Griggs is the founder of Hear and Play, the world’s #1 Music By Ear site on the net. If you’ve ever wanted to fulfill a life-long dream of learning piano, organ, guitar, drums, or any other instruments by ear, without reading sheet music, then look no further. They’ve trained hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world how to play their favorite instruments with their down-to-earth online music lessons, video tutorials, resources and self-study courses. Get Free Lessons Today!

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