Recently I have been teaching ALL of my piano students and my older grade classes the circle of 5ths. I tend to get scared of it because opening that door is like opening a closet with all kinds of goodies that never end... the one you usually hide from little kids. Sooooo I gave it a try with some of my students and had mixed results. While some were extremely confused and can't wrap their minds around it, it made PERFECT sense to others! Wallaaa!! A few of my students were like, "Miss Porter why didn't you explain this sooner! I'll actually enjoy playing my scales now!" Other's in the 5th grade were so excited that they now knew what all of the black keys are about.
It is VERY important that any student learning an instrument or in music study the circle of 5ths. I would say it's safe for classroom setting of 4th grade and up. It might a be a little difficult for the younger grades, unless they are in a private lesson.
So first I ask a few questions.
- What is the purpose of learning a scale on the piano?
- How many notes are in a scale?
- Why can't we just use whatever notes we want in a scale?
- Is there are rhyme or reason to how scales are formed?
- What is the meaning of a "key" and what is it's purpose?
Asking these few questions are extremely important to gage where the class is at and where you need to start as a teacher. I then explain that learning what a major or minor key is, is the base foundation to all music theory. It is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY! BUT there is a solution to this dilemma/impossible task of learning the notes for 12 major and 12 minor keys! It is called.... da da da the magical Circle of 5ths, which solves all of our problems and turns us into music whizzes in no time!
Now, as you take them through the circle of 5ths make sure each of them have their own sheet of staff paper as well as blank paper, or a circle template. Here is the circle template that I created and use.
On the board I draw my own circle and we begin with C. Have the students draw C and then on their staff paper write C Major, underneath they can fill in the notes for the C major scale, the teacher should also draw the scale for them on the board.
Next, we will start on C (on the scale) and count up 5 and land on the next major scale which is..... G! Write G in the circle. On the bottom of the page have them write the phrase Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Birds. (They love the saying and try to come up with their own). Explain that in G we begin with the first sharp which is FAT or F. Write F# in the middle of the circle next to G, then go to your staff paper and help them write a G major scale!
The kids love figuring out the next scale and make sure to ask them to help you the entire way, DO NOT just write everything and have them copy it down, this will not help them to comprehend or remember what the patterns are.
Continue the process until you finish with C# and you run out of sharps!
To make it simple I go back to the top of the page and let them know that we will now be going counter clockwise and going down 5 notes from C to find our flat keys. Have them write underneath their sharp phrase BEADGFC (bead greatest common factor). You can also tell them that flats are simply the sharps going backwards, (they love all of these connections).
Continue the same process as you did with the sharps, writing the scales in on staff paper as you go. When you come to the scale of Db you will need to explain ENHARMONICS, which can be a bit tricky. So when the flats overlap with sharps we have enharmonic keys, I write the flats in underneath the key instead of inside of the circle since they probably have now run out of room. Right?
This whole process is rarely done in one lesson. I usually do the sharps one week and the flats the next week. I then have them play the scales on keyboards with a partner, or my fancy glockenspiels, which have really come in handy.
Here is a great worksheet they can fill out which will also reinforce scales and adding sharps and flats in each one.
I have loved the results of teaching the circle of 5ths to all of my students, even beginner piano students. It builds a great base for theory and if they study it, they are able to learn scales much quicker! This really is the foundation for theory and opens so many doors. Getting the scales learned and in their brain is never a waste of time, but extremely necessary to their music education.
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