You DIDN'T NOTICE This Progression Is "Just" The CIRCLE Of 5ths
I pulled a fast one on you! But I did it to make a point.
Some time ago, I posted a video on a “killer” Baroque chord sequence that I found in an Italian music manual written in the 1700’s.
… but I kept silent on why that progression works so well.
Most people who gave me feedback (emails, comments, messages by pigeon post…) loved the sequences.
Several commented on how this progression sounded fresh and new and completely original to them.
And a few asked why the sequence worked so well. I am about to answer them.
See, while I did not give the explanation in that video, I did hint that there was an ulterior secret to the chord progression.
And to give credit to them, a few people in the comments correctly answered what the secret was:
That chord progression is “just” an artfully disguised circle of 5th.
What point did I want to make? Why I went through this elaborate plan?
I simply wanted to prove that, while the circle of 5ths is one of the most overused chord progression in the history of music… if you disguise it, it can sound fresh and new and completely original.
So now I want to pull back the curtain and show you how you can disguise the circle of fifths to write this kind of chord progression.
P.S. This video, despite being simple, is a peek inside the minds of some of the greatest composers who ever existed. What you see here is “true”, working music theory. Come and see how the sausage is made how real composers actually think.
BTW, here’s the original video with the chord progression explained in detail:
And, just to be sure you have all the elements, you need to know what a “65” chord is.
But fear not, it’s not too complex…
… and in any case, I explain the “65” chord in this video here:
Want to know more about chords and harmony on guitar? Check out my Complete Chord Mastery guitar course to skyrocket your knowledge of chords on the guitar!
Video Transcription
Hello, internet so Nice to see you, I have great questions on how the six five chord resolves and why. Just curious, but why did you use the six five chord for the third down movement. I’m a rock guy. So most of my writings power chords, but I want to start expanding my palate with some different chords, I grasp loosely the construction of the chords, but when and how to use them is blurry to me at best.
So that’s the sequence we’re talking about. And the sequence is something I’ve shown in a past video called the killer Baroque sequence, okay, it works pretty much this way you start from any note you want, in a major minor scale, actually just play the major version. But the minor version, it’s easier to understand the minor version, let’s say they’re in a minor, I start from a I go down a third, so A down to F.
And then going up again, a step to G then down a third to E, then up a step to F down a third to E, and so on and so forth, essentially and go down, down, but then going down a third and just up just a standard step in the scale, so it could be a full step or half step and you’re always following the scale here. Okay. When I harmonize that, on those notes here, I’m just playing the triads. So I’m playing a minor here and playing G major here and playing F major here. No mystery.
When I’m playing on those chords, though, I’m playing a six, five chord, the infamous six five chord, which is essentially in this case will be made by the notes F, C, and D. That note indicate indicated, the note a fifth higher in this scale, the note a sixth higher in the scale, the six five chord because you can’t change the sixth and the fifth from the base, no third. Okay. Why am I picking that chord? Ship? The real answer on why I’m picking that chord is because it sounds good. It’s not a great explanation, right?
But it’s the best explanation. It sounds good. The word I’m gonna explain exactly why. Why it sounds good. But the point is, I’m thinking it because it sounds good. You hear it, I’m gonna put these in mind in a minute. Okay. Sounds great. It just sounds great. So, again, a minor, and the F, five, six, G major, then the E five, six, in this case of a minor and the F major.
The D five, six. And if I can continue, click Continue. I’m going to put an E major because in a minor, I’m going to use the dominant and then a minor, maybe some of you like to finish metal. Okay, so it sounds good. That should be exponential enough. Okay. But I can give you a better explanation. Now another another very honest answer will be I’m doing I’m putting the six five chord because in the book I was reading, which was a Baroque book.
That’s what’s written in the manual to put in there. But again, that doesn’t explain why sounds good. So there are two possible explanations I’m gonna give here, I’m gonna give you the original explanation in the Baroque theory, what I could do that, but I’m not going to do it, because nobody here is familiar with the Baroque music theory and information would make no sense.
So I’m gonna give modern explanation using modern notation. But again, it’s completely anachronistic. So what I’m going to say is this definition makes sense. And it will make sense to you. But it’s not the way back with that thought. Okay, it’s not the way back was thinking it’s not the way back was writing music. It’s the modern explanation.
Okay. So I’m going to take some freedom here. I’m going to write this my six five chord. So let’s see. Let’s see what happens literally, on this sequence. So I have a, then I go down to F, and then I have this G. Okay, on a, I’m playing the notes, a C, any, that’s the A minor, no problem there. on G, I’m gonna play G major, G, B, and D, no problem there.
On this F, I’m playing the 65 chord, that’s F, the fifth above C, the six D. If I was playing goes to the third note, which occurred, there will be an A, let’s make it slightly clearer. If I take those notes, D, F, A, C, D, you notice that the in modern terms, that’s a seventh chord Not an F seven chord, but a D minor seventh chord. So this chord is the same in modern terms as a D minor seven with a base of F.
Right? Great. So, again, in modern term, the root of this chord is the not f, f is the base, the law is not, but not the root of the chord. But will not not be thinking this way, because at the time of birth, nobody was thinking about the root of the course, there was a concept invented later.
And in fact, it was invented during the life above and back commanded to do it was wrong to think this way. But moderately, we think about it in this way. So the root of it is the, after this, gee, I’m gonna go down another third, I’m gonna play an E 65, let’s EBC. And again, I can put a little g in here. And again, doing all calculation, C and E, G, B, C, these came out comes out to be as a C major seven chord with a base of e. So again, a seven chord in first inversion.
So the root here is C. So now let’s see what are the roots of all this progression after this year, we’re going to have an F, F, A C isn’t that isn’t the root of A minor, it’s a no problem. The root of these F six five chord is D. The root of this G chord is G, the root of this E six five chord, it’s C, the root of this F chord is F, and so on and so forth. If you look at this, that’s the cycle of fifth, E, A, down a fifth to the down a fifth to G, down a fifth to see down a fifth to F.
Sometimes that’s the site the cycle of fifth. So all these stranger sees them. When you go on the top on this chord, play player, try a good and a third and play the five, six go up and play at the end of the day is giving you a fancy circle of fifths, in which some quarter it will position and are just triads and some of the quarter seventh chords, but in first inversion, okay.
Now, some people when I published the first video about the video about this sequence, notice it, and you can see them in the comment. And indeed, in the comments. If you notice the pin, the first pin comment at the beginning of the comment section of the video was me asking, there is another secret in this chord progression. What is it?
And some people guessed it’s the circle of fifths? It’s again, the circle of fifths. I didn’t say these in the original video. I said it in the comment. Why? Because the moment I say it’s the circle of 5ths. You don’t go on your guitar and have a plate. I kind of tricked you.
Because I’m a bastard. Sorry, guys. But that’s the way it is. If I just say it’s a circle of fifths, and nobody even clicks on the video, nobody learned the sequence, then you will never have heard these beautiful, beautiful sound comes out of sequence but it is the circle of fifths, or fancy circle of fifths. So coming back to the original question, why do I pick the five six chord in there?
Because in modern terms, this will complete and create a circle of fifths. Do I have to put a five six chord in there now there are several other options which we can can cover in another video if you want because there are so many, if not, we take half an hour just to just to mention them or them all.
But that would be a very common way of covering that. Now. This is one of the many wonderful sounds you can get on your guitar. When you learn a little bit more about chords in harmony. There are so many more. There is so much with music you can make on these instruments by knowing where to play your chords. And his music is also easy to play here and playing chords on three notes. It’s so easy.
It just falls the right way under your fingers once you get it. Okay, it’s how do you learn all this? Well, shameless plug. I have a course it’s called complete chord Mastery and teaches you everything there is to know about these and other things. Complete chord Mastery.
It’s not a book. It’s a complete video course that takes you from the basics up. We do everything you need to know about harmony and chords on your guitar. All the theory is done straight on the fretboard. heard there is no theory for the sake of theory here.
Everything is immediately practical. And everything is developed through exercises so you know how to apply these immediately on your guitar. If you have just a minute click on the link on the top right to check out complete chord mastery. If you liked this video, smash that like button and don’t forget to subscribe and click on notification otherwise YouTube will not let you know when I put up a new video.
And if you have any comments, feedback, suggestions, write them down in the comment. I enjoy reading from you and they make videos on your suggestions. This is Tommaso Zillio for MusicTheoryForGuitar.com, and until next time, enjoy.